As we continue with our busy lives, we are still actively looking for places to investigate. We thank everyone that has visited our website and those that continue to do so! Feel free to pass along ideas of places that our team should check out.
A Huge thank you to all the places that have let us investigate their locations. We truely appreciate the opportunity and will continue to do our absolute best when we investigate any location. Thanks again Jim.
What I’ve learned from “Ghost Hunting”
Yes, I’ll admit, five years ago when Ghost Hunters were beginning to climb the Syfy charts, I became a fan with millions of others. I tuned in each week to watch Season 3 with Jay, Grant, Steve, Tango and Kris. I learned their names quickly and became enthralled by the possibilities they were exposing to the world. I learned the lingo of apparitions, EVPs, manifesting, and became educated on what EMF is. Watching the show, week after week, I almost couldn’t believe the footage; their evidence of another existence, a message of hope- that the afterlife is a real thing- that there are real Ghosts in the same world we know! I wondered to myself on the days in between, waiting up to the next episode if everyone that dies becomes a ghost. The idea was strange, yet it didn’t leave me.
The fascination lead me into researching well known pioneers of my community who I knew had passed away. I went online, clicked through websites, traveled to the library, flipped through books, attended community meetings, asked questions- obtained information- became inspired. I learned to love the lives of these people while they were still alive.
I learned about one of the first grocers in Appleton, WI. I wondered how that must have been back in the late 1800s, building the first store on what we now know as “The Ave” one of the busiest streets in the Fox Valley, now lined with countless storefronts, restaurants, bars, and a constant flow of foot and street traffic. William Rhodes once had a dream. I can’t help but smile when walking through his three story Queen Anne. I heard his story through the voices of the current owners. This home became my first real investigation. And as I reviewed my evidence the following evening, I felt honored and amazed. This person who has been so inspirational to me over the past few weeks, was speaking to us that night, and I could hear his story in his own voice.
Nearing our 20th investigation, we have just completed the Herman Timm House, located in New Holstein. Herman Timm and Augusta Muenster traveled as children with their parents from Germany to the United States in the mid 1800s. They were poor immigrant farmers, who battled poor nutrition, harsh weather, and life threatening illnesses as they sailed through the great lakes until they reached Wisconsin. Here, they met, were married and raised seven children. As the Timm’s became more accustomed to the vast farmland, Herman recognized a need for grain and a way to process it. In 1879, Mr. Timm constructed a flour mill and developed working elevators that could carry 31,000 bushels of grain. His prominence grew in the community and he became president of the village, established the first State Bank of New Holstein and became president of the organization, as well as president of the New Holstein Mercantile Company. He built a house at the turn of the century that cost over a million dollars to restore in 2007.
As we investigated the Timm House, images of a once vacant camp, wagon track trails, and horses tied to trees while shaggy dogs herd loose cattle, rushed through my mind. A hustle spread across the area of women unpacking and hanging their laundry in the wind, as young boys followed their fathers to the fields, learning how to farm, provide for their new community, and how to be men and husbands.
The rush came over me. I felt the energy of life- not of death at all. I do not gawk at the chance of a lifetime to capture an orb, shadow person, or to be touched by pure emptiness. Instead, I go to pay homage to the founders of our local communities, for the lives they struggled through, so we have it easy today. In ghost hunting, I learned that we’re not hunting at all. They understand our mission and seem to appreciate being remembered. They freely communicate with us and it is not a rush; it’s a gift.
From ghost hunting, I’ve learned a life lesson: Ghosts are People. They once breathed oxygen, felt the warm sun on their backs, put sweat, toil, grit and hard labor into their dreams, with the same morals and ethics we only envy to live by today. In ghost hunting, I learned to honor and respect the dead. Don’t hunt, don’t chase, don’t gawk, don’t brag to the world you captured a piece of their essence… They are us and we will be them some day. What I truly learned from ghost hunting, is that instead of going somewhere just to hunt ghost, try instead just knocking on their door and when it opens, say “Thank you for all you’ve done, this is truly an honor.”
-Vicky
Article submitted by Eric Pfeiffer:
Emails from dead man’s account helping family and friends find closure…
When Jack Froese, 32, died of a heart arrhythmia in June 2011, he left behind a number of grieving friends and family members. But the BBC reports that several mysterious posthumous emails from Froese’s account have brought some happiness and closure to those who were closest to him.
Last November, five months after Froese’s death, his childhood best friend Tim Hart received an email from Froese’s account.
“One night in November, I was sitting on my couch, going through my emails on my phone and it popped up, ‘sender: Jack Froese.’ I turned ghost white when I read it,” Hart told the BBC. “It was very quick and short but to a point that only Jack and I could relate on.”
The email had the subject heading, “I’m Watching.” While the text of the message itself read, “Did you hear me? I’m at your house. Clean your f***ing attic!!!”
