‘Ghost-hunters' explore Porterville landmarks

Porterville became a destination for those curious about the paranormal on Saturday, as a group of ghost-hunting TV stars taught classes and led a series of investigations on the haunting reported at a few of the city’s historic monuments.

Some recognize Britt Griffith, Rob Jones and Amy Bruni from the Syfy Channel show “Ghost Hunters.” Some had the chance to meet them, take Paralab 101 classes taught by them, and investigate alleged potential ghost sites — the Zalud House, Barn Theatre, Porterville Historic Museum and Santa Fe Depot — as part of the second Beyond Reality Event hosted by the Porterville Ghost Society (PGS).

Other celebrities in attendance were Rex Williams of “Destination Truth” and Raven Quinn, an emerging pop/rock music artist and part of the TAPS West Coast team.

The event, which is part of a tour of The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS), sold out, attracting fans of the show, ghost hunting practitioners, and curious people in general, who made the trip from as far as Utah to attend the workshops and apply their ghost hunting skills here.

It was Griffith’s second time coming to Porterville.

“The place is awesome. It’s got great history, a great story — a lot of paranormal activity. It’s really cool to get an area like this that has a lot of good history, and get a lot of people from outside of the area who would not normally come here, to come here,” he said. “People will plan their vacations around these classes.”

According to PGS member and Exeter resident Dori Troyan, guests showed up from Texas, Utah, Nevada and all throughout California to attend Paralab 101 classes, which is like “boot camp” for ghost hunters, in which they learn the necessary methods and how to operate all of the equipment — both simple and high-tech — that is used to investigate whether or not a premise is haunted.

The day of teaching and investigations started with a series of classes during the day, at the Barn Theatre. There, customers learned how to use the scientific approach TAPS is known for to conduct their investigations. Using equipment as simple as voice recorders and camcorders, to as complicated as infrared thermometers, electromagnetic detectors, thermal energy cameras and full-electromagnetic spectrum vision video cameras, they explore an area to gather bits of “evidence” that may or may not lead to the conclusion that a haunting is taking place. Then follows the “debunking” process, in which they find alternative and tangible explanations for perceived paranormal activity, such as noise from broken water pipes, rats, or a light setting off the EMF detector. Any evidence that cannot be explained away is hypothesized as paranormal.

The classes introduced some of the equipment, how to use it, and how to come up with natural explanations that could set any of it off.

“There are people who watch the TV-show and want to meet the talent, there are people who actually want to be investigators, and there are established teams,” said Donna Bagwell, a PGS member who lives in Bakersfield.

“These are celebrities that a lot of people in a small town don’t have access to, and they’re here in Porterville,” said PGS Founder, Kathy Guin. TAPS is an international organization, comprised of a number of paranormal investigative teams, which include the team from Ghost Hunters. PGS is a TAPS “family member,” which requires them to have background checks, follow certain procedures in their investigations and conduct ghost hunts, for free, at any of the locations TAPS calls them out to. PGS has conducted investigations throughout California.

“What we do is based on a theory that spirits exist. What we are trying to do is prove there is an after-life,” said Guin. “It’s a hobby that you really have to love doing.”

Time and money go into it, she said, and the chance of finding hard evidence of a ghost haunting is slim. But she and the rest of the ghost society members agreed that it is “addicting.”

“Once your first spark happens, you become a believer,” said Scott Gruenwald, who owns the Haunted Wolf Manor in Clovis.

Bagwell said, “the darker, the creepier the building, it’s like Disneyland. We love it.” Another PGS member,

Shannon Amos said, “when your arm hair stands up, that’s a good sign.”

The youngest PGS members, Taryn Mccollum and Terryn Griffin, both 20, got involved with the ghost society after they attended their first Spirit Tour at the Zalud House. For the two, who have been friends since kindergarten, being a part of the ghost society is a childhood fantasy-come true.

“We had our own experience before, and we used to act like ghost hunters when we were kids, and now we’re actually doing it,” said Griffin.

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Sabrina Ziegler is a freelance reporter. Send e-mail in care of recorder@portervillerecorder.com.