"I just want to prove I'm not crazy."

Thu, 17 May 2012 04:10:00 +0000

This is often the reason given by clients when asked why they called Tri-City NYPS to conduct an investigation into their claims. Validation seems to be the priority to our clients and for obvious reasons. It can be a lonely time if you are experiencing paranormal actvity and nobody seems to believe you. Im sure that some of us, if not all have been through this. So we at Tri-City NYPS do everything we can to validate these claims, or at least try to give some kind of explanation.

But what about the times where we cannot validate any of their claims? How do we go about revealing that we have no proof of what they believe is occurring? How can we communicate that what the client believes to be truthful claims, may in fact not be paranormal in nature at all?

First off, client reveals need to be conducted with the highest level of professionalism and must be based entirely in FACT. We cannot go in and start talking about "what we think" is there, or "how we feel" for this is not evidence. Nor will it help the situation by essentially planting new ideas into the client's brains.

It is important to tread lightly when discussing things of a paranormal nature. Most of our clients have based what they know about the paranormal on TV or horror movies, which are not the most accurate portrayals of real life paranormal activity. We need to explain these things without offending anybody's personal beliefs.

Next, we need to let our clients know that just because we didnt catch anything, doesn't mean they're "just imagining things". Paranormal occurrences do not happen on command as all of us know.

At this point, there are a few explanations we can give towards what may be happening in the home. One example may be EMF Hypersensitivity where the electromagnetic fields in the home are having some affect on the client. (Some of these symptoms include paranoia, the sense of being watched and even hallucinations.) The EMF level in the home may be high due to the home's electrical wiring. If this is the case, we can give a real solution to the problem by having the client hire an electrician to better ground the house. If this does not solve the problem, further explanations need to be explored.

All in all, client reveals need to be done with complete honesty. We need to stay true to our goal of collecting data and using facts to explain paranormal phenomena. If the fact is that we did not gather any evidence to support a client's claims, than that is what needs to be said despite how the client may react. Nobody wants to hurt anybody's feelings or disappoint them, but when we are dealing with scientific fact, it either is or it isn't.

- Rick Martin, Tri-City NYPS Team Manager/Investigator

Good Sleuthing, Sherlock, But That's Not Evidence

Tue, 01 May 2012 14:00:00 +0000

"Paranormal Evidence"

That is a phrase that to me, holds very little water, and doesn't seem to be able to stay afloat in too many arguments of an intelligent nature. There isn't a lot of paranormal evidence that can hold its own in a court of law either; it's not something you'd present at a murder trial, we'll just say that. Yet somehow, there are thousands of people who are very well convinced that, yes, paranormal evidence is just that: solid evidence or proof of the paranormal. What people claim to be evidence runs the entire gamut from the very minute and trivial occurrences to the exceptionally undeniable experiences. What's more, is that so much of this 'evidence' is in no way able to be proven by scientific means without incurring a slew of debunking questions. So what makes any of it evidence? What makes a picture of an orb, the feeling of a cold breeze, seeing an apparition, or anything else, actual proof of the paranormal?

I've been wracking my brain for many years on this. It started with the earlier days of paranormal TV, somewhere in the mid to late 90's and heading into the millennium when I was in my teens. There were a few brave shows out there giving people's accounts of paranormal experiences and their personal hauntings. These shows held little if any science, and focused intently on the actual experiences of the people telling their stories, complete with feathered bangs, bad flannel and equally bad reinactments. (Can't blame 15-year-old special effects though, can we)? I remember watching these shows, and now and again seeing and hearing the clips of "spirit voices", EVPs, played for everyone to hear. But I wasn't startled, I wasn't freaked out, I wasn't spooked by hearing these words supposedly speaking from another dimension; the voices of people who had passed on, crossed over. I just wasn't sold. I remember yelling at the TV, much like my father does when watching an intense golf game (because golf gets the adrenaline up)?, and exclaiming "How do you know!?" in reference to these "spirit voices". There was never, and still isn't, a solid amount of physics, audiology, or hard science of any kind in these shows. To this day, this supposed 'convincing evidence' of the paranormal is displayed and expressed mostly by means of EVPs, as though no one has ever challenged the validity of any of them! This, to me, is unacceptable, and just plain ridiculous.

