Demons, ghosts and goose bumps? All in a day’s work

Three local paranormal investigators talk about how a simple interest turned into a lifestyle. What do you believe?

By Nikki M. Mascali Weekender Staff Writer

When it comes to ghosts and paranormal activity, people either believe or they don’t.

Maybe some have had experiences where they’ve had a feeling that something was near them, the hair on the back of their neck stood up, or they suddenly got a chill up their spine. Or maybe some have actually seen apparitions with their own eyes.

With ghost hunting, there’s much more to it than just going out looking for ghosts, and there certainly aren’t any séances. And often, even if someone is actually a ghost hunter, chances of actually seeing a ghost are pretty slim.

“Some people think that you have this epiphany, I never did, it was just curiosity,” said Kevin Tersavige, director of the Central PA Paranormal Research Association (CPPRA), when asked how he got interested in the paranormal 19 years ago. “My parents are second generation Ukrainian and they still carry the legends and stories about ghosts and things like that. I was just intrigued by those stories and thought that I’d like to see if there is really something out there.”

Tersavige got his start in the way one might imagine: by going to cemeteries. When people heard he was interested in the craft, his phone started ringing. “I got involved in my first house (investigation), and then it just blossomed. I needed more people to go with me, so I started recruiting people that were interested.”

CPPRA, in existence for the nine years, is based out of Danville and includes four chapters throughout the state. At last count, Tersavige said the group has 80 members. “That makes us the largest investigative team in Pennsylvania,” he said.

And investigate they do, from residences to universities to demonic infestations. According to Tersavige, this year alone they have investigated five demonic infestations alone. Usually, the yearly average is about one.

“They are really starting to climb a lot,” he said.

While each member brings their own specialty to the group, be it audio, video or computers, Tersavige is trained in demon cases, along with 10 other members of this subgroup within CPPRA. He explained that the demonologist from the Anglican Church contacts the group to do the documentations of the events before the demonologist actually steps in.

“We do the initial investigation, and then they decide if it does warrant a cleansing or an exorcism. When they need to intervene, we document those procedures,” he said, adding that such encounters are just as nasty as they sound.

CPPRA has three psychic investigators, but they are never included on any demonic activity cases. Tersavige explained that the demons could have the psychic’s use their gifts against themselves.

“They’ll start to see things that they don’t want to see, and the demons will try to terrorize them,” he said. And if that’s not enough to conjure up images of “The Exorcist” and have you screaming for the nearest well lit place, Tersavige also told us about his one – and only – apparition sighting at Mansfield University.

“I’ll tell you, you’ll never forget for the rest of your life when it happens,” he laughed.

According to Tersavige, the group was called in to investigate a possible haunting in the university’s library, which he informed us was once a girl’s dorm where a girl either committed suicide or fell accidentally from the sixth floor to the lobby.

“They were having problems in the library with people seeing an apparition of a woman. Doors would slam, books would move, disembodied voices, footsteps … people being touched,” Tersavige said.

He and his lead psychic investigator, Jo Soltow (who happens to be his fiancée), were sitting at the librarian’s desk on the third floor at 2 a.m. when Soltow covered her eyes and said, “We are going to see something here, and I really don’t want to see it.” Tersavige then asked what was wrong.

“I looked up - there was a girl standing about six to eight feet away from me. She had her hair in a bun and a ruffled collar and was smiling at me, but she had no lower torso,” he stated.

As a ghost hunter with a camera in his hands for documentation of such happenings, Tersavige froze. “It felt like half an hour, but it was only maybe 10 seconds that she was there,” he said.

Not only is Tersavige a ghost hunter, he is also a teacher to ghost hunter wannabes. There is an American Legion outside of Danville that he takes students to as a training tool, because it is ripe with paranormal activity. The Legion had been a stagecoach stop in the 1850s and, during the Civil War, it was a hospital and asylum.

“It’s very playful,” he said of the haunting nicknamed Captain Jack. The Legion actually has four hauntings, but Jack is the dominant one - and the Captain likes the ladies.

“If I take a class, there’s always one woman that gets her rear-end pinched or he strokes their hair,” Tersavige said, adding Jack also picks out the weakest link of the group. “He’ll manifest something they don’t want to see just to scare them, almost like he gets the giggles from it,” he said.

