The West Georgia Paranormal Research Society Interviews Part Two

I've always been interested in the paranormal. There are groups out there who validate that 'bump in the night,' that image you saw move out of the corner of your eye, that voice you heard when no one but you was in the room. The West Georgia Paranormal Research Society is one such group. I call them ghost hunters; but whatever you call them, their work in very interesting. The West Georgia Paranormal Research Society can be found online: here.

Interview with Melanie Sheppard, a Sensitive with the West Georgia Paranormal Research Society, as a sensitive.

Melanie, for those reading that may not know the terminology, what is a sensitive?

Wow that is a difficult thing to explain in a short terminology and have it cover the depths of the word. I guess the best way to explain a sensitive is with the typical word, (which I am opposed to using for myself) a psychic. In my case my sensitivity lies in empathy, clairsentience, clairaudience, full body apparition sightings, etc. Being sensitive for me means being sensitive to anything and everything from the living, the dead, animals, electronics, chemical changes, physical changes in myself, and the environment. This topic could be an entire story in and of itself.

When did you first learn that you were a sensitive, and how did it help in your first investigation with the society?

I have known I am a sensitive ever since I can remember. As a child I remember knowing things about people around me, hearing things that others did not, seeing people and things others did not. For me it was normal until I started being shown that it isn't typical to have those things happen. However I went through many years thinking there was something wrong with me so I ignored the sensitivity, or tried to medicate it away. Over about the last 2 years I started to accept that just because I am different it doesn't mean there is something wrong with me.

As far as the society goes, my first meeting with them was at a particularly interesting site where they were having a meeting, and mini investigation. This evening I was in particularly good form for an entity to channel through me. Honestly, I am not new to the sensitive in me, nor the paranormal but I am new to terminology and for some time discounted myself as a channel. During this investigation I managed to have contact with a very despondent spirit, she was quite disinterested in anything but sitting at a window however she allowed me into her existence and fairly brief time on Earth. I think Joey Ward coined the term for me, Bloodhound. Along with a few others in the society I tend to point to where the action is. Honestly I do not know if this was altogether helpful at this investigation in terms of attaining results. This is not a result driven field, patience is a necessity when trying to obtain "proof" of any paranormal activity.

What first got you interested in the paranormal?

My interest in the paranormal was just always there, it is based off of my faith in something greater than me as well as my experiences for the entirety of my life. I suppose I have just always known there is something else. My interest is in proving it to myself I suppose because while I am faith driven I am also my biggest skeptic, and critic. I suppose it is this need to prove that the things I see, hear, feel, and remember are truly there and not some figment of my overly active imagination.

Why did you join the West Georgia Paranormal Research Society? Why is working in a group better than working alone?

I think I joined W.G.P.R.S. first because I was tired of feeling alone. I was tired of feeling like my mind had slipped and I was playing in outer fields all by myself. It is like living in a time side step of every one else's reality when you are isolated because you are so different. The mental health world was my last bastion of denial, when that failed to help my situation I had no where else to go to explain my situation. When I stepped into this world I started to feel like I was coming home in a sense. It took some time because my defenses were so extreme. After I realized that the groups reasons for searching for these things was so closely aligned with my own it was easy to place myself into this role.

In my opinion being in a group gives valuable validations, checks, and balances. It is easy to see, hear, feel, and experience things alone. But the experience will always be yours alone which makes it invalid in the realm of proof of the existence of the paranormal. However if I have an experience and someone else can validate it, especially if someone else can document this experience in a more scientific manner it becomes more valuable to the field altogether. I have also found it incredibly valuable to have other sensitives to validate my own personal experience. In many cases I feel like a kid saying "did you see that?" the awe and wonder goes off the charts when you can bounce it off of another sensitive and have them indicate that they are experiencing either the same thing or something so similar that it might as well be the same thing. I also think being in a group keeps you honest and down to Earth; you are more likely to consider your experience when you have to relay it to your group. It keeps you mindful of the debunking process and reminds you that there can be perfectly normal reasons for your experience.

Do you try to go on every investigation the group goes on, or how do you/they decide which places you should go to?

At the present time we are a small group, in part because we are hesitant to tip the delicate balance we have now. At the moment we are a fairly cohesive group who respects one another and appreciates each person's role in the group. Typically we are able to attend most investigations with our number without causing any particular hardship. However there is the other side of the coin where your life interferes with the desires to attend every investigation. Typically I feel welcome and as if I am wanted at every investigation we have done. However I do understand that sometimes it might become necessary to make the choice to cut down the amount of people on a particular investigation and I would understand that I cannot expect to attend every single thing the group might do. At this point I would say I try to attend most investigations, life is my only deterrent to attending them all. But like with anything balance is necessary.

How many cases would you say you've worked on within the society? How many of them yielded something paranormal?

