Is there something strange in your neighborhood?
Memphis group investigates paranormal activity
By: Scott Carroll
Issue date: 9/29/09 Section: News
While you sleep, he hunts ghosts.
Michael David Einspanjer of Memphis Paranormal Investigations offers free ghost hunting classes and free home ghost removal.
"We look for any kind of anomaly you can't explain away," he said. "When you're out in a cemetery and a hand touches you, you can't explain that away. You can be sure that's a ghost."
His classes visit cemeteries armed with flashlights, digital cameras, electromagnetic field detectors, digital thermometers and audio recorders to capture evidence of life after death.
Einspanjer said that evidence comes in several forms, including strange mists, recorded voices heard on tape but not in person (electronic voice phenomenon or EVP), and balls of light, known as "orbs," which show up on cameras.
"If there are two of us at a cemetery, and we suddenly hear the voice of an elderly woman right next to us, and we turn and snap a picture of an orb, that's a ghost," he said.
Einspanjer's ghost hunting classes typically consist of his 10-person team and students who have been chosen carefully through multiple interviews.
"I try to weed out the thrill-seekers," he said.
In his classes, Einspanjer stresses respect for the dead. Before a class last Saturday at Bartlett Ellendale Cemetery, he reminded his team and students to be on their best behavior.
"There's no difference between them and us except that they have no body," he said. "Don't step on the graves, don't spit on the graves and don't use bad language. If you have to relieve yourself or if you have to smoke, step outside the cemetery."
These polite measures also extend to cleaning abandoned or vandalized cemeteries, where Einspanjer and volunteers mow grass, remove fallen tree branches and place flowers on graves. Einspanjer called it "good karma" that builds a positive relationship with the dead, some of whom he said have not had visitors in decades.
"We are their families," he said. "It's an odd feeling. When we walk in the gate, it's like getting a big hug."
Michael David Einspanjer of Memphis Paranormal Investigations offers free ghost hunting classes and free home ghost removal.
"We look for any kind of anomaly you can't explain away," he said. "When you're out in a cemetery and a hand touches you, you can't explain that away. You can be sure that's a ghost."
His classes visit cemeteries armed with flashlights, digital cameras, electromagnetic field detectors, digital thermometers and audio recorders to capture evidence of life after death.
Einspanjer said that evidence comes in several forms, including strange mists, recorded voices heard on tape but not in person (electronic voice phenomenon or EVP), and balls of light, known as "orbs," which show up on cameras.
"If there are two of us at a cemetery, and we suddenly hear the voice of an elderly woman right next to us, and we turn and snap a picture of an orb, that's a ghost," he said.
Einspanjer's ghost hunting classes typically consist of his 10-person team and students who have been chosen carefully through multiple interviews.
"I try to weed out the thrill-seekers," he said.
In his classes, Einspanjer stresses respect for the dead. Before a class last Saturday at Bartlett Ellendale Cemetery, he reminded his team and students to be on their best behavior.
"There's no difference between them and us except that they have no body," he said. "Don't step on the graves, don't spit on the graves and don't use bad language. If you have to relieve yourself or if you have to smoke, step outside the cemetery."
These polite measures also extend to cleaning abandoned or vandalized cemeteries, where Einspanjer and volunteers mow grass, remove fallen tree branches and place flowers on graves. Einspanjer called it "good karma" that builds a positive relationship with the dead, some of whom he said have not had visitors in decades.
"We are their families," he said. "It's an odd feeling. When we walk in the gate, it's like getting a big hug."