While that might scare future hunters or anyone planning on visiting a Legion anytime soon, Tersavige is quick to add that haunters can’t follow you home unless they are invited.

“It might tag along for a little while though, almost like a power thing. But, our basic rule when we leave a house is to say ‘Stay here,’” he said.

Not a job, but a hobby

Most ghost hunters are not paid to do such – they all have day jobs and/or families and any investigations or research they do are done on their own time, using their own self-bought equipment. This includes DVR’s, low light surveillance cameras, and electro-magnetic field detectors, which can cost hundreds of dollars.

And the thrill of the hunt stems from that basic curiosity of the unknown.

Robin Luchko and her husband Tom Fritz, founding members of the Dickson City based Society for Paranormal Research and Investigation (SPRI), have been interested in the paranormal for the last 15 years, though SPRI came into existence in July 2005. SPRI has 53 active members, 10 of which are actual investigators. One doesn’t have to be an investigator to be involved.

“It became a thing we were both kind of interested in,” said Fritz, when talking about how he and Luchko got started. The two have been interested enough to even have their hobby influence their vacation plans for the last 10 years.

“Instead of going to the beach, we decided to pick a historical destination to go to that has a history of a paranormal past and see what was there,” Fritz said, rattling off such impressive locales as the vaults under Edinburgh, Scotland; Loch Ness; Salem, Massachusetts; New Orleans and his personal favorite, Stonehenge.

“To me, it was great because even though you were outside around the stones, it had the feel of a church. The very next day we went to Westminster Abbey, and though it was a church, it felt like a dancehall,” Fritz said.

As for NEPA sites, Fritz doesn’t have any favorite famous location haunts (pun intended) or even those that have a haunted past, though last year, they visited Andy Gavin’s (Washington Ave., Scranton).

“It’s said to have been haunted since at least ‘88 when the owner took it over,” Fritz said. “We got a little bit of what we thought might be a resident ghost, not enough to say for sure. It’s worth going back.”

The investigation of Andy Gavin’s, as well as other cases, are documented on their website ( www.spriparanormal.com), which also includes information on how to become a member, the equipment used and member profiles.

Surprisingly, in all their years of interest in the unknown, Luchko and Fritz do not have many pictures depicting paranormal activity.

“[As for] the famous ‘orbs,’ I would say that more than 999 out of a thousand are just something normal - a reflection, water droplets, something like that,” Fritz said, adding that though he is a skeptic, he does leave room for a paranormal possibility. “Robin’s opinion differs from mine, which is good, because we have a lot of different backgrounds and opinions. The more people you have thinking about it, the better. A lot is your own belief. We are just looking to prove it.”

Fritz does believe in the concept of their longtime hobby, but he has not had a paranormal experience, while Luchko has had a few occurrences.

“I’ve had a few odd things happen, not that I could say that they were actually paranormal, they were abnormal, but no definitive proof unfortunately,” she said.

Part of fact finding for proof is researching past deeds, lot numbers, or owners of the houses or businesses SPRI investigates, which Luchko loves to do. “I could spend days just researching,” she laughed. As for demons, SPRI has not been involved in any infestations, but Fritz explained that a demonic haunting is a non-human spirit, not someone who has died, but a spirit who is attached to hell or the devil that has never existed in this plane - another thing Fritz said is up to personal belief.

“There are evil humans who have haunted, but there are also demonic haunts,” he said, adding that one of his clients was actually having an issue with one of those situations, but they have not been able to prove it yet. “Through her testimony and what has happened to her, including physical attacks, that’s what we believe has been going on,” he said.

If that doesn’t induce goose bumps, anyone interested in ghost hunting should know that SPRI is a strict believer in the buddy system. No one is ever alone on an investigation, partly so they don’t get spooked and partly to make sure that there is a witness to whatever might or might not happen.

“Once you actually go on an investigation, it’s more scientific, more than anything else,” Luchko said. “Once you actually get into it and are watching the equipment, reading the numbers and paying attention to things, it kind of changes it for you.”

When asked where they would love to be able to investigate, Fritz was quick with is reply: the White House.

“Past leaders of the world have spent the most influential years of their lives in that building,” he said, adding that a popular theory of ghost hunters, with the exception of a tragic death, is that most haunts occur at a place and time people felt the most happy or connected.

“So I can see, for presidents, the White House being the place to be.”