Hart says that shortly before Froese’s death, the two had a private conversation in Hart’s attic, during which Froese teased him over the attic’s messy state. “Just he and I up there. That’s it,” Hart said.
Froese’s cousin Jimmy McGraw also claims to have received a posthumous email from Froese, warning him about an ankle injury that occurred after his cousin’s death.
“I’d like to say Jack sent it, just because I look at it as he’s gone, but he’s still trying to connect with me. Trying to tell me to move along, to feel better,” McGraw said.
To read the entire article and watch video interview:
All I can say is WOW!! What a great investigation that started with an EVP being captured only 2 minutes into the investigation!! We also captured things on video, and were able to communicate via flashlight with someone!! Just beginning the long process of evidence review, but from the preliminary results… Should be some great evidence on the website in the next couple weeks. Thanks again to the RR Museum for letting us come and investigate this wonderful location. Take care, Jim.
The MPI Network would like to thank the Ghost Adventures Crew for making us an official GAC Member! An even BIGGER thanks to all of you for your continued support and hospitality with welcoming us into your homes and businesses and by following our blog. The MPI Network looks forward to continuing our mission of searching for the untold stories of the generations before us! -Vicky
In the world of Paranormal Investigations, there is a term referred to as a “residual haunting.”
During a residual haunting, there is actually no “haunting” at all. Rather, there is a playback of energy which has been recorded in the past. In theory, it is believed that when an event occurs where substantially heightened emotional energy is exerted, that energy embeds itself in the surrounding location. Future generations may then be able to witness that remaining energy played back, very similar to a video tape or tape recorder.
As one who has witnessed and documented numerous instances of this phenomena playing back before me, I am very much looking forward to our upcoming investigation at the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay, WI on Feb 3rd. One of the jewels of this museum is the Dwight D Eisenhower. This train holds the rail car that acted as Gen Eisenhower’s Command Train in Europe in the years from 1943-1945 while he was Supreme Allied Commander during WWII.
One can certainly imagine the conversations that have taken place in this rail car. As our tour guide at the museum stated, quite frankly, “They were planning for war in this room.”
In Eisenhower’s memoirs of his days in Europe during WWII, he writes about his travels and hectic schedule, saying, “From February 1 – June 1, 1944, I visited 26 Divisions, 24 airfields, 5 ships of war, and numerous depots, shops, hospitals, and other important installations…sandwhiched between seemingly endless conferences and staff meetings which were necessary and highly valuable.”
This was the very rail car, which Eisenhower named “Boyonet,” that Eisenhower traveled to the majority of these important meetings in. We know he traveled in this car based on his own writings, as well as the personal diary of his Naval Aide, Captain Henry Buthcher, who was at Eisenhower’s side every day.
Possibly the most poignant reference Eisenhower made regarding these travels he wrote about in his memoirs: “A late evening trip on the fifth took me to the camp of the US 101st Airborne Division…I found the men to be in fine fettle, many of them joshingly admonishing me that I had no cause for worry, since the 101st was on the job and everything would be taken care of in fine shape. I stayed with them until the last of them were in the air, somewhere about midnight. After a two hour trip back to my own camp, I had only a short time to wait until the news should come in.”
The “fifth” he speaks of is June 5th, 1944. “Somewhere about midnight” is when the date turns to June 6th, 1944. D-Day. Possibly the most important battle ever fought in the history of the modern world.
Several months after the D-Day landings, and as the Allies were pressing further into Germany, Captain Butcher found a crinkled up note that Eisenhower had scratched that night after meeting with the 101st. It was a public statement in case the invasion had failed. It read,
“Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available. The troops, the air, and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.”
At the bottom of the page, he wrote July 5 rather than the correct June 5 — an error we can perhaps forgive given the other things on his mind.
Fortunately, for the future of the free world, he never had to give that speech.
Was this note written in this rail car? One can imagine the emotions that Eisenhower and others went through in this room throughout the planning of this war. The heaviness one would feel after speaking to the soldiers who are called on to carry out your plan, knowing many would never make it back home again. This rail car was the matrix of thousands of deaths, good and evil, as well as a tool in the preservation of freedom for hundreds of millions more.
Are we to believe that none of this energy or emotion remains?
I, for one, cannot wait to see what we find.
Check back in the coming days for results.
Scott
Two weeks ago, I attended the monthly meeting of my city’s Landmarks’ Commission, which I am the Secretary for. Our goal is preservation. Not only do we strive to assist our community in preserving their historic structures, but the stories those old buildings tell just by looking at them. I’ve asked Scott to assist us in a project to create a historic downtown walking tour. We immediately began searching through online databases, rummaging through personal collections and flipping through the public library’s archives in search of “Before photos,” which date back to the late 1800s. We need these photos so Scott can take “Now photos” of these buildings, over 100 years later. This was to be an inspiring project, but instead my heart sank to find pictures of the beautiful and prominent downtown buildings that once stood confidently and played major roles in the city’s economy, to now no longer exist. It was saddening to witness a photograph of a wrecking ball swinging freely, as bricks that had once been laid one by one with leathery hands, sweat and toil, now crumbling defeated below.
