Paranormal educational opportunities in the Fresno area

For those interested in the paranormal, there are two courses one can study this fall at the Fresno Adult Education Center. The first is a class I've been associated with in the past as an assistant, the Paranormal 101 class. The six week class is taught by Jackie Meador of Central California Paranormal Investigators and includes a field trip up to Sierra Sky Ranch on the third week. For those who aren't really familiar with ghost hunting and how to get started this is a good class to take to get your feet wet.

From the school's site:

A 6-week course taking students into the world of what a real paranormal investigation is like with an emphasis on ghosts & hauntings by Jackie Meador, certified ghost hunter and Chief investigator for Central California Paranormal Investigators(CCPI). This course will cover the investigators role, what they seek and where they go to search for unexplained anomalies and using scientific methodology, electronic equipment and research techniques to investigate and analyze evidence. A field investigation to an overnight haunted site is planned which will include an extra cost. Class limited to 20 students.

The other class is a new one and is a class on how to enhance Your intuition. It's taught by Michelle Tedrow who is also a member with CCPI. Michelle is part of a psychic group that I had the chance to spend some time with over the weekend (I'll post my experiences this week, but needlesstosay I was impressed). The course is also six weeks, but unlike the Paranormal 101 class there is no field trip as this class is to teach one how to hone their skills.

From the school's site:

Take a 6-weeks journey of intuitive growth and learn to harness the wisdom and the power of your inner self. Instructor Michelle Tedrow has been in tune with her intuitive abilities for many years. She teaches others how to develop, understand, and control their gifts through meditation and relaxation techniques, with an emphasis on intuition and finding a purpose in life. You will learn how to journalize and discuss your interpretations and make your intuitive ability really work for you. Michelle is currently assisting Central California Paranormal Investigators with their investigations.

If the past is any indicator, both classes will fill up fast. Both are Saturday morning classes starting at 9:00 am and begin on October 2 and run for six weeks. For more information and to register you can click here to go to the school's site.

My first paranormal investigation

I have been investigating the paranormal off and on for nearly a decade now. Even though I was interested in the subject I never actively pursued anything with a serious mindset. That changed in the summer of 2000.

I was waiting for my friend Tom (whom I mentioned before in many posts) to get off work as we wanted to go look for some ghosts, when he told me a co-worker of his Fred, was also interested in the paranormal. I met Fred, and while he was a bit energenic, I could tell he definitely new about ghosts. Even better was that he had a digital camera, which at that time was a big deal since they were so expensive. I was excited by this because I had been reading on the internet at that time that ghosts would usually manifest themselves as "orbs" or these balls of light and a digital camera was the best way to capture them. I told him about the New Hope Cemetery in Madera which Tom and I believed to be haunted (the stories behind that are for another post). At that time, Tom's roommate Scott showed up to see what was going on. Scotty has always been a skeptic so we decided to drag him along just to see if we could get him to believe. Fred asked if he could take a friend of his along (it was a girl, so I think he was trying to hook up with her) and we all headed off in Tom's truck to Madera.

I had been wanting to go back to the Madera Cemetery for a while. I had recently purchased an EMF detector (theory on these is that ghosts can alter the magnetic field in the area and these things detect the changes) and wanted to try it out on this cemetery which Tom and I believed was haunted. Even better now that Fred had a digital camera, we could hopefully document anything that occurred. I decided to give Scotty the EMF detector and told him how to operate it. The rest of us had flash lights and I had a film camera. Tom and I headed in one direction, while the others headed elsewhere. Not even five minutes into this, I heard Scotty yelling that the EMF detector was going off and Fred was getting several orbs in the pictures.

Excited by this, all of us grouped back together and starting taking pictures and noticed we were getting even more orbs. We were so excited by this that we didn't think to what could cause the increase in orb activity, we just figured the place was really haunted. After a few hours (and rolls of film), we left. We did try a cemetery up in Raymond but didn't have any luck up there.

At this time, I thought we had hit the jackpot. We finally had proof of the cemetery being haunted with all the orbs we got. For years I thought we had captured ghosts on film (albeit the digital type) and told anyone and everyone I knew about it. Hell, the four of us even started our own paranormal investigation group as we were so emboldened by what had happened that night. The problem was, I didn't know any better. I had read something on the internet from a self-proclaimed expert on the paranormal that orbs were the manifestation of ghosts. But these weren't ghosts, they were dust particles reflecting the flash of the camera. What I did not mention before, was that this cemetery is out in the country and that there is no grass there, only dirty. And during the summer the ground is dusty. So by us walking around, we were stirring up dust which the camera was then picking up as orbs due to the flash. As for the EMF detector, I discovered later that if you held it a certain way the thing would light up. That's what I get for buying something that is supposed to be a ghost finder on the internet.

My point of this story is this. Don't believe everything you read on the internet, especially when it's involving anything paranormal related. When I do investigations (which are infrequent now) if I get an orb in any photo, I discount it almost immediately. Unfortunately there are still groups out there that post nothing but orb pics, but it is not my place to judge their methods. I've learned a lot since that night. I'm much more skeptical now of things, though I still do believe in the essence of the paranormal. Just that I need hard evidence to make me believe something when I'm told it's a ghost, or a UFO, or a bigfoot sighting.

Want to be a paranormal investigator? This class is the best way to start.

With the popularity of Ghost Hunters and other paranormal reality TV shows, more and more people are becoming paranormal investigators thinking that all they need is a camcorder with night vision and a flash light. When I first started investigating ghosts I read book after book at the library (this was before the internet was as prolific as it is today) on anything I could find, from the typical ghost books, to photography, and even a few on criminology so I knew how to approach an investigation from a scientific point of view.

Fast forward ten years and there is now a class on the basics of how to be a paranormal investigator right here in Fresno. It's an Adult Ed. class and it's being taught at the Manchester Mall on Saturdays at 9:00 am from Oct. 17 to Nov. 21. I never too the class, the person who was running the group I was with started it. Her name is Jackie Meador and I have mentioned her a few times on this blog in the past. Jackie has been investigating haunted locations throughout the country for almost a decade now and she is one of the most knowledgeable people I have ever met regarding the subject of the paranormal.

Like I said, the class is a basic one that teaches the principles of what it is to be a paranormal investigator. From type of equipment that is needed and how to use it, to the classifications of haunts, and even how to conduct the investigation and write the report, Jackie covers this all over a six week course. The best part, is at week three you actually get to put what you learned to practice and investigate an actual haunted location (the Sierra Sky Ranch).

If anyone is interested in becoming a paranormal investigator, or just learning about the paranormal I would definitely recommend taking this class. The class fills up quickly, so register now. But if you can't get in this semester, there is a Spring one available in a few months so check back then. Here's the link to the Fall class.