What’s New with OKPRI?

As most of you al know from our last newsletter, we spent the month of June catching up on some residential investigations.  We came across a few interesting things while doing these investigations, but were unable to gather much data to post these investigations on our website.  We do have a couple of follow up investigations that we will be doing at these locations to see if anything comes about as more data is recorded.

July has already become booked for our group as well as parts of August with requested investigations.  This month has also started to prove as an exciting month as we have recently conducted a joint investigation with another local Oklahoma team called NAGS (Native American Ghost Society.)  The NAGS team called us out to help them withy a cemetery investigation where they had previously encountered some bizarre activity.  We had previously spoken with the NAGS team by phone and admired their courage to ask us or help.  We were equally impressed with their friendly and professional mannerism when we met them in person.  We got to know the NAGS team quite well that night and fully enjoyed the time we were able to spend with them.  We also have upcoming investigations in the planning stages with the NAGS team.

When we conducted the cemetery investigation with the NAGS team, we got a first hand chance to experience the strange activity they had previously experienced.  Several of the OKPRI members witnessed audible voices and saw weird figures as they followed us through the cemetery.  At one particular point, Christy started having small spikes on the EMF meter and told J.T. to start taking pictures.  It was then that J.T. was able to capture 3 very strange vortex looking photos.  Since these photos were taken with a digital camera we could see right then what appeared in the photographs so recreations were tried after we took the photos and they could no longer be created.  Below are the pictures that we took of these weird photos and please look for the website page coming very soon about this investigation where you can read the full report!

At another point when some of the team members were hearing footsteps and seeing movement and our team started taking photographs and the photos later revealed 3 strange red mists.  After analyzing all of the recorded data we had from that night, we were only able to capture the strange photographs from that night.  We felt it was a fantastic investigation however and were pleased with the evidence we did get which correlated with our own personal experiences that we had that night. 

So now that you have seen a few of the pictures that we have recently captured, maybe that will intrigue you to read our full report on our website when that comes out!  We’ll have lots more details coming about this location whenever it is posted!  Like the pictures you see or have a comment?  Let us know!  Send us an email with your thoughts, comments or questions to Christy@okpri.com or Brian@okpri.com.  

Speaking of our website, we have given it a whole new look!  If you haven’t checked it out, please do so and let us know if you like the “new look!” 

Reader’s Realm

For those of you who have been following our newsletter for quite a while now, you know that this is the section where we post questions that we have been emailed by different people along with our responses.

A very good question was asked to us just last week by another investigator in the paranormal field:

“When you investigate a home, what exactly do you do to keep the homeowner occupied during the investigation? How do you keep them from getting in the way?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much.” 

Nick 

---------------------------------------------------------------

 Thank you Nick for asking an excellent question!

Well, first off, we screen all of the homeowners that we do investigations for. We have a pre-qualifying investigation that we ask them to fill out for us that helps us know their case a bit better.

When we arrive at a location we tell them what we are going to do and usually ask them

to find a location within the home that is comfortable for them and then ask them to 

remain quiet in order to eliminate any contamination.  Before we even agree to conduct

an investigation however, we ask them to have no one at the house but the residents

(if they want to be there) however we prefer to investigate the home while no one is

inside the house.  We ask that there are no children present.  If they have external

guests there at the house then we will leave the location.  While our requests may seem

a bit harsh, if they are serious about having an investigation done, they usually agree to

the terms.  

I hope this helps and if we can be of any more help to you all, please don't hesitate to ask! 

 Once again, thank you for your wonderful questions.  Keep them coming!

Upcoming OKPRI Events

As previously stated, July is proving to be a busy month already for us.  On the 15^th, we have an investigation planned at an esteemed museum who contacted us requesting an investigation since they felt they might be experiencing some activity.  This location is pretty large in size so we plan on spending a lot of time there conducting this investigation.  We are very excited about doing this investigation and look forward to not only the investigation, but taking in some more of our Oklahoma and U.S. History!

