This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
The magnificent Callahan House in downtown Longmont was full of light on a cold January evening, and a small crowd was waiting outside to join a “special investigation” into the paranormally active Longmont landmark.
Dori Spence of Kindred Spirits Society International was hosting and leading the event which she described as a primarily “psychic” exploration into the world of the spirits.
A mainly female but otherwise diverse group soon filled the main floor parlor rooms and listened attentively while Dori explained the purpose of the evening. Evidently, spirits have been felt and seen throughout the house over the years, including the main floor living room we gathered in. Participants were given the choice of following Dori as she toured the house, or going off independently to different areas, including the attic and basement, usually off-limits to guests.
Maglites and metal dowsing rods were available to borrow or purchase, and some devotees had brought along their own equipment, including some very professional looking camera equipment. Dowsing is usually associated with water divining, but these pairs of metal L-shaped wires are used specifically for spirit contact.
Dori used her dowsing rods to identify the location of a spirit in the room, with the two carefully held wires suddenly diverging as she made her way into the corner by a floor lamp. At my request, she also moved the rods into another corner of the room that also contained a lighted floor lamp. I had thought that perhaps the electric energy of the lamp had caused the rods to move, but that did not appear to be the case, as the rods made no movement in the second corner. Food for thought.
Another encounter with a spirit in that room was experienced by Dori earlier in the day when she felt a slight difference in temperature in the center of the room. It appeared to be in a definite circle she said, so she put on a blindfold, cleared her mind and was able to communicate with the male spirit. According to Dori, the spirit was the piano player that was often hired to play at parties in the early Callahan years. He was not happy as the music room was now somewhere that he was not allowed to go. Dori later found out from the management that the original piano was moved from the main floor music room to another room upstairs – that used to be Mrs. Callahan’s bedroom.
The tour continued with more stories about the inhabitants of the house in its days as the residence of the wealthy Callahans, including their staff and families. Some of the visitors also reported changes in temperature in other parts of the house, while one woman in an upstairs bedroom described how she was smelling a strong rose scent in a particular corner. Other Kindred Spirits members set up with dowsing rods and Maglites in another dark room and waited for spirit contact. The flashlights are used to communicate with spirits by slightly loosening the metal case so the light is off. When a spirit does respond to questions (always with a Yes or No response) the light will flicker, just as a dowsing rod will quiver or move in response. Unfortunately, none of the three flashlights in the room this time responded.
I talked with a man who described himself as a skeptic and had borrowed dowsing rods. He was in the old kitchen and got quite a strong reaction when pointing the rods in one particular direction. We discussed whether the response could be due to the power outlets on the wall, but he was still not convinced either way and decided to continue his research in the basement. I never found out whether he became a believer as he left the house before the end of the investigation.
The evening carried on with various groups often using EMF meters to measure AC electromagnetic fields or EVP recorders that can sense electronic voice phenomena or the sounds potentially caused by ghost or spirits. Some of these seemed to yield positive results, but most people seemed to prefer the more natural method of human senses and the lightweight metal rods.
Before the investigation at the Callahan House ended and people transferred to the Dickens House for review and discussion, I watched a man carefully holding his dowsing rods and standing calmly in the downstairs room where we had first gathered. He slowly asked a series of questions and received a response from the rods in each case. “Is there a spirit in the room?”, “Are you male or female?”, “Are you a child?” (this triggered a positive answer), “Were you a member of the Callahan family?” and so on. This was very impressive, and especially so when he asked the spirit who she liked best in the room and the rods swiveled towards the man’s 12 year-old daughter. The young girl’s reaction was a combination of excitement and apprehension. “Will she want to come home with me?” she asked. Her father soothed her anxiety and I left the house with perhaps more questions than answers.
The Kindred Spirits Society International’s website describes their ethos as “We are All Kindred Spirits…and at Physical Death Life as we Know it Changes….but is does not End”.
And they also describe what I thought of as a rather comforting objective: “We hope that by gaining a greater understanding of the nature of these invisible life forms in a more profound manner and sharing this information with all who are interested, that we will be instrumental in helping to eliminate (or at least greatly lessen the fear of) paranormal experiences and the fear of death.”
