Paranormal State: My Journey into the Unknown

by Stefan Petrucha

  At times I’ve had the same feeling indoors, like in the “Asylum” episode, discussed in a later chapter. That was not a place to go in and play foosball. It had a bad history. You just have to respect certain places because of the dark energy. That’s how I felt here.

  After a long walk, we came upon the igloos. The museum had a complete map of them, but scores had been demolished. According to John, this was supposedly where they stored the experimental explosives. If something went wrong, they didn’t want the whole base destroyed, so they built these igloos. The buildings were mostly underground.

  In response to John’s explanation, Chip gave us a dramatic “I don’t believe that.”

  The secret government base could have been working on much more than explosives. Some theorize the experiments there may have actually given birth to the Mothman. No one “officially” knows. I tried, but never got the government to say what they were used for.

  Each igloo was kind of like a hobbit house, built into the sides of hills. Outside all I could see was the hill. Once I went in, there was a huge concrete space where a hundred people could fit comfortably. The ceiling was maybe thirty-five, forty feet up. In one igloo we saw a bunch of metal canisters, but they were all empty.

  As we explored one, Katrina felt a stabbing pain. She became dizzy. Then the batteries on our EMF detectors started going out. Someone from town had told Chip the area tends to drain batteries. With some subjective experiences occurring, this seemed like a good spot to try to get in touch with any ultraterrestrials that might be present.

  Chip opened himself and soon sensed a presence. He said it was very different from anything he’d encountered before.

  “When I ask what it is, ‘intelligence’ is all I get as an answer, and that’s not a word I’ve ever heard. I’ve heard ‘spirit,’ I’ve heard ‘ghost,’ now I hear ‘intelligence,’ ” he said.

  He also said it was communicating with us because we’d called to it. One of the big unanswered questions in the case is whether these intelligences had anything to do with the bridge collapse, so I asked.

  “I can give you the answer to that, if you want to know,” Chip said dramatically.

  “Okay, tell us.”

  After a pause he said, “Absolutely not.”

  When I asked why they hadn’t tried to stop the collapse, he said, “They can’t.” He felt they tried to get people’s attention, but couldn’t physically prevent the accident from happening.

  I don’t know if he was really in touch with anything, but it was one of a very few times he actually creeped me out. It felt to me as if something was there.

  At that time, a very important personal moment took place, something that played out over the next few days. It didn’t make it into the episode, but it so nicely sums up a lot of my feelings about being a paranormal investigator that I’ve saved it to discuss it in the book’s epilogue.

  For now, realizing we had no real way to prove or disprove something that occurred so long ago, I went back to my X Files roots and said, “I want to believe there was something here at Point Pleasant.”

  And that was the truth. I honestly have no opinion about exactly what went on. Some think Mothman may have been a big bird they had trouble with in the area at the time, a sandhill crane, which has a wingspan of about seven feet. After seeing pictures of the bird, it doesn’t seem to match the witness accounts.

  Over forty years have passed since the bridge collapse and the original sightings. An older core group of townsfolk still embrace Mothman, partly because they either believe it or they were there at the time, and partly because it brings in the tourism that keeps the town alive. To the younger generation, though, Mothman’s something they’ve only heard about, a legend. And more think that it’s a joke.

  For me, when I go to Point Pleasant—and I’ve been back since the filming of the investigation—it’s like being a kid again. I’ve gone into haunted houses where five people have had experiences. Here’s a place where people came from all over the world and had experiences.

  There were things I wish we could have done. I would’ve loved to have had an interview with John Keel, but it wasn’t possible. I would’ve loved to have the military go on record about the igloos, but we didn’t have time to fully pursue that. One of my goals was to see if I could contribute something to the theories, but that was sort of the way some soccer players dream of being David Beckham.

  I was in good company. Even John Keel, who wrote the most documented account people will ever see, didn’t have a final explanation. The last line of the book is terrific. He quotes Charles Fort, an early twentieth-century writer who invented the paranormal genre the same way Poe invented the detective genre. Fort said, “If there is a universal mind, must it be sane?”

  It’s the author’s way of saying that not only does he not get it, but also maybe we’re not dealing with anything we can get. It blew me away.

  FAMOUS CRYPTIDS

  Cryptozoology is the search for and study of animals currently unknown to science, known as cryptids. Some may seem purely mythical, but it’s important to realize that the mountain gorilla, for instance, was believed to be a legend until its existence was confirmed in 1902. More recently, in 1976, the previously unknown megamouth shark was discovered near Hawaii. In 2003, fossils of miniature humans were discovered on the isle of Flores in Indonesia and are believed to be a previously unknown species of man. A short list of some of the more famous cryptids follows.

  The Loch Ness monster, or Nessie, is a creature some believe may be a prehistoric plesiosaur. It’s been sighted in Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands for hundreds of years. Despite hundreds of sightings, blurry videos, photographs, and sonar readings, no definitive proof regarding the creature has been found. Nessie belongs to a category of cryptid known as lake monsters, which includes Champy (in Lake Champlain, Vermont) and Ogopogo (in Okanagan Lake in British Columbia).

