Complete FLORIDA TODAY coverage delivered to your door. Subscribe now.

Oct 28, 2:43 PM

Foundation seeks answers to paranormal happenings
                 
By Jim Duddy
For FLORIDA TODAY

Even the Sunshine State has its dark side on Halloween.

So, where do they gather, where do they dwell, all the ghosts of Florida?

Well, it seems they have wised up these days and are staying at the best of hotels, beach resorts, restaurants or mingling with the bed-and-breakfast crowd. Nowadays ghosts and goblins are busy making big bucks scaring the delights out of the tourists.

For those who believe they have had a serious encounter of an unearthly kind, the people at the Florida Paranormal Research Foundation may have some down-to-earth answers.

According to the leader and co-founder of the group, Krista Mattson, who lives on Merritt Island and is an account executive with a large communications business firm by day, "We are comparatively small in number, with 15 investigators statewide who take both a scientific and spiritual approach. Therefore, we tend to stay away from the well-publicized places where ghosts seem to crave publicity. Instead, we concentrate on serious reports from ordinary people by conducting private interventions for private individuals and usually in private houses.

"This is not to dismiss all sightings in commercial establishments, they certainly do occur," she said. "However, a few business owners do appear overly eager to get us to certify their place as harboring an apparition and then advertise the fact. However, the research foundation is basically a learning organization committed to the documentation of paranormal events by using digital and film photography, audio recordings and infra-red video, as well as our members' proven psychological abilities.

"Actually, most ghosts are more confused than anything else and seem more to want our help than to harm us. Most are unable to move on to the hereafter due to unresolved issues here. It can be due to a great love or hate. Other 'anchors' which tie them here can include sorrow, anger or revenge," she explained.

Tim Tedana, the other half of the lead team and an expert in occult and religious matters, told of one of the organization's "interventions" he helped conduct when a young Rockledge woman called and said she thought something unnatural had moved in to her place shortly after her boyfriend did.

Accompanied by a research foundation's medium, and aided by the latest recording devices, they say they found in that particular case a simple digital camera and an old-fashion Ouija board were all that was needed to show the anomaly to be the ghost of a woman who, back in the 1930s, had been followed home from a local bar then raped and killed by a group of men.

"At first all the apparition spelled out on the board was 'My home . . . get out.' Then, communicating through the channeling of our medium, we learned the female ghost showed great hatred for all men and indicated she only wanted to protect the pretty young apartment dweller from the man who had moved in -- the boyfriend," said Tedana.

He said that after a lengthy session, during which the ghost showed disdain for him simply because he was a male, the ghost was apparently convinced the woman in question was in no danger and that it should think more of its own loved ones, who were doubtless waiting for it (her) to join them in the hereafter. After checking back and following up several times, Tedana said all concerned agreed that the ghost had gone.

Krista Mattson, co-founder of the Florida Paranormal Research Foundation and her partner Tim Tedana show off the tools of their trade in investigating paranormal activities.   Photo by Vince Austin, for FLORIDA TODAY

Those interested in joining the researchers, or enlisting their help, can reach them through their Web site at www.floridaparanormal.com and while there is no charge for any of their services, they do accept donations to cover their expenses.