When I walked into
Theio's Restaurant on Lansing’s
Eastside to meet the people who make up
Capital Area Paranormal (CAP), I realized I had not given them any way to recognize me. So I asked my waitress, Malina, to keep an eye out for people meeting a reporter.
She asked what I was writing about and when I told her, she sat down and started talking. I soon came to find that Malina had recently moved out of her old house because she—and more importantly, her children—had been had been so bothered by movements, voices and other unexplainable occurrences that they just could not live there anymore.
People in Malina's house had sheets pulled off of them, experienced feelings of foreboding and heard sounds like tapping and scratching from a closet.
Her boyfriend had even seen objects move from one room to another, seemingly of their own accord.
Who You Gonna Call?I walked to the back of the restaurant to find Malina's six-year old son regaling members of Capital Area Paranormal with stories of his own hauntings.
Listening attentively were Lansing locals Karen and Doug Milmine, who work in the insurance industry by day, as well as Melissa Stewart and Owosso native Paul Donahue, both employed by
Michigan State University.
But these folks have another job once they get home: they are Lansing's own paranormal investigators. They go into houses like Malina's in hopes of gathering evidence of more-than-human presences.
The Milmines formed Capital Area Paranormal here in Lansing and were soon joined by Donahue and Stewart, along with Katie Atkin, a funeral director originally from Grand Ledge.
Growing in PopularityJust last month, members of the group attended Michigan's first
Michigan Paranormal Convention in Sault Ste. Marie. It was sponsored by
The Upper Peninsula Paranormal Research Society (UPPRS) and the
Kewadin Casino Hotel and Convention Center.
Three featured speakers from the popular
Travel Channel show
Ghost Adventurers—Zak Bagans, Nick Groff and Aaron Goodwin—were at the convention, along with demonologist John Zaffis and people from A&E's
Paranormal State and
The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS), often featured on SyFy's
Ghost Hunters.
Interest in paranormal investigation has spiked in recent years. Doug Milmine estimated that there were 250-300 people at the convention.
Comparing their own work to the shows that you might see on TV, Melissa Stewart noted that some of the shows are overly dramatic. Doug Milmine added that they are entertainment, and therefore seem more glamorous than what CAP does.
“Investigation and evidence review take a lot of time,” Doug notes. “We might do an investigation for three to six hours. Reviewing the evidence takes four times as long.”
Paranormal ActivityCAP investigators say there are probably paranormal beings in every place. Sometimes, they say, voices will join in their conversations. Other times, they may not hear anything while completing the investigation, but in reviewing the evidence later they might hear voices or movements.
There are, according to CAP, two different kinds of hauntings: intelligent and residual. Residual haunting or spirits may not interact with visitors but convey a certain energy (a streak of light, temperature change), while intelligent paranormal activity is interactive and may actually comment on conversations being held by investigators—or laugh at them, or mutter a response.
Audio clips and other samples of evidence are posted on the
CAP website for the public to consider. Visitors can listen to some of the EVPs (electronic voice phenomenon) the investigators have gathered.
Doug Milmine explains that, when going back to listen to evidence, he slows down tapes, turns up the volume and uses noise-canceling headphones to identify paranormal activity on the recordings.
Not all the voices are polite, but they certainly seem to be interacting with their investigative visitors.
Services RenderedFollowing the review and isolation of evidence, CAP gives clients a case summary for each investigation.
Listening to the evidence isolated by CAP, one can see how fine the line is between uncertainty about things that go bump in the night and a belief that those movements and sounds are intentional and directed. Karen Milmine notes that the clients who have been presented with evidence “have been really excited and have asked us to come back.”
But CAP doesn't try to run off those who might be occupying a space. No one involved with CAP enters a home or building with antagonism in mind. Instead, the group acknowledges that there is a lot we just don't know about the paranormal.
Are the pieces of evidence they find ghosts? Spirits? Demons? They don't know, and they aren't particularly inclined to declare an absolute truth.
Instead, says Doug Milmine, “we investigate. We are skeptical ourselves. If we hear a bump we don't immediately label it as a ghost; we try to find a real-world explanation.”
Places of InterestCAP has done two large investigations at the
Ohio State Reformatory, an historical building where such movies as
The Shawshank Redemption and
Air Force One were filmed. Over the years, stories of supernatural occurrences at the prison have accumulated.
These days, the
Mansfield Reformatory Preservation Society raises funds to maintain the building by renting it out to paranormal investigators like CAP, among other groups.
CAP recently partnered with the Grand Rapids-based
Mid-Michigan Parapatrol for a night at the reformatory, trudging through 250,000 square feet of unnaturally cold and hot temperatures and even capturing a photo of an apparition.
Right here in Lansing, CAP has investigated homes, businesses and cemeteries. There are buildings that they would love to get in, like the
Temple Club building and other buildings in the area.
Oh, and all you
Spartans better look out. The paranormal team says that there is a lot of paranormal activity at
Michigan State University, especially in places like
Hubbard Hall, some of the dorms, and the auditorium on campus. They haven't had the opportunity to check those out.
Capital Area Paranormal's teams of six investigators are ready and willing to come conduct an investigation of your house, too . . . . But are you ready to see what they find?
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Leslie Wolcott is a freelance writer and writing teacher in Lansing. You can visit her
website and follow her on Twitter
@LeslieSue.
Dave Trumpie is the managing photographer for Capital Gains. He is a freelance photographer and owner of Trumpie Photography.
Photos:
Paul Donahue, Karen Milmine, Melissa Stewart, Katie Atkin and Doug Milmine
Melissa Stewart looking through an old building in Old Town
Doug Milmine sets up an infrared camera
A split screen showing four infrared camera views
CAPS setting up cases of equipment when they arrive
All Photographs © Dave Trumpie