By Karen Parr-Moody
There’s an inescapable reality about being born: Eventually, you die. Or do you? For paranormal investigator Paul Browning, that reality is as hazy as a ghost’s outline.
With Halloween looming, Browning’s experience – 10 years of investigating the paranormal – coincides with a timely question. Is traditional science adequate for explaining the mysterious phenomenon we call “ghosts”?
Browning, a Clarksville resident, tries to learn more about such phenomenon by building his own electronic gadgetry for capturing ghostly evidence. He says this evidence includes gamma radiations bursts, temperature variations, sounds and strong barometric shifts.
Jeannette Cheairs, one of the five children born to Nathaniel Francis and Susan Cheairs of Rippavilla, which is reported to be haunted. Photo courtesy of Rippavilla Plantation.
The most recent spot in which Browning experienced a “very active night” of paranormal phenomenon was Rippavilla Plantation in Spring Hill, Tennessee, a mansion that dates to 1855.
Browning has investigated Rippavilla a half dozen times with no results. But on his last visit, Browning saw something while in the company of a group of investigators, including Laura Bentley of Innovative Paranormal Research. They were gathering together in Rippavilla’s main hallway, having yet to set up their equipment.
“I looked over someone’s shoulder and there was a shadow in the hallway about 30 feet away,” Browning says. “While I was watching it, it went from right to left. It kind of caught me completely off guard.”
Then he witnessed what he calls “the second clincher.” Shortly after Browning saw the shadow moving downstairs, the group went upstairs to a nursery and the ceiling light was inexplicably on. Browning, who had been in the nursery earlier, says that it had definitely been off.
“I know for a fact it was off, because I was the last one to leave the room,” Browning says. “The light was already off. When I got to Rippavilla, it was the daytime. There were no lights on in the house.”
One of the phenomena that various witnesses claim to have experienced at Rippavilla are these nursery lights turning mysteriously on. And, according to the reports, it is sometimes the ceiling light and sometimes an antique lamp with a turn-key switch that lights up.
Another phenomenon reputed to occur at Rippavilla is that of cannon fire on the grounds. Browning’s team saw this, describing it as bursts of light that looked like fireworks.
“Not long after that we started hearing voices, women talking in the courtyard,” he says. “It was crazy.”
Browning is participating in a Rippavilla event on Saturday, Oct. 25 called “Whispers from the Past.” Browning will speak from 1:15 p.m. to 2 p.m. about ghost technology and investigating styles. For more information visit the Rippavilla website at www.rippavilla.org/whispers.asp.
Rippavilla Plantation in Spring Hill, Tennessee, on which construction was finished in 1855./Photo courtesy of Rippavilla Plantation.
Another area “haunted house” which Browning has investigated is Octagon Hall in Franklin, Kentucky, which dates to 1859. There Browning, along with five other witnesses, experienced “this three-and-a-half foot tall shadow that came flying into my face.”
There was a camcorder set up behind the group, but the apparition moved so fast – for 15 or so seconds – that it didn’t show up on the video.
A minute or two after the apparition appeared and disappeared, the group heard a voice say, “Mommy?”
Browning explains, “It was little girl’s voice. Like she was looking for Mom.”
Browning says he has captured some evidence with his equipment over the years, but that he doesn’t catch everything he sees or hears.
“That’s the tough part,” he says. “It’s a very, very difficult thing, because our hardware has to be at the right place at the right time. It’s like a shotgun; it has to be aimed.”
So what does he think of his paranormal experience?
After 10 years of research, Browning says we simply don’t know enough to explain these mysteries.
“When you get into this field … things happen. And no matter how hard you peel the layers of logic away, there’s something unexplainable.”
To read Browning’s books about Octagon Hall and about paranormal investigative techniques, visit his website at www.paulbrowning.net/my-books.
Rippavilla matriarch Susan Cheairs photographed with one of her five children./Photo courtesy of Rippavilla Plantation.
Karen Parr-Moody began a career as a New York journalist, working as a fashion reporter for Women’s Wear Daily, a beauty editor for Young Miss and a beauty and fashion writer for both In Style and People magazines. Regionally, she has been a writer at The Leaf-Chronicle newspaper and currently writes about arts and culture for Nashville Arts magazine each month.