It’s 4:56 in the morning. It’s cold and dark outside and the ground is covered in snow. The only sound to be heard is the low whirring from the heating units in Sheehan Hall. Today, my best friend Ben and I are meeting in the Sheehan Hall lobby to convene with a tall, bald man with thin legs, a slow gait, and a scar over his left eye. He’s my friend, Steven. By the time I meet Ben in the lobby, Steven is already sitting in one of the rotating red lounge chairs waiting for us.
Steven Flaherty works as a supervisor for facilities at Worcester State. If you have a question about the plumbing or wiring in the residential buildings on campus, he’s your guy — but that’s just his day job; his real area of expertise is in the supernatural. Ben and I are joining him this morning in the predawn gloom to go ghost hunting, which we’d made plans to do the week before.
4:57. “We’re going to go to 19. I’ve got stuff set up,” Steven announces to me and Ben, in his voice characterised by an inherent nasalisation of all his vowels and a thick Boston accent. He’s referring to Chandler building 19. He knows there are spirits there, as he once took Kristen Nelson, Director of Reslife, her three daughters, and four of their friends ghost hunting in that building. Kristen describes the experience as “fun… and creepy.” She calls herself an agnostic, but enjoys entertaining different ideas about the world.
Using one of Steven’s SLS cameras, the girls located a spirit seemingly sitting on the bed in one of the rooms. An SLS camera (structured light scanning or structured light sensor camera) functions by projecting a pattern of infrared light onto an object, then capturing the distortions of that pattern caused by the object’s shape. The distortions are then analysed by specialised software to create a three-dimensional representation of the environment. Beyond ghost hunting, the devices are used in many fields, such as engineering, archaeology, industrial design, and entertainment.
To demonstrate the existence of an intelligent soul, he had the girls make requests of the spirit; they gave out instructions to stand by the wardrobe, then stand by the window, then sit on the bed again. The device tracked the movement of the apparition in real time. It seemed to do as they asked. According to Steven, it was probably the spirit of a young man, based on how eager it was to impress the girls.
Using a ‘spirit box,’ a device which continuously cycles through radio stations, Steven also asked the spirits some questions, such as “how many people are here?” The spirit in the room with the girls said seven, presumably referring to the seven girls, while a spirit Steven and Kristen talked to in the common area said ten, presumably including the girls, Steven, Kristen, and him- or herself. “It’s interesting to see how different spirits answer the question,” Steven told me.
4:58. We trek quietly through the sleeping building, then through the cool winter air. Ben strikes up a conversation with Steven. Ben describes himself as a spiritualist. “I do tarot readings and stuff like that. Plus, I’ve been in contact with a few spirits here and there,” he says. About halfway through our one-minute walk, the light from the street lamps near Wasylean and Sheehan Hall begins to fade, and as we reach the backside of Chandler Village, we slowly descend into near-complete darkness.
We reach Chandler building 19 and Steven unlocks the door with one of the numerous clacking keys on one of his two keychains. We enter the dark building. The light flickers a couple times as Steven hits the switch, before establishing itself and illuminating the room. He wasn’t kidding about having stuff set up — in the now-brightened room, Ben and I observe a whole plethora of gadgets sitting on the kitchen table in the common area of the dorm.
Steven let campus police know about our activities in advance so we don’t stir up any trouble. On other occasions, the police had let him into the Admin Building — apparently the third floor is rife with spirits. He told me about how the police used to hang out in the break room on that floor in the middle of the night when suddenly all of the officers could hear a loud banging coming from the locked conference room across the hall. They all rushed over to open the door and see who was inside, but there was no one there.
Steven has had a good relationship with campus police for quite some time. More than a decade ago, an officer passed away due to health complications. After the incident, another officer would frequently take night shifts. All of a sudden the machines in the department would start acting up; the copier would start kicking out paper. The sorter would readjust itself and go up and down even though no one was using it. When she’d go to the restroom, the lights would flicker.
Steven recounts how facilities would go in to change the light bulbs, but there was never anything wrong with them.
On another occasion, Steven says, the chief of police at the time (now retired), turned her computer on, and emblazoned across the screen was the full name of the deceased officer over and over again.
