Five members of the eight-member organization spoke with Paranormalnews.com’s reporter, Lisa Marie Storm. These were, Hugh and Beth Mclenaghan, Kelli Patrick, Bryan Kaplan, and Becky Ray. Mike and Sue Michaelson and Jenny Schlueter, the remaining three members, were not available at this time. Hugh and Beth Mclenaghan always had an interest in the paranormal. Their first experience in ghost investigating was sparked by another organization that has since disbanded. Hugh and Beth had a friend in radio that who received a call requesting a ghost investigation at the Kansas City Missouri Music Hall. This was how it all began. After that investigation, Hugh and Beth chose to continue investigating the paranormal and Ghost Investigators was formed in July of 2003. 
 
The Ghost Investigators agreed to this interview, as they have to others, including Coast to Coast A.M. with George Noory, Star 102 FM on the Monk and Kelly show, 710 A.M. on the Mike Murphy show and 97.1 FM talk St. Louis with Michael Lynch Ph.D. Five members of the eight-member organization spoke with Paranormalnews.com’s reporter, Lisa Marie Storm. These were, Hugh and Beth Mclenaghan, Kelli Patrick, Bryan Kaplan, and Becky Ray. Mike and Sue Michaelson and Jenny Schlueter, the remaining three members, were not available at this time. 
 
They have performed 8 investigations including such prominent places as the Kansas City Missouri Music Hall, Union Station in Kansas City Missouri, and the Lemp Mansion in St. Louis Missouri. Other places include cemeteries around the Kansas City area and a few residential homes. 
 
Lemp Mansion is the most well known location among their investigations because of the attention it has received. Lemp Mansion is a Bed and Breakfast in St. Louis Missouri with a colorful history that may explain the reported paranormal activities. 
Beth Mclenaghan told of Lemp Mansion being connected by underground tunnels to the biggest mid-west brewery of it’s time.  
 
The Lemp family lived in the home and owned the brewery. Because of the prohibition around the period around 1918, the Lemp family was forced to sell the multi-million dollar brewery for a mere $700,000.00 which forced them into bankruptcy. As a result the father and two brothers committed suicide in the mansion. One daughter ,though not living in the mansion at the time, took her own life as well.  
 
Hugh and Beth stayed in the mansion on two occasions and obtained the extensive Lemp Mansion footage shown on their site at www.Ghost-Investigators.com. The footage from Lemp Mansion shows, among other things,two bright orbs about the size of ping pong balls that appear to jump the stairwell railing followed by a shadow that crosses the doorway threshold. I viewed this footage myself, I cannot explain the shadow because number one, it is so fluid and secondly, the team attempted to recreate this shadow a year later and couldn’t, so they are pretty sure it’s a ghost.  
 
Immediately upon arrival Beth experienced paranormal activity. She entered the lady’s public restroom and heard rummaging around as though someone was cleaning the bathroom, toilet paper rolls being changed and knocking on the door. Through the wall behind her she heard kitchen pots and pans being moved about, however, this turned out to be an empty room. She also thought it was the rest of her group teasing her; however, when she exited the restroom, she found them waiting on a bench 10 feet away. They had not been the cause for the experience Beth had just had! 
 
The experiences continued as they turned in for the night, they observed an entity near a window that was clearly outlined wearing a top hat and suit. Although they did not get a picture of this entity, they discovered a year later that this entity was recorded on film by another individual . The photo clearly depicted the outline of the entity Beth had seen. At night Piano music, voices and people arguing are often heard.  
 
Let’s get to know some of the members and their reasons for being ghost investigators: Becky has been sensitive since she was a child and her family supported that gift. She say’s her sister is the same way. Though her grandmother passed on when Becky was five years old, she remembers her grandmother telling her to pay attention to paranormal happenings and not to let others tell her it was just her imagination. 
 
She told of an experience she had in her life that is most memorable was while preparing to move from an apartment she was cleaning when suddenly, out of her peripheral vision, she saw a shadow. She turned to look at it direct, it did not disappear, it came closer. She said it felt "ominous" It was very dense and black and was formed only from the waist up. She turned away from it, thinking it might just be in her mind. When she turned back towards it, it was still there about 3 feet away. She finally said to it "well, if you’re not going to go away, you may as well stay and help me clean!" The shadow turned and disappeared into a back bedroom! (Evidently it didn’t want to help clean). 
 
