The Sound of Spirits:
What is Infrasound and Why Should We Care About It?

“There is certainly a world beyond our normal consciousness from which neither space nor time divides us, but only the barrier of our sense-perceptions.... this threshold is not immovable.” ~William F. Barrett, 1918

That overwhelming feeling that you are being watched; the sensation that you are not alone although no one is in sight; that “6^th sense” that many of us have experienced at one point or another…It can cause the little hairs on our arms to stand up and our heart to beat just a little bit faster. The majority of people believe that there is a world unseen, a spiritual plane perhaps coexisting with our physical world. These feelings however, do not constitute evidence. That being said, they are also not to be ignored. These perceptions originate from something…some stimulus we cannot easily interpret. In a sense, if we cannot easily determine the origin, it may be considered “para normal’, that is, outside the normal experience. As a paranormal researcher, our jobs are to provide the physical evidence to validate these 6^th sense experiences. It is our responsibility to be well-informed of all the potential natural causes of haunted feelings.

Infrasound is sound frequency that is too low for the human ear to detect, falling below 20 hertz. Some natural causes of infrasound include earthquakes, avalanches, and waterfalls. Animals such as whales communicate via infrasound. Man-made producers of infrasound include explosions, diesel machinery, and wind turbines. Researchers who have studied infrasound posit that, although it is below our conscious perception, infrasound affects our bodies nonetheless. It can cause feelings of anxiety, dread, depression, and fear. At the right frequency it can impact our eyes, causing vibrations leading to distortions in vision and hallucinations or illusions.

So if we know that infrasound exists and that it is one potential cause of a haunting, why are we not measuring it? Measuring this low frequency requires highly specialized equipment, as readily-available sound sensors only measure in decibels and cannot account for the ultra-low frequency which constitutes infrasound. Instruments for measuring infrasound are few and far between and are typically quite expensive. However, TSPI is committed to providing the highest-quality investigations to our clients, and our ongoing desire to evaluate potential hauntings in a scientific manner will ensure that we search for a way to measure infrasound in the upcoming years.

Written by Laura Palmese

Investigator & Researcher

Thames Society of Paranormal Investigations (TSPI)

Beware the Lemures

 In ancient Rome, the people of the time believed in spirits called Lemures. They were thought to be benevolent spirits of deceased loved ones who couldn't afford a proper burial and were now restless. If one was not interred, in a tomb or cremated and placed in an urn, the soul could not cross the River Styx which is how the living passed into the world of the dead. These ghosts would come at night to terrorize the living. Although it is a term mostly used in antiquity Lemures are commonly used in tabletop RPGs as well as fantasy based characters of literature and video games.

"Mense Maio malae nubent...They wed ill who wed in May!   

This was such a concern for the Romans that they celebrated  Lemuria, a festival to appease these spirits. It was held on May 9, 11, and 13 and certain rituals would be performed in order to exorcize them. On the first day, the head of the household would rise at midnight barefoot, wash his hands three times, walk around throwing beans over his shoulder while reciting this line 9 times “I send these; with these beans, I redeem me and mine.” The beans were said to be offerings to the Lemures. The Vestal Virgins would prepare salted flour and sprinkle it on animals which would then be sacrificed on an altar and burned on a sacred fire on the second day. Then on the 13 of May, they would throw 30 images of old men from a bridge into the Tiber River. The whole month became known as unlucky due to the festivities and those who wed during the month could bring death upon themselves.

    The Lemur's name was derived from the Lemures. They were given the title due to their nocturnal behavior and slow movements. Although their glowing eyes in the night and their ghostly cries surely are fitting as well. No wonder why they were used in the tragedy of Faust as half undead creatures who bury Faust's body.

Written By Stephanie Sutera

Associate Director & Lead Investigator 

Thames Society of Paranormal Investigations

TSPI Debuts a NEW Web Series 

After years of discussion and planning, my team the Thames Society of Paranormal Investigations has created our own web series that revolves around some of our cases. It's really satisfying to see a project you put your heart and countless hours of work into blossom, into reality. It's titled "TSPI Presents: Into the Black" and our first episode is located in Windham, Connecticut in the United States. The place is over 200-years old mansion and our client was gracious enough to let us film our experience so we can present it to you.

