THEY WANT TO ENTER THE UNDERWORLD
Paranormal group to explore & release DVD of haunted places in Indonesia
By Ho Lian-yi
June 22, 2009 
READY: The members of Spears Paranormal Investigators. Mr Ahzaharin Ahmad (centre, holding camera) is its director. His brother, Muhd Salihin Ahmad is the assistant director (to his left). TNP PICTURES: GAVIN FOO
MOVING quietly in formation, the point man suddenly stops, and lifts up a fist. Contact has been made.
Immediately, the team - wearing black uniforms and bristling with equipment - squats, and closes up.
Commandos? Special forces? Terrorists?
Nope - they're ghost hunters.
Their 'weapons' aren't guns, but sensors and cameras - from special thermometers to electromagnetic field detectors.
It was 10pm on Thursday, and the dozen or so men and women of Spears Paranormal Investigators (SSPI) were just getting started as they went through their weekly drills at Pasir Ris Park.
Practice went on until nearly daybreak.
CRUCIAL GEARS: The arrays of equipment that SSPI members are taking to Indonesia. TNP PICTURES: GAVIN FOO
Keen interest
SSPI is a newcomer, having registered as a company last August, but no one can say its members don't take their trade seriously.
From a group of just five, it now has 20 members.
SSPI co-founder and assistant director Muhd Salihin Ahmad aka Zack Smoke, 27, who is a technical officer by day, said: 'Discipline is an important thing for me.'
They'll need it where they are going.
From 15 to 25 Aug, 10 members will go to Indonesia to film what they believe are the 10 most haunted places there.
The trip is funded by a member who sponsored an undisclosed 'five-figure sum'.
They hope to make a DVD and distribute it for sale in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Trudging through jungle and old buildings at night is hazardous enough, even without any hantu (ghost in Malay) they may encounter on the way.
That literally only scratches the surface.
'This may sound insane,' he said, with a mild hint of bashfulness, 'but we want to enter the underworld.'
He is convinced that one of the caves they will be visiting is an otherwordly gateway.
There are unverified tales of villagers who go in and don't come out.
Well, how do they plan to escape?
'We're still doing research,' he said.
Whatever it is, Smoke doesn't want members trespassing or making a nuisance of themselves in Indonesia.
They made sure they contacted the local authorities for approval for their planned activities, lest they be mistaken for terrorists.
They have also arranged for local policemen to accompany them.
They also take safety seriously - all the members heading into the forest will carry mandatory safety equipment like walkie-talkies, personal alarms and blinking torchlights.
No real name
In SSPI, everyone addresses each other by their call signs, like Eclipse, Snipe, Wolf, and Speed. Why?
While no one knows what goes bump in the night, no one wants it to know one's real name.
The main man is Smoke's brother, Mr Ahzaharin Ahmad, 43, the director of SSPI - but you can call him Storm - and an adventurer by trade.
After 13 years as a prison officer, he said he became a professional treasure hunter for eight years - work that ranged from scouting out potential movie locations for producers to searching for antiques.
Said Storm: 'What's important in our work as ghost hunters is commitment, what we aim for, and the facts we get.'
Before setting up SSPI, his family liked to investigate spooky places in Singapore, an interest partly sparked by an alleged haunting in their previous home.
As for how the idea for the DVD came about, Storm said: 'Since we have this hobby, why not get something out of it?'
The tools of the trade
IF you're going ghost hunting, don't leave home without:
1. Night-vision goggles (NVG): About four members on Spears Paranormal Investigators (SSPI) team will be equipped with NVGs. If you can't see in front of you, you can't see ghosts.
2. Electromagnetic field (EMF) meter: Ghosts are supposed to emit EMF.
Electronic equipment like handphones do too, but there's unlikely to be working electronics in jungles or ruins.
2a. Gauss meter: A more precise EMF meter.
2b. Nature-trifield meter: The most reliable equipment for EMF.
It can even detect human body parts.
2c. Magnetic pickup (MPK): Converts EMF to electrovoice phenomena.
3. Sound detector: It amplifies sounds over long distances so you don't miss any ghostly moans in the darkness.
4. Electrovoice phenomena (EVP): It analyses ambient sounds for speech-like phenomena - of supernatural origin, perhaps?
5. Thermal-differential monitor: It can measure ambient temperature and the temperature of a particular spot. Basically an advanced thermometer. You won't miss a cold zone with this one.
6. Camera: SSPI uses a high-end shoulder-mounted HD camera, two handycams, and three normal digital cameras, and some mountable infrared surveillance cameras. Cameras need to have a night-mode, since ghosts don't come out in the day.
7. Weather meter/weather forecaster: To detect bad weather. For safety from lightning strikes.
8. High-powered torchlight: Other than seeing in the dark, SSPI believes they are needed to confuse any paranormal entities they encounter to retreat.
9. Walkie-talkie: For communication.
10. Personal alarm: For times of danger when one is unable to scream for help, such as when one is bitten by a snake.
11. ESmog Scout: It basically turns your body into an antenna, says SSPI. If you enter a magnetic field, it will emit an audible alert.
Source:
http://tnp.sg/news/story/0,4136,205690,00.html? 
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THEY WANT TO ENTER THE UNDERWORLD 
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