Kelli has seen many of her relatives and loved ones as well as her dog and other entities appear to her during her teenage years. She believes that her deceased relatives were just checking up on her to make sure she was doing okay. On another occasion in a funeral home ,she was employed with, the deceased Funeral Director would show up to work everyday! This was the spark that caused her curiosity with the paranormal. While on investigation in the tunnels at Union Station, she remembers being alone in a particular area that, at one time, was a morgue or holding place for the caskets of deceased soldiers and feeling a hot breath on her neck repeatedly. Humorously, she followed the story with the fact that it must have been a spirit that had a thing for her! 
 
Beth had a near death experience in 1991. She doesn’t know for how long she was gone. She remembered the experience 6 months after it happened while driving in a convertible with the wind going through her hair. Since the NDE she reports being sensitive to paranormal activity. She was not sensitive at all before. "I didn’t go through a tunnel of light said Beth, "but I do remember it being as bright as a hospital room and my senses were hyper-sensitive, I could clearly smell my grandmothers perfume." When asked if she had a message for others, she replied " when I talk to people that are afraid of dying, I tell them that we do go on and that on the other side, there is no pain......only peace. The NDE was a pivotal moment in her life and she feels now, there is no reason to be afraid, not only of death, but also paranormal ghostly apparitions.  
 
Bryan had visits, when he was young, from an entity that felt motherly. He said that he believes that "after we die, there is, something that continues". He approaches things with a healthy dose of discernment on investigations neither seeking to prove or disprove anything. On ghost investigations, he seems to be the one that gets harassed the most, though the entities tend to be playful and inquisitive and may simply be seeking to be heard. After talking with him the thinks it could be just because he is so open and friendly and doesn’t seem easily "spooked". The ghosts may feel that he is approachable. 
 
He recalls his very first EVP (electromagnetic voice phenomena/recording) investigation of a room they coined the green room. He had dropped the digital recorder and it turned itself off. In order to turn off this recorder you would have had to push one button once and then again and hold it in until it beeped. He turned it back on while at the same time muttering to anything in the room that might have been the cause. They weren’t getting anything and decided to leave the room and go to another room. When the audio was played back later someone had said "No, its okay I’m here". On this one he had used an ELF recorder (extremely low frequency). This clip is on the website and it is very clear. 
 
Hugh is mostly silent during the interview, with a nod here and a smile there yet he did have a couple stories to share. It seems he thinks more than he speaks but did tell me that he had some ideas for a television series though he needs a production company before any stations will talk with him.  
 
Hugh tells of a time about 5 years ago. In his home, he awoke to go use the restroom. When he was coming out, he saw a figure coming towards him, naturally thought it was Beth and sidestepped her as he almost ran into her and said "sorry", then she backed up and went around the corner. He proceeded on to go back to bed only to find Beth lying there asleep. 
On another evening he was nearly asleep and heard a loud voice very clearly say "hello" in his left ear. That wouldn’t seem unusual except that Hugh is hard of hearing in that ear! On yet another occasion while recording for EVP’S (electronic voice recordings) with Bryan, he recalls that Bryan had just turned on the recorder and placed it in his shirt pocket. Later upon playback they heard a voice say "I want to know what’s in your pocket".  
 
Ghost Investigators goal is to investigate and record the circumstances to find the facts. Some paranormal activity can be attributed to fault lines running under the area, or electrical seepage among many other things. 
They are not about proving or disproving. They are not Ghostbusters. They report what they find and occasionally investigate the history of a building. to identify possible causes of the activity.  
 
If a homeowner wishes to have their home cleansed or exorcised, they recommend contacting your local church for this service. There are organizations that perform home blessings as well but Ghost Investigators are not in contact with any organization in particular. 
 
When doing an investigation, they record data such as the time, date, humidity level, temperature,weather, solar activity and if any ghosts are present, digital electromagnetic voice recordings and video footage. They believe that the best time to investigate activity is between 12-2 a.m. because the moon is closest to the earth and there is less interference in the form of electronics and outside noise. They don’t rule out investigations at anytime day or night if there is already evidence of paranormal activity. In addition the group will return to a place that has previously shown evidence of paranormal activity a second or third time for further authentication.  
 
I asked if there were different categories for ghosts. The group collectively theorized that it’s all about energy and all the ghosts are the same thing, the only difference being the amount of energy that is exerted in order to manifest - this determines what they manifest as. Becky did want to clarify that some paranormal voices and appearances can simply be from "residual" energy. This is where a strong energy imprint is left behind after a person passes away the imprint is usually in their home where they spent the most time, or at the location of a traumatic or unexpected death. This particular activity is usually repetitive and does not change such as a ghost walking up and down a hallway at the same time and in the same way or at the same time each year. They don’t interact either vocally or physically. 
 
