Who ya gonna call ...

BY MARY ANNE ROSS
Correspondent

SCOTT FRIEDMAN The New Jersey Ghost Organization took to the Chestnut Hill Cemetery in East Brunswick recently to check for any paranormal phenomenon. Colleen Krason (r) and Karen Timper (center) are members of the organization. Forget the Ghost Busters — if you’re worried about things that go bump in the night, you may want to contact the “ghost hunters” of a new East Brunswick-based organization.

Karen Timper, of East Brunswick, said the New Jersey Ghost Organization, which she founded, uses a combination of technology, historical research and clairvoyant skills in an attempt to uncover the source of sounds or images at places such as homes, office buildings and cemeteries.

“Our goal is to prove that ghosts coexist among us,” Timper said.

The organization has done several different types of investigations since forming in 2004, visiting local cemeteries, Monmouth Battlefield State Park in Monmouth County, Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, and the Burlington County jail in Mount Holly. The owner of a local real estate office and a Union County flower shop have also requested its services.

“People call us because they are hearing or seeing something that’s bothering them and they want to know what it is,” Timper said.

The group takes several initial steps when starting an investigation.

“One of us goes out, talks to the owner, and makes a report,” she said. “Then we get a history of the place. We go back in the records to see who has lived there. We find out if there is anything about it in old newspapers. Finally, we create a map of the house indicating where the pipes are and where the heating vents are. We try to eliminate all the possible causes of the sounds.”

During each investigation, the team uses video cameras, digital recorders, heat sensors, and motion and electric magnetic field detectors to record whatever may be happening at a particular site. Clairvoyants also provide their impressions.

“Clairvoyants help us put together the pieces of the puzzle. We compare their impressions with what we get on tape and camera and all the other readings we do,” Timper said.

Finally, the group comes up with a report and discusses its findings with the owner.

“They have been really appreciative,” Timper noted of past investigations.

“They’re happy to finally have an explanation for what they have been experiencing.”

Timper noted that the volunteer group never charges a fee for its work.

Group member Colleen Krason specializes in electronic voice phenomenon, commonly called EVP.

“EVPs are voices that do not come from a human source. Basically what I do is walk through an area, asking questions and recording,” Krason said.

She said she trains her ear to pick up on things later when analyzing the recordings.

“It takes hours of listening to the tape, over and over, for just 15 minutes of recording,” Krason said. “It’s very tedious.”

If she detects a possible EVP, Krason said, she uses special software to determine whether the voice is in a human or paranormal range. Her findings are then authenticated by experts with a group called Haunted Voices.

Krason said her most interesting EVP was recorded during an initial investigation of the flower shop in Union County.

“The ghost of a little girl, we believe her name is Allison, said the word ‘strawberry,’ ” Krason said.

She said she believes the spirits of people who have died try to communicate with the living “because they want to let us know they are still here.”

A woman who goes by the name Terry T. said she has been communicating with the dead most of her life, and is now one of the clairvoyants in the group. She likened herself to the lead character in the movie “The Sixth Sense.”

“When I saw that movie I cried, because I have been experiencing that all my life. When I was little, my mother used to wonder who I was talking to,” she said.

At times, her special “gift” has caused her a lot of stress.

“When I learned to drive, I thought I was hitting people,” she said.

Eventually, she learned how to turn her special abilities off and on. She said her senses have been studied at Rutgers University and the Edgar Cayce Institute in Virginia. She said she sometimes helps people who are dealing with grief issues, but she never advertises or charges for what she does.

“I joined the ghost organization because I want there to be proof, scientific proof of what I have been seeing all my life,” she said.

Timper said there are about 30 people in the organization.

“We are ordinary people with regular jobs who have a serious interest in this subject,” she said. Members range in age from young adults to retirees, and include, for example, executive secretaries, cooks, office workers, crossing guards, a lawyer and a computer programmer.

“We take our investigations seriously, but we also have a lot of fun, a lot of laughs,” Timper said.

Local residents can meet members of the New Jersey Ghost Organization this Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at the Old Bridge Public Library, Route 516 and Cottrell Road.

The group will give a presentation on “Paranormal Investigations and Research.” It will bring its equipment and photos from investigations, and the audience will be able to listen to recordings.

For more information,

visit the group’s Web site at www.NJGhostorg.com.