Tim's Ouija Board

Yes, I’m going to go there. I’m going to discuss my views on the Ouija board. I know, I know… scary stuff, right? No, not the Ouija boards, they aren’t frightening at all! But trying to give an honest opinion about such a sensitive subject is quite an intimidating ordeal. After all, no one never knows how the public might respond, and quite frankly, I don’t know if I’m being brave or stupid… talking about the Ouija board (a.k.a. talking board, spirit board, etc.) is akin to discussing things like abortion or politics. I mean seriously, there is not one single topic I have found in the entire field of paranormal research that stirs up more emotion and controversy then the Ouija board. Somehow I know I’ll upset a lot of people… I don’t mean to, but my opinions on the subject seem to differ from that of many of the people in this line of work – and boy do they take it personal when someone presents an opposing viewpoint. So be it.

I guess I’ve just gotten really sick and tired of people yelling and screaming about a device that most of them have never even used in serious research. It seems to me that many of the “so-called experts” have based their entire opinion on anecdotal evidence… in other words, they formed their whole view on stories. A lot of bad information gets spread around in this copy-and-paste world we live in, (you know, the one where people start a “ghost hunting team”, call themselves experts and then go around copying and pasting everyone else’s work), and so I wanted to offer an alternative view for you to consider; and that is that talking boards do not bring about impending doom the way so many suggest. Oh, and for the record, you are more than welcome to copy and paste this article if you like, but please don’t re-word it and be kind enough to link it back to my website: http://www.finderscreepers.org. After-all, I’m the one that’s about to take the verbal assault for writing it. Much appreciated.

As I stated above, there are a gazillion of stories out there about the Ouija board, and God knows I’ve heard more of them then I care to remember; but they usually sound something like this:

“Many years ago when I was just a wee little child, my folks got me a Ouija board for Christmas. It wasn’t long before my friends were all invited over for a supernatural sleepover. You know… that’s where a bunch of 10-14 year olds get together, drink too much chocolate milk and then break out the Ouija board for a terrifying night of supernatural thrills and chills. To be honest, we didn’t really think anything would happen, we were just curious, and it wasn’t anything but a silly game. At least that’s what we thought, but were we ever in for a shock! With the room only dimly lit by a single candle, we all covered the planchette with our tiny little hands and very dramatically began to ask questions. Nothing happened at first, but then very slowly, the planchette began to move. Just a little had first, but soon the thing was whipping out words faster than we could write them. It answered our questions and told us things we couldn’t possibly have known.

Continue the article here: The Ouija Board – A Paranormal Researcher’s Opinion

After having investigated many haunts throughout Oklahoma over the last many years, I have become acutely aware of the influence people’s beliefs and/or emotions have over their perception of any paranormal event they may; or may not, have encountered.

We recently conducted a haunting investigation at a residence in Eastern Oklahoma. By their own accounts, both residents of the home were experiencing the same phenomenon at the location, however, their perceptions were completely opposite of one another. The female resident found their ghostly manifestation mean-spirited, evil and threatening. She described how she felt that their ghost did not want them there and said that it had gotten so bad that she was ready to move. At the same time, the man of the house was dealing with the same phenomenon; however, he felt that the presence was quite docile and non-threatening in any way.

During our paranormal investigation of the home, we noticed many items that pointed to a strong belief in non-traditional spirituality such as metaphysics, shamanism, Asian spiritual traditions, and more. Nearly every corner of the home was decorated with symbolism of these beliefs. Step through the front door and a figurine of a skull with fangs greets you. From one room to the next, we saw many more skulls, as well as a Zen garden, Asian statuary, shaman figurines, pot-bellied pigs (a German symbol of good-luck), a terracotta frog meditating in the lotus position and the like. Within a few moments of being there, I knew that our client’s perceptions of the supernatural were going to have a strong influence over the case.

Later in the evening, I questioned the man of the house about the objects and he informed me that they all were the property of his companion. Being a person well-educated in parapsychology, I found this information profoundly interesting and believe that it was her unconventional beliefs in the supernatural that were tainting her perception of the haunting. He on the other hand was more logical in his approach, and so he perceived the phenomenon in an entirely different way.

