Fantoms of ghostly apparitions

The paranormal world is certainly a scary one. Ever been in a situation where you felt a presence around you and needed help, but didn’t know who to call? Team Pentacle is your go-to local Ghostbuster group that is sure to help out.

The Team, founded back in 2012 has been debunking myths and spooky stories with their professional equipment and are now getting people involved! Organising a paranormal convention – the first of it’s kind in the country, we get in touch with members to know more about why the group was formed, some of the spookiest places in the city, and how they manage to bust myths.

Spearheading the Bengaluru group, Dr Rahul Kumar reveals that he did not believe in the paranormal at first. “My friends and I played around with the Ouija board for a bit one day and I didn’t think much of it until a few days later, my hand started to bleed. Being a doctor, I thought I might have injured myself accidentally and didn’t think much of it until I woke up the next morning and the mark wasn’t there anymore. Believing it to be a hallucination I went on with work until that night it happened again. This went on for three nights after which I started lucid dreaming and it really got to me. So with the help of a team from Southern California, I got rid of the demonic presence,” recalls the doctor who has since been a part of a number of investigations in and around Karnataka.

 Apart from investigating, the team also debunks quite a lot of cases they get. “Out of 100 cases almost 98 are made up by people and are baseless,” admits Prafful Manevar, a member of the team. But what about the rest?

“We got an input that the Madhugiri Fort, which is around 100 km from Bengaluru was ‘haunted’. When we went to check it out, our EMS (Electromagnetic Force Field) meter went bonkers, as there was no magnetic energy in the fort. We also saw hazy figures and even captured them on camera. Our EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon) recorder, which records the infrasounds which are inaudible to our ears, captured the voice of a man telling us to get out. Further ahead, a lady had fallen to her death and on the machine, we heard a woman’s voice screaming for help,” reveals Prafful.

The city seems to have quite a lot of creepy spots. Another famous one is Chalagatta, where the Air India flight from Mumbai crashed, back in 1990. “There were reports of figures being seen at odd hours in the night so we decided to check it out,” says Archana, another team member. “On the EVP, we caught a man’s voice, who revealed that his name was Sourabh. Once we went back and checked with the records, we found that there was indeed a Sourabh who was killed,” reveals the young Bengalurean.