The Urban Legends Detective

A couple of weeks ago there was an oppurtunity to take my mother ghost hunting with a paranormal group in Northern Indiana. She’s heard me talking about encounters I’ve had through the years with the bizzare and unexplained, and wasn’t too eager to jump into the mix. At the same time however, she was curious as to just what goes into one of these “ghost hunts,” so she went with me.

The group we went with was Indiana Ghost Trackers Mishiana, a chapter of Indiana Ghost Trackers which is a state-wide ghost hunting organization. One of the awesome things about this organization is that members can visit other chapters territories to go ghost hunting, so as a South-Central IGT member I was able to join Mishiana’s group for July’s monthly public hunt. I grew up in the Mishiana area (Mishiana for those who don’t know is the area that ranges from Plymouth Indiana to Edwardsburg Michigan and covers South Bend, Mishawaka, and Elkhart Indiana- so the term “Mishiana” means “Michigan and Indiana”) yet had never ghost hunted in the region before.

To keep a long story short, we visited two Elkhart cemeteries and mom experienced a whole lot of paranormal action in one of them. Our group had two sensitives in it, mom had never met a real senstive before and was just amazed at how they worked, walking through the cemetery speaking in detail about the things they were seeing, hearing, and otherwise, well, sensing. In the first cemetery we visited one sensitive, I’ll dub her “Miss M,” indicated that she was hearing the voice of a man who also seemed to be on fire. He was quite mad and wanted our attention badly, as we approached the area I tripped over a headstone, it belonged to a Mr. Burns.

One sensitive, I’ll call her “Miss V” seemed to be on target that night, as soon as we hit the enterance into the second cemetery she said that there was a two year old boy ghost looking to play with us and that his name was Robby Craig. Fast forward to all the cars parked and me tripping over a headstone in the cemetery, that of Robert A. Craig age two. Spooky.

Then we got the cold spots.

As we the group was walking through the cemetery grounds it seems Robby really liked us, and followed us from place to place keeping his presence known with a  twenty degree drop in temepture. Mom was just astounded having never encountered this phenomena before.

Later I introduced her to the parabolic ear…

Yes, it certainly was a special night for the family. Mom’s introducting into the world of the paranormal was an eventful one, yet not so overwhelming as to be scary. She’s interested in joining the Mishiana group now since her encounters that night sent her mind abuzz with questions.

And that’s what I like to see, more and more people asking questions as they enter the community.

Okay, so. For a few years now I have been an active member of the paranormal community. No, this isn’t a piece of work written from beyond the grave or brought you by alien satellite transmission, it means that I am just merely a member of the ever growing population of people interested in investigating UFOs, ghosts, psychic phenomena, and just about anything else currently unexplainable. Like how the tax man finds me every year and where socks disappear to when in the dryer.

As far as I can tell, most people in the paranormal community know about urban legends but don’t think about how to interpret them or use the study of these legends to their advantage. With the world wide web and Hollywood consuming and spreading urban legends like mad into contemporary society, it is important to be able to sort fact from fiction. Often ghost hunters go chasing after fakelore,  false or misleading lore, thinking that they are true tales of the bizarre. Looking for Sweeney Todd’s ghost is an example of this; some scholars believe that Sweeney Todd was one of the first examples of an urban legend fed by the media.

How many of you can remember being teenagers going out and exploring locations often talked about locally as being haunted, or in some cases locations that have been broadcast through a larger media as being haunted? I know I raise my hand up here. It’s this thrill that still drives us as ghost hunters well into our adulthood, adrenaline and dopamine rushes that keep us going out time and time again. This is paranormal gatecrashing, that spark that starts entire lifetime of looking into the paranormal with awe and curiosity. By studying urban legends we can expand our curiosity into examination and our awe into wonderment over the mythos tied into these locations.

Urban legends are where history and legend combine to create a fascinating world of mystery. As Dr. Jan Harold Brunvand, a predominate scholar of folklore in America has written; “folklore is fascinating to study because people are fascinating creatures.” I heartily believe this to be true; mankind has created fantastic things and continues to discover new and exciting bits of our universe. What drives this  is our continuation to ask questions, questions from “is this place haunted” to “ what is the answer to life, the universe, and everything?” Although hard science may not reinforce the work of a ghost hunter, soft sciences do. So go out into the field, take your digital recorder and your flash light, and maybe you’ll get a EVP saying “42.”

©2010 Kat Klockow use with permission