The weekend following the museum investigation, we are planning on a return trip back out to the Abandoned Water Treatment Plant where we will again working with the S.P.I.E.S. team from Sapulpa, Oklahoma!  As stated, we have previously investigated the Abandoned Water Treatment Plant once before and really enjoyed working with the S.P.I.E.S. team, however, due to circumstances that night, we weren't able to stay very long to investigate this intriguing building!  We plan to spend quite a bit of time this next trip however to investigate the old plant from top to bottom!

Last but not least for July, we have our next upcoming event called, "A Haunted Evening at the Stone Lion Inn" taking place on July 27th!  Our past events have been a lot of fun and we have had so many compliments from our guests about this event!  Some of them who attended in the past have not wanted to leave!  So if you haven't yet attended one of these events but yet have an interest in investigating the paranormal, then you should definitely try to come and join us for a night of fun and learning!  Our team will give a brief class on ghost hunting basics and then show you some intriguing evidence that we recorded from the Stone Lion Inn.  Guests will also be given an in depth history of the Stone Lion Inn and then taken on their tour and ghost hunt of the historical home!  While being given this investigation tour, our team will also tell you the intriguing experiences that our team has had while investigating the Stone Lion Inn! 

You might be curious to know if anything ever happens while we hold this event.  Some have asked us, "Are the guests actually able to experience paranormal activity for themselves?"  As a matter of fact, our event guests HAVE experienced strange activity while there investigating the Inn for themselves!  Are you brave enough to bring your own equipment and spend a few hours in the Inn yourself?  We have added something special to the investigation tour as well!  It's called, "Lights Out!"  This is where your group will be asked to sit quietly in a room and listen & look for activity.  Things are totally different when you're in the dark!  It's amazing how much your senses seem to peak and you become totally aware of every sound and movement around you!

Paranormal Articles, News & Weird Facts

Get to Know your Ghosts - Intelligent & Residual Haunts

 Written By: Jason Hawes  

Intelligent - In this style of haunting the entity or entities are aware of their surroundings.  Most of the time you will find that these spirits are not confined to one spot, they can move around freely.  Also, they will acknowledge the existence of human beings and even try to communicate in certain ways.

They are limited in what they can do.  Most of the time they only move very light objects but they have been known to move objects up to around 10lbs.  They are looking for people to notice them but they end up scaring people a great deal instead.

Usually, between the hours of 11pm and 4am are the times that the entities can more efficiently manifest themselves, due to this time period being the darkest hours of the night.  Most of the time entities are not strong enough to show themselves during the daylight because it takes too much energy to make themselves visible.  Think of it like this, if you were to turn on a flashlight during the daytime you would hardly notice the light, but if you were to turn it on in the dead of night, the light would be clearly visible.  This is how spirits work as well. If they use too much energy during the day they will be too weak to show themselves at night.

These spirits can be benevolent or mischievous, depending on the reason that they are haunting a location, and there are several reasons.  They may be haunting it because it was once their home and they want you to leave.  They may be there because they've found that a child is able to see them so they feel noticed and are willing to stay around for this fact.  There may be some kind of artifact that they are staying with and following due to some emotional bond with it.  They also may be looking for something or someone.  They may even not be willing to except that they have died.  Whatever the reason may be, they are there and they do not want to leave.

Now comes the hard part, ridding a house of them.  They are not inhuman entities, so religious provocation will not be effective to rid the area they are in.  You are, as they are, limited to what you can do.

Residual - The most common style of a human haunting is a residual haunting. A residual haunting is like having an impression made in time. The entity may seem to be lost in a time warp. The spirit really isn't even there, only the energy is.

In most cases people may here screaming or crying due to the violence factor that may have caused this traumatic event to happen. People may also hear the sounds of footsteps walking on the stairs or through hallways.

Typically the repeated event is whatever the person who left the energy behind did often or a significant event that they remember happening to them. It is almost like  the energy has become part of the dwelling that they once occupied on an every day basis. These haunting styles always seem to happen in the same place every time.

There is usually very little you can do on this style of a haunting except make the family who is having these problems understand what is going on and explain to them that they are in no danger due to the energy not being controlled by the person who left it behind.

There is no actual entity present in this style of haunting, and the energy that was left behind is just like a video playing the same scene over and over again. Even though it is not aware that people are there, it can still be a scary and emotional situation to the people who have to deal with it happening in their home.

