Take a haunted campus tour this Halloween

Whether you believe in ghosts or not, their essence during the Halloween season leaks into our hearts and minds. This Halloween Alpha Psi Omega, the Creative Campus Initiative and University Programs have teamed up to bring a truly haunting event to campus.

Crimson Hauntings, which takes place on Oct. 30 and 31, will take students on tours of haunted places around the University campus, retelling many of the haunting stories and myths on campus.

"This event is different from other events because the audience is not sitting and watching," said Hillary Phillips, a Creative Campus intern. "What people will learn is not necessarily artistic. It's history is performed in an artistic manner."

The idea for Crimson Haunting came after Phillips read an article in the University of Alabama Alumni Magazine about ghost stories around campus.

"I thought that it would be a great idea to give ghost tours at Halloween for students to learn about the different haunted places on campus," Phillips said.

Phillips and APO member Laine Spencer decided their organizations would be a perfect match for the project. University Programs came on board in September by adding a paranormal investigator (or ghost hunter) to the event.

The investigator is Derek Bartlett, the founder of the Cape and Islands Paranormal Research Society in Massachusetts, who will speak at the Ferguson Theatre on Oct. 30 at 7 p.m. At the end of his presentation (approximately 8:30 p.m.) thirty-minute ghost tours will begin in the Ferguson Plaza.

Areas such as the Quad, Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library, Allen Bales Theatre, some sorority houses, The Alabama Natural History Museum and others will be featured on the tours.

"The event is free, and all you have to do is show up," Phillips said.

T-shirts will be given away at the end of the tour to the first 200 attendees. Students are encouraged to dress in their costumes for the Halloween tours.

"Crimson Hauntings might not scare you, but it may send an occasional shiver down your spine each time you're on campus at night," she said. "The event will teach you bits of history of the university and also give you some great stories to tell your friends."

Who you gonna call?

Derek Bartlett grew up under the influence of television shows like "The Night Stalker" and a mother tucking him in to ghost stories. For him, the fascination with the paranormal had always been there but it was an odd apparition on a photo that finally caught his attention.

"While staying at a bed and breakfast in Vermont, I had taken a photo of a masseuse sitting on a bed," Bartlett said. "When I got it developed it appeared to have looked as if another person was standing in the background with white lines through the body."

Bartlett showed the image to another paranormal investigating team, who in turn published it and claimed it as their own.

"After that I started looking into what it took to be a ghost hunter, and I realized I didn't need a parapsychology degree," Bartlett said.

The following six months were spent reading on what it took to be a paranormal investigator.

In 2004 Bartlett became incorporated in the state of Massachusetts as a government non-profit paranormal investigation service. His business, Cape and Islands Paranormal Research Society, investigates everything from ghosts to UFO and Crypto to Altus Zoology, which deals with creatures such as the Loch Ness monster and Bigfoot.

"We're not the team that goes to just famous places," Bartlett said. "What I wanted was to help people with the things they are going through."

Throughout Cape Cod and Massachusetts, Bartlett's group has investigated about 60 residences with alleged paranormal events.

"People call us because they have activity. Who else can they turn to? The psychologist will give them meds, saying they're crazy, and the contractors will rip up foundations in search of footsteps," he said.

Nothing to fear but fear itself

Unlike most ghost hunters, Bartlett did not have his first ghost encounter as a child. His first sighting of an apparition did not happen until he began ghost hunting.

"I have been choked and punched by unseen hands, had footsteps running at me, and even experienced possessions that weren't nice," he said.

Bartlett does not dismiss the presence of fear that resides in each person. He said he understands that fear is a natural part of being human and for him to tell you he's never been afraid would be a lie. Even though he is a former scout sniper for the Marines, he will still occasionally leave a paranormal site shaking.

"It depends on where I am and who I am around as to when I let my fear show," he said. "I can't freak about because I'm the leader - the one in control. I sure can't show fear when the homeowners are near because they're the ones having to live with the thing that is freaking me out."

The Skeptics

Bartlett credits the skeptics that have challenged him, saying they've kept him grounded and kept him thinking about every possibility behind the cases he works.

"I may be chasing paranormal energy but I'm stuck in the thrill of it," he said. "True skeptics retrace my steps and make sure to check and question things I wouldn't normally think of."

Though people call him weird, Bartlett can always turn to a person and ask them to tell him about a ghost story they've heard.

"I ask them, 'I bet you know a ghost story someone's told you,' and they'll go off into a long story about one they've heard," he said. "Everyone knows one, and sometimes they turn out to be true."

Crimson Hauntings

Though Bartlett has been to ghost conferences across the United States, he's never been to Alabama.

"When UA called and asked if I'd come, I said I definitely would," he said. "It's not about the money but about seeing the other haunted locations in the world.

One thing Bartlett enjoys about speaking on college campuses is that the students of the college pick the locations to ghost hunt.

"I have no knowledge of the places we'll visit on the trip or the history behind those places," Bartlett said.

"Everything spoken in my lecture is real events that have happened to myself and other paranormal investigators," he said. "It's a presentation with things I've collected over the past seven years of my profession."

Bartlett said he hopes his lecture will inform people of the dangers that happen to people that would like to investigate the paranormal. He'll also talk about ghosts, vampires and cemeteries. After his lecture Bartlett will assist with the ghost tours and take groups to haunted areas and attempt to find paranormal activity.

"Everyone that comes [should] know that it's OK to be excited and afraid," Bartlett said. "You are going to be a ghost hunter, and I'll teach you."

For more information on Derek Bartlett and the Cape and Islands Paranormal Research Society, visit www.caiprs.com.