Back then, Steven says, “people would laugh at you” if you went around telling people you believe in ghosts, so he kept his paranormal activities mostly to himself.
Steven used a spirit box and a recorder and asked questions of the unseen. The spirit box cycles through stations at a rate of about two stations per second. If you hear a voice which lasts for more than that half-second interval it takes for the device to switch between radio stations, then supposedly, that’s a spirit. He uses the recorder to save evidence and so he can re-listen to the recordings later, in case there were any voices on the box that he missed.
5:00 AM. We settle down on the two couches — small, green loveseats with rough felt and wooden armrests. Steven brings over his equipment and places it down on the polished wooden coffee table which might boast a television set and gaming console when students live here. Steven explains what each device is called and what it does.
“This is a REM-pod,” he says, as he sets up the square, black box with LED lights in each corner and a long antenna sticking up from the centre. “It measures EMF fields.” REM stands for ‘Radiating Electro-Magneticity.’ The device works by creating its own electromagnetic field, which is easily influenced by outside forces. To demonstrate, Steven waves his hand near the device. It makes a sound like the metal detectors used by cops or FBI agents in TV shows. The red & green LED lights in each corner turn on.
The next devices he shows us are his K-2 metres (more devices which detect EM fields) and his GO metre, a vibration detector. Unlike the toy-like K-2 metres you’ll see if you search for the device on Google or Amazon, Steven’s K2s have a more professional appearance; small, black boxes with just a couple of LED lights. Steven would later explain to me some of the history behind the K-2 metres — how they were originally used by electricians for finding circuit breakers, not for ghost hunting.
He also places down on the table three miniature flashlights, roughly aligned with each other. Almost immediately, the flashlight on the left starts to go on and off. He says he charged everything immediately before bringing it here. Regarding the flashlights, Steven tells the story of the time The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) published an article on their website purporting to debunk the ‘flashlight trick’ for detecting spirits.
Steven met up with Jason Hawes of TAPS one time while he and his partner Grant Wilson were filming an episode of their TV series, Ghost Hunters. Though he only had a few minutes with Jason, he was eager to talk with him about the article. In this short amount of time, Steven demonstrated the trick so compellingly that a few weeks later, Jason and Grant showcased the trick on their show.
The trick can only be done with old-fashioned, twist-on flashlights, or ‘Maglites,’ as Steven calls them (Maglite is a brand). Here’s how it works: “You twist the head of the flashlight so it’s just on the border between on and off,” Steven says. “When you put three of them out and you can ask [the spirit] to turn one of them on,” according to the man, it’s harder to chalk it up to coincidence than when you’re using just one light.
After he sets the flashlights down, he shows us his Raggedy Ann doll — a large, cartoonish plush doll with red hair resembling a mop head. He sets the doll up on an upturned plastic bin that might otherwise be used for cleaning supplies and tools. The doll has an LED light on each of its arms, with wires running from each to its torso. As Steven would later explain to me, the doll is also a K-2 metre. It leans precariously off the side of the bin, which was intentional, as this would make it easy pickings for a spirit looking to make its presence known.
Last, but not least, Steven shows us his spirit box and turns the device on.
A potential spirit may interact, supposedly, with any of the objects and devices he’s shown us. If everything goes off at the same time, though, he tells us it’s probably not paranormal activity, but radio signals from campus police.
When asked how much he spent on all this equipment, Steven says it’s hard to recall exactly, but probably tens of thousands. He has to replace some of the equipment periodically because he’ll lose it. He explains that some of it used to be cheaper, while some of it’s now more costly; a K-2 metre which used to cost close to $70 can now be purchased for under $10, for instance. On the other hand, the ‘Maglites’ that used to be only $10 now cost up to $40.
Steven has been ghost hunting for close to 30 years. “When I first started out, what we had for ghost hunting was a flashlight, a pad of paper, and your own feelings,” he says. He was about 30. He was always a fan of the macabre, so one day a friend of his who happened to know Lorraine and Ed Warren (perhaps history’s most famous paranormal investigators) took him ghost hunting at an old mill in the woods.
Though Steven says he wasn’t a believer when he first started, it certainly piqued his interest. The same friend later introduced Steven to Ed and Lorraine. At the time, the pair were offering classes focused on the paranormal. Steven took some of their classes. Lorraine told him that he’s “very special in this field.” As he plunged deeper and deeper into the supernatural, he became close friends with the two.