In American Horror Story, Constance warns the maid who haunts the famous L.A. “Murder House” of a developer who plans to purchase the historic mansion, knock it down and build apartment complexes. Constance points out, “You’ll be scrubbing toilets in low income housing units for all eternity.” This is all relevant in my eyes. I’ve communicated with past lives that still linger in the historic buildings we’ve investigated- their once prized home, hotel, business… Yet, what about the buildings we were unable to investigate because they no longer exist, other than in faded black and white photographs? Did the souls of those buildings vanish like the crumbling mortar? Or are they still there, lost… confused… saddened by what their existence has become? This is the eternity that we have created for them.
Doty Island was once and Indian burial ground. Many of the unmarked graves were unknowingly encased by concrete roads, cinder block basements, garages, gazebos, and swimming pools. These people were born, raised, lived, fought, died and were buried on this land and now they have been built over- something my island neighbors try to forget. Sometimes Scott and I hear knocking on our patio door or scratching on our upstairs window, footsteps and walking on the wooden floorboards. Periodically, the Shar Peis perk their ears and we watch their eyes follow the air. I can’t help wonder if it is those who have gone before us still wandering the island still today? Maybe these are signs of them trying to warrant us away or them still making attempts to protect their land? Maybe they do not approve of the trees being cut down and new ticky tacky houses popping up all over… maybe they too, just want to preserve the community as it was back in their day… not too different from the landmarks commission’s goal today.
As generations fall and new are born, this earth becomes more crowded with the “before” and “nows.” Buildings disappear and so do people- but are they all really gone for good? Or just from our vision? As we make attempts to preserve, we must also embrace change and make way for the future; whatever is preserved or destroyed may someday be our eternity as well.
Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year! – Vicky
While doing Paranormal investigations is a great experience, we are reminded and grounded by the fact that death is an ever present occurance in our lives. This week has reminded me of this, as my own father passed away very suddenly on Wed. Dec. 21st. My father was a wonderful, gentle, caring, loving man. As much as I miss him, I am sure that he would want me to continue doing things I enjoyed, including Investigations. It would be truely amazing if in the time going forward, that I might capture an EVP or just something that would acknowledge his spirit. It certainly is one of the reasons that I became so interested in doing investigations in the first place. Just knowing that our loved ones, friends, pets etc. go on and that we can see them again some time in the future helps to heal in the greiving process. I miss you dad, I love you, I could not have asked for a better father. Jim.
This past week I heard an interview on Darknessradio.com which really caught my attention. The interview was with author and paranormal investigator Andru Hunter and he talked about his book, The Veil Beyond the Grave. It is the story of how a murder case, cold for 127 years, was solved in 2009 partly due to paranormal means. Mr Hunter, who is a Vietnam vet and Forensic scientist, attributed the cracked case to “about 60% forensic and 40% paranormal means.” Although this post is not an endorsement of this book, as I personally have not yet read it, I felt somewhat validated as a paranormal investigator listening to him speak.
All of us who investigate the paranormal do it for our own reasons. I outlined some of my thoughts on why I do it in my earlier post, entitled, “To give Thanks…” As we advance in skill, knowledge, and technology, there will come a time when our work will be more widely utilized and accepted for the greater good of society as well. I believe we are coming up on that horizon now.
Our history should be told in stories. Too often as students and children, we are taught by text books, stats, and facts and we neglect the actualities that have led to those stats and facts. The result is an abysmal knowledge of our past and a lagging sense of who we are as communities, or a nation. (MSN Report: Students Don’t Know Much About History.)
We have come to the point when we can now utiize the paranormal to help tell the stories of our past; of our heritage. The Midwestern Paranormal Investigative Network has been able to do exactly that. It’s always exhilerating to hear the random EVPs that we gather as evidence from our network. But it is quite a different feeling when those EVPs can only be explained as a direct link to our history, a voice crossing over threads of time, allowing us into their lives and thoughts from long ago…
Imagine the possibilites.
Paranormal investigating is still virtually in it’s infancy. Equipment will improve. Knowledge will improve. Skills will improve.
Our stories are still there to be discovered and shared.
MPINetwork will always be listeing for them.
Happy Holidays!
Scott
Midwestern Paranormal Investigative Network is made up of 4 different individuals. We each bring different things to the investigations. We all are friends outside of the group. We all work well as a group, we all have a passion for doing this type of activity. As Scott said in his post, we all are interested in discovering things of a historical nature within our State and beyond.
Thanks to Scott, Vicky, and Doug. I really enjoy investigating with you 3 and look forward to all that 2012 will bring for our team!! What is great is that none of us have egos that need to be stroked, we do not need to take credit for catching the evidence. The team is all about finding the truth both for clients and ourselves. Thanks again team, I am having a blast, hope you all are too!!
Jim
