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By Beth BurwinkelFor The Courier-Journal

Spooks will be easy to find Wednesday. They’ll be traveling door to door, holding out bags for candy and yelling “trick or treat!” But pull back the white sheet or plastic mask and you’ll find a smiling youngster underneath.Real spirits are a lot harder to corral — though some true believers never give up. Keith Age, the president of the Louisville Ghost Hunters Society, spends many nights looking for spirits, but admits, “I’ve never seen a ghost.” But, Age said, “I’ve seen a lot of weird things that can’t be explained.” If you believe in ghosts, you’re not alone. According to a 2005 CBS poll, 48 percent of Americans admit they’re believers. A 2003 Har-ris poll found 51 percent believing in ghosts.Skeptics scoff at the notion of hauntings and say there’s no convincing evidence that ghosts exist. But that’s one of the reasons ghost hunt-ers all across the country continue to investigate reports of paranormal activity. Some day, somewhere, an investigator will provide conclusive documentation of a super-natural event, they hope. When someone suspects paranormal activ-ity, Age and others from the Louisville Ghost Hunters Society will check homes and other sites. “We don’t ask for money or anything like that,” he said. In most cases — Age estimates 99 percent — they can find a logical explanation. What about the other 1 percent? “That’s the cool stuff,” Age said.

HUNTERS, NOT BUSTERS Age said he had his first paranormal expe-rience at age 16 when he said he was physically thrown by something unexplained. That’s when he started researching the paranormal. Age is quick to point out that he’s a ghost hunter

— not a ghost buster, a term popularized by the 1980s movie “Ghostbusters,” where three unemployed professors became a ghost removal service. While the life of a ghost hunter may seem glamorous, Age said that’s far from true. It’s a lot of waiting around. “Paranormal activity doesn’t act on cue,” he said. “You can’t make it happen.” Age enters buildings with a small team from the Ghost Hunters Society, and they often sit and wait for something to occur. They carry various tools, including electro-magnetic field meters that Age said can indicate the presence of spirits. They also carry an infra-red camera to capture things like doors opening and closing or shadows moving across a hallway, Age said. They’ve also recorded voices. Age is the host of a documentary seen last year on the Sci-Fi Channel on Waverly Hills Sanatorium, built in 1928 to care for patients with tuberculosis. Many of those with the highly contagious lung disease died, and residents say a nurse committed suicide at the facility. The documentary is now available on DVD. “Spooked: The Ghosts of Waverly Hills” isn’t the Sci-Fi Channel’s only ghostly produc-tion. “Ghost Hunters,” a reality show on a ghost-hunting group from Rhode Island known as TAPS (for The Atlantic Paranormal Society), is one of the cable channel’s most popular series.

MORE THAN BUMPS IN THE NIGHT So if Age hasn’t seen a ghost, what has he seen as a ghost hunter? In addition to being thrown through a door, Age says that he’s been hit in the head by unexplained flying debris. A cola can once rolled up a floor toward him even though the floor sloped in the opposite direction, he adds. Ghost hunters have recorded doors opening and closing, and he’s seen shadows move across walls. “I’ve seen a lot of strange things,” he said. Entire rooms have lit up, even though the buildings lacked electricity, Age said. He said he’s captured voices saying, “Get out,” “Hey, I’m right behind you” and “Do you remember me?” According to Age, active hauntings are

sporadic and involve interactions with a person. Residual hauntings occur when the same thing happens over and over again, much like a tape player running. Why would ghosts or other objects do those things? “That’s one of the questions we’re trying to find out,” Age said. For the 1 percent of where the hunters can’t find a logical explanation, Age said they can recommend a ghost cleanser. “The Louisville Ghost Hunters Society does not go in and cleanse your house,” Age said, adding that they will simply help prove something is going on and will help the owners find ghost cleansers. Does a ghost cleanser always take care of the ghost? “Sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn’t,” Age said. Age believes he’s seeing a resurgence of interest in ghosts. Anyone suspecting a paranormal visitor should keep a journal of the occurrences, Age said. He recommends recording the event as well as the time of day and the weather. They may notice a pattern over time.

BELIEVE IT OR NOT Believing in ghosts isn’t uncommon, said Dr. Michael Cunningham, a psychologist in the department of communications at the Universi-ty of Louisville. Throughout history, people have believed in ghosts as well as different types of spirits. Some people hold séances — an effort to communicate with the dead. During a séance, a person called a medium goes into a trace and claims to allow a dead person to commu-nicate through himself or herself. That séance movement flourished between the 1840s and the 1920s, and while many séances have been proven to be scams, they still have a following today. Scientists tend to be more skeptical of ghosts than those of other occupations because, the more likely one is to demand concrete evidence, the less inclined one is to believe in spirits, Cunningham said. “If you don’t believe in other forms of non-concrete entities, you tend not to believe in ghosts,” he said.

KENTUCKY’S GHOSTLY HISTORY Are there a lot of ghosts in Kentucky? “Kentucky has a huge rich history,” he said.