  Bigfoot is a tall apelike creature that’s been repeatedly sighted in the Pacific Northwest. Similar stories can be found on every continent except Antarctica. In 1951, when Eric Shipton photographed what he felt was a footprint of a Yeti, or the Abominable Snowman, in the Himalayas, the idea became popular again. Like Nessie, there are many photos and videos of such creatures, but no concrete proof.

  Mokèlé-mbèmbé is a large cryptid reported by the native tribes in the Congo River Basin. Descriptions of the creature go back to the eighteenth century. Based on the accounts, some believe it to be a living brontosaurus. Many expeditions have attempted to find the creature with little luck, the most recent occurring in 2009.

  The Jersey Devil is a winged, hoofed creature that walked on two legs and has the head of a horse. It is said to live in the Pine Barrens of southern New Jersey. Originally sighted in 1735, the most frequent sightings occurred in January of 1909 when it was seen by many people, and its tracks were found in the snow. Sightings continue to the present day and were the subject of a later episode of Paranormal State.

  The Thunderbird is a large birdlike creature that some theorize may be a surviving species of pterosaur. In Arizona in 1890, two cowboys claimed to have killed such a creature, which was reported in a local paper at the time and believed to have been photographed. Sightings continue and in some cases attacks have been reported.

  Chapter 16

  Paranormal Wait

  When are these actually going to air?

  As we were working, shooting, draining ourselves, and struggling to get things right, naturally I was also itching to find out when the show would premiere. By now I’d had enough experience to know what the production process was like, but the goal was to get out there, take part in showing the world what paranormal investigations were actually like, and fight the stigma that added to so many of my clients’ problems.

  Paranormal State was first scheduled to premiere in March 2007, but here it was February and that wasn’t realistic anymore. I heard rumors about a May premiere, but the next date I heard
, from Neil, an A&E executive, was January . . . of the next year.

  It was like telling a kid Christmas was going to be delayed six months.

  I managed to say, “Oh . . . why so late?”

  He said it was just a scheduling issue. They really felt good about the show. Gary Auerbach, another executive producer added, “And they’re already talking about more episodes.”

  Thirteen is considered the upper limit for any series that hasn’t aired yet, so they’d already given us a big vote of confidence, but to me this was confusing news. We weren’t going on until January, but we might shoot more episodes?”

  In March, I was flown out to LA to do some voice-overs for my Director’s Logs. I’d already recorded most of them, but then they’d decided the show should be more about the cases and less about our college lives, which was fine with me. While I was there, they showed me the opening titles, which I thought were pretty cool.

  After that, after all that work, everything just stopped.

  I spent the next months trying to figure out what to do with myself. It wasn’t as if I could build anything new based on the show. It wasn’t even out yet. I tried to kick back and relax as best I could. Summer 2007 rolled around. Still nothing. I worked on the next conference. I traveled a little. I even did a couple of new cases. Nowadays we get thousands, but at the time we didn’t get many calls, so that didn’t take up a lot of time.

  Spiderman 3 was out at the movies, and I always like to go to New York City to see a new Spiderman. I dropped by the A&E offices to say hello, and met some of the people who were going to be in charge of our show, like our publicist, Barry. They were still considering more episodes, but there wasn’t anything definite.

  In August, I was back home in South Carolina when Elaine Frontain Bryant, an A&E executive, invited me in to go over their promotional plans. So I flew to New York.

  From the beginning, things were different and impressive. It was a big meeting with twenty people. The digital department was there, as well as PR, the head of advertising.

  “You know,” they told me, “we’re going to make this the event show in December.”

  They were talking about a huge promotional plan. Paranormal State ads would be on city buses. They’d make Paranormal State drinks for all the NYC bars. Then they said something that really made my jaw drop: The X Files was coming out with a boxed set that fall, and they’d gotten approval from the show’s creator, Chris Carter, to advertise Paranormal State in the set with a promotional DVD.

  Sadly, it didn’t end up happening. For whatever reason, negotiations with Fox didn’t pan out. There was plenty else to be excited about, though.

  The decision had been made. Our first season would be twenty episodes, which meant we’d be back in production. They even gave me a new air date for the premiere: December 10, 2007. I also learned that the demo we’d shot, “Sixth Sense,” had come out so well they wanted to expand it into a full episode.

  A&E was also going to be sponsoring UNIV-CON that year, which was fantastic. They’d even agreed to screen an episode of Paranormal State there. After that, via satellite hookup, I spoke with about thirty A&E advertising departments across the country. I was shocked, excited, overwhelmed, astonished, and about a dozen other adjectives.

  And of course, after all that wait, wait, wait, everything had to happen right away. We’d have to have six new episodes finished before the premiere, so I’d be available for promotion. But there was even a good side to that. Since we knew the show would debut in December and we only had to shoot six more cases, we didn’t have to rush too much.

