GHOST: ‘There are certain things you can’t deny’
By Kelli Myers
News editor
kelli.myers@doverpost.com
Donna Jackson recently provided Elizabeth Ong with a sense of closure after contacting her deceased grandmother.
The founder of G.H.O.S.T. (Ghost Hunters Offering Supernatural Tactics), Jackson, a local psychic, offers the service for people interested in contacting relatives who have passed in hopes of providing closure.
“The whole room lit up when I contacted her,” Jackson said.
“You could feel the energy,” Ong chimed in. “It was like my grandmother draped a warm blanket on us.”
Hearing the EVP (electronic voice phenomena) recording brought Ong, a G.H.O.S.T. investigator, to her knees.
It was in Spanish, she said, just how her grandmother used to talk.
“She was saying ‘Come to me, my girl,’” Ong said. “It was incredible.”
“Spirits are around everyone all the time. Contacting someone who has passed can do much more than years of therapy can,” Jackson added.
G.H.O.S.T. is a group based in Delaware dedicated to finding answers to questions unanswered, about life after death, the presence of ghosts and spiritual activity outside the physical realm.
The group also helps people who feel they are haunted and can bring deceased love ones in contact with the living.
With 20 active members, the group was formed in October 2006 and has since rapidly grown in membership.
“It grew like wildfire,” said Jason Russell, lead investigator for the group.
Since, members have investigated downtown’s Bell, Book and Candle, several other businesses and private homes.
They also incorporate psychics, mediums and those sensitive to this particular energy, along with digital cameras, thermometers and audio recorders, which provide scientific evidence of any ghost activity.
That isn’t to say some of the members don’t actually feel a presence, or see objects, during these investigations.
Keeping an open mind
Investigator Lori Markham considers herself one of those sensitive people, comparing herself to Star Trek’s Deanna Troy.
“I go on my feelings,” she said. “I get personal impressions and feel things.”
Being a part of G.H.O.S.T. makes Markham feel welcome, at peace and not afraid of ghosts anymore.
As a child, Susan Meadows could sense things.
“If a family member passed away I could feel their spirit and would know before anyone told me they had died,” she said. “I just tried to push that away because people told me I was weird.”
Now, as the secretary of G.H.O.S.T., Meadows is viewed in a different light because of her ability to analyze photographs and EVPs.
“I always want to hear the next EVP,” she said.
“EVPs are like a box of chocolate … you never know what you’re going to get,” added Jackson, who has obtained EVPs from her own living room.
For vice president and tactics leader Matt Cruz, capturing an apparition on his digital camera is of the utmost satisfaction. During an investigation, he’s ready to snap a shot when the psychic gives a direction of energy.
“There are just certain things you can’t deny,” he said. “Ghosts are real. They are here. People think if they ignore them they will just go away, but it really doesn’t happen that way.”
Investigator Jeffrey Phillips, who travels to meetings from Eden, Md., said he gets excited when he learns about things that are unexplainable.
“It’s kind of addictive … I always want to learn more,” he said. “With more information being gathered, more research being done, you’ve got to keep an open mind.”
G.H.O.S.T. welcomes anyone interested in investigation, research and analysis.
