Ghost Hunting Finds a Home on Web Sites

Does a room in your home suddenly get freezing cold? Do you hear disembodied voices, moaning, or scratches at the door? You might have a ghost problem. But before you organize a séance or order an exorcism, log on to the Internet and consult one of the web’s many ghost hunting societies. These “ghost busters” may not lasso spooks with electrical backpacks but they do use some of the most modern scientific equipment to gather evidence of spirits. Some groups do it just for the thrill of “capturing” a ghost on film, others are out to help the haunted and the haunter find peace.

The deceased are finding quite a following in cyberspace. The International Ghost Hunters Society (www.ghostweb.com) – an Internet-based group of investigators – claims over 18,000 members and 30,000 people per day visit the website of ghost hunting’s rock stars, TAPS. TAPS, short for The Atlantic Paranormal Society (www.the-atlantic-paranormal-society.com), is a group based out of Warwick, Rhode Island. Its members are the stars of the Sci-Fi Channel’s highly-rated reality show “Ghost Hunters.” Despite their fame, though, they provide their services to the spooked free of charge. And like nearly all investigators they have a day job. TAPS’ founders, Grant Wilson and Jason Hawes, are Roto-Rooter plumbers. Members of the group are in the ghost business to seek the immaterial not the material. TAPS’ mission is simply “to put people at ease and research and document anything that we can truly not explain,” says Dustin Pari, TAPS’ technical advisor.