As far as what makes for convincing evidence, let's start by dividing what we present as proof of the paranormal into two categories. There are the paranormal occurrences which are captured via the means of some form of media; a digital recorder, a video camera, a laser thermometer, K2 meter, Mel Meter, etc. Then there are the paranormal occurrences which are perceived only by the human being; a feeling, a sensation, a sound, a sight, etc. In both situations, there can be a singular or plural aspect; one piece of equipment and one human being, or many devices recording data and many people experiencing the same thing. With that said, which scenario, the electronic or the human, is actually paranormal evidence, let alone believable evidence?

Scenario 1: A digital recorder is left in a room as a static recording device, tagged with time, date, location and anything else pertinent to the situation, and left for 5 hours in the same location. Let's say every person on the investigation tags when they walk in and out of the room, along with any noises they make that may be later mistaken for an EVP. After reviewing the entire recording, there is the sound with the pitch of a female voice, two separate syllables, and the sounds are just garbled and covered in static enough that no one can accurately make out the words. It is an EVP. It's something that was recorded on the device, and a person involved in the investigation didn't do it. Is that evidence of paranormal activity?

I'm going to go out on a limb and assume you answered 'yes' to that question, like so many people do. So I ask you then, why? What about an anomalous noise that to the human ears, can be equated to a voice and called evidence of paranormal activity? What about that can be considered proof of a spirit, or an entity, or a dead person, as the theory so readily abounds? My answer: nothing.

Scenario 2: An investigator is walking through a location to set up some pieces of equipment in hopes of capturing some evidence of the paranormal. They reach the area they intend to 'bug' with equipment and as they step into the room, a dark shadow passes in front of their face. No other human is present and no outside lights are shining in and there is no movement from anywhere inside or outside the location that could cause a dark shadow. As the shadow passes in front of the person, the hair on their arms stands on end and they feel the temperature drop around them for a few moments. At the same time this occurs, the individual hears two syllables, sounding somewhat high-pitched and containing the tone of that of a human voice. There is no equipment set up to 'catch' this paranormal act, but the individual witnessed many aspects of something anomalous: sight, sound, temperature and sensation. Here it is again: Is that evidence of paranormal activity?

Most likely, your answer was no. My answer is yes. Yes, because it was witnessed by an individual on many levels, and is undeniably an anomalous occurrence with no rational explanation that can disprove that it's paranormal. The EVP on the other hand, can be disproved for being so many different things, I can't even list them here for fear of taking up the space of the entire internet. Yes, the list is that extensive. I'll name three for posterity: cell phone signals of teenagers sending pictures of Justin Bieber back and forth, the computer in a sports car starting up and connecting its BlueTooth device with someone's iPhone, a satellite beaming your mom's favorite episode of Glee to her widescreen HDTV.

We live in a world of abundant technology, and with it comes wireless capabilities that buzz in, out, through, on, over and under everything and everywhere. An EVP, with or without intelligible words on it, with or without the intonation of a human voice, is no more proof or evidence of the paranormal than the refrigerator kicking on after Uncle Roger went in for his15th beer. Really, think about it. What is more provable as far as evidence goes: an anomalous EVP, that has a laundry list of possible explanations, or a completely un-debunkable situation with many physical aspects witnessed by a human being? To me, the logical answer is the latter one. An EVP being evidence of the paranormal is just illogical. While I do think there are a lot of EVPs that are exceptionally compelling, as far as what they say, how clear they are, and how intelligent they may be as far a response to a human's question or statement, those are still not evidence, they are just EVPs, end of story. It's anomalous, it's strange, but it's more than likely explainable and logical if there were a scientific (and affordable) way to figure that out. Just like I say with everything else, NASA probably has the ways and means, but us ghost hunters are left to out-of-pocket fund our science, so for now, that's that.

