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Spirit
Seeker members John McGhee and May Duvall check the engine room of the
USS Razorback in their paranormal investigation. Photo by Jimmy Day. |
"There are more things in heaven and
earth,
Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
William Shakespeare, Hamlet
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USS Razorback
Investigated for Ethereal Stowaway
By D.J. Smith,Staff Writer
Thursday, March 29, 2007
10:54 AM CDT
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Spirit Seeker
members John McGhee and May Duvall check the engine room of the USS
Razorback in their paranormal investigation. Photo by Jimmy Day. |
"There are more
things in heaven and earth,
Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
William Shakespeare, Hamlet
The option to open the World War II submarine USS
Razorback up for camp outs for scouting and other groups may have inadvertently
expanded upon the tradition of telling ghost stories at such outings. It could,
after all, be one of the stories to be told.
"The only thing I know is the staff has reported strange noises they'd be
working at night and all of a sudden they hear a clang in another part of the
ship with on one [else] on board," said Alan Lowe, who, with his wife Angela,
co-founded the Spirit Seekers, a paranormal investigation team based in
Arkansas.
Spirit Seekers was invited to
investigate the Razorback last weekend.
Lowe was told the museum staff "wrote [the noises] off as a tool falling and
it could have been," he said, declaring up front that his team was not there to
prove the presence of a ghost.
Theirs is a three step process, involving human sense unaided by science,
scientific evidence collected and measured with instruments, and extrasensory
evidence from those with acclaimed psychic abilities, to either rule out a
spirit as a cause of a given phenomenon, or, failing that, with evidence gained
indicate a spirit might be "attached" to the location.
It is a common belief amongst those who
study paranormal spirit manifestations that is, those things not explained by
scientific knowledge or defined simply as "not normal" by Lowe that a spirit
will become attached to a place when a violent death has occurred or when
extreme, unresolved emotional issues from the departed's life keep them on the
corporeal plane to wander in search of resolution.
The Spirit Seekers and other teams have investigated more than 30 Arkansas
locations for spiritual residents including: the Crescent and Basin Park Hotels
in Eureka Springs, the Old State House, Child Research Asylum, and Lunatic
Asylum for the Criminally Insane all in Little Rock, the Hempstead County Jail,
Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Booneville, and numerous cemeteries and private
residences.
During the research Lowe does for each event Spirit Seekers investigates, which
he "never" shares with the team beforehand, he found "no report of anything
[strange] this ship boasts as being one of the few naval vessels [of WW II]
that never had a fatality on it."
But, on Nov. 30, 1970 the Razorback was
decommissioned and transferred to the Turkish Navy where she served as a
frontline vessel until Aug. 9, 2001. Lowe had no access to pre-investigation
historic documents from that time period. This forms a portion of the sensory
aspect of the investigation, the physical interpretation of the site and
documented history available.
At about 7:40 p.m. Saturday night, the team assembled in the museum's gift shop
to check equipment; the river was calm and quiet. A few words shared on the
night's coming activity were interspersed with as many or more amiable words and
banter of normal life's goings-on between friends who hadn't seen each other for
awhile.
Investigations follow a strategic formula to remove possible conscious or
unconscious tampering with the evidence gathered and the teams arm themselves
with a carefully worded 25 item, "strict" code of conduct to adhere to.
First into the sub are the psychics, or sensitives. This is the extrasensory
aspect and identifies key areas for spirit or paranormal activity.
Melissa McGehee, with the group for a year, said she has been aware of her
"gift" since age 3. McGehee says she shares it with her sister, mother,
grandmother and beyond something that was talked about readily within the
family. To McGehee being in a family attuned or more empathetic to the
supernatural constituted normalcy, though she said she realized more fully the
difference between herself and others as she became an adult.
Down with McGehee went John Parker of North Little Rock, the son of Ward 3
Alderman John Parker, who said he has been with the group for three years.
"As a child I saw a ghost in our house my whole family did," Parker said.
"It's not something I understand fully, just something that happens I don't
talk about too much to too many people."
Slowly going through the boat, Parker and McGehee paused and wrote down anything
that came to them impressions, feelings, smells real or internal to be
compared by Lowe with separate debriefings of the two once they left the sub.
About a half hour was scheduled for this portion of the investigation.
The technical investigators entered next, four to a team to branch out in
opposite directions with digital still and video cameras, sound recording
devices to capture electronic voice phenomenon (EVF), or those sounds below
human hearing abilities, generally at the 300 Hz level, later analyzed as
natural "noise" or, some say, spiritual human voices.
Electromagnetic field (EMF) meters are used to measure the fluctuation in the
magnetic fields present. Anomalous EMF activity is associated with the presence
of a spirit, but only after discounting a natural source such as wiring,
equipment or outlets. This is the scientific aspect used for comparison.
This portion of the investigation took about an hour and a half and the team
then met to compare notes. Lowe started off with the findings of McGehee and
Parker sharing their observations of "feeling" a fire had taken place on board.
Lowe, after the separate interrogations, had gone to ask museum curator Greg
Stitz, present that night, if there were museum records attesting to this. Stitz
told Lowe that staff came upon fire damage in the forward compartment, since
covered with paint, which had taken place while the Razorback was operated by
the Turkish Navy the fire location was the same as McGehee and Parker
identified to Lowe.
Incidentally, a phone call between Lowe and his wife Angela, herself a
proclaimed psychic, at 10:30 contained the overheard words: "fire yes they
both felt this in the forward section of the sub." Angela Lowe was 30 miles away
at home overcoming an illness and called to relay to Lowe "fire" impressions she
was receiving while she thought about the investigation she couldn't attend.
This phone call had come before the team discussion meeting.
McGehee's notes included receiving memories of "men running towards the radio
room," which is near the fire source, injuries, and an image of people being
held "prisoner." During the third combat patrol of the Razorback the "War Patrol
Report" indicates that four Japanese prisoners were aboard. This is information
is available on the museum Web site, but McGehee said she doesn't do research
before an investigation as it might "contaminate" her part in it.
Parker, calling the impressions he receives "watching moments of memories
watching clips of videos real fast," said he didn't feel an individual spirit
amongst them just memories that may or may not be bouncing around within the
confines of enclosed 60 year-old metal.
"The general consensus of the group is that the USS Razorback is not haunted,"
Lowe wrote in the final report.
So perhaps the strange noises were just tools, after all though there will
likely always be ghost stories at camp outs to suggest otherwise and skeptics to
deny them demonstrably perhaps concealing a hidden truth.
Me-thinks he doth protest too much.
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