Ain't Afraid of No Ghosts

The San Francisco Ghost Society has something that your average geek with an EMF reader doesn't: evidence. It's true! The site has YouTube videos popping with local activity, and that's good enough for us. In one, filmed at an unnamed theater, one of the ghost hunters asks "Is there anyone here?" And a ghost responds, "No." Swear! In another, dated March 2 of last year, the crew set up a night-vision camera in Mary Lake Suite of the Queen Anne Hotel, played some old piano music (ghosts like a little period music now and again), and caught a ghost singing along. Needless to say, we're very impressed by our local ghost society. Founded a few years back by "ghost historian" Tommy Netzband, creator of the Haunted Haight Walking Tour, the SFGS had grown to ten members, all of them armed with solid bona fides relating to the haunting industry. The all-volunteer group serves the community in a very S.F. fashion, conducting free, confidential investigations of reported paranormal activity, and they don't respond to every bump in the night with, "We got another one, boys!" As they say on the site, "Our approach is one of flexible skepticism; we seek to remain unconvinced by the end of the investigation." Good for them. Today, the crew presents the SFGS Spring 2008 Free Lecture Series, which includes four talks: "Developing Psychic Skills" with licensed medium Annalisa Bastiani, "Investigation 101" with Field Training Coordinator Syndi Burton, "Ghost Evidence Bay Area" with Ghost Trackers-founder Gloria Young, and "Ghosts of Alcatraz Island" with Netzband, who relates what went down last November when the society spent the night on the island. He's bringing evidence!
Sat., March 8, noon, 2008