I think I have only really worked 4 or 5 cases with the group in the time I have been with them. So far we have not had anything Earth shattering happen on media that could be constituted as proof. I personally am very cautious with my evidence and try to keep in mind that certain things that are easy to debunk must be viewed with my most skeptical mind otherwise I take an already questioned field and make it easier to question. In my opinion proof is exceptionally hard to come by. I know that others in my group have incredible media anomalies, but these group members have been doing the investigation process for a very long time and have years of compiled media including much that I am sure was discarded compared to what was kept as evidence.

Is there any chance that something paranormal is always happening everywhere, but not everyone can feel or hear it, or is paranormal activity really only in certain places?

I have some pretty complex ideas about paranormal things. Opinions, ideas, etc on things like the spirit manifestations are typically enmeshed deeply with a person's spirituality, and education background. In my personal history it is my belief that there is paranormal activity everywhere at all times. It is just a matter of the type of activity for one, and the abilities of some people to pick up those activities for another. For instance, a residual haunting will happen in the same place over and over again regardless of outside influences. Whereas an intelligent haunting will react to the outside influences and become active when it chooses to. It's like human interaction. If you are dealing with a live human being it will interact intelligently with you on a typical basis, where as if you are dealing with a recording of a live human being it will do the same thing, say the same thing, and act the same way over and over again. Both are pretty much the same but one is active and one is inactive to a degree. Plus being a sensitive I have had experiences in so many places that it is hard to imagine that so many places are haunted, it is easier to believe that activity is really just everywhere.

I know you've probably been to some famous haunted places, but tell us something about a not so well known investigation, what did the people who invited you to come think was going on, and what did you find?

It is interesting you ask about this particular thing at this time. We recently finished an investigation that touched me deeply. So this one experience will actually take up a good amount of the next few questions. This was a private residence where there seemed to be some strange activity that could not easily be explained away by the environment. Much of it was physical manifestations that the residents seemed to be experiencing. They honestly did not have a real idea of what they were dealing with, all they knew is that it needed to be addressed by someone with a little more experience than they seemed to have. I want to remain somewhat vague about this since it is an ongoing investigation and I would prefer not to give too terribly much information about the residence and its inhabitants. We found something quite a bit more distressing than we expected, and than we were told about. This explained some of the feelings I was getting from certain people in this residence. It did not truly mesh with what we were being told I think in part because it is still such a stigmatized experience to be experiencing something paranormal.

What is the strangest thing you've come across so far in investigating, have you been scared? Can you tell us about that case and what scared you?

This recent investigation was truly the strangest thing I have ever truly experienced, period. To be honest I was terrified in this instance and I do not generally fear the paranormal. I am one of those people who trusts the dead more than the living. Upon approach to the site I was privy to a sighting of something quite paranormal to even me. A figure was standing as if waiting for me to come onto the property; it was gone as soon as it appeared. It was something like I had never seen before, I could not even get a read on whether or not it was human let alone male or female which was tough for me to accept. However I am an investigator so of course the first thing I did was try to debunk my own sighting as matrixing (this being where the eye will create something familiar in order for it to make sense to the brain out of something unfamiliar) it became obvious to me that I could have created a humanoid form out of a hobby horse that was very near the place I saw this form. I noted the incident and then decided to catalogue it away for a rainy day thought fest.

However, as the evening progressed more and more odd incidents happened to me, I became fearful and hesitant to be in the residence which is very unusual for me. In fact I do not remember a time where I felt so out of sorts and afraid. Soon I began physical manifestations of discomfort, itching, nervousness, cold, and then hot and repressed. It was becoming more and more clear to me that I was not feeling comfortable in the building and probably needed to clear my head. So I began to focus rather than allowing this experience to knock me so far off of my center. Soon I began trying to investigate in a more focused manner. Shortly thereafter I experienced a desire to go to a certain part of the building, at that point I felt as if I were not alone and I was being watched. From that point on I never felt like I was out of sight or mind of whatever was paying close attention to me. There was also a general feeling amongst the group that something was traveling a particular pathway through a room in the residence. It seemed to almost be pacing a constant path; this was validated some by the temperature changes at one point in this room.

The sensitives began to really feel a sense of disconnect with this place, as if there was an overlap of things going on. Nothing was quite as it seemed in this place. There were too many things that did not make sense. At one point I was allowing the entity to draw on my own energy in order to try to get it to manifest itself, this is something that happens to me quite often and I am used to the process. After some time it was noted that where I was feeling the energy leaving my body and traveling to was a dark shadow that made others in the room rather uncomfortable. A little while later, I decided that I needed a look in another room and went in to see why I felt drawn that way. Shortly afterwards I heard a noise in the corner of the room almost like a dragging, but since I was in unfamiliar territory I noted that it could be the building settling or something similar so I decided it was not something to be concerned with. About a minute later I was standing still when I heard what I can only explain as a growl next to my left leg about thigh high, a guttural sound that was easily the most frightening thing I think I have ever experienced.

This residence had no dog, nor any other animal that could have explained this noise. I found myself (for the first time in my life might I add) backing up in terror and running to the lower level where the other sensitives were. From this point on I was hesitant at best to be there, I felt like I was being stalked and hunted almost. On the way home I was prompted several times to check my back seat and my rear view mirror to see if I was being followed by this figure I was now sure I had seen when first entering the property. In all of my experiences as a sensitive I have never been so frightened in my entire life.