When working with new members of our ghost hunting team, I often describe the following scenario to make a point about our perceptions.

If you are at home, asleep in bed and wake up to the sound of your bedroom door opening; what will be the first thing that goes through your mind? A burglar – of course!

If, however, you’ve been told that there is a ghost prowling the premises and you are there conducting a haunting investigation of the location… and you hear the bedroom door opening; what then goes through your mind? No doubt about, it’s a ghost!

One more time, but this time around, the neighbors have told you that they saw Bigfoot himself crashing through the home… and you’re there following up on the report… what goes through your mind when you hear the door opening? You’ve got the point… it’s an 8-foot tall, hairy and immensely foul-smelling biped!

In all three scenarios, you heard the same door opening, but your views in each situation were being strongly influenced by your own expectations. When conducting a paranormal investigation, it is imperative that we put any preconceived notions, views, beliefs and opinions aside for a while and focus on conducting a thorough investigation of the location. When the investigation is complete, we must have the patience and wherewithal to do a methodical, honest and neutral analysis of the evidence. Only then can we take an objective look at any evidence we have uncovered and make a true determination as to the nature of the phenomenon and how we should proceed from there.

Lastly, I’d like to discuss another perception-related tendency that we address with our clients. People that are dealing with the stress of a haunting will routinely begin to interpret every-single unusual noise, light, shadow, etc. as also being the result of a ghost…. even when there is a perfectly logical explanation for the occurrence. We stress to our clients the importance of maintaining a sound mind and the need for them to think logically and thereby resist the propensity to over-analyze every tap they hear. Even in a truly haunted house, most of them are simply the result of a building settling or a bad washer in the handle of a hot-water faucet.

If you live in Oklahoma, and are experiencing a phenomenon that you believe is paranormal in nature, and would like for us to conduct a free paranormal investigation of your home or business, stop by our website today to complete our online “Paranormal Investigation Request.” At FindersCreepers, our services are provided at no charge to our clients, and you can relax knowing that your personal information will always be held in the highest confidence and will not be published without your prior written consent.

Tim Doyon, Founder & Director

FindersCreepers, Paranormal Research Team of Oklahoma

We know what goes bump in the night

Tim Doyon or FindersCreepers.org

One thing that sets the FindersCreepers team apart from many of the other paranormal research teams in Oklahoma is our determination to keep our investigations honest and our evidence credible. Unfortunately, the truth isn’t a big priority for many ghost-hunting teams. Many of these groups are so anxious to present ‘evidence’ of a ghost that they will do whatever it takes to come up with that evidence. Most commonly, they will deliberately look past the truth; turning a ‘blind eye’ to the true cause of the phenomenon they are experiencing. In the worse cases, they will go as far as fabricating their entire case stories – evidence and all.

I often get asked why we don’t charge clients for our services; after all, our investigations are very time-consuming and expensive.  I suppose there are many reasons I could give you, but there is no more important reason then to keep our evidence credible. When a ‘customer’ pays for a product or service, they expect to receive something in return. If they pay for an item, they expect to get it. If they pay for a service; they want results. That being said, if they pay for a haunting investigation of their home or business, they will want to see evidence of a ghost. If you don’t give them that evidence (no matter what you explain to them before the investigation), they will feel cheated. Deal with a couple of ticked-off clients, and the next thing you know, you’re showing them photos of orbs and telling them it is the picture of a ghostly apparition… even though you know damn well the orb is truly just a speck of dust.

At FindersCreepers, our evidence is of the highest standards, because we adhere to a strict set of protocols. These policies help to ensure the integrity of any data we collect.

Let me give you a few examples:

• During the investigation, we spend most of our time conducting research in teams of two. By limiting the number of people inside a building at one time, we are decreasing  ‘false positives’ when analyzing our audio files for E.V.P. (Electronic Voice Phenomenon).
• After a walk-through, investigators cannot discuss their experiences with other team members; instead, they sit quietly and document their experiences. This documentation is then turned in to the Lead-Investigator. We do this to prevent one person from influencing the perceptions of another. Let it be known that the ‘power of suggestion’ is a truly powerful thing.
•  Last year, the FindersCreepers team developed a new set of rules that ensure the credibility of any E.V.P. we collect during our investigations. We call this practice our ‘Dual-Recorder Technique’. Basically, the system requires that every investigator use two separate voice recorders when they are within an investigation site. We use a primary recorder to document the investigation and record for E.V.P., and a secondary recorder with an external voice microphone to record every sound that particular investigator makes. When a “Class A E.V.P.” is discovered on one of the primary recordings, the audio clip is then compared to the secondary recordings from both investigators. By using this technique, we can absolutely verify whether or not the E.V.P. was the result of any sound made by one of our researchers. Therefore, if we find that we have captured the voice of a human being within our investigation site; and we can in turn absolutely prove that it did not come from one of our own team members, (the only two people in the building), then we have validated that E.V.P. as being the result of some truly unexplained phenomenon. Whether or not that phenomenon is a ghost or not is still subject to speculation.

We at FindersCreepers are very proud of the techniques we have developed. Although we may not publish as much evidence as some of the other paranormal research teams in the area, I can assure you that the evidence we do publish is among the most reliable in the field. We will not settle for less, and we will not stop here. We will continue to explore new and unique methods of documenting evidence for the survival of our life’s energy / personality after our physical body has died.

To every ghost hunting team in Oklahoma; please remember that bad evidence is no evidence at all… it is simply a gift you give your critics. It gives them a weapon to use against you and the rest of us as well. Please do not fall prey to the temptation to publish junk evidence. Take the time to do it right. Conduct some genuine research… and do everything in your power to offer credible evidence. The results will be well worth it. Your peers will know that if nothing else; you are honest. And your reward, my friend, will be respect.

I ask this of all of my members; become the best at what you do. Study hard and learn everything you can about parapsychology and paranormal research. Dare to be different, and never stop exploring new techniques for gathering and documenting credible evidence of paranormal phenomena. Keep it real and keep it honest. In return, you will find that you have earned the respect of your team and your peers; and we – the FindersCreepers team, will have become nothing short of spectacular!

If you live in Oklahoma and would like to request a paranormal investigation of your home or business, please submit our ‘Investigation Request’ form, and a member of our staff will get back to you promptly.

1.      The FindersCreepers team will no longer accept photos taken by cell-phones of any kind,

2.      Along with any enhanced pictures, we must also receive the original unedited photo; this photo is ran through software much like that used by the FBI to make sure the image has not been digitally altered, (for paranormal investigators that don’t have this software yet, but would like to use it, the program is called JPEGSnoop ( link will open in a new window)),

3.      I, nor any member of the FindersCreepers team, will ever identify any picture we did not take ourselves as being genuinely paranormal. At best, we will consider the photo “interesting”.

     So why have I put these new standards into place? In November of 2010, I received this photo attached to the following email:

“This photo was taken at my daughter’s house. She has made several comments about thinking her house was haunted and the other day her boyfriend took a picture of his daughter and after looking at the photo it appears to be a child in the left side of the picture and the baby is looking right at it [sic] ”

So here is my next question for you: Do you have access to the original unaltered photo, and if so, would you be willing to send that image to us?

Here is the bottom line: To the untrained eye, this photo could very well lead some people to believe that it is the image of a ghostly apparition. However, I have no doubt that it is nothing more than the result of someone faking the image. I would be more than happy to check the original, unedited image if you should decide to send it to me, otherwise I thank you again for sharing the photo with us and I wish you and yours the Happiest of Holiday Seasons!”

     And finally, I received the following response:

“So sorry to waste your time. I really thought it was real then asked her for the original photo and she fessed up it was an iPhone app. I love watching TAPS and the ghost hunter shows and was really excited till I found out I was dooped.  Again I’m sorry for wasting your time. [sic]”

    I will probably never know if the person that sent the photo to me actually new of it’s true origins or not, however, I am very happy knowing that I took the time to do a proper review, and in turn, saved myself some serious embarrassment.