“It’s an old place.” And Louisville, Age said, has a fairly bloody history. But a haunting can occur anywhere, he said, adding that it doesn’t have to be in an historic building or around a famous battlefield. Age said he remembers investigating at a house built in the 1950s. In another home, built in the 1970s, a former occupant had died of pneumo-nia. Strange things occurred in that house, and the current occupants (who knew the person who died) felt the deceased was visiting. They didn’t find it frightening, though, he said. So why would the dead become a ghost? “I wish we knew that,” Age said, because it would answer many questions. Does he ever become afraid? “I’ve never been scared yet,” Age said. “When things happen my immediate reaction was ‘that was pretty cool — did you get it on film?’”

OTHER SOURCE: “Spiritualism,” Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritualism).

Believers look for signsof earthbound spirits, but proof remains elusive

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Chapter 8

Kentucky Greetings, Woody readers! Berea was spectacular. Chloe and I loved looking in all the shops and galleries. We saw candles, jewelry and lots of art. We searched for wiener dog por-traits, but didn’t have any luck. They must have been sold out. Anyway, while visiting Berea, we spotted a taxi. Mom suggested that we take a cab from Berea to Lancaster to visit our friends at the Garrard County Public Library. Since we packed minimal things due to our travel situation, we had not been able to take our favorite books. We had been reading newspapers from across the state that kept us informed and entertained. We missed our favorite bedtime stories. The library was perfect. We had been in so many libraries, but it was always exciting to see books lined across the shelves. The workers of the Garrard County library are so friendly. They immediately knew us. (I guess there being two wiener dogs was a dead giveaway!) Anyway, they showed us through the library and helped us find our favorite books. While Mom, Chloe and I browsed the shelves, Dad was telling the library director about our tour. He told her how the Woody Bus was broken and how we had to find a new mode of travel each week. The director had a great idea — the bookmobile! Honestly, we had never been in a bookmo-bile. The director explained that the Bookmobile Program had been in Kentucky for 52 years. In 1954, 100 bookmobiles were presented to Ken-tucky counties. The bookmobile is a vehicle, stocked with library books, that travels to the rural areas of

Kentucky. It allows patrons to check out books without having to go into the main library. Today, Kentucky leads the nation in the number of bookmobiles. That was just one more fact convincing me that I lived in the best state of all. The director said it would be OK if she took us a bit farther on our Kentucky tour in the Bookmobile. We couldn’t wait to ride and look at books at the same time. Since we had to stay buckled in our seatbelts for the ride, Mom picked our favorites before we drove off. As we drove west on Hwy 52, we read “Curious George,” “Clifford the Big Red Dog,” “Scooby Doo” and even our own books. We were so busy reading that we didn’t even notice the bookmobile had stopped in Danville. We unbuckled our seatbelts, put our books back on the shelves in the order we found them, and gave the director a great big thank-you hug! We climbed out of the bookmobile and said hello to Danville. We noticed we were standing in front of the Boyle County Chamber of Commerce, a great place to find information about Danville. After reading brochures, we learned that Danville was known as the “City of Firsts.” It was the location of the first courthouse in Ken-tucky, the first capital of the Kentucky District in Virginia, the first U.S. post office west of the Alleghenies, the first college in the West, the first law school in the West, the list goes on and on. In addition, Dr. Ephraim McDowell became the first physician in the world to successfully remove a tumor. Dr. McDowell made history on Christmas morning in 1809 when he performed surgery. Can you believe he didn’t even have anes-thesia or antiseptic? (I made a note to self to not be a scaredy-cat at the vet.)

The Chamber of Commerce also gave us suggestions about places we could see. We bid them farewell and walked to Second Street to visit Constitution Square. This state historic site was the birthplace of Kentucky’s statehood. Because of Danville’s prime location, it became a center for political activity. In 1785, Danville became Kentucky’s first seat of government. Since it was growing, it needed a meetinghouse, a courthouse and a jail. Ten constitutional conventions were held at the courthouse of Constitution Square, includ-ing the meeting in which Kentucky became the 15th state of the Union and Isaac Shelby became the first governor of the commonwealth. We saw the original log courthouse, the original post office and a replica of the original jail. Our favorite part was the governor’s circle. Everyone was concentrating on the words “Unit-ed We Stand, Divided We Fall” when I yawned. I was so sleepy. Mommy suggested this was a good time for a catnap. I’ll say (yawn) goodbye for now and find my favorite blanket. Find out next time where this (yawn) wiener dog is. In the meantime, work and dream like a Big Dog!

WOODY

This program sponsored by LG&E & KU, both e.on companies, and KPA. 4 Your Info readers can take a trip with Woody, a black and tan minia-

ture dachshund, as he travels across the state in this 10-week series. “Tails from the Bluegrass II” will offer history and geography along with important life lessons, through the eyes of a dog. This is week eight. The serial story is written by Kentucky native Leigh Anne Florence of Shepherdsville and illustrated by James Asher, who lives near Princeton, Ky. The Write Now feature with reviews, commentaries and poetry by students will resume after the series ends. Please continue submitting your writing in the meantime.

WORd UP!Contagious: transmitted from one person to another by direct or indirect contact.

Corral: round up.

Debris: fragments of something that has been destroyed or broken into pieces.

Deceased: someone who has died recently.

electromagnetic: exhibiting magne-tism produced by electric charge in motion.

elusive: difficult to capture.

Paranormal: unable to be explained or understood in terms of scientific knowledge.

Scam: a trick or a cheat.

Specter: a ghost.

G H O S T S