From the outside, the Inspired Journeys office on Blair Road in Odenton looks like any other typical office—red brick exterior, a large banner advertising its services. But looks can clearly be deceptive. On a recent Friday evening, this innocuous-looking office space hosts a ghost-tracking meetup group called Inspired Ghost Tracking, as it does every fortnight.

"Inspired Journeys rents out it spaces to various practitioners," explains Linda McCarthy, who works at the store. A lilting Sanskrit chant plays in the background as attendees saunter in. Over 35 are expected tonight. A redhead with expressive green eyes, McCarthy warmly welcomes the attendees. The office's September calendar is full. Tarot readings, angel readings, massage sessions, regression sessions fill out most of the slots. Christy Puglisi who owns Inspired Journeys, also owns Clear Edge IT Solutions, which is situated next door.

The IGT meet is in the larger conference room. The lights in the conference room are dim. About 20 people are scattered around the room. There is a pre-teen boy in the audience, most other attendees are middle-aged. The first impression one gets about the group is their gregariousness. There is none of that self-conscious whispering that a dimly lit room would inspire. Most people wear gray IGT T-shirts, identifying them as IGT members.

Personal Stories

Every beginning has a story, a turning point that opens up the mind to possibilities.

There is 12-year-old Noah from Owings Mills who sees orbs. "Sometimes they're gold, sometimes silver. They come when you're least expecting them. Like when I'm in the bathroom." He says they don't do anything, they just watch him.

"In the beginning, I was freaked out. But now I'm used to them," states Noah. His friends at school don't know about the orbs. Or even that he is attending a ghost tracking event with his uncle.

"They wouldn't understand," says Noah.

Dave Weigert's story is both personal and poignant. In August 1976, he was a 9-year-old boy. He was on the living room floor, coloring in his notebook. The door handle turned, and Weigert's older brother, Charles, walked in. Charles smiled, but didn't say anything and went straight up to the room he shared with Dave.

Ten minutes later, the doorbell rang. It was the Weigerts' neighbor, asking for Mrs. Weigert. Charles had been in an accident and was in a hospital.

"My mother said go put on your clothes, Charles is in the hospital. I told her Charles had already come home, there was a mistake. My mother came with me to our room, Charles' and mine. He wasn't there," says Weigert.

The room looked unoccupied. The beds were made. Charles had had a habit of throwing his shoes across the room as soon as he got in. But there was none of that mess in the room.

Weigert's brother had indeed been in an accident. He was in the hospital for a week, and died without regaining consciousness.

"I was freaked out, but I finally spoke up and told my uncle," says Weigert. His uncle was skeptical.

And then there was the manner of his mother's death in 1989. Weigert's mother was hospitalized and had to have kidney dialysis every day. One evening when Weigert went to visit her, she told him that she would pass the next day, that Charles would be coming to get her.

"I got a call at 7:10 the next morning. She had just passed," says Weigert.

It was the odd happenings during the deaths of his immediate family members that piqued Weigert's interest in ghost tracking and the paranormal. He now heads the Maryland Paranormal Research Team in Dundalk, MD.

The Purpose

Bill Hartley has a mission. It is to help people who are bothered by ghosts.

"In the beginning, it was for ourselves. We thought it was cool, we wanted to track ghosts. But then we realized that there were people that really needed our help. Now we do [ghost tracking] for others," says he.

Hartley is a heavyset, tattooed man. He appears to be in his late 20s and he started GMPS in 2006. He has a stand-up comedian's gift with words, taking ordinary statements and imbuing them with hilarity. He explains that GMPS is a nonprofit whose aim is to help families who believe they are bothered by ghosts. The group neither advertises nor charges any fees for its consultation.

"A hundred percent of our cases come to us. They find us through our Facebook page or the web or an ex-client," says Hartley.

On tonight's agenda is the screening of a documentary called GMPS: Debunking the Myth by Greater Maryland Paranormal Society. The film is by Michelle Rosignol, who made it during her senior year at Stevenson University. It features the core GMPS group and tracks them as they investigate a Maryland bar where ghostly events have occurred. The film evokes quite a few full throated guffaws from the audience. At one point during the tracking, a GMPS member asks for a sign from the ghost if it's there.

"You can touch me if you want," says Carol on screen, with her eyes closed.

"If you turned the light off upstairs, we'd be REALLY impressed," intones Laurie with an impassive face.

The Work

After the film screening, Hartley talks further about the work GMPS does. "We're more of a debunkers' group," he explains. "During our consultations, we'd rather find natural causes or rational explanations than ghost activity."

To unearth the secrets behind a case, the team uses a dizzying array of equipment—digital cameras, electro-magnetic field (EMF) detectors, motion detectors, audio detectors, infrared illuminators.

Hartley cautions that positive readings on the equipments do not automatically mean ghost activity. Equipment such as televisions, cell phones or even pipes in the walls can give a false positive on an EMF detector. A good 70 percent of the cases that GMPS has got so far have turned out to have rational explanations, be inconclusive, or flat out fabrications.

The following also emerges during the lively Q&A:

- If one is haunted by ghosts, one must just treat it like any other family member. "Like you would say [to the ghost], we're going to sleep now. Could you go downstairs and play?" says a GMPS team member.

- If a ghost scratches someone or makes things move, it is not trying to scare him or her. It is basically trying to attract attention.

- Homes that sit on top of an underlying stream, or if there's been several renovations in a home, or if it's in a cold spot, or has major history, if there was any unusual deaths that occurred in the house are good candidates for ghost activity.

- Ellicott City and Annapolis rank as some of the most haunted places in Maryland.

- The White House is a ghost tracker's dream, because of its rich and varied history.

More Stories

Hartley opens up about a case in Calvert County where a very religious Catholic family was having ghost troubles.

"It was a divorce situation. A girl living with her mother and grandmother. And strange things were happening. Wall pianos, coffee tables, fish tanks were knocked over," says Hartley.

The archdiocese was involved. The family was instructed not to call outside groups like GMPS. But the church had already conducted three exorcisms at the family's home and the ghost activity still continued.

When GMPS took on the case, it managed to catch some ghost activity on tape. One time, the girl was interviewing with the GMPS team on camera, when her grandmother's cell phone flew off the table, up into the air. Another time, a long table collapsed on the girl's leg.

"We took an hour each time setting up video cameras and motion detectors. We caught nothing. Yet these things were happening. We're talking real damage, heavy antique furniture," Hartley says. Trouble seemed to follow the girl wherever she happened to be.

"We thought if the girl was doing it, she was a genius. She had to know how to evade four wall-mounted cameras, and the people in the room," states Hartley.

Reviewing the tapes on video editing software frame by frame, Hartley and his team finally had a breakthrough. It had been the girl all along. She confessed to her mother later when confronted with the evidence.

Hartley admits that GMPS does not offer solutions of any kind.

"We just confirm or rule out ghost activity. We tell people we don't want to get involved in the religious implications of this at all. They need to work within their belief systems and traditions," he states. They cannot, for example, help a ghost cross over to the other side.

"There are obviously people that need our help. But sometimes the help we offer is not the kind of help they need," says Hartley.

GMPS still stays in touch with the mother in the Calvert County case. The girl has never offered an explanation for why she did what she did. She has refused to meet with the GMPS team.