  At the time, I was only renting part of that huge two-story house. Now I rented the downstairs level as well and turned it into an office. Previously, PRS had operated in a club room, a cubicle, and once in an investigator’s basement for a while. In the old townhouse, the office space was next to the washer and dryer. This was the first time we had an official office with its own entrance. We also agreed on the need to have more people examining cases, so I was able to put Eilfie and Serg on salary to help out. It’s not that they weren’t paid for the show, but it wasn’t huge money, and this was a way to compensate them more. We worked four days a week, finding cases, planning the conference.

  Meanwhile, there was time to go back and think about our first thirteeen shoots and how to improve things. We all agreed our technology and evidence review needed to be beefed up. We also agreed on a rough structure, the briefing, the client meeting, the psychic walk-though, and so on. The crew would no longer relocate to State College. Since the show would focus on the cases now, they could remain in NYC and travel directly to the investigations.

  Another issue we reviewed was the breakneck schedule. Now we planned to prepare a case or two, shoot two back-to-back, take a break to prepare the next two, and so on. It sounded like it would be more like the investigatory process I’d established and enjoyed before the show started.

  With the improvements, the promotional efforts, and the upcoming premiere date, I went back into production for season 1.5 in September 2007, all jazzed up and raring to go.

  PARANORMAL BILLBOARDS

  Among the exciting things A&E used to promote Paranormal State was a billboard using an innovative Digital Audio Technology (DAT) that could direct sound at people’s heads, making it seem as if someone who wasn’t there was whispering in their ear.

  The new technology, first used in England, transmitted low frequency sound waves that made the human skull act as a sort of speaker. People in range of the transmitter would hear an unnerving woman’s whispering voice saying, “It’s not your imagination.”

  This amazing promotional device was installed in SoHo in New York City and quickly caught the attention of national and international press, including the New York Times, National Public Radio and newspapers as far off as Asia.

  On Sunset Boulevard in LA another great billboard, this one 3-D, was installed. It featured a slowly emerging screaming face reminiscent of Munch’s The Scream.

  Chapter 17

  We Find Something

  If you want to go in you’re welcome to, but I think I’ll stay on the porch.

  Our first shoot for season 1.5, which would become “Pet Cemetery,” was an amazing case where a lot of crazy stuff happened. It was so intense and in-the-moment there were times I felt like I was living in a Stephen King novel.

  The client fell into our laps. We were looking at a different haunting in Maine. A couple said they’d found blood in their home, where apparently some dark things had happened, including a murder. The producers scouted it and at first I was interested, but the stories didn’t add up. The blood turned out to be paint. The woman was also on several medications. In the end we decided against it. What I think is interesting, and that the audience doesn’t get to see, are all the cases we turn away or look into but don’t work out. Sometimes I think it’d be fun to show that process.

  But while in Maine, the producers also met Sybil Howe, a divorced nurse who’d been driven out of her house by paranormal activity. Her dog seemed to sense a presence, too. Two other dogs had been run over near the house. It sounded like a creepy location—a remote house—but I wasn’t sold. The story seemed to be mostly about dead dogs, which was sad, but not intriguing. When I learned that Sybil had also been in touch with Lorraine Warren, I took a closer look and learned there were rumors of strange rituals taking place on the property. That caught my interest. After speaking to Sybil, I was hooked.

  She described a latch on her door popping open for no reason. While showering, she felt as if something was watching her, and then she heard what sounded like a hand slamming into the wall next to the shower.

  She seemed legit. She didn’t just say, “Oh, my dog is growling at something invisible.” The pieces of each experience were there. “I’d wake up, feel a presence, see my dog, Lucy, staring at something. Then she’d start growling.” So we went for it.

  The episode was shot during school, and,
unlike our previous efforts, during the week. We found the Parsons Memorial Library near Sybil’s, and shot the briefings for this case and the next there. It was senior year for Heather and Katrina, a busy time, so Heather wasn’t there for this episode. In the next episode, Heather would be there, but not Katrina. With a number of shows under our belt, we felt more confident. It wasn’t as big a deal as when Serg wanted to study while we were trying to shoot “Freshman Fear.” Serg and Josh had both graduated by this point.

  As I explained at the briefing, animals are very sensitive to their surroundings—able to sense earthquakes and tornadoes before they happen. They’re also traditionally thought of as able to detect spirits. This seemed extreme, though. Lucy, Sybil’s black Labrador, even refused to go up to the second floor.

  At this point Sybil wouldn’t enter the house at all, so she and Lucy met us in town. She was a little more open to the paranormal than the average person. She had brought in a psychic before we’d been there. Here, though, the psychic wound up picking up things our own experiences later confirmed.

  It’s not mentioned in the episode, but Sybil also had experiences before living in the house. Apparently she’d known someone who’d gotten into some dark, questionable practices and talked about using blood and animal parts as offerings, something in which Sybil hadn’t been involved. This person was gone, but as the case developed, I thought there might be a connection between that relationship and this activity. After “The Devil in Syracuse,” the possibility of demonic involvement no longer rattled me or my team quite the same way.