When you’re looking for ghosts in a pitch black house in the middle of the night, the aperture of your eyes opened to its fullest with the only light at your disposal shimmering crimson, your senses become amplified to everything around you, and the line between perception and reality becomes distortion.
When I got the opportunity to participate in an investigation with the Bakersfield Paranormal Society, I didn’t know what to expect. I’ve never personally experienced the presence of anything outside of mortal existence, but I can’t say for certain that ghosts don’t exist. I made sure to go into the investigation with an open mind.
On the evening of April 12, Rip photo editor Lisa Vargas and I met up with the BPS at a central location before going to the house we would be investigating. When we got there, “base camp” was set up in one corner of the front yard and the tech team began setting up their equipment in the house.
I was surprised at how scientific an approach the BPS takes toward their search for paranormal activity in Kern County. They treated the investigation site in the Westchester area like a laboratory, each of them following a precise protocol for consistent results.
The weekend after the investigation, the BPS would meticulously scour every second of audio and video footage for evidence of Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP), or unexplained direct responses to linguistic expressions by investigators.
BPS member Louie informed me that he was the leader of Team 2, the group with which Vargas and I, as well as BPS member Jodi McDullogh, would be entering the house (Louie requested his full name not be published in order to preserve his privacy).
A little bit after Team 1 went in, Louie gave me a quick tutorial on how to use the temperature gauge and electromagnetic force (EMF) meter. The EMF meter, which I operated for the duration of my group’s excursion, can be easily thrown off from electrical wiring and insulation, so all of the power in the house was turned off to get accurate EMF readings, further adding to the brooding atmosphere of the evening.
After my briefing, I waited intently at base camp for Team 1 to finish, while Louie, McDullogh and the members of Group 3 patiently conversed and fiddled with electronic devices. They had obviously learned the patience necessary to find empirical evidence of paranormal activity. During my wait, an amiable cat from somewhere in the neighborhood made for eager company.
Eventually, it was our turn to enter the house. We spent about five to ten minutes in every room of the house, asking questions to what potentially could respond through Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP). Ignorant of the site’s history, my questions naturally lacked substance. It was only after I asked whether or not the spirit had seen God that I realized my question was too complex and random to actually pick up EVP.
We first examined the living room, and then we went into the dining room, where I felt a cold chill overcome me between a table and a vintage arcade system. The EMF meter didn’t move, and the temperature gauge didn’t drop. There’s a 99 percent chance it was nothing, but it was still creepy.
After going through the kitchen, we proceeded into the children’s room, where the questioning really focused on the potential for the ghost to be a young child. We then spent a long time sitting in the guest room, where activity has been reported by some of the owner’s roommates.
When the questioning changed from targeting a child to targeting an adult, the BPS members acted a little more aggressively, asking questions to invoke a response from the apparition. It is this belligerent line of rhetoric that inspires the strongest responses for the last group to go, as the ghost is said to become irritated.
I ran the EMF meter through a precarious closet silhouetted by the street lights beaming through the window. No jump in EMF levels, but cramming yourself in a dark corner of a supposedly-haunted house tends to give off a bad vibe.
After our investigation in the house was over, Team 2 and I went into a shed in the backyard where it was rumored that someone committed suicide. Aside from a couple rusty chain hooks inside, that wasn’t as scary, probably because there was more artificial light shining in.
While I waited for Team 3 to finish the last investigation, I started drifting to sleep while taking notes in my chair, a very rookie move. The two Benadryl I had taken to suppress my violent allergies started taking their toll. I use this as an excuse, of course, because I obviously wasn’t able to stay up late with the big boys at the BPS.
In the end, I don’t really know if I came into contact with the paranormal, but I’m also not spending countless hours looking over ambient noise to find out. I’m just glad to have been a part of a unique, interesting and gonzo experience.