By DAILYN EMERY dailyn@poncacitynews.com

M1 Abrams Armor Crewman, Jared Politte, has dedicated his life to not only experiencing danger in his day job, but also exploring the dangers and possibilities of the supernatural outside of that. Though he is now stationed at Ft. Riley, Kansas, Politte grew up in the area learning about local legends and became fascinated by them. He has always been a lover of everything horror and paranormal, but has also always been a skeptic. It is because of this that, about two years ago, he became a paranormal investigator. Politte wanted to better understand the experiences of the people in the films and documentaries that he had watched. Now, he wants to shine a light on his own encounters with paranormal investigation and show people the unexplainable experiences that he has experienced.

Jared Politte is different though from many paranormal investigators in the sense that what he desires to show people is not the flashy infamous legends of haunted castles or other locations, but instead the stories that they are uninterested in. What he is interested in is niche local legends that people haven’t heard of before. He wants to experience the world of supernatural the way anyone else would, in normal settings and places that people frequent. It gives no justice to the investigation or a unique experience to go to well-known commercialized hauntings that could be a falsity.

“I don’t care about the places that other investigation teams go, I want to go to your grandma’s attic if you hear spooky noises,” says Politte.

His procedure to begin a ghost hunt always begins with research. Studying local legends, reaching out to community members, and asking questions in Facebook pages, work to connect him with other citizens in the area that have had situations that are unexplainable. Once he finds something that sparks his interest, the real work begins. Politte then begins the hunt for more information on that specific topic, an understanding of its history, and contact information as to who owns the building. After getting permission from owners, if necessary, Politte prepares his equipment and his teammate and they are on their way.

At the site, they break down the investigation into block hours. During the first hour, they do a walk-through to get a feel of their surroundings and potential hot spots for paranormal activity.

They head into the second hour by setting up their tools such as a rem pod, the purpose of which so to detect when a person or a spirit enters into the device’s electromagnetic field. When the electromagnetic field is disrupted, the device will began to light

(See SUPERNATURAL, Page 2) up and produce an audible tone. They use tools such as cat balls, which light up when moved, and dowsing rods, two L shaped rods that are used to ask questions and get responses from potential spirits.

After setting up their equipment, they begin to truly dig deeper. The third and fourth hours are when they start trying to communicate with the paranormal.

Recently, Politte visited the local Poncan Theatre. It is no surprise to anyone who has been in the theater, or who knows the history of the building, that it is rumored to be haunted. Executive Director of the Poncan, Christopher Radaker-James, was gracious enough to give a tour, while also going into the supernatural history behind the legends there as well. During this tour, they dove into what had happened in certain locations throughout the theater that they believe has now resulted in a haunting of sorts.

One of the stories, and probably the most wellknown, was about a woman in the upstairs balcony who died during a performance. Now, many people have come to employees with sightings of her, or strange things in general happening when they sit in her seat. There was even an occurrence of a child refusing to sit there because he had seen what they assume is the same woman. When Politte sat in the chair, trying to contact this woman, strange things began happening. He could feel a hand dragging across his leg and his tools went off all at the same time. This is abnormal, he says, but it is what he gets most excited for. It is possible for machines to malfunction or for there to be some outside force that sets them off, but when they go off at the same time, it is hard to ignore.

There were several strange phenomena in the Poncan Theatre throughout the night they spent there, including strong gusts of wind, strange noises, their tools going off, and so much more. Many times throughout the investigation, which began his newest series for his YouTube channel, Call Me Pilates, he tried to contact the spirits in the Poncan Theatre and a few times, he believes he did.

“I see things that I don’t understand and I can’t quantify or classify it yet,” he says. In light of the chair renovation in the Poncan, Director Radaker-James has sponsored that particular chair and has asked that it stay the same, to preserve the history and also the legend of the woman on the balcony.

Although Politte is a paranormal investigator, he is also still a skeptic, and his beliefs on hauntings, and spirits in general, are different from many in the industry. His belief leans towards that of the Stone Tape Theory, which is the idea that in the event of a particularly gruesome act or very strong feelings, the impression of that is left behind. This is not a completely unique idea or experience, in fact, Politte believes that we all have felt something like it. When entering a place that is known to have terrible things happen, for many there seems to be a very heavy feeling in the atmosphere.

In reference to that heavy feeling, Politte spoke of how he believes this comes to be and how people can still feel it throughout time.

“Everything has energy... the energy transfer that happens during excited moments, whether that be evil or happy, the natural walls and flooring kind of record that like little clips of a movie.” He believes this is why what we consider to be ghosts often repeat themselves or stay in a particular place forever. They are frozen in time and repeated like a recording.

While his time at the Poncan is the beginning of the newest series on his channel, Politte is not short on stories of the paranormal. An occurrence that potentially proves the Stone Tape Theory correct is another he had at the Jones Cemetery in Canton, Kansas.

Legend has it that there was a sickly girl who was in need of a doctor. When a man went to the next town to seek help for her, a group of soldiers approached and killed him. Since then, people have reported seeing a man hanging in a tree and hearing the hoofbeats of the soldiers’ horses. Politte said that, in what he considers “… one of the coolest experiences of [his] life,” he heard the hoofbeats at Jones Cemetery. In the middle of a field, with no cattle or machinery around, he could hear the sound of hooves banging against the ground and feel the vibration of what felt like a stampede of horses running past him.

Now, while the Stone Tape Theory is what he most believes, he says that that belief was shaken in his most recent run in with the supernatural.

“I’m not sure that I believe in demons, but I think that I might have spoken to one now,” he says about his upcoming video. In the video, he and his team go to the historic Wolf Hotel in Ellinwood, Kansas. Ellinwood is special and peculiar because of its hidden tunnel system that spans the town. In these tunnels, they are able to explore different rooms and old shops that once thrived. Underneath the hotel, a room donned The Doll Room, which is known to be the most paranormally active room in the tunnels, is where dolls and what is considered to be cursed objects can be found. There is a story that in this room, an African American man had been chained to a boiler and was beaten to death.

Here is where Politte found a Divic Box. These boxes are used in the supernatural universe to trap spirits in, who are usually the worst of the worst. When they sat down to have a conversation with the spirit trapped inside, Politte said that it was one of, if not the most, unnerving things he had ever experienced. It was easy to feel that, whatever he was speaking to, was evil. The spirit knew things about him and his father, who happened to be on this investigation with him. While trying to get into contact with the ghost, they heard phrases like “eye pain”, “cancer”, and even “You’re going to die.” This was alarming for them because Politie’s father has melanoma in his eye, which is a type of cancer. It was as if the spirit knew things about them that they hadn’t even been discussing.

His father is also extremely receptive to the paranormal and credits this to being a preacher for many years and being closer to the veil because of it. On previous hunts, his father would notice something strange before Politte’s tools could pick anything up. He would say something that he could hear or feel and then, only moments later, the machines would get that same read or one very similar.

In a business like this, there is never a lull in locations or legends of hauntings and because of that, Politte is always looking for more stories and sites to bring attention to. He is also making plans to work with other paranormal investigation teams, a medium, and even go alone, when he builds up the resolution to do so, in some of his upcoming work.

Jared Politte is looking to shine a light on the forgotten stories in our community and others like ours, which is why he created his YouTube channel, Call Me Pilates, to give people a non-biased point of view on a topic that has been up for debate forever. He is also selling t-shirts to not only bring recognition to his channel, but to raise funds to be able to continue to tell these stories. For anyone who knows of legends and hauntings they think are interesting, he asks that they reach out to him at his email, jaredpolitte2@gmail.com.