From my own experience, I pick things up from other people; do you feel that this might sometimes be a hindrance in your investigations? How do you deal with that aspect of being a sensitive?

In my experience as well I tend to pick up on live people. Sometimes it is a hindrance in my life. But I cannot say that at this point it is effecting an investigation for me. With the extent of my experience with being sensitive to everything I have come to notice certain markers that tell me if I am dealing with the living or something else. Humans carry energy differently than disembodied souls. Even animals are on a different energy level from humans so it is fairly simple for me to determine what I am experiencing. There is nothing like a disembodied spirit in terms of energy, the experience is extremely different than the process of picking up on a humans emotional baggage, and or energy output.

Dealing with this issue is another can of worms altogether. I realize now that for a long time I was a walking nerve ending. What I didn't know then almost cost me my life multiple times at my own hand. It was like having no skin, like having a tooth that has an exposed nerve. Much like being a sponge soaking up every little bit of baggage, problems, fears, medical conditions, mental conditions, etc etc etc. of all of the people around me. There was one thing I saw a few years after I realized I had more control over it than I thought and had managed to start shutting it down. It was an episode of Charmed when Prue was given empathy somehow (it has been a while since I have seen the episode). In this time period she became incapable of functioning and was enmeshed in the pain of other people's lives. It was an overload to her system. This explanation was the closest I had ever seen anything else come to the reality of being a highly sensitive person. As for during an investigation a sensitive picks up on peoples markers quickly, it's like seeing a face and remembering it, or a scent and knowing what it is. So often times it is easier to sort than it sounds.

One problem though is sorting through personalities that inhabit the area frequently, however it's almost like being an animal who can sort smells or sounds. An interesting theory I read once in a King novel was when he dropped you into the paws of a dog on a scent, like it was a color and there was a different color for every smell. The process was easier than we imagine because the sorting process is so refined. So the complex answer is yes it is difficult in some cases, and then again it is simple.

As a sensitive, do you find that a haunted place might show a bit more activity just because you are there - and they know that you know they are there?

The interesting thing about hauntings is how many types you honestly encounter. To most a haunting is a haunting is a haunting right. But it is not that simple. Not when you start to break it down into theories and activity columns. It begins to become more complex than my house is haunted. As a sensitive an active haunting or an intelligent haunting has a stronger energy than a residual. A residual haunting is likely to cause an imprint of the same thing over and over again. Where as an intelligent haunting continues to create new instances and interact with multiple levels of the environment. So I suppose in my thought process the activity changes based on the type of entity you are dealing with, which is not just the two I have mentioned. I think it also depends on the entities intention or interest level in being interacted with. I think the honest truth is in my experience that most things beyond our typical senses have the ability to blend into any environment if it wants to. If you believe in typical Christian faith often times it is understood that otherworldly beings have much more intensive capabilities than we do. Our access to the veil is extremely limited even for the most sensitive of us.

It is my opinion that anything beyond a residual is going to decide whether or not they want to interact with you. If they do not want to you simply are not going to get them to interact. It is also my experience that perception is everything to the person who is looking for activity. My husband and I have seen two very different things in the same spot at the same time. Because of his perception it was entirely different from what I saw. I also have been unable to sense something someone else does because of my perception and personal experiences. Judgment is colored based on perception and that is part of the reason being a sensitive is not a perfect art form. No one can guarantee that they will perceive anything because they might miss something they consider as normal that someone else picks up as paranormal.

I guess the short answer would be that in some cases yes an entity can decide if they want to play that day, and if they do will often times appear to someone they know can sense them first because it takes less energy to appear to someone who sees things a little easier.

Have you used any investigative equipment? If so, what type and what happened, any results?

I have used investigative equipment. I always have a camera, a temperature sensor, an EMF reader, and a digital voice recorder. However to be honest I am more sensitive in my opinion than the EMF, the EMF however will help me decide if what I am picking up is a "normal" phenomenon of the environment, or something I am more interested in picking up. As I mentioned before it is not unusual for me to sense certain Earth based changes in environment like pressure falling, or natural EMF fields. In some cases I have noted that the sensitive part of me can work in concert with things like an EMF recorder. I have yet to bear any results from the equipment I do use and like I said I use the EMF to exclude some normally occurring energy sources that might be crossing my lines a little. Well that is not entirely true, the night we were noticing some interesting pathing, the temperature gauge was very helpful in indicating something unusual and validating some of the senses we were having.

What is your favorite type of place to investigate? i.e..; graveyards, private houses, famous places...?

The truth is I have not discovered what I like to investigate best simply because I have such a short time period in investigating in a real sense. Prior to WGPRS I guess I was a sensitive dabbler, I loved going places I might find something paranormal but I never really got into the actual bare bones of it until recently. I think each place has its own appeal though. You never know what you are going to run into when going on investigations until you actually get there. So I think it would be wrong to choose a favorite since no one thing is ever exactly the same.