Creeped Out by Paranormal Doings at Home?

Creaky floors. Cool drafts. Bumps in the night. They're enough to get the imagination running. Hollywood images converge with rational explanations, clouding reality and making these occurrences difficult to comprehend.

"Eighty percent of the claims of paranormal activity are things that can be explained away," said Melissa Tanner, founder and lead investigator of TnT Paranormal Investigators LLC. For three years, Tanner and her crew have been enlisted by area homeowners to dispel potential hauntings. Armed with digital camcorders, audio equipment and infrared cameras, Tanner seeks explanation.

"We always try to come from the logical, skeptical side when we approach it," she said. "We look for the natural cause of something."

On March 31, Tanner will be offering a class, "Paranormal  Activity 101," in which she will share her insight and techniques for dealing with unusual phenomena. The free program at the Flossmoor Public Library will explore the basics of paranormal activity, types of hauntings and the tools of the trade. Tanner will share photos from past investigations that include images of orbs and shadows and explain why these appear. While many of these have logical explanations, like dust particles in the air, there are some that defy explanation.

"We had a case where my goose bumps had goose bumps," she said.

She says "matrixing" plays a huge role in the way people perceive an otherwise unexplainable situation. She likens it to the way a child will look to the sky, see a cloud formation and declare that it looks like a rabbit or a dragon. The human mind may create a reality that isn't reality at all, but the brain's way of explaining an otherwise confusing event.

According to Tanner, the homeowner has a few options when dealing with inexplicable events.

"Learn to live with it. Move. Try to ask it to leave or have a religious person come to the home," she said.  "If it's at a tolerable level, you'll have to ask yourself if you can live with it."

For more information, visit the Flossmoor Library website or call 708-798-3600, ext. 114.

Look for A Great Escape every Wednesday at 4 p.m.