It may happen every night or every week or even every year. It is the most frequent haunting investigators will come across in their cases. An investigator will tell you there is nothing they can do about this style haunting and they are correct. People need to either except what happens and learn to deal with it, or move on.

Jason Hawes is the Founder of The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS), as well as a main star of the Sci-Fi channel hit show Ghosthunters.  To read more articles from Jason and other TAPS associates, please visit http://www.the-atlantic-paranormal-society.com/articleshome.html

OK this next section is one that is near and dear to me, it is a spotlight article written by one of our team, telling a little about themselves or something they have experienced while on an investigation with the OKPRI team:

Hello!  My name is Brian Willis, and I am a case manager and member of the tech crew for OKPRI.  I joined the group at the end of February, now entering my 4^th month!  I have always been interested in the paranormal, but really became passionate about it again over the last year or so.  I thought it would be interesting to be part of a group and get to be on locations that could possibly be haunted, but never completely realized how enjoyable it would be until I began my first investigation.  I immediately knew after that first night in Tulsa that I was hooked!  Since then, I have been on several investigations, and nearly each one is more exciting than the last, particularly when you get the opportunity to explore a historic location, and gain access to areas you wouldn’t normally be able to see.

Most people in the group would consider me a skeptic, as it takes quite a bit of convincing to make be think that a place is “haunted.”  Even so, the EVP’s we capture, and the noises and sights we catch with our own senses can be amazing.  I have had a couple of events that stand out to me on investigations that I absolutely cannot explain.  The first one was at a historic location in southern Oklahoma.  There had been talk of unexplainable red lights being seen floating around that night.  I hadn’t seen any for myself, so I wasn’t really focusing on that bit of information.  A while later, however, while I was coming around the corner of a building in the complete darkness of the night, I witnessed not 15 feet from me a red ball of light near the bottom of a tree.  It was something I saw directly, and not out of my peripheral vision.  While looking over pictures taken that night, we actually captured one of these lights in a photo.  Another time I had a mind-blowing experience was the capture of an EVP in a home.  It was so amazing to me because I remember the moment it happened very well and can verify 100% that it was not caused by anyone that was there at the time.  It was a very loud moan or wail, and was not audible to us at the time.  It was actually very quiet in the home at that moment.  The recorder captured the scene much differently however.

Aside from the paranormal evidence, the locations, and the work that goes into this group, the biggest thing I am thankful for in joining this group is the friendships that have been created.  This group came together and became very close, like we had always known each other.  Most times the best parts during an investigation are the times we are taking breaks, driving to locations, or grabbing a bite to eat.  I think that an investigation will yield much better results when you have a team with a positive energy that can work together effectively.  With OKPRI, this is precisely what we are fortunate enough to have!

Howdy Folks, welcome to another edition of the PARANORMAL CRAZE with J.T. the Troll.  Let me begin by saying that I hope all of you out there in Paranormaland had a very happy and safe Independence Day!  I truly love the 4th of July holiday, it's one of the very few days out the year where it's actually O.K. to "blow @#%$ up!!!  Sorry, it must be a guy thing!  While we're on the subject, here's a couple of safety tips that yours truly have learned over the years to make your next holiday more enjoyable:

1)  Lighting fireworks from your couch is not a good idea.  I know it's tempting to sit in your Lazyboy with a beer and the remote, open the back door, and throw them out, but trust me, from experience, it never turns out good! (don't ask!)

2)  Having a contest to see who can hold a firecracker in his hand the longest before it explodes is not a "fun" game!  You really don't want to win that contest.  In fact, last time we did that, my cousin Scotty won and his grand prize was a trip to the emergency room and some fingers that looked like fried chicken strips!!!

3)  Tying bottle rockets to frogs then lighting them is NOT cool!  Even though you say to yourself "he looks like an astronaut" I don’t think that's what’s going in the frog's mind.  You're not conducting scientific experiments and you don't work for NASA so just say NO and let Kermit live!!!

4)  Last but not least, no matter how drunk or lazy you are, don't send your kid out to check and see if the firecracker is still lit or not.  Come on you know you do it.  If you light it and it don't blow up, trust me if you send your kid out there to check it, it's gonna wait until he gets right over it and explode.  One nearly launched my little cousin into space like that frog tied to the bottle rocket.