Although they both passed away (Ed in 2006 and Lorraine more recently in 2019), Steven swears the ghost of Ed still watches over him. He knows it’s Ed because he had a very distinctive voice, he says. Steven consults him whenever there’s a unique paranormal phenomenon he can’t quite figure out on his own.
As to what initially drew him to it, Steven says he loves ghost hunting because it’s different each time: “There’s always an aspect of mystery and there are no identifiable patterns; nothing works every time.” And it truly is a labour of love. He’s never done paid ghost tours or accepted financial compensation in any way for what he does. Even when Steven taught what he calls “nightlife classes” (electives offered to the broader community) at Bay Path University, all of the money went directly towards supporting the school.
5:05. We all settle down on the couches and simply watch and listen. “I can’t make anything happen,” Steven warns us, preparing us for the fact that we might find nothing. Some days are rife with supernatural activity, while others are ordinary, he explains.
“Can you shut the flashlights, or the torches off for me, please,” Steven asks of the unseen. He introduces himself to any potential spirit in the room: “I’m not here to hurt you or remove you,” he says. He has us introduce ourselves, as well, starting with Ben: “I’m Ben; I’m a pretty nice guy. I’m not here to harm you in any way; I’m just here to see you.” Finally, I introduce myself: “I’m Remy. I’m just here to learn.”
“I know you’re here because you were playing with the lights earlier,” Steven mentions. The flashlight on the left continues to flicker on and off. “Try playing with the other ones,” our guide for the day kindly suggests.
A little while later, he brings out his SLS camera; in-person, the device is an awkward and bulky contraption which acts as a stand for a tablet, while a cord connects the tablet to the actual camera — a strange piece of equipment which reminds me at first of a large Jenga block. He hands the device to Ben and lets him pan it around the room. For a split second, the screen flashes green, with numerous scattered grey dots on the screen, connected by bars. A bit later, it flashes purple.
We’re immersed in the dim light, radio static, and heat from the building’s overactive heating system. The flashlight continues to flicker in front of us. Steven starts asking questions for any potential spirit to answer through the spirit box. He has me and Ben ask some questions, too. The two of them ask questions about name, age, and gender. I ask the potential spirit whether he/she was once a student at Worcester State. We receive no reply.
Eventually, Steven gives the instruction to simply yell into the box. Suddenly, we hear a clearly audible “Hello!” Or at least, that’s what I thought I heard. And then the device turns off. “Did you do that,” Steven asks.
All of us unmotivated to get up to turn the device back on, we enjoy our newfound silence. Ben and Steven share ghost stories with each other; Ben has a fair share of them from his time as a camp counsellor. Steven tells a story of the ghost of a little girl buried at Mount Wachusett who was supposedly murdered by her neighbour.
Even Steven admits that ghost sightings and hauntings might sometimes be psychosomatic. Additionally, when it’s late at night or early in the morning, it’s easy to convince people that they’ve seen or heard something, due to tiredness and people’s natural fear of the dark. He demonstrates this by describing a tall, dark figure in the corner of the room. Ben and I both look.
“I’m not here to change anyone’s mind,” he says, indicating that he’s not trying to make anyone believe in ghosts. Instead, he sees himself almost like a reporter on the supernatural. “I bring you the evidence. I can show you what I can. And then you decide whether you want to believe or not.”
Intriguingly, he considers himself a Catholic, even though he admits what he does is technically considered sinful. He’s even worked with officially-designated demonologists and exorcists in the Catholic Church. When asked about this, he described himself somewhat like a sin-eater; he does what he sees as necessary so that no one else has to. He’d never heard the term before, but agreed it seems apt.
“When I die, I’m not going to heaven; I’m probably just coming back here and tormenting a bunch of people,” he says, codifying the antihero persona.
5:55. It’s time to pack up. Steven has to get to his day job. He starts his shift at 6 a.m. He thanks us for joining him, and we thank him for taking us. Ben and I leave him to pack up his equipment and start our trek back to Sheehan Hall. We’ll see him in just a few minutes, pushing around his cart of cleaning supplies.
