By JIMMY JOHNSON
JAM Paranormal founder

READING, Pa. — A feature in the Reading Eagle made us at JAM Paranormal wonder if Gethsemane Cemetery is really haunted.
 
So we set out in late August to see if we could find any evidence to back up the claims featured in Berks Bizarre, a weekly feature written by Charles Adams.
 
The night started out slow, but by the time we were driving home, we suspected that Gethsemane Cemetery was haunted.
 
And when we reviewed the evidence, we were certain.
 
Splitting into two groups, investigators Craig Johnson and Brett Miller covered the back portion of the cemetery. With a K2 meter, Craig was trying to start a conversation with a spirit. Nothing happened until he got to the young children section of the graveyard.
 
There, the K2 went off the charts.
 
While there, Craig and Brett were able to get simple responses and questions answered. Such as, “If you're here, can you step in front of this device.”
 
Immediately, it would light up.
 
This continued for 30 minutes.
 
Using one light up as yes, none as no, Craig asked, “Are you a girl?”
 
It lit up.
 
“Are you between the ages of 1 and 5?”
 
Nothing.
 
Craig then followed with, “Are you between the ages of 5 and 10?”
 
The K2 lit up again.
 
This interaction alone is impressive; however, when listening to the digital audio, you can hear a little girl say, “Yes,” after Craig asks this question, followed by a sentence that is not understandable. It almost sounds like a little girl giggling her way through a sentence. Very weird, very creepy and very unexplainable.
 
It fit the profile gather through questions answered on the K2. We got “girl” and “between the ages of 5-10.”
 
On the recorder we hear a girl and she says yes. She also responds later when Craig asks, “How old were you when you died?” Her voice comes in behind one of our investigators. It sounds like she may have said, “Seven,” or “I was seven,” but it's hard to tell. Either way, she said something to us.
 
Away from this area, I was investigating along with our case manager Gina Gasper, and we came across moments where we thought we saw shadows moving through the gravestones. This is one of the reports listed in the Reading Eagle feature, so we were able to experience that; however, we were not able to capture it on video, so it's just a personal experience.
 
We did, however, catch two EVPs of a man. One directly answers a question I asked.
 
“Can you give us your name,” I ask.
 
A quiet, whispered response comes in. The name is sketchy, but the latter part of the EVP is clear.
 
We believe it says, “Harris is my name.”
 
The “is my name,” part is said with a bit of a southern draw. It's fairly clear. Now whether his name is Harris, or Harry, or something else, we can't be sure of.
 
But again, it was another case of direct interaction.
 
That, added with the spirit of the little girl we were interacting, leads JAM Paranormal to declare Gethsemane Cemetery haunted. It is clear that this is an intelligent haunt, too, because it was clearly interacting with us.
 
We have plans to get back out there once we get a warm evening.