There are ghosts floating around Cherokee County. This is according to Jonathon Fleischer, founder of the Cherokee County Paranormal Society.
For no charge to the public, his team of crack investigators – no, they don’t call themselves “ghostbusters” – will tour a home or building, set up their state-of-the-art equipment and, if present, capture the otherworldly visitor in a recording. They have been in the ghost-hunting business since June 2010.
However, residents who call in or email should prepare for a wait due to two issues. One, the society receives many requests that they must process; and two, that process takes up to three weeks to complete their vetting.
This includes researching a detailed history of the location in question and filling out an eight-page questionnaire about the person asking for the investigation. Fleischer said this type of detailed research, including the medical background on the person who is being haunted, is essential.
“We have to determine if the requestor suffers from hallucinations or is ingesting some kind of medicine or drug that would alter their perceptions,” he said. Those who can prove there are legally sane and free from any mind-altering medicine must then prove that they haven’t been practicing witchcraft or, more commonly, using a Ouija board.
Fleischer warned that these boards can be dangerous. “They are legitimate tools used in invoking the paranormal, but you have to be careful with them. They open up [a portal] and most people don’t know how to close it. These are not toys,” he said.
Otherworldly behaviors
The group knows firsthand about naughty ghost behavior as many of them have been pinched, slapped and even pushed by an unseen entity. Lori Coffey of the Valleytown Cultural Arts & Historical Center in downtown Andrews knows a thing or two about menacing ghosts. She and colleague Eddie Hoilman have firsthand experience with the paranormal, but both maintain an almost cheerful attitude about them.
“For the most part, they don’t bother us, and we don’t bother them,” Coffey said with her familiar smile. Inside the 1923 historic building, they have both seen and heard several “residents” lurking about, but “most of them are friendly.” She recalled the one exception.
“One of our young actors was up here looking down on the stage,” Coffey said, referring to the second-floor balcony, which inside the cavernous theatre feels far away from the stage floor. “She was standing up here talking with one of the girls down on the stage when she cried out, ‘Stop, I’ll fall!’ ”
Someone had pushed her. However, when she spun around to confront the pusher, there was no one there. She looked down to the girl on stage who had watched the scene unfold but she, too, was unable to see anyone. “Some of the cast members have seen a little boy ghost wandering around, so maybe he was just doing what little boys do, just teasing,” Coffey added.
The paranormal society explains why they think some ghosts are hanging around. One member said, “If their death is traumatic, they may not follow their bodies, but stay within the location they were killed.”
Fleischer elaborated.
“A lot of people believe that ghosts are found at cemeteries or funeral homes but by the time the bodies arrive there, they are already dead,” he said.
What he means by this is the spirit has already torn away from the body. In his experience, aberrations remain in places they have been.
Fleischer said when his team sets up their surveillance equipment, they are often unable to hear the voices or sounds until they get back to their meeting room and listen to the recordings.
Ghost hunting
This was true of a “ghost hunting weekend” event they held to determine if a hospital in Chattanooga, Tenn., was haunted. The hospital had been shut down in the late 1980s, but some experts believed it was what Fleischer calls a “paranormal hotspot.”
The team, donned in uniforms including shiny gold badges, set up their equipment, preparing for the weekend. They were not in surveillance mode, meaning they had only set up the equipment but were not actively manning the site. They chatted away on the first floor, while their camera and recording equipment played on the second floor.
When they arrived back home and listened to the recording, as seasoned as they were, they were shocked. Fleishman explained.
“One of the previous nurses in that hospital told us about a boy who died from baby copperheads he had in his pocket. Now this was back in the early ’80s,” he said. As the investigative team listened to the recording, they could hear a small boy begging his mother to “shoot the worms” in his pocket. Later, the boy is heard moaning and at one point screaming out, “Oh no!”
Fleishman said “many people come here as skeptics, but they leave as believers.” One thing his team can’t do is to remove the ghosts once they find them. They work more as part one of a two-step process.
“We can acknowledge that a particular location has paranormal activity,” he said, but that is as far as they ride. Step two involves the big guns. “We call in a member of the paranormal clergy. They are experienced in ways to make the hauntings leave the space.”
A musical spirit
Coffey and Hoilman won’t be requesting the Cherokee County Paranormal Society to come out and investigate their beloved theatre. They already know there are ghosts living inside.
Hoilman actually spoke to one once.
“He lives down in the boiler room, and I heard him talking one day. I called out, ‘Who’s there?’ but silence. I asked where he came from and he said, ‘Massachusetts.’ ”
Hoilman can’t explain how a Yankee found his way into the basement of their Southern theatre, but he believes the ghost was a good man. Coffey, who has not heard the man in person, confirms his residence down in old coal cellar.
“People,” she said, “have heard him whistling ‘Amazing Grace.’ ”