So why are so many people in the paranormal community adamant that an EVP is evidence of the paranormal? Why are so many people interested in people's paranormal experiences, yet so quick to dismiss them or "normalize" them into something explainable? I've always ascertained that the power of belief is one of the most powerful attributes of the human condition. How a belief is formed concerns the logicality of whatever it is, and as long as the human brain can rationalize something, it becomes believable. Perhaps because it is so easy to believe that a voice on a digital recorder that came from seemingly nothing, no human, no animal, no object, then it must be explainable as a voice from the 'other side'. It does make sense logically, but it does not make sense scientifically. Perhaps, we believe so hard that an EVP is the voice of a person passed on, that we pass that capture along as evidence. And from there, our human minds find it so easy to thus forth believe that every and any EVP will "count" as valid proof of the existence of paranormal activity. We as people are built to matrix not just what we see, (like in supposed paranormal photographs), but everything we experience. We make logic out of everything, and if we didn't, we'd be diagnosed with a severe mental disability. Logic, or reality, is how we perceive it. We were once told years ago that EVPs are the voices of the dead, it's logical due to the voice on the recording not being a living person, so it must be true. It's so easy to believe something, as long as there's logic to back it up. This does not make it true!

I refuse to wrap my mind, as logical as it might seem, around that belief. It's a belief, not a scientific fact. Therefore, I question EVPs as though they were no more than a breeze on the microphone that caused a noise that sounds like a human voice. It is the paranormal experiences that to me, hold water in an argument. An experience witnessed by a human being, sound of mind, is more believable as far as proof of the paranormal. Especially more so if it was witnessed by more than one individual. It can't be recorded by equipment, but the truly extraordinary experiences do happen, and they are rare. It's that kind of rarity that lends credence to the existence of the paranormal. EVPs are a dime a dozen; leave a digital recorder on in any area for any length of time, and odds are you'll find yourself with some anomalous human-sounding voice. But the skin-crawling experiences that raise the hair on your neck and cause your brain turmoil just to "normalize" it? Those, to me, will always be more proof, more evidence or something paranormal, than an EVP.

May 6th 12-4pm, Ten Broeck Mansion Living History Day

Tue, 01 May 2012 03:40:00 +0000

Ten Broeck Mansion's "Living History Day"

Sunday May 6th, 2012

Albany, NY

Join the Tri-City NYPS along with other historical societies, vendors and re-enactors at the Ten Broeck Mansion for Albany County Historical Association's "Living History Day" on Sunday, May 6th starting at noon.

Tri-City NYPS will be showing evidence from past events/cases along with showing NEW evidence collected from our last case and experiments at our beloved home! Come out and support your local history and visit an amazing home and great people!!

People and Paranormal "Evidence"

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 17:25:00 +0000

"Wait, did you hear that?" "Was that you walking around?" "Stop, did you hear that tree knock?"

As paranormal investigators these are things a lot of us have encountered and heard. As investigators we use every sence we have been given to try and find or gain information to paranormal events of a location. We want to gain that "Evidence" to show that there is something there and what people are experiencing is true. After all, isn't that why we do paranormal research? To get that once in a life time capture of personal experience or the so called "Oprah AH-HA Moment" we look for as individuals? I think the real question though, is what is considered evidence?

As paranormal investigators, we use all sorts of equipment, electronics and tools to catch possible so-called, spirit activity. From digital recorders to video cameras, we want to capture that perfect moment when something manifests itself in those locations where we place our para tools. Then, bam, the ghost trap is sprung like in ghostbuster movies. Really think about it, that's what we are doing. We are setting traps all over the location to catch these events aren't we? Then we use EMF detectors, mel meters, and ghost boxes to bring with us on our person to try to get the spirits to physically connect with us through these tools so we get a sense that we "know" they are with us by the readings and what's being said over the frank's, ghost or spook box. Looking for that so called , "AH-HA" moment because now it has become personal to us as an individual. After our nights of poking around locations, talking to the walls and furniture and walking around with hundreds of dollars of equipment in our hands, we go home and do the tedious review process of watching hundreds and sometimes thousands (depending on how much equipment and money you have) of hours of audio and video recorddings. All to look for that "Evidence" to show that there could be a spirit, or as i like to call it, an energy source, still there at that location that got caught in our ghost traps. So after we sift through all the audio, video, tempature readings, EMF readings and words that came up on the Ovilus, and pictures and words that came up on a Ouija board, what we are left with are usually EVP or ( Electronic Voice Phenomena ) and some video clips, if we are lucky. Now with just what we are left with, is that still concidered "Evidence"?

