Hunting Ghosts on Nantucket
If you’re worried that a past owner of your house from Nantucket’s Whaling days may be still be living in your master bedroom, you’re not alone. Ghost stories have circulated on Nantucket for centuries, with no way of really knowing if they were true. Was it a whisper of a ghost or of the wind you heard last night? Were you groggy from a dream or was there really a lady standing in front of your bed? There was no way to be sure until Nantucket Paranormal Group was formed.
Most ghost hunters want to believe. However, Ray Sylvia Jr. wants proof. He has seen a few unexplainable events, but he has also debunked his share of rumored hauntings. “Before I say definitely there is or isn’t ghosts or the supernatural I want to see it for myself, and get proof.”
Proof is what Ray and his group of fellow ghost hunters that make up Nantucket Paranormal Group are after. They want to capture on film, through audio, to have evidence of what goes bump in the night. What spooks us interests them, and may just help us get some peace of mind, as well as a good night’s sleep.
Nantucket Paranormal Group started with a shared interest in Nantucket’s ghost stories and island lore. Sylvia explained, “Me, Bob (Grangrade), and Scott (Williams), were all playing in a band and kept having talks about really going out and investigating hauntings. Along with Brian Potter, we decided to start the group. Bob got us really started by buying all of the equipment and my dad, Ray Sr., started doing all of the historical research, and got us off the ground.”
Since their beginning, Nantucket Paranormal has been dead serious about the investigations they undertake. Sylvia’s father, Ray Sylvia Sr., extensively researches each site they investigate. He digs through the site histories to find information about owners, their families, and anything that may have happened that might cause a spirit not to move on.
“Finding names is important,” says Sylvia Sr. about his research. “When I find names that may mean something to the spirit, it can cause things to happen.”
Beyond the extensive research Sylvia does at the Nantucket Atheneum and the Nantucket Historical Society, the group also relies on state-of-the-art equipment. They use an arsenal of electrical monitoring equipment, including thermal detectors, night-vision cameras, voice-recorders, and boom microphones that can pick up the faintest of voices—human or supernatural.
They have been able to use this equipment to debunk several hauntings, demonstrating that the “whispers” were just bad wiring or loose pipes. However, they have several recordings of EVP’s, electronic voice phenomena, they just cannot explain. Including the voices of two men near the stage at the Chicken Box, well after hours, when no one, but the group was present.
What separates Nantucket Paranormal from other ghost hunters is they embrace the challenge. “With a lot of what you see on TV, the investigators run away screaming when they find something. We run towards it. It makes no sense if you’re trying to investigate something and you run away from it,” said the younger Sylvia.
Sylvia says that his group looks forward to doing their investigations and that they do not get spooked by what would cause most to go running. One reason for this is because they are not only investigating hauntings; they are helping people.
“We had one lady who was looking to purchase a house on Pleasant Street. She really liked the house, but just got a real strange feeling every time she went in the master bedroom. We agreed to go in and check it out. What we found was the wiring for the master bedroom’s hot tub was emitting high EMF waves that can make people feel nauseous. So the mystery was debunked, and the wiring was easily fixable.”
Nantucket Paranormal has also helped families whose kids swore there were ghosts about, and they have scoped out some of the island’s historic houses with ghost legends dating back to the whaling days. However, there is one place they have not entered that is at the top of their wish list.
“The JC House (the Jared Coffin House) is our Holy Grail. We would love to get in there,” said Sylvia Jr.
The researcher, Sylvia Sr., knows the legend behind the Jared Coffin House. “The story goes that Jared Coffin really never wanted to leave the island, it was his wife that made them pack up and go. People say he came back and is still there rocking in his rocking chair. Some people have been sitting by the fireplace and seen the chair rock, no wind, it just moves back and forth.”
Besides knowing the legends behind many ghost stories, Ray Sylvia Sr. has had experiences himself. “Once, while opening a house in ‘Sconset it was 80 degrees in June. The whole house was hot, but then on this one staircase it was 30 degrees. How do you figure that out? Might just be a dark staircase, but just up above the staircase was 80 degrees and below it was too. Then, later that summer, the daughter of the owner of the house reported seeing a figure of a nun on the same stairs. They sold their house after that.”
Nantucket Paranormal Group is always looking for new places to investigate. Now eight members strong, they are more ready then ever for uncovering the truth. They operate pro-bono, so if you think there’s a captain in your cupola or a whaling widow on your walk, give them a call, they’re happy to check it out.
To schedule an investigation call 508-228-5709 or for more information visit their Facebook page: Nantucket Paranormal Group.
