Nocturnal Nature Of The Unknown
by Daymond Steer
New Hampshire ghost hunters are serious about their pursuit of the paranormal.
Ghost hunting isn’t anything like what you see on TV, according to three ghost hunters of the Nocturnal Society of Paranormal Research and Investigation, situated in the Nashua area.
Ghost hunting is often tedious and long hours are frequently spent staking out spirits, to no avail. By contrast, television ghost hunters seem to always find them everywhere.
The society is looking for more people to compare notes on the paranormal. Cranks, however, need not apply. The Society wants to keep ghost hunting a safe and credible hobby. Anyone who joins must be respectful to other people or their property. They urge other ghost hunters to stop vandalizing.
Image: A photo taken in a house in Salem, built in 1860, in which some claim to see the image of a face
The Nocturnal Society normally investigates home haunting. They do not charge for their efforts and tell people not to trust any group that does.
“We’re real investigators not paid actors on TV,” said the group’s leader Karl Lundstedt.
Lundstedt, 37, of Merrimack, has been a ghost hunter since August of 1989, when he and a friend investigated a home of an elderly couple who died in an apparent murder suicide. The husband had killed the wife in a bedroom. Karl and his friend had permission to pursue the search.
“I was a total skeptic and a non believer and during the investigation I experienced some unusual phenomenon I couldn’t explain,” said Karl. “It scared the cr—out of me.”
The husband had cut all the eyes out of the family photos before he killed himself. It was a hot and muggy day. Pictures were still on the wall, medicine in the cabinet, dirty dishes in the sink.
Lundstedt said that, as he explored the bedroom where the woman had been killed, it turned from being hot and stuffy to an overwhelming sensation of being “frustrated, mad, and cold.” He bolted from the room. To this day Karl doesn’t know what to make of the experience.
“I want to know if it was my imagination or if something did happen,” said Lundstedt “Even in my own mind I question it.”
His friend felt nothing.
Harry and Catherine Brown, both 39, of Hudson, have their own group called of Ghost Hunters United, but they are also a part of the Nocturnal Society, which formed in July. Karl said he chose the name because it sounded like a 1900 séance group.
The Nocturnal Society doesn’t dispose of ghosts or communicate with them. They merely document the hauntings they find.
Catherine has been a ghost hunter since she was a little girl. She first became interested in ghosts because of a haunting experienced by one of her relatives. There was an entity in the house that constantly startled the young Catherine.
“I know there are ghosts,” she said. “I want to know how it’s possible.”
Catherine says this is an exciting time to be a ghost hunter because of the advent of affordable digital cameras and equipment. For $1,500 a ghost hunter can find all the stuff they need at any computer store, she said.
Ghost hunters should have night vision cameras, high megapixel digital still camera, and a digital sound recorder.
Harry is the group’s skeptic. He vets Catherine’s photos before she puts them on the web.
They have already proved that “orbs” that some believe to be ghosts, are in fact, just dust. Orbs show up in still photos as circles of color.
“Before you call something paranormal you have to come up with ways to disprove it first,” said Catherine.
Karl leads by interviewing the people who reported the haunting at first. Sometimes he finds that the people are dealing with emotional issues instead of paranormal ones.
The members of the society lead pretty normal lives. Karl is married with two children and works as a technician. Harry is a mill worker, and Catherine is currently unemployed but had worked in property management for years.
The group plans to meet monthly.
More details can be found at http://www.nocturnalsociety.net
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