It’s that time of year when the air turns brisk, the leaves begin their showy display and our thoughts turn to pumpkins and having a little fun during the upcoming Halloween season. While you’re choosing your costume and planning your next scary prank, chances are the Harrisburg Area Paranormal Society (HAPS) is staking out an area that is rumored to be haunted, and they don’t scare easily.
Founded in 2007 by York resident John Curley and Mechanicsburg resident Don Frank, HAPS is a professional paranormal research team that investigates and validates hauntings in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia.
Frank said he became intrigued with ghost shows and the evidence-gathering process, so he decided to try it himself. “I purchased a recorder from Radio Shack and took it to the Gettysburg Battlefield and came back with my first EVP and, after that, I was hooked,” he said.
For those unfamiliar with ghostly lingo, EVP stands for Electronic Voice Phenomena—electronic recordings that sound like human speech, which are picked up by the sensitivity of the equipment.
The first EVP that Frank captured from the Gettysburg site was a simple, “Yes,” after he spoke into his tape recorder, inquiring if anyone was present, he said. He then recounts capturing another EVP at a Gettysburg site.
“I took a group with me to Sachs Bridge after hearing stories about activity there. My nephew was skeptical and said he didn’t believe in spirits, so I asked, ‘What do you think about that?’ The EVP came back as, ‘You are funny, ha, ha, ha,’” said Frank.
Shortly after capturing that rather elaborate EVP, Frank decided to pair up with John Curley, who was also fascinated with the paranormal. The two decided to found HAPS. Since its inception, HAPS has done about 50 investigations, all free of charge to those having problems with things that go bump in the night.
Summoning HAPS is easier than summoning ghosts to perform on demand, so Curley and Frank usually ask residents to vacate the house to avoid sound contamination, and then they set up shop for seven or eight hours. Armed with infrared cameras, a parabolic dish capable of magnifying sounds up to 40 decibels, thermal imagers, DVR systems, electromagnetic field detectors, motion sensors and handheld digital recorders, HAPS goes to work, often capturing a treasure trove of information to prove to beleaguered homeowners they aren’t imagining things.
“We had a house in Ephrata that was experiencing paranormal activity, and we caught a shadow figure on camera. It blocked out the dresser, moved into the closet and was gone. On our cameras, black appears as white and this figure was white. There was no way a car or headlights could have produced it. It was a solid piece of evidence,” said Frank.
Shelby Sweigert, who lives in that Ephrata house, called HAPS to investigate, worrying that her mind was playing tricks on her.
“When we first moved in, things were quiet, then I got pregnant with my son and things started happening—I’d hear a woman singing, foot stomps on the landing and voices coming through the baby monitor. Then I watched a television program called ‘The Haunted’ on an episode of Animal Planet where they mentioned HAPS, so I called John. He was flabbergasted with the evidence and assured me I wasn’t crazy.”
Sweigert said that Curley, after doing a bit of research on the house, discovered that it was the site of a funeral home that had burned down. All of this continues to make her uneasy, but she said she’s not currently in a position to move, so she has learned to live with it. “Things go in waves. Right now, we’re in a quiet time,” she said, with a sigh of relief.
Frank and Curley don’t drive out any of the spirits, but they do validate what people report seeing and hearing, and sometimes that is all the residents need to breathe a bit easier. “I feel like we’re helping them,” said Frank, who said he’s still fascinated by everything he’s witnessed. “It’s amazing they can even communicate at all; our theory is that they are using sound waves,” he said, referring to the spirits that reach out from beyond the grave.
Still skeptical? The group invites you to visit their website to read stories of evidence they’ve documented.
“There’s more in this world than you and I see and hear every day. I’ve had too much happen in the last few years to think otherwise,” said Frank.
For more information, visit www.harrisburgareaparanormalsociety.com.
