Left to right: Cathy Nance, Chris Borthick, Christy Clark, Carl Johnson, Taylor Nance, Mike Ricksecker, Dustin Cupit

First things first… Twitter finally got straightened out, so here is the link to follow me: http://www.twitter.com/mikericksecker

It was interesting to watch the episode “Monster in the Closet” last night on Animal Planet’s The Haunted. I was very happy that we were able to help this family overcome the entity that was terrorizing them, but it was also interesting to note all the things that got left out. There is so much more to the story than what Animal Planet showed on television. I’ll touch on a few of those tales here, and you can expect more details from the group in the form of videos and blog posts at the Society of the Haunted web site.

I’ll dive into the blessing first since it seems like that’s the part of the show about which I’ve received the greatest amount of feedback. When all hell broke loose with Talasyn there were other things going on within the household at the time. We had set up a Tri-Field EMF (electro-magnetic field) detector on the dresser next to the closet, and while Carl conducted his prayer over Talasyn this meter started chirping like crazy. A couple of us rushed into the room to witness it, and I captured a bit of it on video (unfortunately, it was captured in compact mode, so it’s really small). The back door which leads into the master bedroom also kept blowing open. This happened about three or four times, so Carl ended up conducting a blessing of the back door.

The investigations themselves had a lot more going on as well. We went out to the house in Edmond a number of different times, including one investigation in which Cathy, Chris, Logan, Taylor, and I STARTED one at 3:00 AM. Black masses and flashes of light were seen throughout the premises, a cigar scent was picked up in the master bedroom, and on one occasion Taylor was touched by something unseen. The EMF fluctuations in the master bedroom were very odd as the field kept increasing and decreasing in size toward the one part of the room. There was no consistency to these fluctuations and, at times, didn’t exist at all. If Animal Planet had wanted to include more about the cat, we caught some video of Jasmine acting peculiar while approaching Talasyn’s bedroom door at the same time one of us saw a shadow moving in there and started moving toward the doorway. It was an interesting piece of footage with human and animal picking up on something at the same time. We also got a number of other EVPs (electronic voice phenomena) that were more clear than the “Die” EVP, but I suppose “Die” works better to spook the audience.

In regards to the historic segment of the show, there were also a couple details missing but I don’t think they hindered the overall message of the tragedy that had taken place in the home. The first death of the household was an infant son in 1957. The sound of a woman crying has been heard at times from the far side of the master bedroom, and could be residual energy from the mother crying over the baby’s death. The self-inflicted gunshot wound under the chin of the homeowner did not result in his death. It was an absolute bloody mess, as described by a former neighbor, but he did survive. With the marriage already on edge, the attempted suicide essentially ended it. As far as the hanging… we could never confirm it. The retired police officer gave us a great story, but we couldn’t find any supporting material. It still made the cut for the show, however, even though I told them we couldn’t confirm it.

So this takes us to the outstanding issue of the group. We’ve billed it on the Society of the Haunted website, Facebook, Twitter, and The Examiner article that members of Society of the Haunted would be featured on “Monster in the Closet” — and that is absolutely true. People that are now members of Society of the Haunted were featured in that episode. We just happened to be OKPRI at the time. Unfortunately, it seems that turnover within groups is quite commonplace in the paranormal field, and that happened to us a couple months ago. There is no ill will wished upon anyone in this separation, I think we kept it as peaceful as possible, and it really just came down to a difference of opinion in the direction of the group and how it should operate.

Ironically, this separation seemed to really start to happen a number of months ago over whether or not we should perform cleansings. The OKPRI website states in bold red lettering, “OKPRI does not however provide services to cleanse homes or businesses or ‘rid’ a location of their ghosts.” The blessing shown on The Haunted was more reluctance to perform it from an organizational standpoint than the desire to help the family that most of us felt. Afterward, a “cleansing team” was formed within OKPRI because we didn’t want to take an approach like driving by a car accident and saying, “yep, there’s a problem,” and driving on without helping. We wanted to cleanse the homes as well, when warranted, and free people from their problem. There were some other differences as well, but this is the one, in my opinion, that started to create a clear division within the group.

Personally, I am thankful for my time in OKPRI, and I appreciate all that I was able to learn while there. I still consider Christy Clark a friend, but I would understand any animosity she may feel about the situation since everyone on the team left OKPRI for one reason or another. I hope that’s not the case.

In the meantime, the new group continues to push forward. We have a number of things coming up this year that should be exciting, and we’re looking forward to sharing those things with all of you. Stay tuned for new videos, photo galleries, articles, and featured cases! You can bet to see more of “Monster in the Closet.”