OSHKOSH (NBC 26) — The Oshkosh Paranormal Society is a group of lifelong ghost enthusiasts who want to use their passion to help people. They’ve carried out dozens of ghost investigations in the Oshkosh area.
- Those in the Oshkosh Paranormal Society have had a lifelong passion for ghosts
- The group measures electricity and energy to communicate with spirits.
- The Oshkosh Paranormal Society hopes to help people find peace of mind with death.
Ingrid Lemke says her first encounter with a spirit was early in her childhood.
“When I was a preteen, I had seen a shadow figure, and it just really terrified me,” she says. “I felt like it was hovering over me.”
Since the incident, Lemke says she has had a sort of “sixth sense.”
“Back in my day, they thought you were insane, so I only told my friends,” she says.
It wasn’t until her adulthood that Lemke would find a large group of like-minded people and create what is now the Oshkosh Paranormal Society.
Lemke says it was validating finding others with a similar connection to ghosts and spirits.
“It feels wonderful, it feels freeing,” she says.
The Oshkosh Paranormal Society started as a group of Lemke and her coworkers, but now is a large Facebook group.
Many in the group also had paranormal experiences as children.
“I think I was about eight,” Emily Kampmann, a member of the group, says. “I kind of woke up on the floor one day in my bedroom, and I was staring at my closet…. and the door was wide open and there was glowing lights, like eyeballs staring at me. I know it sounds silly.”
The group gets together to do paranormal investigations in haunted areas around Oshkosh. They’ve investigated the local cemetery, The Grand Oshkosh, the Algoma Club and multiple personal homes.
Lemke says the downtown area near the Algoma Club and the Grand Oshkosh seem to be particularly haunted, which she believes is due to Oshkosh’s two 19th century fires.
“Our investigations are generally scientific,” Lemke says.
The group relies on different types of instruments and tools to pick up on energy shifts in the air. Some of the tools are used by electricians to track electricity.
“So the theory is that spirits are energy, so when they get close to that, it triggers it,” Jason Tiffany, a member of the group, says.
They also use recording devices to pick up on voices they wouldn’t normally hear.
Lemke says they find a lot of evidence after the investigation ends and they’re able to rewatch the footage.
“It takes many hours,” Lemke says.
The Algoma Club in Oshkosh was a speakeasy during prohibition, and Lemke says they’ve found lots of evidence of prohibition-era spirits roaming the space.
"It's definitely a heavy presence," Lilly Heft, another member of the group says of the Algoma Club. "I feel spooky in here."
Despite the many hours that go into each investigation, the group says they are always fun.
“I don’t want to say it’s an adrenaline rush, but it kind of is,” Heft says.
Heft says she’s a “hardcore believer” in ghosts, but that’s not true for everyone in the group.
“If you hear a voice, you know, understanding that, is that your brain just trying to figure out what’s going on?" Stephanie Whittaker, another member of the group says. “You can’t just, well for me anyways, you can’t just let your imagination run away with you.”
Whittaker says she’s a “skeptic,” and often questions the evidence the group collects. Still, there are some findings that she says are hard to deny.
“I’ve, with the group, had enough experiences that I can’t explain,” she says.
More than the thrill of finding ghosts, the Oshkosh Paranormal Society hopes to use its passion to help people.
“My favorite aspect of our group is when we help people in their personal houses,” Lemke says. “Because they’ve felt like I did when I was a kid— who do I reach out to? Who do I trust with this? I know how that feels not having any validation.”
Lemke says she’s helped expel angry spirits from homes, as well as give people the confirmation that they’re not imagining things.
For Kampmann, she thinks the group can help on a deeper level— giving comfort around death.
“I think it’s really neat to experiment with that and show people that there is life after death in some form, to not be like somewhat scared of death even,” she says.
More information on the group can be found on their Facebook page.
