Brazos Paranormal Society founder Matthew Rangel gave a presentation and demonstration on paranormal investigation as part of the Bay City Public Library’s Teen Tuesday program Oct. 19.
“The society has been active in its current form for approximately nine years,” he said.
“I have been researching/ investigating independently for almost 20 years. Our group boasts nearly 60 members, as we are open to all that need a safe and welcoming environment to discuss these topics.
“To this end, we refer to ourselves as an interest group and the primary investigation team is simply an apparatus of it. This team consists of seven investigators,” he added.
Rangel explained that their investigators made sure to approach reports of paranormal activity scientifically.
“We want to do all of our research on the building, situations, and area beforehand,” he said.
“We also look at all rational explanations for activity first.”
Other research techniques included interviewing those who experienced the events firsthand and in the case of a structure to find previous owners for their history with the building.
“Obviously with older buildings and historical sites, there could be gaps in the information available,” said Rangel.
“Your best bets for research are your local library, museums, and county clerk’s office.”
Rangel provided an example for doors closing on their own from one investigation.
“We discovered that the door closed on its own based on the air pressure differences when another door was opened or closed at the other side of the room,” he said.
Rangel posed several theories for why paranormal events or situations happened.
“The one I think most subscribe to is that it’s just part of the ecosystem,” he explained.
“It’s part of the world we live in and we’re doing our best to understand it.”
Rangel showed off the tools of his trade including a digital voice recorder, infrared thermometer, camera, EMF meter, and spirit box – while explaining what each one did or was used for.
“An EMF meter is used to detect possibly unexplained fluctuations in electromagnetic fields,” he said.
“A spirit or ghost box is a radio with a frequency scan mode that could allow some communication with spirits.”
Rangel had volunteers demonstrate using a spirit box while blindfolded and had the audience also ask questions.
“This is similar to the way that they were communicating with the entities in The Stanley Hotel – which was the hotel in Stephen King’s ‘The Shining’ movie,” he added.
The society is available on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and will soon be starting a Facebook Group.
“We will soon be performing public investigations that attendees will be able to participate in a similar way that the audience did during the presentation,” he added.
“Anyone interested will be able to see announcements for these events on our social media pages.”
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