As a greenhorn bigfoot researcher, one thing that I have noticed is how pictures, videos and sounds are very scutinized by the bigfoot community. Each trail cam picture I see gets dissected, from the type of camera to the weather conditions and IR quality, etc. "That's a blob squatch", "Looks like an owl", "That's a man in a Ghillie suit"; the list goes on and on. These researchers and laypeople alike really get in and put their two cents on each capture and the "Evidence" presented to them. I watch, listen and observe this as a paranormal researcher, or better known to some as a ghost hunter for over 17 years now, and something strikes me. When a ghost hunter captures an EVP and post it to YouTube or Facebook, a lot (not all) people in this field are ok with that being enough evidence of a spirit being present, simply because it must be one if we captured a voice on audio saying so. It's not disected in the same manner as the bigfoot "evidence", but why is that? Why are we so quick to just accept it, but the crypto community isn't so fast to accept a picture or video? Can't people hoax an EVP just as easy as a person putting on a bigfoot suit and walking around? This is something I think we need to look at as professional researchers doing this in a scientific way.

"A picture is worth a thousand words." Is it really? It wouldn't seem that way to me at least. If that were the case, we would have so many pictures of bigfoots, ghosts and hey, let's throw aliens in there, that this would be common and we would be out of a job. I've learned a lot entering the crypto world as a ghost hunter. It has opened my eyes to have two different classifications of people precieve things and what they call, "Evidence". To me personaly the meaning of that word as a ghost hunter is a consolidation of MULTIPLE events and media that have captured something that all coincides with each other. Meaning capturing a few EVPs or even a 100 EVPs still isn't evidence to me unless we capture other things going along with that event, such as a MagLite turning on and off because I ask it too with nothing else to back that up. That's not evidence to me, but that's just my personal opinion, of course, and a lot of people feel differently on that subject, which is 100% fine with me. What I think though, as researchers, is we need to really look at these events just as a bigfoot or crypto researcher will do and disect these things to open up all possiblities and not just a tunnel vision one. We all would love to believe that what we capture is the "Real" thing, but if that were the case we would have all the answers already.

I'll end with this thought: how do we know that WE, the investigators, are not putting the EVPs on the recorders ourselves? They do say, when you go looking for trouble you will find it, so what's to say that if we don't go looking for "Ghosts" we won't find them? Food for thought. Until next time my friends, happy hunting, be safe and Keep it Spooky!!

The Evolution of our Cause

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 17:45:00 +0000

In all aspects of life, in order to grow as people and individuals, we must go through change. Some change is good and other bad, but through this cycle we discover many things about ourselves as people. With that said, it's no different here as a paranormal team. We must constantly change to grow as a paranormal team. Through out the 2 1/2 years that we have been serving our community we have done just that. We've changed the way we think, the way we do things, tried different ideas and theories on what certain paranormal events may or may not be. We've adventured out into our community and volunteered our time with different organizations in need to show our support to thier causes. We put on ghost hunt events where you, the public can come and experience a night of paranormal investigation and see in person what it is we do as a paranormal team and how we work. Our team has done many different things, and through these events we learn and grow. Not just as people and individuals, but as a team and as paranormal researchers. The last 2 1/2 years we have learned a lot. We have come very far as a paranormal society. It's because of you, the public and our supporters that we have come as far as we have, and for that we are forever greatful!

So what does this mean for Tri-City NY Paranormal Society? It's time for CHANGE! It's time for us to evolve once again as a paranormal society so we can stay on the cutting edge of the paranormal community. As a professional and scientific group of investigators, we want to make sure we are giving you the most current up to date information and data that is out there. We want to educate you and better your knowledge of the paranormal world, events and happenings. It's our job here to make sure of that. This is the service we provide to our clients and to the people we investigate for. It's time for change.

