Westwood Library hosts Paranormal Xpeditions

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By Robby McKittrick
Hometown Weekly Reporter

With Halloween creeping up on the calendar, it seemed fitting that Friends of Westwood Public Library hosted a lecture on paranormal activity this October.

Paranormal Xpeditions, a popular group that discusses the supernatural, gave their lecture at the Westwood Library for the second time this year. The group was established in 2010 by Rachel Hoffman, and is currently run by Hoffman and her partner, Matt Warner.

“We go around to different areas and educate people about haunted objects and different types of equipment you can use to reach out to ghosts,” Hoffman explained. “We [also] do some personal investigations and clearings of homes for people that are bothered by malevolent spirits.”

Paranormal Activity has around 15,000 person followers across different social media outlets, and they have been featured on television on the Travel and Bio Channel.

“The paranormal, when you get into it, is a huge network that you don’t know exists until you look for it,” said Warner. “I was a super fan before I got into doing it, and I realized that you can network, just like any other job … People either love it or think we’re crazy.”

Hoffman and Warner began the lecture by introducing the purpose of their group, describing the different types of equipment that they brought to the talk, and their thoughts on paranormal activity and the dead.

Some of the equipment they brought included dolls, scanners, a ring, a spirit board (also called a Ouija board), a small clown, and a pendulum. The group described the history of some of these objects, such as the Ouija board and the clown.

Warner explained that he received the Ouija board from someone else and that there is supposedly a Native American spirit inside the board. Hoffman and Warner then showed a creepy clown who has been “known to move.”

“[These haunted objects are] our spooky little family,” Hoffman told the group.

Hoffman and Warner then told a story about four haunted paintings portraying girls with big eyes. They explained that the paintings haunted the two of the them while they were trying to sleep one night. Hoffman said that she saw a demon stare at her in the middle of the night, and Warner saw a ball of swirling light in two different locations during that same night. Then, on a different occasion, Hoffman said that she heard a knocking sound from the paintings.

“It freaked us out,” she told the group.

To many people, the thought of ghosts and spirits is fascinating. Hoffman explained why she is particularly interested in paranormal activity.

“It’s my passion,” she said. “We are all going down and trying to communicate with the dead. It’s amazing that we have such a connection with the [the deceased] … [Ghosts] are in a different form that we can’t yet understand as human beings.”

Even though Halloween season ends after October 31, Hoffman explained that their work never stops and the passion never dies.

“We are around year-round,” Hoffman said. “The ghosts don’t just take off after Halloween goes away … This is what I will do … until the day I become a ghost.”