Now that Derby has been put on the map, as far as ghosts are concerned, with an appearance of the Sterling Opera House on the TV show “Ghost Hunters,” it’s time to take the next step into the unknown.
A regional paranormal investigative group — called “Above the Realm Paranormal” — has set up a local office at the Valley Arts Council’s Valley Center of the Arts at 119 Caroline Street.
There won’t be a sign in the window though, said Rich DiCarlo, president of the Valley Arts Council.
“We’re trying to keep it under the radar,” DiCarlo said. “If something happens, we’re here. But we don’t want people walking in there. We’re trying to keep it low key.”
The organization is all volunteer. DiCarlo has joined them as a member. It offers free professional paranormal research, investigation and education, according to its website.
The group’s leader lives in Colchester. The Derby office will be a place for members to gather to review the evidence they collect on cases in the area, said John Silveira, the founder and lead investigator.
The website states that the experiences of paranormal activities in a resident can be unnerving, and “that is why we are here to help you.”
Helping people overcome their fear is one of the aims.
“We’re about helping people,” Silveira said.
The two-year-old group’s 12 members can visit a place that is though to be haunted with a variety of equipment including night vision digital video recorders, audio recorders, cameras, electromagnetic field detectors and radios tuned to frequencies that are believed to be conducive to picking up ghost voices.
“We try to prove or disprove someone’s claim or theory,” Silveira said. If a family wants to be rid of so-called ghosts, the group can call in some other volunteers who specialize in helping spirits to cross over to eternity, so that they are no longer a presence.
He described the Derby office as a place with a table and some video monitors set up to they can piece together the video evidence they find.
“It’s a lot better to be all together,” he said of the office. “It’s a work in progress but we do have the office. We hope we can go further and educate people.”
Overall, Silveira said the Valley is a pretty active place, as far as paranormal activity goes. His group investigated at the Sterling Opera House three separate times.
He said part of helping people is explaining to them that the noises they thought were ghosts could be caused by natural happenings, such as pipes in the winter time.
“Nobody is an expert in the paranormal. That’s the journey we’re all on, to try to help the ones that need help,” he said.
In his experience, he believes what we call ghosts are spirits stuck here on earth who don’t want to cross over to eternity. There are others who specialize in that aspect of ghostly work.
“It’s exhausting,” he said of helping spirits cross over. “That’s not what I am, I don’t believe that’s what I’m here for.”
One of the group’s upcoming cases will be an investigation, a continued one from an earlier visit, of claims there is an apparition of a child at the Derby Library on Elizabeth Street.
“We just want to get as close to the truth as we can, basically,” he said. “They’ve had reports from the workers.”
To contact the Above the Realm Paranormal, call 1 – 860-227‑0439. There is no telephone line in the Derby office yet.
