Delta Paranormal Society - Ghostbusters, Southern Style

Do you believe in ghosts, spirits or the after life? For every person who doesn't believe that "ghosts" really exist, you'll find another one whom does. One such true believer is Mr. Charles Haynes, a truck driver by profession and founder of the Delta Paranormal Society, an Arkansas based team of ghost hunters and paranormal investigators. According to Mr. Haynes, it's his belief in ghosts that has brought him closer to God. "I want to know why they are here," states Mr. Haynes, a tall, mild mannered man with a soft-spoken voice and an easygoing personality, "There's a reason for it. If you want to make the difference of good and bad, I don't think that really has anything to do with it".

A Part Time Hobby Turns Into A Full Time Passion

For the past two years Mr. Haynes has been on a personal quest to prove the existence of ghosts and to establish himself in the field of paranormal research. Armed with only "Dowling Rods", a set of camcorders with night vision and infrared capabilities, and two high 8's to record audio impressions, Mr. Haynes states that he is capable of entering a room, a building or even a cemetery and pinpointing the exact location of natural energy that might be in the air. According to Mr. Haynes, this is an indicator of paranormal activity and when the Dowling Rods cross you are on the trail of a ghost.

When asked how long he has been interested in ghosts and the paranormal, he stated to me, "I started doing this up until a certain point, just this past year, but I have been studying them for over four or five years. I've driven a truck for the last 32 years on the road and this was just one of my hobbies I've always done. I've always thought there was something more to it than just the fact of some people saying, well, yes, I've seen this and I've seen that and what would encourage me is seeing these other groups actually going out and starting to do this and I said, well then, it can be done".

First Encounter With A Ghost

According to Mr. Haynes, he was a child when he first became aware of his abilities. The first time a ghost made its presence known to him he was only five years old, but he didn't come to understand that what he was seeing wasn't considered normal until he turned eight. Mr. Haynes recalls trying to tell his mother one time about a "man that was just sitting over there watching him" and how frustrating it was to try and make her understand that he wasn't making the whole thing up. Incidents such as these are what have helped him in his understanding and appreciation of paranormal research today and ghosts in general. "Its not like I go out of my way to look for them, " stated Mr. Haynes, "Certain little incidents just seemed to happen."

One other incident Mr. Haynes recounted for me happened after he became grown and he was serving a tour of duty in Vietnam. "I got split from my unit on a night patrol," he stated to me, "Charlie was between us and my unit and I didn't have no clue how to get back to them. This individual came up to me in the dark, it was pitch black in the jungle, and he startled me and spoke English in enough time for me to realize he was an American. He said you're lost from your group aren't you and I said yeah and he said well follow me and I'll take you to them. I never did get close enough to touch him but by it being dark I could see him just as solid as anything else and he always, whenever I moved towards him, he always stayed one step ahead of me. He took me right on and he talked just like a black guy. When we got close to our lines he said see your guys over there and I said yeah, that's them right there and he said well, then go on over there you have made it where you need to go and he took off back that way". According to Mr. Haynes, his unit was watching him on an infrared Star Light scope as he approached their lines and the only person they saw that night was him. There was no one else around that could have guided him back safely to his unit.

St. Francis County Museum

So far, the Delta Paranormal Society only has three active members, which consists of Mr. Haynes, his grandson and a cameraman. Mr. Haynes states that they are open for new members but first he wants make sure they are trained correctly and know how to handle themselves when hunting ghosts. The testing ground for this young, investigative team has been the St. Francis County Museum, located in Forrest City, Arkansas. Mr. Haynes has recorded several hours of video inside the museum in his efforts to capture a real live ghost on film.

"This was our first investigation", Mr. Haynes pointed out to me as we sat in his office and watched a video that ended with a clip of an apparition running past an open door. "I had already been there to set up cameras, did research, caught some stuff on film, as you can see those VCR tapes, some of them are blank, but all of them are documentation of films we done right in the museum. Where we went in there, set up and let it run from, say, 10:00 p.m. at night until 6:00 a.m. in the morning, and what's so significant about most of those is some of the stuff we didn't catch parse on film we caught it on audio. And just listening to, just watching those films, just watching all of those I can tell about what time they start their day every morning, when they go into certain rooms in the house, you can hear it, when they are coming down the stairs".

Formerly known as the Rush House because it belonged to Dr. J.O. Rush, a surgeon that made most of his money off of the railroad in Forrest City and injured workmen and ill passengers, it remained in the Rush-Gates family until 1995. Sometimes after that it became county property. Rumored to be haunted by ghosts that were more playful than destructive, the museum was featured in an article published by the Associated Press in October 2002, entitled: "Ghosts, Monsters, Unexplained Phenomena, Haunts State". In the article it states that, "Forte, business director of the St. Francis County Museum, said employees have longed talked about strange nighttime goings in the museum." And, "there's one story about a man from a train whose arm was amputated in here by Dr. Rush". There have been other stories of objects mysteriously being moved at night, locked doors being opened, and passerby's seeing ghosts at night rocking in the chairs the museum keeps on their front porch.

Renovated in 2005, the museum has given Mr. Haynes and his team opportunities for research he probably never would not have received anywhere else. "Well, the one basic thing about the museum and the work that I do is that I'm a history buff and there's a lot of history in this area that the museum has yet to collect," states Mr. Haynes. "It kind of works both ways, we go out and we'll document old towns, old cemeteries, old land marks, things of this matter and we bring it back into the museum, and they have open up a lot of opportunities for me. I can go in there with my paranormal equipment to find things and document things for history".

A Hard Road Ahead

So what does the future hold for Mr. Haynes and the Delta Paranormal Society? Mr. Haynes is still hoping to get that one big break that will give him the credibility he is searching for. He is also in need of a sponsor. "I have always said that opportunity knocks and whenever I feel I can get that first opportunity to put that really great investigation out there to show people what we really can do I believe that's where my start is going to come from. It's going to take for us to go out there and show what we really can do. It's going to take some time and it's going to take a sponsor. There are some places in Arkansas that I would love to go and investigate but it's going to take financing. The biggest thing right now is finding a sponsor".

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