Ahhhh...the joys of small town living! Sure, we can still smell the hustle and bustle of Dallas from where we hail but it all gets lost in the translation between the city limits signs. You’d think that the nerve and ability that it takes to deal with those from another realm of reality would be amazing enough to win over the most hard core of skeptics but for some reason or another, population seems to reflect intelligence. We are paranormal investigators…and we are outcasts.
When I had my first paranormal experience with my co founder and now wife, I was under the false impression that the populous would be more than ecstatic to get behind us and show support for the burden that we were about to undertake. What’s not to get excited about? A group of people that have the nerve to hang out in moonlit country cemeteries and old, abandoned houses and actually search for the things that keep most people awake at night, dreading to make the darkened journey to the bathroom for fear of what possibly lurks beyond the shower curtain. Sounds exciting, right? They hate us. They fear us.
The two of us founded P.R.I.N.T., Paranormal Research and Investigations of North Texas seven years ago not only in the attempt to answer some of the questions that were swimming frantically in our own minds, but to offer these same services to the general public in order to ease their fears and create awareness that there are things out there that none of us totally understand. Basically what we were told was that ghosts cease to exist within the city limits of small town Texas.
As we investigated and were successful in producing evidence, the internet community welcomed us with open arms. Paranormal groups that have been doing this sort of thing for decades accepted us into their family to share our successes, our failures, and our feelings. In the real world, we were cursed, ridiculed, or just ignored all together. That’s ok, cruel world, we still love and want to help you understand. Perhaps if you knew our story…
It was early one morning as I was suiting up for the monotony of my day job when I suggested to my partner in crime that maybe we needed to get a move onto starting this little hobby we’d been discussing.
It was spontaneous but I knew that we’d never be able to accomplish our goal without that first step out the door, regardless of how unprepared and uneducated we were. With a micro cassette recorder and a borrowed digital camera, we headed to a darkened graveyard with the intention of pulling the B.S. card on all of the paranormal shows that were being televised. Sure, we were hard core believers, but was it really that easy to obtain physical evidence of the paranormal?
On a chilly, late October night we traversed the knee high grass and headstones of a cemetery, filling the sky with brilliant flashes of light from the camera and asking questions into the darkness. The friend that loaned us the camera decided to tag along but was under the impression that we were a few giggles shy of a full laugh. In the back of my mind, I was agreeing. Not once since we’d been out there had I seen the eerie form of a shadow across the graves or a voice calling to us from the land of the dead. It was cold, it was dark, and it was creepy. After two hours of walking the same paths over and over again (because there’s only so many times you can read the same weathered headstones) we packed up and headed for home. With our ghost hunting cherries officially popped, I looked forward to the discovery of absolutely nothing. No pun intended, I was dead wrong.
After listening to about an hours worth of the recording, we were about to cut it short and head off to bed, not even remotely disappointed of our lack of findings. I was swearing never to watch another episode of paranormal anything when the tape revealed something that was entirely different. We both froze dead in our tracks, our spines tingling, and stared blankly at one another. We ran the tape back, over and over again, listening attentively to the voice of an unidentified male repeat the word ‘Carla’. I didn’t know who Carla was and at this exact moment, I didn’t really care. Knowing good and well that I was the only male that was in the cemetery earlier in the evening, I came to grips that we had officially
captured our first EVP. Not much, just a name, but our first EVP! Maybe these over hyped celebrity ghost hunters were on to something after all. The kicker of it all was that the tape wasn’t complete with revealing its mysteries yet.
As we listened attentively to the rest of the recording, we were overjoyed yet again when a female voice explained to us the most obvious of explanations. She said, as plain as a ghost can possibly speak on an ancient micro cassette recorder, ‘We’re Under Here’! All of a sudden, this was all real. Over the next couple of weeks, we feasted on all the paranormal information that the internet and the bookstores had to offer. We couldn’t wait to get back out there again. A lot of time has passed since that fateful night. We’ve since exited the cemeteries and moved on to greener pastures such as Six Flags and Texas A&M University. What a ride it’s been…
I first began to notice the separation caused by the opinions of the existence of the paranormal when I took the recorder to my job to share with co workers. There were a few that really dug what we were doing, but many more believed that I had completely lost my mind, no matter how many times they heard the disembodied voices on the tape. Some people actually got up and left because it scared them. What was wrong? Is this not the coolest thing since…well, since anything? Either way, it didn’t matter. We wanted more and we were going to go out and get it.
We continued to schedule and create our own investigations and the evidence began to stack up. I would write online about our findings and investigations and our internet following began to grow quickly. Soon after, others began to contact us with their paranormal concerns seeking advice and the chance for us to come and investigate their homes and businesses. Two years later, ‘A Ghost Hunter’s Journal’ was published, ‘We Believe You’ a year later, and have been claimed as the influence for a couple of new paranormal groups that had been created in our area. Granted…they didn’t last that long…but we were their influence nonetheless. I know ghosts exist without question. They’ve spoken to us, both in recordings and in real time but I guess the main question that keeps me puzzled is…where’s the love?
Sure, you could blame the religious affiliations of small town life but if you ponder that excuse, you come to the realization that the Bible is filled with paranormal events from cover to cover. Why would religious fanatics hate and fear us? It’s not that the existence of paranormal events came to a screeching halt when the book was completed; it’s just that they quit writing the book! We’re not conjuring demons at midnight and sacrificing small farm animals in the name of the unknown, we’re just trying to uncover the well hidden truth!
The fact of the matter is, I was misinformed (because ‘lied to’ is too strong of a phrase) over the years by my teachers, preachers, and parents by being told that there wasn’t a monster in my closet. We’re ghost hunters, small town Texas, and we’re not going anywhere. Sure, we could move to the heart of the biggest city in the area and leave you all behind to participate in your hoe downs and flea markets but the ghosts will still remain. We’re not asking you to join us. We’re not even asking you to believe in the existence of the supernatural. All we want is the chance to do what we do without slamming into a brick wall of closed mindedness at every corner. Yes, you may not want to know what’s really out there and live inside your quiet, safe heads but there are some who eagerly await the discovery of the truth. That’s where we come in.
If you still don’t want to love and accept us, I guess we can live with that. Even without your love and support, the number of the people involved in this field grows by giant leaps everyday. With so many people attempting to accomplish a similar goal, we get closer and closer to truth and understanding regardless of how much you preach and condemn us. Why can’t you stop us, you ask? How is it that we keep going? I have learned to feed off of you. If you tell me I’m un-Godly, I tell you that it’s un – Godly to point fingers. If you tell me that I’m alone in my quest, I tell you to type the words ‘paranormal investigator’ into an internet search engine. You like to avoid people like me all together? I’ll get a T-shirt printed with our group’s logo and wear it proudly so I can be recognized from a distance and you don’t even have to risk eye contact. (I actually did this! I never got through a Wal-Mart check out line so fast in my life!)
So fear not and don’t get discouraged, young seekers of truths. I am on your side. Keep the faith and never question what you stand for. Keep on dreaming because, in a field such as this, the possibilities are endless. Most importantly, today and forever, keep believing. Join P.R.I.N.T.’s Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/paranormalnorthtexas to support the ongoing adventure…
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