It was a dark and stormy night, setting the mood Monday for
ghost hunter Chris Moon exhibiting his trade for about 100
onlookers – both young and old – at the University of Pittsburgh at
Bradford.

“The following is not fiction,” read a teaser at the beginning
of a short film he showed before his lecture presentation at O’Kain
Auditorium.

Moon and his team were shown on various investigations, talking
to seemingly thin air – and getting responses from eerie sounding
voices on electronic recordings, called “electronic voice
phenomena,” or EVP.

As he spoke, he would run a slide show on the stage behind him,
often playing EVPs loudly and suddenly – and then offering an
explanation as to what the circumstances were which led to the
noise.

“I love Nancy,” came the somewhat distorted voice. Then Moon
explained it was the spirit of an elderly woman which had not left
her daughter’s home.

“She was cold in life,” Moon said, describing that the mother
was never one to show affection towards her daughter. When his team
investigated, they asked the mother’s spirit what was keeping her
from moving on. She wanted to tell her daughter how much she cared
for her, Moon explained.

The phenomena of EVPs came to light with Thomas Edison, who was
working on a “telephone to the dead” after the death of his mother.
He did not complete the device, but a man named Frank Sumption
did.

Sumption, an engineer, built the device and heard voices
claiming they were from spirits.

“He ended up building the device to their specs,” Moon said.

Sumption contacted Moon and now the device is commonly used as a
two-way communicator with the spirit world, Moon explained.

He spoke of an investigation being conducted in Colorado at a
haunted bed and breakfast where law enforcement officials have
actually used the device, which Moon calls “Frank’s Box,” to talk
to spirits for clues in a cold case.

Moon’s goal is to prove scientifically that the paranormal is
real and can be documented scientifically. And following his
lecture Monday, he took a group of willing audience members on a
ghost hunt of Pitt’s Hanley Library to see if there was evidence to
document any paranormal activity there.

However, the hunt went on without this intrepid reporter, as
braving the construction of U.S. Route 219 in the coming winter
seems far scarier than a specter in a library.

Moon’s presentation was sponsored by the Pitt-Bradford Student
Activities Council.