Kingsburg and Reedley California are significantly haunted places. So says Ghost Hunter Josh Rodriguez of Kingsburg. Josh has investigated over 30 places throughout California, but most predominately in the South Fresno County area. It all started when he was two years old. His family was living in a home on Elkhorn Road and Josh was playing in the living room when all of a sudden his body flew across the room, according to his mother, Rosa. While the experience was painful, the bigger effect was that Josh was traumatized and it took him years to develop his speech. In addition Josh began having the ability to see and communicate with ghosts. As he grew older, he began researching and studying everything he could get his hands on regarding the spirit world. The more he learned, the less frightened he became and the more confident in his abilities to ghost hunt.
According to Josh, “I know how it feels to be made fun of, so when I heard people talking about seeing things that they couldn’t explain, I knew that I was meant to help them. You need to be respectful of people, but at the same time skeptical. You don’t want someone trying to trick you. But at the same time, you want to help people. My phone rings constantly now with people wanting me to help them to understand what’s going on.”
Rodriquez explained that ghosts reside in places, not necessarily structures. If a house has a ghost in it and the house is torn down, the spirit will remain in the same area regardless. He also asserts that despite popular belief, there are very few ghosts in cemeteries. Instead, they tend to be where the living are because they prefer activity to silence. Poltergeists are entirely different. They are evil spirits who require specialized, and possibly dangerous, techniques to properly deal with them.
In order to further understand the anatomy of a ghost hunt, Josh took my husband Robert, photographer Danny Valderrama, and myself on a hunt in the Kingsburg area. The house is currently occupied by Berta Torres and Jose Barajas who have seen at least four different spirits on the property. According to the couple, there is a large man wearing a cowboy hat, a lady who wears white linen, and two men. They say that the two men are mean and often play tricks on them and push Jose from behind. The lights flicker, the lady in linen was seen by Berta and a guest walking through a wall, then look at them and continue to walk through the house, loud bangs, doors slamming and trees shaking for no apparent reason. Strange and unexplainable things have happened on the property throughout the 15 years that they have lived there. The couple told us about their experiences and then left for the evening so that we could begin the investigation.
Josh had been to this home before with a psychic. The psychic got scared and abruptly left the area. This would be Josh’s second attempt at communicating with the spirits at this location. He began pulling out his equipment which was held in a large duffle bag. The first test would be with an Electric Voice Phenomena (EVP) device. The EVP can be any recording device including a microcassette player. When trying to capture an EVP sound everyone must remain very, very still. Creeks, shifting of feet or any movement will be recorded and could be misinterpreted later. Asking the ghosts questions will prompt them to answer back if they are around and willing to cooperate. Josh asked the female spirit which decade she had died in. She responded “yes” when asked if she had died in the 1970s. We did not hear this, but when we reviewed the tape later, the recording device had picked it up.
Next we used a Ghost Box where a device and amplifier are used to establish white noise. Questions are sometimes answered at frequencies we wouldn’t be able to hear otherwise. Here is the dialog we heard with Josh asking the questions and a spirit answering them:
How many spirits are here? 7
What is your name? Ruben
How old are you? 10
Where did you die? Kingsburg
And then; Please stop
Danny Valderrama brought two additional devices. A parabolic microphone and an electromagnetic fields (EMF) meter. These scientific devices are popular with ghost hunters. The EMF meter is popular because ghosts will often cause a spike in the EMF which becomes a ‘heads up’ for the ghost hunter that they are nearby. The parabolic microphone picks up sounds that might not be heard under normal circumstances. There is a trailer house on the property where the spirit with the cowboy hat is said to have died. We decide to go to that area with our devices. While we talked about who should go, the device spiked to its maximum when Danny said he would go. Josh asked, “Should Robert go?” No response from the meter. “Should Jolene go?” No response from the meter. “Should Danny go?” The meter again shot to its maximum. Brave Danny volunteered to venture to the trailer along with Robert. Not-so-brave Jolene stayed a safe distance away, ready to report what news the others brought back. While there, Danny and Robert picked up more readings on the EMF meter. Danny felt a brush against his ear when there was no one nearby.
Pictures were taken with several different cameras. There are times where an orb or other image will appear in an area, but is unseen by the human eye. Tapping was done as a form of communication as well. Josh invited the spirits to tap if they were present. We did hear tapping but agreed that it was inconclusive. As we finished our hunt, Josh had each of us put a special powder and oil on our bodies to ward off any spirit who might want to leave with us.
Josh says that ghost hunting is done predominately at night because there are less distractions and other sounds than there are during the day making it easier to see and hear spirits. However, spirits are active all the time. He says that people call him when they’re at the end of their rope, feeling frightened and wanting to move away from the dwelling. His goal in these instances is to become the liaison between the two worlds where he can explain to the homeowners who the ghost is, or was, why they’re doing whatever they are doing and in some cases, to attempt to get them to leave the area. He does not charge for his expertise because he considers it more of a calling than a profession. He looks forward to the day when he can meet again the spirit who threw him across the room when he was a toddler. He has a few things he’d like to say to him. For more information about Josh’s services, visit his website, www. http://paranormalcrys.webs.com/ .
