Investigating the unexplained: Group keeps ears, eyes, minds open for paranormal
By Bill Mayeroff, Staff writer
Most people only think about ghosts and spirits around Halloween. The crew of Rock Island Paranormal thinks about them year-round.
Rock Island Paranormal -- abbreviated as R.I.P. on the crew's T-shirts -- was started in November 2006 by Jason Hess. 'I've been interested since I was a kid,' he said, adding that he's had experience with the paranormal most of his life.
Once, he said, he was fishing on the Wisconsin River when he saw a man standing on the bank in full Native American headdress. 'I felt something go through me. One side of me got cold.'
He later told his father what he saw and learned that bank used to be a Native American burial ground.
Sheila Schafer's first major experience with the paranormal came eight or nine years ago when she was staying at her stepmother's house. She woke up in the middle of the night and saw something come through the wall of the bedroom and stare at her kids. The next morning, she said, she told her mom what happened.
'My stepmom told me someone had died in the house,' she said.
According to the R.I.P. Web site, the group does public and private investigations to explain phenomena such as odd noises or things that seem to move on their own.
'A door coming open, is it just the fact that the building's settling, or what,' said Jeff Schafer, R.I.P.'s historian. 'It's like going fishing.'
The R.I.P. crew uses digital voice recorders, digital still and video cameras, electromagnetic field detectors and other equipment to try to determine if there is paranormal activity at a certain location. Mr. Hess and Mrs. Schafer said audio is the hardest to deal with.
'Going through audio is a painstaking task,' Mrs. Schafer said.
Mr. Hess said he usually deals with audio recordings, using the computer program Adobe Audition to clean up the recordings so he can hear what he calls 'EVPs' -- electronic voice phenomena.
'Things you can't hear audibly. It's not always a voice,' he said, adding that sometimes, what starts out sounding like an EVP, can be explained easily. 'It can be as stupid as a house settling.'
The group also records video and takes digital still pictures during each investigation, he said, because sometimes, the cameras will record something that can't be seen with the naked eye.
The R.I.P. crew has another tool they try to take advantage of -- Mrs. Schafer.
'Really, the best tool we have is Sheila,' Mr. Hess said.
Mrs. Schafer said she started noticing her abilities eight or nine years ago. 'I'm not the typical investigator,' she said. 'I'm also the sensitive psychic of the group. I can feel the presence of spirits.'
In the 18 months since R.I.P. was formed, the group has found a lot of paranormal activity in the Quad-Cities, though the members won't disclose specific locations because they don't want people to disturb the sites.
'We get the EVPs, we get video, we get pictures,' Mrs. Schafer said. 'Every place we've gone to thus far has had some sort of paranormal activity.'
Meet the gang Who is Rock Island Paranormal: - Jason Hess - Project manager/founder - Jeff Schafer - Historian - Sheila Schafer - Researcher - Caciona Reece - Case manager - Tony Crews - Tech manager
On the Net: www.rockislandparanormal.net