Cat Murphy, The Murfreesboro Post, October 30, 2015
“We are ghost investigators, not professional storytellers,” Jesse Swain is quick to clarify for tour goers. Investigating the paranormal is a family affair for Swain, though he is not yet allowed to participate. Middle Tennessee Shadow Chasers must be over the age of 18. This has not, however, insulated the teenager from spiritual encounters. When he was very small, he threw a fit at Stones River National Battlefield because he wanted to pet a man’s horse. This would be typical behavior for a preschooler, except no one else could see the man or his horse, though Swain described in detail his buttoned uniform.
The Shadow Chasers are accustomed to such potentially unsettling occurrences. Most people are apprehensive when faced with unusual and spine-tingling sights, sounds, smells and other unexplained phenomena. For ghost hunters, these are clear signs they have work to do. Using their intuition and sensing, as well as cameras, recorders, laser grids and other specialized equipment, they invite those haunting to interact, communicate or maybe play a ghostly game of hide and seek.
“(Ghost hunters) often say, ‘If there’s anyone here touch one of us on the shoulder,'” says Dr. William Langston, professor of psychology at MTSU. During the tour he offers several examples of physical interactions they’ve experienced – things like objects seeming to move of their own accord or noticeable changes in temperature. The K-II meter, Langston explains, is another frequently used tool. It picks up radio frequencies and spikes in electromagnetic energy.
Shadow Walk Tours take the curious and the skeptical through downtown as they recount investigating some of Murfreesboro’s most haunted buildings. The tour begins at Big B Cleaners, where a presence is said to move from the back of the building to the front in the afternoons, and ends at the court house, where the ghost hunters captured recordings of “I saw hell” and “They want you.” Like most electronic voice phenomena, the EVP wasn’t audible until replayed later. The Shadow Chasers share a few from other haunted spots on the route; they are eerily clear.
The evidence is convincing – eye witness accounts, EVP, testimony from paranormal investigators. But is it ultimately fact or fiction? The individual must decide.
Tours leave from Big B Cleaners every half hour starting at 7 p.m., with the last departing at 9:30 p.m. For more information, visit shadowchasersmidtn.org.
Staff writer Cat Murphy may be reached at [email protected].