Ghostbusters at the Republican?

Last week the Republican, a bar down on State Street, was visited by a local team of paranormal investigators after learning of several reports about various unexplained occurrences. For example, after closing and when the bar was empty, two of the bartenders have had bottlecaps thrown at the back of their heads from the other side of the bar. What's strange about this beyond the obvious is that 1) all bottlecaps should theoretically be behind the bar with them (since the bartenders have to open the bottles first before giving them to the customer), 2) plus the bottlecaps were from beers that the Republican doesn't even carry. Strange? Also, the women's bathroom has apparently been an active site, with folks feeling as if they were touched by something. You can only imagine how I felt about going to the restroom after hearing that one, plus the layout of the bathroom is already creepy enough in that when you glance into the mirror above the sink, behind you is the stall's curtain, which you can easily imagine being thrust open by some zombiefied ghost, their face staring back at you.

I didn't know what to expect but when my friend invited me, I drove up there at closing time and waited while the team set up mysterious devices, including two flashlights (a red-lighted one and a blue-lighted one), which they placed upon a large table around which about 7 or 8 of us were sitting and they placed the darn flashlights directly beside me! My heart admittedly began to race as I thought about all the books about the paranormal, unexplained phenomena, etc. I use to read as a kid, eventually giving myself the creeps, but I kept ordering them from school anyway. Reports of sightings of Anne Boleyn's ghost, the Loch Ness monster, Bigfoot, ESP, bending spoons with one's mind...all of it fascinated me then and that perhaps it still does in an X-Files Moulder kind of way. I have a tendency (naive or not, for better or worse) to be (too) open, to lean toward believing. I guess being open to the possibility of ghosts is better than being, say, a bible thumper? Hope so...

With all the bar's lights turned off and with only enough ambient light to make out our silhouettes, the team proceeded to ask particular questions, requesting the supposed ghost(s) to respond accordingly by turning on either the red or blue flashlights (red meant "yes"; blue meant "no"). Sometimes the responses weren't consistent, but sometimes it was curiously so. The team also advised that if any of us experienced anything questionable during the investigation, to speak up about it. I gradually felt the room grow colder and colder and colder, to the point that my hands, arms, and legs felt as if I'd been a meat locker and then I started to subsequently shiver, my teeth chattering. I was too embarrassed (and surprisingly a bit skeptical) about what was happening to say anything, worried folks would think "Oh that crazy Asian girl thinks she's experiencing ghosts!" but then I remembered that the air conditioning in the bar was turned off and that the temperature that day was easily in the 90s. Along with this cold sensation, I'd thought I felt another odd thing: a pressure on the right side of my neck and two pin prick-like sensations on my right arm. Again, I tried to ignore what I was feeling and didn't say anything. A few minutes later, one of the other women (Sara) who was sitting across from me admitted to feeling extremely cold and also feeling something prickly on her skin. Hmm...

A couple of the guys believed they'd heard unfamiliar noise a few times from the other side of the bar. Members of the team thought they might've seen or heard voices. Later during the night, Sara and her husband, David, along with one of the team members, explored the office and with some Ghostbuster-like device, was apparently able to "communicate with the dead." When I entered the room for a few minutes, I felt the room grow colder once again. At one point, Sara said she felt something push her back, not forcefully but that it definitely didn't feel welcoming. The paranormal team member kept wondering why Sara seemed to be targeted but couldn't come up with anything conclusive. Then, from the Ghostbuster device that Sara's husband held, we heard the word "Sara" repeated a few times (as well as the name "Elliot"). Jesus, I cleared out of there like Forrest Gump!

As I gain more time and distance from this night, I admittedly feel more skeptical, that there may be a natural explanation for everything, but the temperature drop is the one thing I feel uncomfortable about wholly dismissing. Perhaps because the room truly felt like a meat locker, that the frigid air seemed to surround my body, and felt less like a physiological response coming from within, but who knows. The mystery continues and the paranormal investigation team will return for at least another visit soon. After a night of staying nearly silent inside a dark bar, I walked out of the Republican and squinted into the sun. night...