I asked why they had been so successful in getting ghostly vocal recordings. They said that they believe that ghosts are people "on the other side of the veil" or "in the other dimension". Because of that, they treat them that way. Bryan says " for example, when you walk into a room, you know if your wanted or not right?" We talk to the ghosts, even though it feels as though we may be talking to ourselves, and we get responses. 
 
The other aspect is, we don’t just go into a house or a room and turn on our equipment and leave or go to bed. The reason is, if you were sleeping , do you think anyone would just come into your room and start talking to you ? Would you go in and start talking in an empty room? Of course not! Or at least the odds are a lot less." 
 
Two interesting topics of discussion were the EVP’s and the orbs that are often seen. Although all the members can and have made recordings, Bryan seems to be the one who does the most. He says the best equipment is digital recorders using external microphones because they pick up sound outside of a humans hearing range and minimize hiss and background noise. The voices that are recorded are not heard during the investigations and can only be heard on playback. 
When Bryan plays back what he believes to be an authentic EVP, he looks for the wave pattern to be above or below the human range wavelength in Hertz. A two hour recording takes four hours to listen to because he will play back a recording 20 to 30 times to be sure what he is hearing since the EVP’S tend to be most commonly, whispers and difficult to authenticate.  
 
EVP’S usually have depth to them whereas cell phone and CB interference tend to be flat. Even without the equipment to show him the wave pattern, he knows an EVP is authentic when there is interaction going on between what he is saying and and what the ghost is responding on the recordings. In speculation Bryan notes that he isn’t sure if the voices are actually recorded from a distance or if the voice is placed directly on the recorder by the ghosts energetically in some way. 
 
For example, Bryan told of an experience during a second follow up of their very first investigation, which was in Hugh and Beth’s home: he walked in to the upstairs bedroom and didn’t get anything like he had the first time so he voiced to the group "Why don’t I go over there and sit on the bench like I did last time". Upon playing back of the recordings, he heard first a voice saying "go over there and sit down" then he heard himself saying "Why don’t I go over there and sit on the bench like I did last time". Then another ghost says "Don’t!, Stop that!. He recalls that the last time he was there and sat on the bench, hairs on his legs were pulled and he was pinched. It appears that one ghost suggested he sit, while the other ghost was protecting him from the first!!! 
 
I couldn’t resist a bit of speculation with Bryan about the power of suggestion from spirits to an individuals sub-conscious like the time it was suggested he sit on the bench. 
I told him that I am not a real advocate of "possession" whereby an entity occupies the body or mind of a person and causes odd or evil behavior. So I wondered, isn’t it possible that our mind hears what spirits say even though our ears don’t? Could that odd behavior be attributed to being "sensitive" to voices of ghosts? 
 
Everyone seemed to stop and think about that. Bryan said "I don’t think that you would kill someone just because a spirit told you to". I told Bryan that I personally think a person will behave in any manner that they are both willing and capable. After all, there are good and bad spirits just as there are people. Some spirits like to "play" with us...and it could be a case of suggestion, not possession. 
 
When asked what he would love to experience, he said "Real time interaction". The ideal scenario would be something like this: He would have his digital recorder on, and an ear bud. If something came into the digital recorder beyond his hearing range, it would then be digitized so that he could hear it through his ear bud immediately. This would enable him to hear the entity and talk with or respond to it. It would be great for that situation where a ghost is saying "Bryan, help me", as has been the case on other investigations when he is in a room by himself. He could then attempt to help or get help for the entity. No one else in the group has had their name mentioned on an EVP. But then, Bryan says it may be because somehow entities know he is the one with the audio equipment. 
 
To further clarify how this may work, Bryan says that we have television and radio waves going through us everyday that we don’t see or hear. That doesn’t mean they are not there. Or what about the fact that dogs can hear dog whistles and we can’t.  
 
Though Becky has used regular cassette recorders and has yet to capture any EVP’S to date, she says she has heard of other people who have. Still, the best success is digital recorders and using more than one brand. They have caught EVPs on one recorder and not the other while being used simultaneously. 
 
ORBS 
 
According to the group, an orb is simply an unexplainable circular object seen in video or photos. Authentic orbs are most easily discovered on video because movement and disappearances through walls can be seen. They usually appear solid and reasonably bright and their movements tend to be at angles rather than up and down or sideways. Some orbs observed by the group appear to have a halo around them. They have yet to capture an orb that has a contrail in a photo. 
 
