Spectre inspector

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/10/2014 (4187 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The truth is out there. And it’s in Transcona.

It’s Thursday night on a sleepy crescent backing onto Bayview Park. Homeowner Adam Dreger is hosting a meeting of the Paranormal Seekers of Winnipeg — a four-month-old outfit that scrutinizes things that go bump in the night. While one person fine-tunes the group’s new website, the rest of Dreger’s guests discuss a variety of topics — some spiritual in nature and one that has more to do with the material world.

“We just finished talking about how to raise money to acquire new equipment,” says Dreger, 34. “We have a few things already like infrared cameras, digital recorders and K-II meters (used for measuring electromagnetic fields) but ideally we want everybody taking part in an investigation to have something in their hands. It’s pretty useless if you’re not recording what you’re doing because anybody can turn around and say, ‘Hey, something just touched me.’ “

Dreger used to belong to the Winnipeg Paranormal Group, a similar association founded in 2008 that is still active. Which makes us wonder: Are there enough ghosts, phantoms and spectres floating around town to keep two bands of soul-searchers busy?

The answer is a resounding yes, Dreger says, which is why he started Paranormal Seekers of Winnipeg in the first place.

“After I quit (the Winnipeg Paranormal Group) earlier this year I thought I was done with this stuff,” says Dreger, who investigated some of Winnipeg’s most famous haunts — places such as Dalnavert Museum and the Masonic Temple — with his former colleagues. “But the community wouldn’t let me go; I kept getting bombarded with emails from people asking for my help. So rather than going back to WPG — they’re set, they’re doing great without me — I decided to put together an entirely new team.”

Dreger’s 11-member squad is a mix of people he’s worked with in the past and curious-types who responded to an online ad he posted in July that read, in part, “paranormal investigators wanted; no experience necessary.”

One of Dreger’s recruits is Michelle Caron, who grew up on Erie Bay in Windsor Park. (Uh, we’ll write the eerie jokes around here, thank you very much.)

“Over the years we had so many (paranormal) experiences as a family unit,” says Caron, 27. “We used to wake up and there would be shaving cream all over our beds. My mom was convinced it was her mother visiting and playing tricks on us.”

Tom Corrigan, another enlistee, moved to Winnipeg three years ago from Florida, where he spent time with a group called Spirit Team, one of dozens of like-minded services that have sprung up across the U.S. and Canada in the last decade, thanks primarily to the popularity of the reality TV series, Ghost Hunters.

“My first experience (with the paranormal) was when I was away at military college,” says Corrigan, 34. “My grandfather wasn’t doing very well at the time and one night, when I woke up to go the bathroom, I smelled his cologne and heard him say, ‘I love you, Tommy.’

“This warm feeling came over me and I called my mom first thing in the morning and said, ‘You don’t have to tell me; I know Grandpa died last night.’ “

 

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From nine to five, Dreger is a cook at a family restaurant in East St. Paul. As soon as his co-workers found out how he spends his spare time, they serenaded him with their rendition of the Ray Parker Jr. hit Ghostbusters, from the 1984 comedy.

“I was like, ‘Ha ha ha, good one,'” says Dreger.

The thing is, “bust” is a four-letter word within the paranormal community, Dreger explains.

“We do not bust ghosts. We investigate. When we go into somebody’s house or business, the first thing we do is try to come up with a rational explanation for what they tell us has been going on. We check air vents, we make sure windows are closed and that there are no drafts coming through… Only after we’ve exhausted all logical reasons do we start looking into the paranormal side of things.”

Dreger doesn’t charge for his services. Steer clear of anybody who does, he advises. “It’s an unwritten rule within the community. How can you charge for something you can’t 100 per cent guarantee the validity of?”

About that; although a spooky number of people in North America believe in ghosts — 45 per cent at last count — critics maintain it is impossible to prove the existence of paranormal beings using the equipment available at websites like GetGhostGear.com. Skeptical investigator Joe Nickell wrote that items like night-vision goggles and radiation meters were never designed to detect ghosts.

“The least likely explanation for any given reading is it is a ghost,” Nickell wrote. “Orbs of light that show up on photos are often particles of dust… and ‘voices’ picked up by tape recorders can be radio signals or noise… set off by faulty wiring or microwave towers.”

 

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“Hello, my name is ______. There have been things going on in my house that nobody else that lives with me can see or has noticed. What I’m wondering is if there is some paranormal activity happening or if I’m just going crazy? I’ve seen my doors unlock and open on their own. I’ve heard very clear and loud talking in rooms next to me while I was the only one home. Sudden bursts of cold air when the windows are shut… the list goes on. I just want answers to know I’m not crazy.”

Investigations work like this: people who have more questions than answers can get in touch with Dreger via email. Dreger and one of his partners pay a visit to the premises to chat with the home or business owner, to find out whether they’re wasting their time or not.

“If we agree to investigate further, we do a quick walk-around. And depending on how busy we are, we’ll usually schedule a full investigation for a week or so later, when we’ll show up around 10 p.m. and stay pretty much all night.”

Dreger prefers if he and his teammates have the place to themselves but if homeowners insist on sticking around, they have to follow his instructions to the letter. First and foremost, everybody must work in pairs. Not only is it important to have a second set of eyes and ears in order to verify what you might see or hear, it also comes in handy when you’re dealing with “real world hazards.”

“We work in the dark and you don’t want to be the investigator who falls down the stairs and breaks his arm,” Dreger says with a chuckle.

A few weeks ago, Dreger was contacted by the Canadian Paranormal Society, a B.C.-based entity that acts as an umbrella organization for different paranormal teams from coast to coast.

“Lots of times they were getting requests from people in Manitoba and their answer was always sorry, we’re in B.C., we can’t help you. Now that we’re an affiliated member, we’ll be getting investigations passed down to us from them, in addition to our own.”

Oh, there’s one more thing: before Jamie Dreger joined her husband’s team a couple of months ago, she always had one piece of advice for her spouse, before he headed out the door at night: try not to take your work home with you.

“For a long time she was worried something was going to attach itself to me, or follow me back,” Dreger says. “But so far so good.”

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca