Audience members at Wednesday’s South Arkansas Community College’s Noon Symposium welcomed Halloween a little early with a presentation by Alan "Buz" Lowe, director of investigation and co-founder of Spirit Seekers, a team of paranormal investigators who travel the globe in search of proof of hauntings and ghosts.

The symposium, held at the Center for Workforce Development, began with a photo slideshow of the "top five" haunted locations in Arkansas. At the top of the list was the Arkansas Tuberculosis Sanitorium near Booneville. The sanitorium, which closed in 1973, "is scary just to look at," said Lowe.

"Everybody who has gone there has had an experience," he said. "My assistant went there and then went home and turned in his resignation. A lot of people want to see ghosts, but when they actually see one, they don’t want anymore."

Lowe said the majority of the occurrences at the sanitorium are located in the wing that formerly housed criminals, although he and his team were able to capture images of paranormal activity in various other parts of the building.    One such image shown by Lowe clearly depicted the face of a baby in a dark hallway of the children’s wing. In other photographs, "shadow people" can clearly be seen, he said.

"We assign people to each floor so we can keep track of them, so we know who is where, and these are not members of our team," he said as he displayed an image of an individual standing at the end of a long, dark hall. "This is what we call a shadow person. We could see these shadow people crossing the hall and going into and out of rooms."    Number two on Lowe’s list of haunted locations in Arkansas is the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, a site that received national attention for its ghosts via "Ghost Hunters," a popular television show in which investigators follow up on rumors of spirits and ghosts.

"We were called in right after ‘Ghost Hunters’ was there," said Lowe. "It’s considered to be one of the most haunted hotels in America, is what they say."

Lowe’s team captured several "spirit orbs," round shapes of light that Lowe described as "released energy," at the hotel. Also captured on film were images of an "Indian maiden," a woman’s figure and a face looking through a window.

"The whole hotel is haunted, but there are four rooms in particular, and we had investigators in each of those rooms," said Lowe. "One of those rooms is called ‘Michael’s Room,’ and that’s where a man jumped to his death. You can see we clearly captured an energy orb on the balcony outside that room."

Lowe said the third most haunted location in the state is the Old Statehouse in Little Rock.  "In the South Chamber, that’s where a congressman was killed in a knife fight, and it’s said that his ghost roams the halls, looking for his killer," said Lowe.

The Spirit Seekers team was able to photograph several "spirit orbs" in the building as well as an image of a strange, slightly blurred shape. "We don’t know what that is, but we do know it wasn’t there before, and it wasn’t there after," said Lowe.    The fourth location on Lowe’s list is the First Presbyterian Church in Little Rock, often described as the "oldest Presbyterian church west of the Mississippi," said Lowe.

Lowe said in the late 1920s, a flood of "biblical proportions" struck the area, and a young girl walking home from school sought shelter in the church. While in the church, said Lowe, the 12-year old girl, Floella McDonald, encountered the church’s janitor. The janitor convinced the girl to follow him to the basement where he killed her. Her body was then hidden in the church’s bell tower, said Lowe. "He thought no one would find her body there, but they did. He was tried in Camden and hung," said Lowe.

Several of Lowe’s photographs of the church centered around the bell tower. In each of the pictures, "spirit orbs" are visible, he said.

Lowe said he and his assistant also had a personal experience with a spirit in the church that night. "I saw movement, and Melissa, my assistant, heard footsteps," said Lowe.

In fifth position on Lowe’s list of hauntings is the Borden House in Prairie Grove, a site included on the national register of historic locations. The building, built just prior to the Civil War, was used at alternate times by both the Confederate and the Union armies, even housing a field hospital at one time during the war.

Lowe said the building is kept locked and no visitors are allowed inside. However, he was able to arrange an overnight visit for his team of spirit investigators. Several photographs were captured of "spirit orbs" and strange mists forming both in and outside of the house.

But perhaps most intriguing were the stories Lowe gathered from several local Civil War re-enactors who regularly visit the Borden House.

"One of these guys told me that he and his buddy were in a tent in the back, and he woke up to his buddy saying, ‘No, no, help me.’ He looked over, and his friend is plastered to the ground, begging for help. He said he felt someone on him, trying to prepare him for surgery in the field hospital."

Lowe said another of these stories is centered on strange lights seen at the house.

"A couple of fellows said they were walking home from a dance and saw a light in the upstairs window. Well, there’s no electricity in that house, and the doors are always locked to keep people out. But they say they saw the outline of a person with a candle or a lantern moving from window to window," he said. Lowe said his wife, Angela, whom he described as "spirit sensitive," also made contact with a spirit named either Ann or Anna at the Borden House.

"People who are spirit sensitive can feel something in the room. They can tell you something is there," he said. "A medium can communicate with a spirit, and my daughter is a medium. She’s had trouble over the years with spirits bothering her."

The Spirit Seekers presentation also included several "electronic voice phenomenon," or EVP, recordings. Though most were somewhat garbled and hard to understand, one in particular came through loud and clear.

On an EVP recorded at the Old Statehouse in Little Rock, a voice can clearly be heard saying, "Lost cause." Lowe said he has played the recording for several people, including television programs, and all listeners have been in agreement about the words spoken on the tape.

"It was recorded in the South Chamber of the Statehouse, and that’s where they voted to secede from the Union. Maybe that’s what the voice is referring to," he said.

On another, more disturbing EVP recording taken at a Little Rock insane asylum immediately prior to the building’s demolition, an investigator is heard asking a spirit, "Why did you come here?" According to Lowe, the response was, "I come for you." Lowe said his visit to the asylum was part of his work as a construction engineer. He was hired to help in the demolition of the asylum, but before the building was torn down, he said, he had to get a look inside.

"I went in with a couple of the guys on the job with me, and the first floor was completely boarded up to keep out the vagrants. It was pitch dark. We went a little way down the hallway, and one of the guys said, ‘I left my pen in the truck. I better go get it,’ and he went back out. We went about a third of the way down the hall, and the other guy said he thought he better go see what was taking our friend so long, and he went back, too," said Lowe, smiling.  "I kept on and got in a dark room, so I reached out and flicked the lights, and about 10 or 15 feet in front of me, there was a spirit in a straight-jacket, no eyes, just black sockets. So I went on back out to the truck, too."

Lowe said spirits are not generally aggressive, although he said he has been "pushed."

"I think they’re trying to communicate with us," said Lowe. "They aren’t usually there to hurt you, but they’ll sure make you hurt yourself.    People run into walls and things like that trying to get away."

In a question and answer period following the presentation, audience members asked Lowe to clarify the definition of a "spirit orb."

"A spirit is considered a low-level energy form. When you die, you lose energy, and that energy has to go somewhere, and it comes out as an orb," he said. "Full body apparitions are rare. We’ve only caught seven of them in the years we’ve been doing this." Lowe was also asked for his thoughts on the Crossett Light.

"I’ve investigated the Gurdon Light and the Crossett Light, I just don’t know what it is. There has been a lot of research into those phenomenon, and there have been a lot of different conclusions."

One audience member asked what type of camera is required to capture a spirit on film, and Lowe said a "3.0 megapixel or better with a flash. It needs to be dark," he said.

Spirit Seekers is based in Little Rock and has received awards for excellence from several paranormal groups. The organization has been featured on television and radio programs and in magazines and books and has investigated paranormal sightings and occurrences in the U.S., Canada and Europe. More information on Spirit Seekers is available online at www.thespiritseekers.org.

The next noon symposium is scheduled for Nov. 14 at the Center for Workforce Development, 3698 East Main. Dr. Ken Bridges will be the featured speaker in a presentation titled "Getting Published." For information on the symposium, contact the Office of Corporate and Community Education at SouthArk Community College at 864-7192.