     Unfortunately, some ‘experts’ haven’t been so careful. Allow me to share a couple of stories that have hit the news media in the last few months:

Builder Snaps ‘Ghost’ Boy

     Two newspapers in the UK ran stories on the 23rd of February in 2010 showing the image of a ‘ghost’ boy taken by a builder demolishing a nearby school building. The story was entitled, “Builder Snaps ‘Ghost’ Boy.”  In the article, the author interviewed Rob Taylor, a paranormal investigator from Hull Paranormal Ghost Society who stated his official opinion of the picture; “I have never seen anything as clear and as distinctive as the boy in the picture.” Well, unfortunately for Rob, the photo was later proved to be nothing more then a hoax generated with the use of an iPhone app called ‘Ghost Capture.’ The story became a huge embarrassment; not only for the newspapers, but also for Rob, who destroyed his own credibility as an expert in paranormal phenomenon the moment he validated the photo. Think I’m being too harsh on Rob? Just Google his name and see what you come up with.

Medium’s Credibility in Question After Analyzing a Ghost Photo

     In February of 2010, one of Australia’s most respected Mediums, Anthony Grzelka, had his abilities tested during a live broadcast on radio station Nova 93.7. During the interview, Mr. Grzelka was presented a photo depicting a young ‘ghost’ girl that was submitted to him by a listener of the show. Mr. Grzelka had the photo analyzed by a specialist who confirmed it was not a fake. He then went on to tell his listener that the photo was “frightening, but the spirit was only an innocent little girl called Bethany who had died in a fire in the early 1900s.”  Continuing on, Mr. Grzelka described how this little girl unfortunately had lost her life in a hospital fire around  1905 - 1910.  ”I’m not sure if it’s your building or in that area”, said Mr. Grzelka, “you’ll probably only have a run in with her when you have younger kids around the place….There’s nothing to be scared of here (but) there is another spirit in this house….the other spirit is an older gentleman.” Mr. Grzelka continued on for some time, but he was soon interrupted.

    Within a few hours listeners to the station called in to let him know that the girl in the photo was the same as one of the images in an iPhone application called (once again), ‘Ghost Capture’. In other words, the photo was a hoax, and Anthony Grzelka had just been had. He could do nothing more than admit that the image was faked and face the humility. After the truth had been revealed, Mr. Grzelka stated the following: “Whether I am a bogus medium will of course be asked after an incident like this and there is no way of avoiding this….I do not hide what I do, it is on display to be scrutinised and critiqued. It’s part of what I do and I don’t always get it right but I try to the best of my abilities.”

Conclusion…

     ‘Ghost Capture’ is easily one of the most popular applications of it’s kind, and anyone equipped with a smart-phone and the app can produce realistic looking photos imprinted with a choice of over 30 ghosts! That’s right folks! Frighten your friends! Scare your family! Terrorize the neighborhood… and oh yeah, destroy the credibility of unsuspecting ghost hunters and psychics everywhere!

     While doing research on the Ghost Capture App, I found several other applications with similar capabilities. ‘Sightings – Ghost Face’ allows you to imprint your choice of over 20 variations of the mask from the the Scream movies. The ‘Add a Ghost’ app allows you to choose from over 50 ghosts, shadows and creepy orbs! ‘Ghost Machine’ gives you 18 more ghosts to choose from. The ‘Zghost’ app will allow you to not only view the ghosts on the camera screen, but you can even watch them move about the scene; and if you have headphones, you can listen to them moan in stereo sound! Awesome! And you can rest assured that there are more out there now and even more headed our way.

     All of these applications were designed to entertain the user by allowing them to convince their victims of the presence of a ghost. Paranormal investigators everywhere need to understand the technology, and be diligent when reviewing photographs from outside sources. As sad as it is, we must always stay aware that people, no matter how genuine they may seem, are not always being sincere. Sometimes, they can be just plain mean and will do whatever they can to make us look foolish and destroy our credibility in the process.

