Something goes bump in the night, you awake to a shadowy figure standing at the foot of your bed and you turn on the lights in a panic. Nothing is there. Was anything ever there? Was it a terrifying dream or a hallucination of the mind?
There may or may not have been a spirit or a shadow person in your room that night, it may have just been a night- mare or you just might be crazy. But if you want to know for sure, Chris Coray of Pandorica is your man.
“My whole thing has been about educa- tion,” Coray said. “My goal when we go into these situations is debunking. Some people get a kick out of saying they live in a haunted house, they enjoy that and they don’t like it when you debunk things. But that’s sort of my job.”
Normalizing the paranormal is what Coray is all about at Pandorica. While most ghost hunters do it for the thrill and
the chance to make a name for themselves, Pandorica’s mission is to help those in need and be a service to the community.
“I don’t charge anything and I do this all in my free time,” Coray said.
Just like a clergyman feels called to perform a service or a doctor is called to serve his patients, Coray operates on the level of helping others in a way they can- not help themselves.
“I started Pandorica about six months ago and I operate solo now,” Coray said. “The reason I do that is number one, I do have a lot of paranormal contacts in Utah. So if I ever need help I can always call them. But more of what I do now, I hesi- tate to call it counseling but that’s what it is. The first thing you do is debunk, sec- ond is education. We talk about what this could be, based on our current understand- ing of the unknown. I’ve enjoyed that a lot more because it’s more the parapsychol-
ogy approach rather than just paranormal.” Coray packs light when it comes to equipment. Armed with a $15 modified radio from Radio Shack also known as “Frank’s Box”, a deck of Tarot cards, a pendulum, an EMF detector and another modified secret weapon known as “The Devil’s Toy box”.
“Frank’s Box” is easily made by fol- lowing some simple directions online and when completed it scans stations non-stop and in the static voices may speak to you. The EMF detector scans for spikes in
the electro-magnetic field, the pendulum swings in different directions when asked yes or no questions and the tarot cards predict the future.
The “devil’s toy box” is made by duct- taping a box together with mirrors inside, using the mirrors to collect the light waves that make their way through the duct-tape seams. You then put an inductive micro-phone on the box and plug in to a recorder. The mirrors are able to pick up sound waves that cannot be heard by the naked ear and block out normal sounds. You can yell and scream at the box and it won’t pick up a thing.
Hollywood and television have sensationalized the paranormal with hit movies like “The Ring” and “The Exor- cist” to a point where people are easily creeped out and misunderstand what is really going on.
“I have been on investigations before with investigators that are experienced with gathering evidence, but they’re not super experienced with dealing with peo- ple,” Coray said. “They have a tendency to get really excited and overlook that fact that it’s really freaking people out.” Understanding people and how to relate what’s going on paranormally is key to the success of Pandorica.
“Psychology is the study of the mind,” Coray stated. “And in my opinion and in my experience, your mind doesn’t change much when you pass on. So understanding the psychology of someone is very im- portant in understanding why they would choose to hang around certain places [after they have passed on].”
Not everyone calls up Coray to bust some ghosts, sometimes lack of paranor- mal activity sparks a phone call.
“Education is the key,” Coray said. “I had an investigation last week where the person’s spouse had passed on and they couldn’t feel them. The lack of activity worried them and they were wanting to know if they were ok.”
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