Well, I hope those tips help you and your family’s next holiday be a safe and enjoyable one!!!

Now, on to some paranormal talk now!  June was a very busy and exciting month for OKPRI and July seems like its going to be just as great. The more investigations I go on, the more I learn each time.  You think you know what you're doing until one of the "elders" (my term for the paranormal investigators who's been around since the dinosaurs) shows you what you're doing wrong and explains to you why it's wrong.  There is so much work involved in being an investigator sometimes it gets overwhelming.  Don't get me wrong I love the work, it's just not what I expected.  Before you even step foot in the location you are investigating, it is very important to research the location and learn as much history on the place as possible.  You can't learn from a place until you know where it began.  Doing research on the location, the families that lived there, death and birth records, etc. seems like a lot of tedious work, but believe me it may answer a lot of questions that come up if you do encounter a spiritual being.  One of the most fun parts is trying to figure out who it is you are witnessing!

Another part of the job that's not highly publicized is once you finish your investigation, all of the evidence you need to review.  It is so awesome to get that E.V.P. or that mist photo, but what most people don't realize is that you may have to listen to hours upon hours of audio or video just to get that two second piece of evidence.  You really need to stay focused on what you are doing or you may miss something.  It is so easy to be listening to audio and kinda "wander off" and not hear a good piece of evidence (yes, it's happened to me a couple of times).  So what I suggest is while you are listening to audio and you start to wander off, take breaks in between; don't just listen to get it done.  It's definitely worth taking a little longer to review it all than to go through it quick and miss something "special".  After all, what we all got into this business for is for that "something special", so, don't let it slip away!

Well, OKPRI did some great locations over the last couple of weeks! Be sure to check out our latest documentary on the Eskridge Hotel.  That place was AMAZING!!!!  I've gone there 4 times now and I'm ready to go back again!  The history of the place is very interesting, not to mention all the items inside that were donated to the museum.  Also, we did several residential investigations that were pretty cool as well.  July seems like it's going be even busier!  Yep, OKPRI's "dance card" is pretty full for a while and that's EXACTLY how we like it!  So, make sure you check out the video documentary as well as the new updates that Christy made to the site.  Also, the member page has been updated and yours truly is now on there, so when you see that goofy looking guy on the member page named J.T., don't say I didn't warn ya!

Last but not least, we are also planning another Stone Lion Inn night where you can actually come and investigate along with us.  If I'm not mistaken, I think we are actually going do an overnight event there for the first time, so make sure you check out the announcement section of the website frequently so you don't miss out!

 Well folks, my time is up.  Once again have a happy and safe holiday, it's been great sharing my thoughts with you.  And as always, if you have any comments or questions for me, please feel free to e-mail me. Christy has the website set up now to where you can go to the members section, and when you see my picture, click on my e-mail link, and you can send it right from there!!!!  I look forward to Augusts' newsletter, but until then HAPPY HUNTING!!!!!

 If you would like to reply to this column, you can e-mail J.T. at jt@okpri.com.

Hello, and once again thank you for making the past month yet another thrilling success!  We have had the opportunity to investigate more awesome locations, with several other exciting locations coming up before the month’s end!  We would also like to thank everyone that participates on our message board.  Our boards have been booming lately, and a lot of interesting opinions, pictures, videos, and even entertainment can be found there!  With this explosive growth we have been experiencing, we are pleased to announce the addition of 3 new members to our team!  We would like to take the time to welcome Kent, Jamie, and Chris to the OKPRI team.  They each have their own individual areas of knowledge that will be great assets to the team.  You will be able to see pictures and a biography of these guys soon in our members section!  Our website will also be updated soon with more information, including our recent investigations!  We have received very positive feedback on the re-design of our website, and would like to thank everyone for their opinions.  Tons work goes into the website and your visitation is much appreciated!  We received many suggestions for our name the newsletter contest.  Kudos to everyone who racked their brains coming up with so many clever suggestions!  We will be unveiling the new name in our August edition!  We will definitely have a lot more news to bring you in the next edition, and I for one am looking forward to sharing it with you.  Talk to you soon!

Sincerely,

Christy Selfridge