Tim Doyon, Founder and Director
FindersCreepers Paranormal Research in Oklahoma

We know what goes bump in the night

Sources:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2865655/Builder-snaps-ghost-boy.html

http://www.watoday.com.au/technology/technology-news/iphone-caught-up-in-ghost-reading-20100210-nqxd.html#ixzz1ShWY6Exu

Greetings, and welcome to my blog. My name is Tim Doyon; I am a professional ghost hunter and the founder of the FindersCreepers Paranormal Research team in central Oklahoma. I decided just today to begin keeping a journal of, not only my adventures in paranormal investigations, but also my thoughts, feelings, ideas, plans and even the results of the paranormal research that I, along with my teammates, conduct on a day-to-day basis. And, where better to do this then right here on the world-wide web, where anyone with an interest in the supernatural can share in it; and respond to it.

My interest in the paranormal began many years ago when I was the young son of an Army soldier living in Germany. Unlike the United States, paranormal phenomenon is (or at least it was at the time), readily accepted in the European culture. To this day, I can vividly remember a family friend who’s husband had passed away many years earlier. I don’t recall her name, but I can see her face as if it were yesterday. She was a widow in the eyes of all who met her, but once you got to know her, you began to wonder if she was ever really alone. You see, this lovely old woman had kept the skull of her husband after he had passed, and it occupied a special place on a bookshelf in the livingroom of her home. She spoke to it daily. Well, actually, she spoke to her husband daily and was insistent that it was only his body that had died.. for HE, at least in her eyes, was still alive. Every single morning she awoke and said hello and then discussed life’s events with him while she prepared breakfast. And, every night she wished him sweet dreams before she went on to bed. It sounds strange by today’s standards, but I can assure you that there was nothing creepy about it at all. To me and my siblings, it all seemed so perfectly natural. Little did I know that the experiences I had in that home would start me on a journey that lead me to becoming the leader of one of Oklahoma’s busiest paranormal research teams, and oh what an adventure it has been!

Later in life, back in America, I had a few paranormal experiences of my own . Rather then discharge them as my mind playing tricks on me like some would argue, I began to read and study every piece of literature I could find about paranormal phenomena. I read about ghosts and spirits, psychic ability, cryptozoology, UFOs and alien life-forms, myths, urban legends and just about anything else I could get my hands on about parapsychology and or other topics considered unexplained by main-stream scientists.

Several years ago, I finally got my start as a professional ghost hunter. I joined the PROS Investigations team in Oklahoma and began to put my knowledge to work. There, my good friends Ron, Tony, Karen, Judy and the rest of the PROS team help me to learn the in’s and out’s of paranormal research from a practical point. They taught me the equipment we used during our investigations and the theories surrounding them. I learned a lot from their team, and even obtained my certification in parapsychology; but there was something missing. I needed more. My friends at PROS are lucky enough to investigate a haunted building in Guthrie, OK every single week. That is what they do, and although there are some very unique benefits to doing this type of research, I needed more. I wanted to take all the knowledge I had, combined with the experiences I had gained, and find a way to make myself available to help other folks that were experiencing an unexplained event of their own. So, I began to develop my plan and soon afterwards left the team to start my own. And that is when FindersCreepers got its first breath of life.

At FindersCreepers, we dedicate ourselves to our clients. No matter what it takes, we will do everything in our power to get to the bottom of whatever it is they are experiencing. House being haunted by a ghost? No problem – we’re there. Bigfoot? Just give me a map and tell me how far we’re driving? UFO buzzing over your rooftop? Grab the radiation detector and let’s go! No matter what the case, we will find the answers while at the same time, doing our very best to leave our clients feeling at peace and empowered. We pride ourselves in our professionalism, we insist on ensuring the credibility of our evidence, we are unique in our approach, imaginative in our techniques, thorough to the core and we do it all at no charge to our clients. The result is that we are extremely busy, and there is no sign of us slowing down anytime soon.

Busy… I am definitely that. But, I will try to add to this blog as often as possible. Consider it my diary… the diary of a professional ghost hunter. Please join me as we continue looking for answers to some of life’s biggest mysteries. Some days, I will discuss specific events. Other days, I will simply share with you some of my ideas, exciting discoveries, or even my frustrations. If you don’t hear from me for a night, don’t worry… I am probably crawling around with my flashlight in some dark dusty basement looking for the truth. Wish me luck, and please… don’t be a stranger.