Local ghost specialist shares lifetime of investigating the paranormal
BY ROB EARNSHAW
Times Correspondent
Cher Wright had an experience when she was a child that "kind of" scared her.
Her family had just moved into an old Kansas farmhouse ("the second-oldest building in town") when the then 12-year-old Wright saw a man in the house with blue pants and a checked shirt. She thought he was one of the movers and asked him to unload her stuff first. After following him around a corner, he disappeared.
Her parents told her it was just her imagination -- until they saw the same ghostly apparition.
Then Wright and her family would spot the reflection of a woman dressed in old-fashioned garb when they looked into a mirror or window. An investigation of the farmhouse attic led to the discovery of a vintage painting featuring none other than the same uninvited man and woman, posing as a couple on the farmhouse porch.
"That clinched it for me," Wright said.
The groundwork had been laid for Wright's fascination with the paranormal, a field she's been researching for the past decade of her adult life. During those years, Wright read every ghost book she could get her hands on. She had moved back to the area (Hebron) and started to meet people with the same interests -- ghost hunting.
After venturing to a few cemeteries and "haunted places," Wright decided it was time to become more professional. She founded Paranormal Sciences, a Northwest Indiana-based group that focuses on investigating spirits, hauntings and urban legends.
The curious are invited to join Wright this Wednesday in Crown Point and twice more this month as she talks about Paranormal Sciences and her experiences -- along with basic theories and equipment used -- in the paranormal field.
"We'll talk about what it's like to be a ghost-hunter and what we do," Wright said.
What they do is a little less "Scooby-Doo" and a lot more "CSI."
"We're an evidence-based research group," Wright said.
"We have a scientific method. We're not just going out saying, 'ooh -- I think I see a ghost here.' "
Paranormal Sciences, which is based on "open-minded skepticism," thoroughly researches the history of the location of a possible haunting.
Witnesses are documented, and they may include former owners, caretakers or neighbors. If Wright and her team can connect historical fact with experience they know they have built a good foundation.
"Especially if we can connect unrelated people with the same experiences at that location," Wright said.
Tools of the paranormal trade include infrared cameras, electro-magnetic field detectors, digital EVP (electronic voice phenomenon) recorders and a "ghost box" -- a modified AM radio that constantly cycles through different stations in an effort to pick up messages from the dead. Wright has mixed emotions about that particular device.
"There's room for error," she said.
A newer ghost gadget, Wright said, is something called "the Ovilus." This device is supposed to communicate with spirits by translating EMF readings into numbers, and then translating those numbers into words.
Paranormal Sciences also is involves in historic preservation. This month members have helped with fundraisers and cleaning up of the Peoria State Asylum in Bartonville, Ill.
"We are always looking for ways to help save historical buildings, sites and cemeteries," Wright said.
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"Ghosts Among Us" featuring Cher Wright of Paranormal Sciences, sponsored by Crown Point Public Library
When: 7 p.m. Oct. 15
Where: Marian Education Center, St. Anthony Medical Center, 1201 S. Main St., Crown Point
When: 7 p.m. Oct. 16
Where: Lake County Public Library, 1919 W. 81st Ave., Merrillville
When: 7 p.m. Oct. 22
Where: South Haven Public Library, 403 West 700 North, Valparaiso