When questioned about less than authentic orbs and what they look like, they said "Dust, hair, snow and moisture can appear in photos to be an orb, but these typically exhibit a translucent appearance. Moisture in particular appears translucent with a bluish tint. Bugs, which are not translucent and do not glow typically make a fluttering movement evident on video footage. 
The preferred equipment to use when taking photos in hopes of capturing orbs are video or a traditional camera with infrared film or even a disposable camera. Digital cameras have a tendency to leave out pixels in some areas of photos that are translucent and often mistaken for orbs.  
 
The bottom line is, to prove authenticity, you need a negative. There are just too many software programs out there, like Photo Shop, whereby alterations can be made. When you investigate as this group does, cost is a mitigating factor when it comes to developing hundreds of photos therefore a digital camera is ideal. In their case, they are professionals who stay apprised of the latest discoveries through the Annual American Ghost Society Conference and are able to ascertain, with a reasonable amount of accuracy, an authentic sighting versus one that is not. In addition, if they need further authentication, they can send material to the American Ghost Society (which they are a member of) to get a second opinion. 
 
I had to ask one last question on orbs. What was their thought on why an entity would shape shift from an orb to a shadow, Bryan answered, "It’s all about energy really. It probably takes less energy to be a shadow than a glowing ball of light and when becoming energetically that of a shadow, the light is "outside" of them which defines a shape. 
 
I asked them if any of them had ever inadvertently had a spirit attach to them and come home. I didn’t receive a direct answer to that yet the home that Hugh and Beth reside in obviously has paranormal activity. Bryan’s previous EVP story is proof enough. Though I was given a tour after the interview and located the areas where there were clearly energetic shifts that I could feel without having to work at it. Whether it was an entity or electromagnetic grid lines that served as a portal or vortex for continued paranormal activity, I don’t know. It was enough energy to seriously disorient me until I moved out of each area where I sensed it. 
 
If you suspect you have haunting or paranormal activities in your home, the group suggests that you record several things before contacting them such as noting the dates and times of occurrences. Is there a pattern to them? They also recommend setting up a video camera to see if you get anything.  
 
What makes this group as good as or better than other investigators? "It’s not about that said Bryan. It’s about enjoying doing it". 
What do they say to disbelievers? Hugh says "Come along on an investigation! They all agree that "It’s not about proving anything to disbelievers; it’s about experiencing things that sometimes can’t be proven. "Were not trying to convince anyone. We welcome those that can help us in identifying our evidence, we welcome suggestions and comments to materials posted on our site as well. We would love nothing more than extra eyes and hands".  
 
Becky said, "it would be wonderful if people that are going to throw out old pictures that they believe may just have a "defect" on them, would think again, have another look, or perhaps send them in to us to check out." 
 
Is it just old homes that are haunted primarily? Not necessarily says Becky, "Sometimes it’s not about the house itself, it can be because of the land it sits on." 
 
Ghost-Investigators welcome anyone that feels they may have paranormal activity occurring to contact them.. And let’s face it, not many make a living doing things that help explore the paranormal. This group operate solely on donations and they stress that while their goal is NOT about making money, they do welcome donations as well as used equipment to help further their endeavors .. They must also put up a pretty hefty fee to be a member of The American Ghost Society and attend the annual conferences. The cost for each member of the group on an average ghost or paranormal investigation is around $30 - $40.00 each for batteries, film and extraneous expenses.  
You can make donations by going to their website and clicking on "contact us". 
 
In addition, under the "old news" part of their site, they sell hats, T-shirts, mugs, beer steins,baby bibs and other paranormal things. The T-shirts screen print was designed by Becky and says "Paranormal activity investigators" complete with the image of a ghost. 
 
What is the best movie to see that depicts the most realistic paranormal according to them? Kelli said "The Sixth Sense" and Becky and Beth agree that it’s without a doubt "The Uninvited". 
 
What did the group most want to convey to our members and readers? Keep an open mind There is possibly something out there." 
 
What I personally took away from this interview were some perplexing questions that I had not gotten the chance to ask. Haven’t you wondered why our loved ones or other spirits always seem to know when we need them? Why is it that ghosts can both see and hear US without any assistance or equipment, and yet we cannot "always" see and hear them? Who is watching who? And who, really, are the ghosts? Them or Us?  
 
 
For further footage of investigations, stories information and a complete list of equipment that they use, Ghost Investigators welcomes you to their site at: www.Ghost-Investigators.com 
 
Editors Comment: I found this group to be very refreshing. They had a healthy dose of skepticism and a desire to provide only the facts. At no time did they attempt to embellish their experiences and or documented evidences from investigations. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE INTERVIEWED post an article, editorial or have a book reviewed to sell through our site, contact Lisa Marie Storm at : Lisa@Paranormalnews.com