According to Josh, “I know how it feels to be made fun of, so when I heard people talking about seeing things that they couldn’t explain, I knew that I was meant to help them. You need to be respectful of people, but at the same time skeptical. You don’t want someone trying to trick you. But at the same time, you want to help people. My phone rings constantly now with people wanting me to help them to understand what’s going on.”
Rodriquez explained that ghosts reside in places, not necessarily structures. If a house has a ghost in it and the house is torn down, the spirit will remain in the same area regardless. He also asserts that despite popular belief, there are very few ghosts in cemeteries. Instead, they tend to be where the living are because they prefer activity to silence. Poltergeists are entirely different. They are evil spirits who require specialized, and possibly dangerous, techniques to properly deal with them.
In order to further understand the anatomy of a ghost hunt, Josh took my husband Robert, photographer Danny Valderrama, and myself on a hunt in the Kingsburg area. The house is currently occupied by Berta Torres and Jose Barajas who have seen at least four different spirits on the property. According to the couple, there is a large man wearing a cowboy hat, a lady who wears white linen, and two men. They say that the two men are mean and often play tricks on them and push Jose from behind. The lights flicker, the lady in linen was seen by Berta and a guest walking through a wall, then look at them and continue to walk through the house, loud bangs, doors slamming and trees shaking for no apparent reason. Strange and unexplainable things have happened on the property throughout the 15 years that they have lived there. The couple told us about their experiences and then left for the evening so that we could begin the investigation.
Josh had been to this home before with a psychic. The psychic got scared and abruptly left the area. This would be Josh’s second attempt at communicating with the spirits at this location. He began pulling out his equipment which was held in a large duffle bag. The first test would be with an Electric Voice Phenomena (EVP) device. The EVP can be any recording device including a microcassette player. When trying to capture an EVP sound everyone must remain very, very still. Creeks, shifting of feet or any movement will be recorded and could be misinterpreted later. Asking the ghosts questions will prompt them to answer back if they are around and willing to cooperate. Josh asked the female spirit which decade she had died in. She responded “yes” when asked if she had died in the 1970s. We did not hear this, but when we reviewed the tape later, the recording device had picked it up.
Next we used a Ghost Box where a device and amplifier are used to establish white noise. Questions are sometimes answered at frequencies we wouldn’t be able to hear otherwise. Here is the dialog we heard with Josh asking the questions and a spirit answering them:
How many spirits are here? 7
What is your name? Ruben
How old are you? 10
Where did you die? Kingsburg
And then; Please stop
Danny Valderrama brought two additional devices. A parabolic microphone and an electromagnetic fields (EMF) meter. These scientific devices are popular with ghost hunters. The EMF meter is popular because ghosts will often cause a spike in the EMF which becomes a ‘heads up’ for the ghost hunter that they are nearby. The parabolic microphone picks up sounds that might not be heard under normal circumstances. There is a trailer house on the property where the spirit with the cowboy hat is said to have died. We decide to go to that area with our devices. While we talked about who should go, the device spiked to its maximum when Danny said he would go. Josh asked, “Should Robert go?” No response from the meter. “Should Jolene go?” No response from the meter. “Should Danny go?” The meter again shot to its maximum. Brave Danny volunteered to venture to the trailer along with Robert. Not-so-brave Jolene stayed a safe distance away, ready to report what news the others brought back. While there, Danny and Robert picked up more readings on the EMF meter. Danny felt a brush against his ear when there was no one nearby.
Pictures were taken with several different cameras. There are times where an orb or other image will appear in an area, but is unseen by the human eye. Tapping was done as a form of communication as well. Josh invited the spirits to tap if they were present. We did hear tapping but agreed that it was inconclusive. As we finished our hunt, Josh had each of us put a special powder and oil on our bodies to ward off any spirit who might want to leave with us.
Josh says that ghost hunting is done predominately at night because there are less distractions and other sounds than there are during the day making it easier to see and hear spirits. However, spirits are active all the time. He says that people call him when they’re at the end of their rope, feeling frightened and wanting to move away from the dwelling. His goal in these instances is to become the liaison between the two worlds where he can explain to the homeowners who the ghost is, or was, why they’re doing whatever they are doing and in some cases, to attempt to get them to leave the area. He does not charge for his expertise because he considers it more of a calling than a profession. He looks forward to the day when he can meet again the spirit who threw him across the room when he was a toddler. He has a few things he’d like to say to him. For more information about Josh’s services, visit his website, www. http://paranormalcrys.webs.com/ .
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