Gray/Perkins House Windham, Connecticut

As always our first priority is to assist our clients. Our clientele come to us asking for our help and are looking for some sort of understanding about what is going on. So we make that our main focus. We are also in the business of research and data collection, which over time helps us perform better in the field. Lastly, our job is to educate. In order to do that efficiently and reach a plethora of people, we have had to take many different roads to get there. This includes radio shows, publications, blogging, paranormal events...and online videos of course. After all, a video is the best medium for distance learning and this led us to  the birth of "Into the Black".

This is not just another paranormal show!

After a slew of bad programs plagued with unbelievable or questionable evidence it was a tough decision to even go through with making the show (not all of them of course). We were also discouraged due to our encounters with the many major production companies we have crossed paths with in the past. Still, we felt that somehow this was the avenue to travel. Then came the realization that if we produce "Into the Black" ourselves we have total control of all of the content and that is when knew that we had a good idea.

TSPI Presents: Into the Black is such a fantastic tool to educate the masses. The program gives us the chance to share our methods of investigating and teach a history lesson at the same time, which is all tied up into a nice TSPI bow. The second episode is due to come out within the next few months and the show can be found on our website at tspiparanormal.com and on YouTube.    

Written by Stephanie Sutera

Associate Director & Lead Investigator 

Thames Society of Paranormal Investigations

The Life of a Paranormal Investigator:

Beyond the Glitz & Glamor of Television

Throughout my travels the one question that I am asked on a regular basis, aside from what is the craziest thing I have seen, is what is it like being on a paranormal investigation team? Unfortunately there isn’t a one or two sentence answer for a question like that. As with any job, and I do mean "job", there is both exhausting and very rewarding aspects to the field.

       The preliminary stages of an investigation are filled with client interviews and research searching through old newspapers and books and contacting local historians for any information on the site of interest is very time consuming and at times turns out to be fruitless due to lack of information recorded.  Luckily, we have a handful of team members that help in that process so that way we have as much data as we can before our investigation begins.  Even during the investigation, it is filled with long hours of waiting for activity, collecting a large amount of data, and debunking most of what we find. Plus, we conduct our investigations in the middle of the night and most of us have families and day jobs which can take a bit of getting used to.  The most draining component of our job is in our post investigation analysis. Our team spends countless hours watching video, scanning through photographs, and listening to EVPs searching for evidence. Even after the evidence has been accumulated, it has to be further analyzed and scrutinized. This method may be tedious, but it is very thorough.  Then after we have made our final decision, we present our findings.  Oh no! We do not stop there! We have to promote, advertise, keep up with social media and other websites, and find all sorts of paths leading to favorable PR which can be tricky in this racket.  In conclusion, what we do is exponentially time consuming the larger we grow as an organization. This is definitely a labor of love sort of gig. 

With that being said, having been a part of the Thames Society of Paranormal Investigations definitely has been 100% worth it and I am proud to be in the field for many positive reasons that far outweigh the bad.  I have learned so much since I started with T.S.P.I. so many years ago and not just about the paranormal field either. These experiences have taught me quite a bit about American history and have given me the opportunity of extensive “behind the scenes tours” of these rich locations. Even the residences that we have investigated have led me through avenues where I found out a lot about a local area’s antiquity that I might not have acquired otherwise.  Another rewarding factor is that I am working in a profession that has always interested me and hopefully  will give me a little incite as to what went on during  some of the paranormal experiences that I have endured in my lifetime.  Although these are very beneficial to me the most profitable is the team itself. During these past years, I have come to know and love each and every member. Every one of us has our own talents and areas of expertise that make this group so extraordinary and wonderful to work in.

 Usually when I explain to someone that I am a paranormal investigator their assumption is that we just explore cemeteries and sneak into abandoned buildings with a camera or camcorder and mess around with friends. So, when they ask the question “What is it like to be a paranormal investigator?” the answer is never quite what they expect.

Stephanie Sutera 

Associate Director of Thames Society of Paranormal Investigations

For more information or assistance, visit tspiparanormal.com