Not Ghostbusters, but Spirit Finders: They’re for Real: the Spirits and the Finders

by Jane Stahl

Maybe I’m not crazy, but I’ve wondered because sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night to the smell of a fresh cup of coffee. I’ve not been dreaming of it or anything. My husband is still sound asleep beside me. No one else lives with us, and I don’t hear anyone downstairs who may have just made themselves at home. But the coffee smells delicious.

And, years ago, maybe it really wasn’t my imagination or a strange dream when I saw a man standing in the corner of my bedroom—just looking around quietly—not anyone I recognized and not looking to do harm. I remember my panic, though—trying silently to find my husband’s hand to wake him, pinching my own hand and blinking my eyes tightly several times to clear them, thinking that perhaps I was dreaming. This stranger looked around my bedroom one last time and then simply vanished before my eyes.

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After meeting with a friend-of-a-friend recently, I’m inclined to believe that I am now and have in the past been visited by Spirits who have not yet “crossed over.” Does that “spook” me? Yes. And no.

Let me explain.

In looking forward to “celebrating” All-Hallows-Eve—the evening before “All Saints Day”—November 1—or Halloween as we know it, The Boyertown Area Expression has asked folks to share their “ghost stories.” I thought immediately of a friend who, over many years, had shared her anxiety about the “ghosts” who lived in her house. I knew she sought out help to discover a way to rid her home of them. That’s how I met Jim Smith, organizer of a 12-member team known as the Paranormal Spirit Finders,

Since 2013, as his mission to help people, Jim and the team have logged in almost 100 free home visits, by invitation, to trigger spirits to appear and to document and record proof of the existence of spirits living in the house along with the owners.

Their mission is to identify the spirits, not rid a home of their presence, nor do they try to convince anyone that spirits exist. "Our whole team does these investigations in a serious way. We only try and remove spirits if we have to. We go over our evidence with clients and strive for client satisfaction," he offers.

As for skeptics, he admits that there will always be skeptics; their job is not to convince anyone that spirits exist . As he says, “We're not there to convince anyone that spirits exist, just show them what we find.”

The team uses “spirit boxes” that record the voices of the spirits. And they use items like “mag lights”—unique flashlights that flash when a spirit has disrupted the electromagnetic force by moving through the light’s path.

The team will set up their devices in a home before spending 3-4 hours with the owners looking for something to trigger the spirits to engage—to talk or to “do something” to “prove” their existence. In addition, the team have watched doors slam shut, lights turn on or off, items shift in location or fall from places for no reason.

Jim’s own experiences with spirits include his boyhood habit of leaving lights on unnecessarily and his grandmother with whom he lived reminding him to turn them off. “After her death, I’d find the light in my garage turned on—by itself, seemingly, figuring my grandmother was paying me back for all those times she had to nag me to turn hers off,” he shares.

But Jim’s interest in spirits began when he visited his late father’s grave with a recording device. “My dad died when I was three months old, and so I have no memory of his voice. But I recorded a voice at his gravesite; and when I played it for my mom, tears came to her eyes. She said, ‘That’s your father’s voice,’” Jim describes.

The Spirit Finders have visited one Boyertown area home at least 3 times. In that home, they found a spirit in the basement who was perhaps a worker or a servant; and, during their third visit, they found a spirit in the attic—indicating someone may have been hidden there. They discovered other spirits on the main and second floors.

Apparently, when Jim researched the home, he discovered that it had been the center of town, a place where folks gathered for parties and a place that featured a tunnel—now sealed—through which the Underground Railroad ran.

In Boyertown Jim visits the cemeteries—during the daylight only-- and has taken “Ghost Walks” coordinated by the historical society. He finds the older cemeteries to be the places where spirits are most active. He cites the old cemetery behind the M&T bank as an example where spirits are most active and claims the spirits there have yelled obscenities at him as he passes by their grave.

“We have to be careful,” he reports. “At times, the spirits will attach to one of us and come home with us. One time my son and I ‘picked up’ the spirit of a soldier at the Antietam battlefield. My son knew there was someone riding beside him all during our ride home. And he knew it was ‘a bad one’—an angry one—and that we needed to return to the field so he could ‘finish the fight.’ We assured him he’d be all right. It took some convincing,” Jim continues, “but after a few hours, we felt him leave the car and return to the field.”

He recalls two exorcisms that went on for over 6 hours involving a woman known as the “Keeper of the Dead.” “These exorcisms are nothing like what you see in the movies,"  he explains. During the exorcism service, the woman who was “possessed” screamed violently, for hours, became red all over, and then finally collapsed. He admits that he felt a weight was lifted from his own chest when he knew the spirit left. When asked how possession happens, Jim explained that often when people use Ouija boards, “portals” are opened for spirits to utilize.

The team has held dinners of 20+ that include a Ghost Hunt. After dinner, they’ll create groups of 10 to sit in different parts of a home that they have set up with their equipment. After a time, the groups will switch locations to experience the behavior of other spirits in other rooms.

There were so many other stories to tell, and you can hear Jim himself on the “B Inspired” podcast on your favorite podcast channel beginning Friday, October 21, 2022, to prepare your spirit for “All-Hallows-Eve”—not a “holiday” Jim and his team celebrate much!

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Meanwhile, those vivid dreams I had after my father died—happily cooking eggs and cheese and bacon as he did for us every Sunday, and the vision of him in his military uniform that my mother saw the morning after he died when he was young and healthy—I believe now that his his spirit came to assure us that he was fine and that he knew we loved him.

And I now believe that all those coins I found every day for a month in my classroom after many classes and on my walk to my car were signs from the spirit of my father—a joke between us—he always felt I should have become a lawyer because teaching didn’t pay enough! Learning years later that my brother also found piles of coins after my dad died was a sign my father left for my mother who was insistent about keeping things equal between my brother and me. Dad made sure to leave a fun sign to please her, too!

One more: the spirit of my good friend’s mother visited her one morning by having me wear a yellow daffodil pin. Perhaps she’ll tell her “ghostly” story in another post!

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