Who Ya Gonna Call? A Parapsychologist

They’re armed with otherworldly warrior-type gadgets and gizmos--magnetometers, infrared lights, computerized cameras and mega temperature gauges.

Larry Montz and his high-tech team don’t travel light. But hey, who else you gonna call when you hear things that go bump in the night?

Your mommy?

For nearly all his adult life, Montz--a modern-day ghost buster with a team of paranormal researchers, including psychics, channelers and clairvoyants--has been getting the goods on ghosts.

A parapsychologist (he has a doctorate in the field) and founder of the 27-year-old Los Angeles-based International Society for Paranormal Research, Montz is recognized throughout the world for his investigation of haunted houses. His work is a constant feature on TV’s “Sightings,” “The Other Side” and “Strange Universe.”

“We conduct scientific investigations and with the help of our clairvoyant team members, get emphatic impressions of entities and ghosts,” Montz says.

Montz and his crew accomplish the task of explaining paranormal phenomena with ghost expeditions he began in 1994.

He and paying participants, who help operate the equipment, have ventured to haunted properties across the United States “to discover and analyze” ghoulish behavior.

And what have they found?

Images such as ectoplasmic manifestations, bursts of mists, unexplainable shadows, balls of light, bad smells and full apparitions that fade out--all indicators that ghosts exist.

Warren Freidberg, on the other hand, has a more simplistic view of ghosts.

“The easiest way to tell if your home is haunted is when you find a very cold spot in the house,” says Freidberg, a popular radio show psychic whose specialty is ghost phenomena.

The ghost host says spirits use an opening such as a port or shaft in the coldest part of the house to enter a room because “these entities come from another dimension--a dimension where there is coldness.”

And once they’ve made themselves at home, they usually will turn the lights off and on, rearrange the cutlery drawer, tease the cat, leave the water faucet running, lock doors and hide your keys.

“They really love to move stuff around for mischief,” Freidberg says. For instance, if you consistently know that you put the remote control in a particular spot and when you go to get it--boo!--it’s not there, chances are you’ve got a ghostly house guest.

Another tip-off, says Freidberg: If your kid tells you he or she has an imaginary friend who is, let’s say, around 100 years old, then you’ve probably got an oldster ghoster.

He says children, especially 8 and younger, are amazingly psychic “and parents should listen to their child” because grown-up ghosts love to befriend kids. Children, he says, have not been tarnished by any preconceived notions that ghosts don’t exist.

He says a ghost is merely “a psychic projection in the atmosphere” and something a psychic can see, clairvoyantly.

When a spirit comes calling, it is there for a purpose and can communicate through mental telepathy, he says. The very fact that a ghost appears “is a message from a spirit, and that spirit could be an aunt, an uncle, a grandparent.”

“It’s my belief that when you die, you just don’t go off and depart entirely. If you have a ghost in your home, you can communicate with it. It is not that difficult.”

For starters, if you want to commune with your favorite dead relative, Freidberg suggests you get a photo of him or her, go into a quiet room and take a good look at their eyes. Focus for several minutes. Remember the good times. Chew the fat.

Then, later, while you’re in the twilight period of your sleep--before you fall into a deep sleep--ask that relative a specific question and, maybe, you’ll get the answer in your dreams.

“Sleep is when you are the most psychic and when ghosts manifest themselves the most,” Freidberg says.

But sometimes a ghost can be as unwelcome as, well, an in-law. Not to worry, Freidberg says. He has a few ghost-busting tips:

* If you’re a religious person, summon a priest. “Most all are exorcists and they should be able to get rid of a ghost.”

* If you want to do your own home repair work, in a very calming voice during a quiet time of the day or night simply tell your ghost, “You are not wanted here any longer. You are not supposed to be here. You are frightening my family. So, please, get out.”

* To send the spirit packing forever, sprinkle salt (which purportedly has the power to ward off evil) at the room’s doorway entrance where the spirit is making itself at home. And hopefully--poof!--it will take a hike to wherever it came from or just move in next door.