by Karen Frazier


 
Something's happening in your home or business, and you've decided to call in the experts. You've contacted a paranormal team. What next?

Currently, there are no standardized protocols that every paranormal group uses when they investigate. However, there are many commonalities among teams. If it's SSPR you've contacted, here's what to expect.

1. After the initial contact, the investigation lead will call you to set up a time when you can meet with the team. This meeting typically...

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by Karen Frazier


When I first began paranormal investigation, I believed my role and responsibility was somewhat like Star Trek's Prime Directive: I was there to observe and document, but never to interfere. I felt it wasn't my place to presume a spirit needed to move on, even if they were somehow trapped in the earthly plane. 

I've always believed if human beings had souls, we were each on our own path and it wasn't my place to judge or interfere with the path of another. It took me quite a wh...
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by Karen Frazier

 

A popular hypothesis about paranormal activity is that ghosts can be attached to objects. While no empirical evidence exists proving this to be the case, many paranormal researchers will tell you that this appears to be true in some cases.

I can relay a recent SSPR case. We were asked to investigate a house in the Olympia area. When we interviewed the homeowners before going to their house, a persistent thought kept popping into my head about antique weaponry. I asked if they ...
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by Patty Valdez

So you think you have a ghost in your house, and your friend tells you, you need to smudge your home. What do you do next?

Most people would find their local metapsychical shop, buy a sage smudge stick, and head off to cleanse their home. Wait!

• Do you know what you're doing?
• Do you know why sage is used for smudging?
• Are you doing it right?
• Will it work?    

If you answered "no" to any of the questions above, then read on.

Native Americans have long used sage smudging. Sage is bu...

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by Karen Frazier

 

So you have things that go bump in the night in your house, and you're starting to get a little concerned. Maybe you've learned some investigation techniques from watching paranormal television shows, or even from reading this blog. So what should you do? Should you investigate your house?

Our fearless leader, Patty Valdez, strongly cautions against making this move, and I agree with her. 

Shortly after we moved into our house, I had a group of friends over for dinner including...
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by Karen Frazier



Imagine this: You are sitting in your home enjoying a little peace and quiet when a noisy band of people burst through your front door. They are carrying all sorts of stuff you don't really recognize - it looks like something out of science fiction. Some of it is so unfamiliar, it frightens you a bit. You try to ask who they are and what they want, but you can't seem to make them hear, see, or understand you. Instead, they start roaming all around your house without permission...
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by Karen Frazier

 
Rob at the Walker Ames House in Port Gamble, WA
 
Sometimes paranormal investigation can break your heart. Ultimately, our job as paranormal investigators is get to the truth - regardless of what that truth is. Often, we come up with an exciting bit of evidence, only to realize it has a decidedly un-paranormal explanation.

Case in point - SSPR recently investigated the Walker Ames house in Port Gamble, WA with Black Wolf Paranormal. One of the stories about the house involves a ...
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by Karen Frazier
 

A moving bug glowing from IR
 
Earlier, we discussed orbs and why I don't feel I can ever call an orb in a photo paranormal evidence. Now, I'd like to go over some other very common causes of photographic artifacts that are often mistaken for paranormal phenomena. It's important to take all of these into account in order to critically evaluate photographs you think might be paranormal.

Mist

People often misidentify a mist in a photograph as paranormal. Actually, mists are quite c...
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by Karen Frazier

If you pay much attention to popular subjects in the paranormal, then you may notice there’s quite a conversation going on about orbs. The subject of these little round balls of light is quite controversial in the paranormal field. I believe, however, this controversy comes from a simple misunderstanding about what the term “orbs” actually means.

A friend of SSPR, Darren Thompson of WSPIR (Washington State Paranormal Investigation and Research) is a frequent speaker a...

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Team member Lori received this photo from a friend. It is taken in Twickenham, Oregon. Ignore the orbs - those are probably dust and other objects in the air. Instead, look at the woman in the picture. Do you see someone asking her to dance?

What do you think? Is this matrixing or could it be an apparition? Leave your comments below.


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by Karen Frazier

 

If you watch much paranormal television, you’ve probably noticed a trend. On television, many of the “serious” paranormal teams refuse to consider psychic information in their investigation because it isn’t scientific. Ironically, this trend away from engaging psychics in paranormal investigation flies in the face of research conducted by the true pioneers of scientific paranormal investigation – parapsychologists and psychical researchers.

Parapsychologists ha...

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By Karen Frazier

Paranormal research falls under the broader category of parapsychological research, which is a subset of the social sciences (psychology, anthropology, sociology and others). Also called psychical research, parapsychology examines paranormal phenomena such as ghosts, hauntings, psi (psychic energy), reincarnation, and near-death experiences. 
 
Cultures throughout history have maintained a rich mythology surrounding death, spirits, unexplained phenomena, and the afterlife. It ...
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by Karen Frazier



There's a common belief about ghosts and hauntings I feel is a total misconception. Many people believe any spirit haunting a location must be a trapped soul. I disagree. 

If ghosts are merely a continuation of the soul energy that inhabits our body during physical life, then surely the same principles we experienced in life carry on after our death. Specifically, I'm talking about free will. As humans, we have free will throughout our lives, and our experiences as living entit...
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by Karen Frazier


Every single one of these people has had a paranormal experience
(Jenny from SSPR, Elaine from WOOPI, Ellen from PAST is Present, Patty from SSPR)
 
One of the things that has always fascinated me about being a paranormal investigator is this: when people find out what I do, many get a furtive look in their eye, lower their voices, and looking around nervously confide a paranormal experience to me. It's amazing to me just how many people have had paranormal experiences and how se...
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While the members of SSPR have a great deal of experience investigating the paranormal, we occasionally seek consultation from outside advisors. We do this in order to give our clients the best possible service we can. Depending on the situation in the home or business, we may consult with:

• Clergy from various faiths
• Scientists 
• Metaphysicians
• Parapsychologists
• Other paranormal teams
• Psychics and sensitives
• Home building and maintenance experts such as plumbers, electricians, engineers, or others
• His...

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SSPR invited two other teams - WOOPI (Western Oregon Organization of Paranormal Investigators) and P.A.S.T. is Present for a joint paranormal investigation aboard the haunted USS Turner Joy in Bremerton, Washington. 

The USS Turner Joy is a Vietnam-era Forest Sherman-class destroyer that fought in the Vietnam war. The ship is now decommissioned and serves as a museum on the Bremerton waterfront. The ship, which was commissioned in 1959, spent its entire time in the Pacific Ocean, and it played...
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by Karen Frazier

As anyone at SSPR will tell you (particularly our fabulous technical lead, Billi), I'm not great with the equipment. Some might even suggest I am somewhat of a disaster with it. When I speak at conferences, I often joke about not being allowed to touch the team's equipment because I inevitably drop it, break it, or flat out can't use it. So far, no one has corrected me.


Billi, wisely keeping me away from the technical equipment
 
I'm the same way around the house. I can use our b...
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by Karen Frazier

 
The team with the haunted Dibbuk Box
 
Recently, I spent several weeks in possession of what may be considered to be one of the most mysterious haunted objects in the world. More specifically, I spent time with its replica. The Dibbuk Box is at the center of the true story behind the movie, The Possession. 

I've interviewed the Dibbuk Box's current caretaker several times on my radio show, Paranormal Underground Radio. You can listen here, here, here and here.

Karen, Patty and th...
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