What: BSR Paranormal monthly meeting and ghost hunt open to the public
Where: Meeting at La Palma Restaurant in Hartford City
Ghost hunt following the meeting at Old Hartford City Jail
(drive is approximately 20.7 miles from Ball State)
When: 7 p.m. April 30
Cost is $25 per person. For more information visit their website.
The ghost busters aren’t just in the movies.
They are real, and they are looking for participants to investigate a haunted jail with them.
Beyond the Scope of Reality (BSR) Paranormal is a non-profit organization and paranormal investigative team located in Fort Wayne.
BSR provides services in Indiana, Ohio and Michigan and offers private investigations of businesses and homes to see if there is activity, as well as cleansing services at no cost.
“We are a team that is interested in anything paranormal — ghosts, cryptids, UFOs, urban legends, etc., but we mostly ghost hunt,” said Jennifer Jacobs, BSR director.
BSR Paranormal investigates anything from ghosts, to aliens, to Mothmen, to Bigfoot and anything in between. If you can't explain it, they will try to, according to bsrparanormal.com.
BSR will host its monthly meeting at 7 p.m April 30 at the La Palma Restaurant in Hartford City. The meeting is open to the public.
After the meeting, those who wish to participate can join the team for a ghost hunt at the old Hartford City Jail.
The old Hartford City Jail was established in 1879 and was an active prison until the end of 1995. Multiple investigative teams have traveled to tour the jail and have found evidence of activity through photos and audio recordings. The prison is still very "active," according to oldhauntedjail.com.
The cost to attend the ghost hunt is $25 per person, and it is mandatory to attend the meeting before you are allowed to participate.
Jacobs said the group has collected evidence of the supernatural world from past investigations such as several EVPs (electronic voice phenomena), videos, photos and personal experiences.
One investigation and most memorable experiences that sticks with Jacobs the most is when BSR did an overnight ghost hunt at the Ohio State Reformatory Prison in Mansfield, Ohio, in 2011.
“I was sitting on a bench in one of the cell blocks with other members of the previous team I was on when one of the girls said she heard someone walking toward us. She shined her flashlight towards the where the shuffling was coming from — no one was there,” Jacobs said. “Within five minutes, I was overcome with dread, hate and fear. I started having a panic attack and needed to leave the area.”
Jacobs said they got lost trying to get out, which made things worse. Once she did get out, though, and was able to calm down, she went back in the building where the energy shifted and felt completely different.
“The only way I can describe what happened is that someone or something was attacking me, trying to take over my body,” Jacobs said.
Jacobs went back last spring to try to get back in contact with the spirit who attacked her, but said she wasn't able to experience the same thing she did the first time she came in contact with it.
“After years of doing this and learning and developing my skills and learning what works for me — which is a never-ending process — I am a much different person than I was the first time I went there,” Jacobs said. “I am stronger, more intuitive and have learned how to deal with things we cannot see better than before. It has quite honestly become second nature to me.”
She said everyone experiences the paranormal differently, but she encourages people to join the April 30 hunt — even the skeptics.
“We are one of the few groups that openly welcome skeptics,” Jacobs said. “I love asking them if they have ever had an experience that they can't explain, and most of the time they respond with, ‘This one time...,’ but then you have the die-hard skeptics that refuse to believe even if there is no plausible explanation for what happened.”
Jacobs said the group hosts workshops, presentations, meet-and-greets and ghost hunts to the public in an effort to get people involved.
“We do this to give people who are interested in the paranormal a group to interact with and possibly join — and to have fun, of course,” Jacobs said.
If participants enjoy the ghost hunt, they can join the BSR team. Anyone 18 or older can apply. There is an interview process to see if the applicant would be a good match, and they go on a hunt with the team to see how they work with others.
“If we feel they are willing to learn, have a good personality and work well with the public and others, we would happily let them join," she said.
While there are not any current Ball State students involved on the team, Jacob said she encourages students to join in the hunt.
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