WISCONSIN RAPIDS NEWS

PART 1:

The Pre-Investigation

By Demrie Alonzo

In the dark and quiet of a large abandoned room, Jonathan Wood asks, “Is anyone here with us? Can you make yourself known?” Through the room’s silence, we hear the cooing of pigeons, the skittering of a possible rat or mouse, and then a movement, somewhere across the room. In the rafters above us, the sound of shuffling footsteps…or is it just the birds?

It is daytime and just a preliminary investigation of a possible haunted location right here in Wisconsin Rapids. Jonathan Wood, Anna Schreiber and Ron Moseman each carry a different piece of equipment to take “readings” from the location which they will take back to the River Cities Paranormal Society office and review.

Schreiber holds an EMP (Electro Magnetic Field) meter which reads the amount of electro magnetic energy present. Unsafe or high amounts of electro magnetic energy can cause unease, paranoia, headaches and even flu-like symptoms in people exposed to them and has been misinterpreted as paranormal activity.

Moseman is taking interior photos of the location to determine a later set-up of cameras and other equipment.

Wood is videotaping the walk-through. In each room, they repeat the same sequence of events. It’s a large building so the preliminary investigation takes just over an hour. In the main room of the building, the same sequence of tests is done, only this time there’s some sort of response.

One “test” involves using a touch-sensitive flashlight that requires tapping on and off. Wood places it on a hard surface, tests it by tapping it on and off, and then invites the presence of anything in the room to turn it on. To my surprise, the flashlight turns on. Wood asks that it be turned off.

The flashlight turns off.

Wood then asks a series of questions, all of which the flashlight responds to. Now the hair on my arms is standing up and I feel a tightening in my chest, as if the air has grown too thin around me.

Schreiber takes a temperature reading over the flashlight and finds it several degrees colder than where we are standing, only a few feet away.

“That was interesting,” says Wood as we leave the building and I stumble back into daylight, bewildered by what we experienced.

It is unanimous: they will return to do a full investigation.

Respected Organization

The River Cities Paranormal Society is a non-profit organization that takes a scientific approach to the investigation of paranormal activity.

“We aren’t clairvoyants or exorcists,” explains Jonathan Wood, the founder of RCPS. “Our goal is to study reports of paranormal activity and see if we can’t debunk these reports with explanations for what’s really occurring.”

It was in 2004 that Wood started the River Cities Paranormal Society. “I’ve been researching this kind of stuff since I was a teenager.” When Wood was young, he experienced something “that I just couldn’t explain,” and this began his quest to learn more about the paranormal world.

Wood says that over 80 percent of the investigations they’ve done have resulted in the disproval of paranormal activity. “Last year we did 30 investigations across the state of Wisconsin,” says Wood.

Where have they found the most paranormal activity in Wisconsin?

“Marshfield, Oshkosh, Hortonville and Rapids,” explains Wood.

Anna Schreiber of Wausau has been with the organization for close to two years. “I’ve always been fascinated with the unknown,” admits Schreiber. “I love astronomy too and have always been scientific by nature, but open to ideas.”

This past May, Schreiber went with the other members to investigate a business right here in Wisconsin Rapids. “This was definitely the most interesting investigation I’ve been on,” says Schreiber. “We heard disembodied voices, saw shadows and other apparitions and even picked up some unusual electronic voice phenomenon.”

Schreiber says she even witnessed the physical manipulation of objects. “So much happened that it was hard to take it all in,” she says.

What happens after they find paranormal activity?

Wood says it’s logged and they move on. “We aren’t there to exorcise spirits or make any specific recommendations,” he says. “Our job is to investigate. We can either say, ‘Yes, we believe there is paranormal activity here,’ or we don’t.”

Ron Moseman of Aniwa is retired and an active member of RCPS. “I heard about RCPS and wanted to get involved,” he says. “Now that I’m retired, I can pursue these investigations with the rest of the team.”

Moseman admits he is still waiting for that “Wow!” moment. “I’m a skeptic but open to whatever’s out there. I just haven’t had that BIG experience yet in proving paranormal activity.”

TAPS

The River Cities Paranormal Society is a member of TAPS (The Atlantic Paranormal Society), which means TAPS recommends them because they “have demonstrated to us that they are professional, experienced and knowledgeable.”

TAPS, out of Rhode Island, is responsible for the hugely popular Sci-Fi channel series, “Ghost Hunters.” Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, the show’s founders, brought not only a passion for Ghost Hunting to the general public, but a scientific approach to doing so.

“We don’t use methods like Ouija Boards, table tipping, dousing rods or methods based on clairvoyance,” RCPS notes on their web site. As a member of TAPS, they work to discover “real answers using technology, science and logic to investigate, explore, and examine the most difficult of situations.”

With the popularity of the show, more people are admitting to paranormal experiences and some of these are contacting their local or state paranormal organizations.

Moseman and Schreiber work in the Case Department of RCPS. They weed out the calls and email requests by verifying information and making sure it’s not a prank. There is an application to fill out by someone wanting them to investigate possible paranormal activity.

“This helps weed out the pranksters,” explains Moseman. “If they fill out the application, then they are probably serious.” After that, Moseman and Schreiber verify the information a step further. “There’s just too many thrill seekers out there, so we need to make sure the information is legitimate.”

The next step is the pre-investigation. “If the location is close enough, we’ll do pre-investigation visits,” says Wood. This means visiting the site and collecting some data, as they did in the location at the beginning of this article.

The pre-investigation determines whether or not they will return to do a full-out investigation with most of the team. “We currently have 8 members so that we always have enough people available to go out on an investigation,” says Wood.

Becoming a member of RCPS requires an application and an interview. “Once the interested person goes through those two steps, they become an Investigator in Training.”

In Part II, we will walk through an actual investigation, what equipment is utilized and how the collected information is processed.

For more information about the River Cities Paranormal Society, go to www.rcpswi.com.