So what does change mean within a paranormal group? For us, change isn't that simple, just as it isn't simple for us as people in our everyday life to suddently change. It's a process of checks and balances. Change is scary for some, and automatic for others. Us here at Tri-City NYPS have that automatic mind set. It's not a choice for us, but a neccesity. Right now we are in the first phaze of our change. We have started by re working our website. You want to see evidence, we will show you. You want to know what we are doing, you will know. You want the scientific data, you will get it. We are upping our standards for excellence to exceed it. We will show you what we do, how we work and why we do what we do from the scientific view point. So that is phaze one of change and growth as a paranormal society. In order to better educate and inform you we need to be on that cutting edge of research. And we will be there.

How will this effect what we do and how we serve the community? Most things that we do here will NOT change right away. As I stated earlier, change isn't that simple. We are a group of people that work together and are on the same page. Not only as a team, but more importantly a family, we will all have to put the change into action. For the second half of our year beginning in May we will implement phaze 2 of our new plan. For the rest of the year our main focus is going to be on research, development and experiments of our theories. We will be collecting the data needed to help better educate our clients, the general public, the paranormal community and ourselves. It is a little like how a rock band goes into the studio to record a new CD and goes off the grid to do so, we will be doing the same. This doesn't mean we will be 100% not out in the community, as we have booked 3 "come ghost hunt with us" events for this fall season, but it does mean that all of our focus will be on the scientific end right now. At these events that we will be holding we will then be releasing our findings and educate you in the new, cutting edge paranormal theories and technology. So you will all be up to date on the paranormal world and community. To us here, that's what is most important. That's the meaning of our cause.

Now that you all know what things are undergoing change here at Tri-City NY Paranormal Society. To ensure not only a bright future for paranormal research and growth, we will continue this change as researchers, and also make sure you all are recieving the best service you can recieve. That's our job after all. So with this, we will change our motto here to help keep our focus on this task. For the past 2 1/2 years our motto has been, "Putting the Pieces Together". Well, that was the old us as a fledgling group. Since then, we have grown, conquered and overcome all sorts of trials and tribulations here. Now as your professional local paranormal team it's time to put together a NEW focus. Our new motto from now on will be, "The Cause, The Focus, The Truth". That explains it all. =) So get ready folks, this is going to be a wild ride for all, but we are ready for it. We are taking the path less traveled and we are ok with it. Change is never easy, but once you learn to do it you can open a whole new world of possiblities and avenues to grow. And as people, we have the power to change the world, we just have to do it!! Keep it Spooky.

A year of growth

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 14:20:00 +0000

This year has been a year of growth here at Tri-City NYPS. A lot of things have been going on, and we have been very busy serving our local community the best that we can. As a para team we volunteer our time to help people in need of the services we provide. All of us here THANK YOU for the community support we recieve!! As every organization and group does, we too have been through our ups and downs, met great people and have had people move on to other things. Yet here we stand as a united team ready to help our community!!

We have accomplished much in our 2 1/2 years of service to the capital district and surrounding areas. Some of the activities and pursuits we've done that have gotten us to the level we are at are hosted paranormal lectures, put on haunted houses to raise money for a great cause, put on "come Ghost hunt with us" events at active historic locations, raised money through fundraising efforts to help other organizations and worthy causes and volunteered our time and efforts for thier events too. As I said, we are here to serve our community. The first half of our 2012 year has been a busy one to say the least. Right out of the gate we put a huge ghost hunting event together in Napanoch, NY at the Shanley Hotel with guest speaker, published author and historic researcher, Jeff Belanger. The event was met with a tremendous turnout and we were successful in furthering the restoration of a beautiful historic location. We also conducted 6 paranormal investigations in 3 months; both private clients and public places. We traveled to Philadelphia, PA for an investigation of a public bar which was a first for us as a team. We've donated our time to help a local organization put on an Easter event for kids and community members as well.

