A paranormal journey

To any outsider, this would seem out of the ordinary, unbelievable and just not possible. To Terri Sillanpaa and the rest of the Conscious Spirit Paranormal Group (CSPG), it was just another day at the job site.

Wielding an L-shaped, copper dowsing rod in each hand, Sillanpaa demonstrated how they worked, but couldn't explain it.

"Nobody knows how they work," she stressed.

But they do. The rod in her right hand began to spin quickly while the one in her left slowly paced back and forth.

While the mysterious spinning rods amazed those who had never seen them before, Sillanpaa's face didn't crack. She wasn't shocked or surprised. She just stated what she knew.

"There's a lot of energy in the room right now," she said.

None of the regulars blinked an eye at what can be labeled as an unexplainable phenomenon. This was the norm, though. Nothing surprises them any more. They're used to it. This is their job.

THE CSGP AND BLAKE HOUSE

On this calm Saturday night, it was both old and new territory for the CSPG.

The old territory was the group's physical territory: Amos J. Blake House Museum in Fitzwilliam, N.H. Many members of the group have investigated this house before with a lot of success. Sillanpaa, the co-founder of CSPG, also works there as the curator, making access to investigations a cinch.

The new territory is with the actual group, based out of the Monadnock region. This Blake House investigation was their first together as the newly formed CSPG.

The group consists of seven members, including five veteran investigators and two new investigators, Kerry and John, a husband and wife duo.

The house was built in 1837 and had several owners before Amos J. Blake purchased it in 1865, according to Sillanpaa. Blake lived in the house until his death in 1928, but family members lived in it until 1966 when it was given to the Fitzwilliam Historical Society. Blake was a prominent town official and state legislator in Fitzwilliam.

In terms of paranormal activity, the house has seen its fair share of the unexplainable.

According to Sillanpaa, all the ghosts she has encountered are "very friendly." Activity has included hearing a child play with a windup toy in the children's room, sleigh bells ringing without moving in the tool room, 11 lines of chalk on a previously clean chalkboard and many more personal experiences.

"This is the most active paranormal location I have ever been in," Sillanpaa said, citing that she's actually been touched by a ghost at another location.

'WE'RE EXPLORING THE UNKNOWN'

Saturday night is a time for going on dates to movies, restaurants or heading to the bar for a few drinks.

For Chuck Underhill, the team's evidence analyst, Saturday night means a different kind of date - one with the paranormal.

"It's fun to chase ghosts. We all have a good time, we laugh," he said. "For a couple of hours a week the bills and the mortgage don't matter. We're exploring the unknown."

The only common denominator between each investigator is that they have fun doing what they do. To say they all believe in ghosts is a hard claim to make because even Underhill admitted he is a skeptic.

In his eight years of investigations, he's had only two electronic voice phenomenons (EVPs) that he couldn't debunk.

"You hear about all these people who see things at these different locations, so you go there to see if you see things yourself," he said. "It's human nature to have questions."

For others, it's the idea of something else. It's the idea of the unsolved.

"I've always loved it. I know there is something else out there, there just has to be," Kerry said. "The world isn't black and white like some people think there is."

"I'm looking for than one definitive piece of evidence that I can show anybody and say, 'hey, you can't disprove that,''" said Jackson, an investigator.

As far as the experiences go, Underhill has a simple approach to it all.

"People say there is evil out there as far as the spirits or whatever they are. I try and keep the spirituality or the religious out of my side of doing things. I'm just trying to explore a different way."

However, Underhill said he can chalk his beliefs on evil up to two simple facts.

"Basically I have two trains of thought on it. No. 1, the only time I've ever actually encountered evil it has been in another person. And No. 2 they can only kill me once, right? I mean they aren't going to be able to do any more than that and I'm not afraid of it."