that you exhaust all possible explanations before you claim a brush with the supernatural.2 Interview witnesses separately. Take a page from standard police procedures and always talk to witnesses of paranormal phenomena separately so that one witness’s testimony does not influence that of another. It’s easy for people in a group to “remember” things they never actually saw, making it difficult for the researcher to sort out fact from fiction.
3 Document your activities. I always carry a notebook and pen, tape recorder, and camera with me when investigating a site. The tape recorder is used to interview witnesses, but some people have also used it to record background sound over a period of time to try to catch unidentifiable sounds or voices of the dead in a particular location, a phenomenon known as electronic voice phenomena (EVP).A note about photography as documentation is important here. Many people, using either traditional cameras or digital cameras, have reported various anomalies on the photos once they are developed or downloaded onto a computer. These anomalies, usually whitish orbs but also misty smears and other amorphous shapes, are invisible to the naked eye when the photo is taken. There are many reasonable explanations for these objects. They may be dust particles or water droplets on the camera lens. They may be reflections caused by the flash of other cameras or by common objects—even some insects reflecting the camera flash—which the photographer simply did not notice at the time. Your finger, or the camera strap covering part of the camera lens, may also be possible explanations for your photogenic ghost. Enlarging the photo will often help you identify the anomaly accurately. Despite all these reasonable explanations, there are hundreds of “ghost photos” that defy explanation—much to my surprise, I have taken some myself while writing this book. Still, it is important not to jump to conclusions when these anomalies show up. Rule out all logical explanations first before deciding you’ve captured a ghost on film.
4 Respect the site. It is important to remember that any haunted site carries with it a history of both the people that inhabited the site and of the site itself. That history is worthy of your respect. You should observe whatever rules and regulations might be in effect for the site and work within them. In other words, you should not be breaking into buildings or removing anything from them as souvenirs. Nor should you be prowling around cemeteries after posted hours. You will find people more receptive to helping you with your explorations if you follow the rules.
5 Respect the privacy of your contacts. Some people may tell you their ghost stories, but for a variety of reasons, may not want other people to know their identity. You must respect their right to privacy. Unless noted otherwise, all the names of the persons appearing in this book are their real names. I told all my contacts that I was writing a book and asked for permission to use their real names. If permission was not granted—which was rare—or if I was unable to obtain a name for some reason, I told their stories using pseudonyms. These pseudonyms are identified in the text by an (*) after the name.
6 Be a knowledgeable ghosthunter. This last point is perhaps the most important one. No one really knows the rules and laws of the spirit world. Ghosthunters are always exploring terra incognita and finding their way by learning from others, but it is important to learn from those who are serious about their work rather than from people who are merely looking for kicks. Knowledge about ghosts and the spirit world will increase your chances of obtaining your goals, but more importantly, will keep you safe. But you should also be knowledgeable about the real world as well. Know the geography and history of the place you are visiting before you go. Is it a desolate location? How safe is it, both structurally and in terms of its environment? A Spiritualist minister I met along the way told me that she “fears the living more than the dead.” While I do not want to sound like an alarmist, I do believe a little bit of caution and common sense can go a long way toward making your ghosthunting experience safe and fun.
I hope you find Ghosthunting Illinois enjoyable and helpful to you. As always, I am curious about your experiences and would love to hear from you. Feel free to drop me a line through my Web site at www.johnkachuba.com and also watch for my new book, Ghosthunters, to be published in 2006.
Happy ghosthunting!
John B. Kachuba
Athens, Ohio
Metro Chicago
Metro Chicago (COOK COUNTY)
Museum of Science and Industry
Beverly Unitarian Church
CHICAGO
THERE IS AN INTERESTING DEBATE AMONG PEOPLE of faith about whether ghosts exist or not and if a belief in ghosts can be reconciled with a belief in some religious creed. Every religion has stories of supernatural beings, creatures that exist in another realm that is invisible and unknown to mere mortals. We have various names for such beings, depending upon our own cultural beliefs—angels, spirits, demons, guides—but what they all have in common is that they are non-flesh-and-blood beings that have various forms of interaction with humans. The beings themselves were never human and are considered as purely spiritual creatures. Ghosts, on the other hand, are distinct from these entities in that they were, at one time, human beings with the same wants and desires, pains and sorrows, joys and successes that are all indicative of the human experience. It is this difference between once-human and never-human, eternally spiritual and formerly mortal that fuels the debate.
For the members of the Beverly Unitarian Church on Chicago’s South Side, the debate is of little consequence. One of the seven principles of the Unitarian Universalist Association, of which the Beverly church is a member, supports “a free and responsible search for truth and meaning,” a concept that allows for both a belief in ghosts as well as a disbelief. The choice is left up to the individual and is not dictated by some religious hierarchy.
It came as no surprise to me then to find that the Beverly Unitarian Church was haunted.
My wife, Mary, and I were familiar with the Unitarian Universalist church, having attended services in our hometown of Athens, Ohio, so we decided to go to the Sunday service at Beverly while we were in Chicago researching this book. The fact that the church was haunted was an added incentive, of course. It was a warm and sunny day in August when we pulled into the parking lot adjacent to an imposing building that looked like a castle, and was in fact nicknamed “the Irish Castle” by its neighbors.
The
