Just in time for Halloween, ghostbuster Peter Jordan offered explanations for a variety of paranormal activities during a chilling presentation Tuesday night.
Jordan is an investigator for Vestigia, a New Jersey-based team of researchers that try to isolate and various scientific anomalies. He spoke on subjects ranging from poltergeists and hauntings to so called "spook lights" and spontaneous combustion.
The group, which he described as a bunch of insane people with too much time on their hands, formed in the '70s.
Vestigia gained early recognition for research into the "Hookerman Lights," a mysterious, glowing light that would appear over railroad tracks in Flanders, N.J. Local legend held that the light was the ghost of a dead conductor, who swung the flickering light from a prosthetic hook hand, Jordan said.
After an extensive study, the group deduced that earth stresses and pressure were causing electrical charges to build up in deposits of quartz beneath tracks, which would then discharge through the rails. It would glow as it was ionized in the air, he said.
But many paranormal events aren't as easily explained, Jordan said.
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Many instances of poltergeists - unexplained sounds, flying objects or other supernatural activity - have been recorded and studied, he said. In many cases, there is no scientific explanation.
Jordan said most poltergeists are channeled through children between the ages of 10 to 15.
"Wherever they go, the phenomenon seems to follow them," he said.
Poltergeists are often accompanied by dysfunction in the family. Jordan said in many cases, children have been traumatized by a hyper-religious lifestyle, divorce or abuse and are harboring a great deal of hostility.
"When you talk to them, it's like a dual or split personality," he said.
Manifestations may include strange objects that appear out of nowhere and fly around the room, or malfunction of equipment like car engines and radios.
He said no one has been killed by flying objects during poltergeist episodes, and that the effects often fade with time or removal of the person from the situation.
"They're obviously intent on scaring the shit out of you, but not killing you," Jordan said.
Jordan said he was a firm believer in ghosts, but dismissed the idea that ghosts were actually the souls of dead people.
"I personally believe they are emotional sediment," he said. "A place can hold a memory of a tragic event and play it over and over like a broken record or endless loop film. It suggests lack of closure."
He said gruesome deaths or murders, the deaths of children, suicide victims or any other death that comes too early can result in what he called holographic representations to remain in a certain location.
His team investigated a case recently in which an elderly couple had just bought a 200-year-old home in a New Jersey suburb.
Within weeks of moving in, the couple was driven to near distraction by a virtual phalanx of ghosts - wailing in the basement, screaming from an abandoned gristmill in the back yard, cold spots, moving furniture and even physical contact.
With the help of a spiritual medium and a photographer, Jordan eventually put together the story behind the mysterious goings on in the couple's home. A love triangle between former owners of the home and a worker in the Revolution-era gristmill resulted in an unwanted pregnancy and miscarriage.
"It was kind of like a supernatural soap opera - like 'As the Spirits Swirl,'" Jordan said.
He said he's seen enough not to judge people who believe they have seen ghosts or other supernatural activity.
"When people come to our group, they're usually sincere," he said. "They just want to be assured that they're not going out of their minds."
Jordan said during his talks at other colleges, students asked him if he though Ouija boards - a game in which an alphabet and moveable indicator is used to contact dead people - were evil.
"I don't believe there's something evil about a product made by Parker Brothers," he said, adding that the game can be used as a window to the afterlife. "We don't have a direct eye into this world."