Spring is upon us and April is a month of reflection for us as a team. We are using this month to reorganize, research, purchase new tools and brainstorm ideas to both help our community with the resources we can provide along with making sure we are staying on track for our over all goal here at Tri-City NYPS. I started Tri-City NYPS back in Oct. 2009 for the purpose of helping people that are experiencing things in thier home that may be paranormal in nature. We are an outlet to speak to, be there for you and most importantly not judge you!! Since that October, we have fullfilled that purpose! We have completely solved 2 cases alone this past month and helped families that asked for us to come in and do what we do. We've met so many people and love to hear everyones stories of the paranormal and their own personal experiences, as so many people have them. So, I can say we have met our goals and our agenda has been true to the cause we set forth by Tri-City NYPS.

So what's next for us here? In order to grow we need constant change. I'm never satisfied with just going with the flow or doing what other groups are doing or what is "mainstream". That's not why I started my own personal research over 17 years ago. I want to take science and try to put what we already know and see as paranormal and find out what it is; what it is comprised of, how it happens, etc... I want to find out and build the hard research; the backbone of what we know and don't know. There are people out there that say you can't put science to para work and mock us for trying. I'm ok with that. That's what is so great about the work we do: there is no real right or wrong answer. The therories are endless. As a professional paranormal group, we have decided that our need for the research and development of ideas, trials of ideas and theories and trying to figure out the "why" is very important to us. We are not just an entertainment society, but a professional research team. We want to help further paranormal work to get a step closer to understanding what these events are, to take the data we collect and see and compare our results with other like-minded teams which then in return we can share with all of you to further educate you with our findings. That, my friends, is our new mission.

This second half of the year we will be taking a step back and out of the spotlight to do just this. We will travel to further and more remote locations conducting research into the paranormal and any and all "Ghostly" things. We will gear ourselves up and head into the woods looking for the creature known as "BigFoot" and try to gain evidence of its existence. We will conduct scientific experiments to see if we can narrow down certain events and/or actions which occur in our field of research. We will be testing new therories and some old ones and see what our results yield. It's time for the hard research to be done my friends, and that's what we will do to grow as people, as researchers, as investigators, but most importantly as ourselves and for the reasons each one of us on the team got into the paranormal and are here today serving you. I once again thank each and every person who has supported our cause over the past 2 1/2 years on our journey. I personally thank each investigator, old and new, for the time you put into the Tri-City NYPS cause. With out all of you we wouldn't be here and we ALL thank you for that. Make sure to keep up with us as we will be posting our results and data from our experiments along with NEW evidence!!!

Thank you ALL,

Gary Robusto, Founder of the Tri-City NY Paranormal Society

BigFoot Open Meeting , weds 4/4/12 from 6:30-8:30pm

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 19:45:00 +0000

This weeks open group meeting at the East Greenbush Library will feature our local cryptozoologist, Steve Kulls, as he will be talking about all things bigfoot. Come on out and meet a great guy and speak!!

Ending our 1st quarter with a BANG!!

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:20:00 +0000

Tri-CtiyNYPS is ending the 1st quarter of our 2012 year with a BANG as we will be taking our first road trip down the philidelphia to be the first to investigate a historic bar location!! This case ends our winter session of investigations as we are starting to now gear up for the upcoming bigfoot mission season! April will be a research and development month as we have purchased a bunch of new equipment and are inventing/modifiying new equipment for our team. We are also pleased to announce that we have started networking with other paranormal groups and working together for the para unity cause that ALL para groups should stand united! As a whole we can accomplish so much more and further the field together!! Stay tuned for all the new news!!!

April is the month for "Bigfoot"

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 20:10:00 +0000

April is our month for bigfoot preparation and gearing up to start heading out in the field with our crypto manager, Steve Kulls!! We are getting very excited here to beable to head back out in the woods for bigfoot missions and research!! Stay tuned as we start to get our crypto department reved up for the 2012 season!!!

New "Come ghost hunt" Events being booked!!

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 04:40:00 +0000

Stay tuned to our calendar as we are booking new "Come ghost hunt" events with tri-city NYPS at locations!! Lots in the works here=)