The Spirits Move Him : After 20 Years of Listening for Voices From Beyond, He Knows All the Local Haunts

Harry Shepherd sees things.

Ever since he was a boy, Shepherd said, he has possessed the rather unusual gift of spotting ghosts.

“I was in my back yard when I was 5, and I saw a color transparency kind of like you would see at Disneyland’s Haunted House. I thought everybody could see it.”

Shepherd, 52, now chairs the Paranormal Research Department at the Learning Light Foundation in Anaheim, a private group that studies the supernatural. For the past 20 years, the Mission Viejo resident has, at no charge, investigated hundreds of reports across Orange County of eerie sounds, haunted houses and spooky occurrences.

He claims his supernatural adventures in private homes, public buildings and graveyards have brought him face to face with specters that scream, move major appliances and even steal money. But the vast majority of spirits rarely resort to theatrics, Shepherd said.

The veteran ghost investigator, who receives as many as 20 calls a month reporting paranormal activity, said apparitions surprise but never scare him.

Most of the cases, he said, are resolved over the phone.

“Mainly, we just try to reassure people,” said Shepherd, whose clients demand confidentiality. “I want to let everybody know that the ghoulie-monster isn’t going to jump out of the wall and get them.”

But about a quarter of the cases merit an on-site investigation, Shepherd said.

For instance, five years ago he headed out to an Anaheim Hills home where the family reported inexplicable late-night screaming and a washing machine that moved several feet on its own.

After spending the night there, Shepherd claimed to have captured the spirit’s voice on tape. Shepherd asked it why it was there.

“The doctor,” replied the spirit, according to an audiotape Shepherd played.

Unfortunately, before Shepherd could unravel the mystery of the “doctor,” the family sold their home. In fact, the home, which Shepherd believes is still haunted, has been sold three more times since then.

Shepherd has hesitated to contact the new owners.

“It’s hard to say to people, ‘We’re a local psychic group. Can we come listen to your house?’ People look at us like we are strange.”

But about six years ago, Shepherd and his group triumphed over a pesky spirit in a shop in downtown Orange. The muscular ghost apparently dragged a 300-pound saw 10 yards and wedged it between a shop wall and the ceiling, Shepherd said.

The group created a collective “thought form” that flooded the store “with white light,” and forced the spirit from the building, he said.

“It was living off the energy in that building,” said Shepherd. “We cleansed that area.”

Then about four years ago, another spirit was absconding with money from a Westminster business, Shepherd said. At one time as much as $40,000 was missing, he said. Since the spiritual world doesn’t honor credit cards or money, Shepherd said, he was able to help persuade the ghost to return most of the stolen loot.

“The money was really always there, just in another dimension of time and space,” Shepherd said. “We just simply said, ‘Come on, now, you’ve had it long enough.’ ”

Today, Shepherd is hot on the trail of a troublesome ghost lurking around an Orange music store. Apparently, a past owner’s spirit keeps flicking on lights, activating the burglar alarm and breaking windows.

“He still thinks the lights have to be left on,” Shepherd said. “His pipe has been smelled. His presence is there.”

In spite of such otherworldly mischief, Shepherd said, most ghosts aren’t dangerous and should not be feared.

“They can’t hurt you. They are in another dimension of time and place.”

Most spirits are trapped on Earth because living peoples’ energies imprison them here, he said. The movies “Ghost” and “Poltergeist” (except for the ending when the house implodes) provide fairly accurate primers about the spirit world, Shepherd said.

Since people insist on scaring off even friendly ghosts, Shepherd said, he recommends good manners as the best method.

“You simply ask them to leave,” he said. “They usually don’t know they are frightening anybody.”

Despite his gift with ghosts, Orange County’s most famous apparition has to date eluded him. The so called Pink Lady of Yorba Cemetery has never appeared when Shepherd was nearby.

According to local lore, a young woman dressed in a pink ball gown died around the turn of the century when her buggy crashed near what is now Anaheim Hills. Legend has it that on June 15 of even-numbered years, the Pink Lady reappears at the cemetery.

The event usually draws hundreds of spectators, who camp out in the hope of witnessing a supernatural occurrence. But Shepherd isn’t so sure about the tale, and takes a dim view of the crowds.

“It’s turned into a circus,” he said. “The only thing they aren’t doing is selling popcorn.”

Shepherd may have his skeptics, but he’s not buying everything himself. Some of the calls he gets, he said, are hoaxes.

Several years ago, an Anaheim couple claimed gargoyles were chasing them around the house. Shepherd and a team went out to investigate, but “found absolutely nothing. I think he sold his story to the National Enquirer. You can just feel it if they are telling the truth or not.”

Shepherd, who teaches classes at the foundation’s center to help students contact the next world, said he would “like to enable everyone to see what I do.”

But if you don’t believe, you don’t believe, Shepherd said.

“I don’t try to convince people,” he said. “I know myself what’s real. If they don’t want to open up to it, that’s their choice.”