An electromagnetic field reader is used during initial walk-throughs of homes by Northwest Oregon Paranormal investigators to note normal emissions from appliances or electricity in the walls.

MILTON-FREEWATER — Sandy Fujan recalls that shortly after her father died, she saw her husband’s razor rocking back and forth on a table. As one who believes in the paranormal, the Milton-Freewater woman assumed it was her late father moving the shaver.

Indeed, she said, in almost every house she lived in she has encountered spirits. They have all been friendly so far, just coming and going within a few seconds.

“At first, I thought it was the houses that we lived in, but I kind of think it’s me,” she said. “Probably because they say, there is a theory, that spirits know if you’re open to seeing them.”

This year she’s taken that theory and founded a group of seven kindred spirits who tour private homes as paranormal investigators who attempt to make contact with the dead.

Called Northeast Oregon Paranormal, the group started in January 2020 and conducted its first investigation in early March.

The crew went to the historic Frazier Farmstead in Milton-Freewater to see if they could find any ghosts in the 1880s home, now a museum.

“Hey, who’s here?”

Fujan said she heard the question in a recording she was using in a bedroom, predicting it was one of the Fraziers who had lived on the property. Likely a father, based on the low tone.

“That was so exciting to hear that because it was very clear you didn’t have to replay it,” Fujan said.

“It’s exciting, for me anyway, when I get evidence like that because sometimes you think nothing’s happening,” she added. “And then you go back and listen to the recorders, and they’re answering you, answering your questions or sometimes just talking between themselves.”

Kathy Thorberg, a Walla Walla, Washington, resident and member of the group, said they also got to talk to someone who died in a war.

Although they use several instruments in their investigations, they were using a simple flashlight in a room with military items. Asked yes or no questions, the spirit’s responses were based on light flickers, Thorberg said.

The flashlight must be set with the switch almost to the on position, so when a spirit taps the flashlight it flickers on, Fujan said.

The group asked questions, such as “Were you in the war?” and “Did you die in the war?” The flashlight would turn on, meaning “yes,” Fujan said.

Gearing up

Much of what the group does is try to disprove evidence. That’s why they bring in Fujan’s husband Roger, the “tech guy” and “resident skeptic.”

He said he has fun disproving evidence based on what else might have caused specific readings from their equipment, such as car driving by or a dog barking in the distance.

As such, the investigators must be aware of their surroundings so they can record when a seeming paranormal activity is actually, for example, someone clearing their throat.

Before an investigation begins, the group does an initial walk-through of a home with their equipment, such as an electromagnetic field reader to note emissions from appliances or electricity in the walls. That will help determine whether something beyond those readings might be paranormal activity, Sandy Fujan said.

A digital video recording system, night vision camera and a thermal imaging camera are among other investigative tools. The latter indicates temperature variations and shows up on their phones as a heat map, with blue showing a cold spot in a room.

Sandy Fujan said she is still skeptical about a recently purchased device that scans radio frequencies that supposedly ghosts can use to talk through.

But the gear isn’t all hi-tech. They will take dowsing rods, traditionally used to detect underground water sources, on their next investigation. The person holding the rods will remain still, and a ghost is supposed to move the rods to answer questions and point to people.

Learning the history of the place they will investigate also is vital, group members said. It allows them to ask more specific questions if they encounter a possible paranormal activity.

“We’re all kind of history buffs, and so we want to know the history of the place, and some of the names so we’re familiar of who to talk to and who to ask,” she said.

Reconnecting

Like Fujan, Thorberg said she also has had experiences where she reconnected with a departed loved one. She said she’s felt her mother stroke her hair, something she always used to do in her earthly life.

The group recently conducted a paranormal investigation in a private home in Milton-Freewater, where a woman’s mother had died. The woman told them that when she left her kitchen the cabinet doors would be closed, and when she returned they would be open.

Thorberg said a radiating electro-magneticity pod was used in the investigation. The device lights up and makes a noise when there are activities, such as something touching it or moving within a certain perimeter of it. The pod was on the bed in the living room where the mother died.

“I think the daughter was asking, ‘Mom are you here with us?,’ and the REM pod would go off, and I think she asked more personal questions,” Thorberg said.

The daughter told them the answers confirmed it was her mother. The group’s electromagnetic detector also went off when the REM pod did.

“There was activity in the home,” Thorberg said.

No voices were picked up on the recorder, however.

“I think she follows her,” Thorberg said of the mother’s spirit. “That’s what we thought, you know, it would stop when (the daughter) would go outside, and it would start back up when she would come back in.”

Fujan said discovery of paranormal activity in a home can help bring closure to people who call on Northeast Oregon Paranormal to investigate.

“Who’s to say it’s a relative or not,” Fujan said, “but sometimes … you have a good judgment.”