Book charts path for detective ‘Chasing Shadows’

BY TARA KOVAL
Times-Shamrock Correspondent

While the movie “Paranormal Activity” may have been fictional, the activities of Mark Keyes, co-founder and director of the Pennsylvania Paranormal Association, are certainly real as is his recently published book reveals.

On Friday, April 24, Keyes hosted a signing for his new book, ‘Chasing Shadows: A Criminal Investigator’s Look into the Paranormal,’ and led a group discussion regarding paranormal investigation.

An intimate group of those intrigued by hauntings and the like gathered at the Factoryville Library with the author and his family and discussed odd, out of the ordinary and sometimes slightly scary occurrences.

Detective Keyes is a criminal investigator for the Pennsylvania State Police, and he has an educational background in psychology.

He said he has had an interest in the paranormal since he was about 10 years old, and ‘Chasing Shadows’ is a compilation of his ghostly experiences over the last 35 years. Throughout this time, Keyes has had personal and professional encounters, and many of these were documented on The Discovery Channel’s show ‘The Haunted’ on which Keyes was featured about nine times as a paranormal investigator.

On Friday, Keyes explained that PPA’s purpose is to “separate the normal from the paranormal” through investigation, noting the PPA aims to help rid their clients of any unwelcomed guests. “We want to try to stop the activity,” he said.

The PPA does not generally charge for its services, and they can be found online at www.ThePPA.net.

The PPA uses equipment such as a electromagnetic field or EMF meter, air ion counters, thermometers, barometers, camcorders, audio recorders and a thermo camera to assist in determining whether a location, personal or commercial, is haunted.

Keyes has also built a team of investigators beginning with a psychic medium, and he stressed that a psychic medium is not the same thing as a psychic.
A psychic, he said, “can tell information about your past, what you’re currently going through and maybe a little about your future. A medium can tune into dead people, they claim.”

Keyes did state that he has not only worked with psychic mediums during paranormal investigations, but he has also enlisted the help of a medium for police investigations.

Guests were treated to a story about how a medium even helped him to find a missing woman who had been pinned under a fallen tree in Susquehanna County.

Keyes wife, Lauren, is also a co-founder and director of the PPA, and both have intentionally selected skeptics to join their team and they will “try and get the medium to debunk things,” he said.

Sometimes, however, some things cannot be explained logically and this is where the PPA would assist in eliminating the activity.

Regarding how a location could become haunted, Keyes explained that sometimes it is just a matter of “inviting spirits to come in, and if they’re there and notice you, they’ll come in. Sometimes they stay,” he said.

Locally, there are a few spots according to Keyes and his wife, that they have investigated.

For instance, Keystone College staff members have made calls regarding unusual happenings, and Keyes said they have also investigated the Blakely Asylum.

While they would like to investigate the Clarks Summit State Hospital they have not, but the PPA has investigated Carbondale City Hall and three area police stations.

‘Chasing Shadows,’ published by Rowe Publishing, is described as an “evolution from criminal investigator to paranormal investigator,” and explains that “Detective Keyes is ultimately searching to uncover the truth and answer the question that he and so many others have asked: are ghosts real?”