Hunting ghosts with the freemasons

Hector Lugo stands completely still in the semi-darkness of the Kansas City Scottish Rite Temple and watches the electromagnetic device his son, Matt, is holding.

The lights, which register electric and magnetic properties in the air, appear  in rapid succession. The sudden signal is significant to members of the 10th Dimension Paranormal Group, for they are standing in the center of a lower floor of a building made mostly out of sandstone and European marble.

At this level, any kind of electric or magnetic wave has to fight to get inside the building.

“Whoa, I have chills right now, standing here,” Matt said. “I’m serious. That’s strange. Really strange.”

Strange to the Lugo’s, yes – stranger still to an outsider.

For all the chills and apparent thrills, however, there are some members of the group who aren’t so sure. One person is David Phillips, a 32nd Degree Scottish Rite Mason, who says skepticism is a good thing – especially when it comes to hunting spirits in the dark.

“A lot of the members are quick to jump on things,” Phillips said, jamming his hands in his leather coat and watching the meter. “But it’s good to have some resistance in the group. Everyone tries to disprove what the other sees.”

The group’s recent arrival at the Kansas City temple is not uncommon; their arrival there a week before Halloween is for practice purposes, an opportunity to try out new and old equipment, to stalk the dimly lit staircases and rooms with cameras and voice recorders, hoping to glimpse and/or detect with their instruments and their naked eyes the spirits that reportedly haunt the massive building.

And Both Lugo and Phillips believe there are spirits here.

Both men look at the device Matt is holding.

“Can you make it come on again?” his father said.

Matt gives the device a slight shake. Everyone is quiet. The building is quiet. The lights disappear but reappear seconds later.

“There...,” Matt said.

Group members swear that the temple ballroom is an area of high activity when it comes to supernatural activity. Members have photographs showing odd smears of light, images they believe aren’t the result of double exposure or residual flash. In one photograph, taken in the boiler room adjacent to the ballroom, a tall man standing in front of a woman is clearly visible. He wears wire-rimmed glasses on his bony head. He appears as if he’s emerging from the woman’s body, looking to his left toward a wall, a blank expression on his face.

“There was no one in the group that night that looked like him,” Lugo said. “No one.”

Like many of the 25 members of 10th Dimension, Lugo became interested in the supernatural as a child. He and his brother had several encounters, he said, and now, 40 years later, he considers it a serious hobby. Lugo’s wife, Pam, helped start the group, and the couple has been involved in the paranormal for more than 33 years.

“We all have questions about why we’re here,” Lugo, a Blue Springs resident, said. “And the only way you can get some kind of answer while you’re here is to speak and make a contact with that world. That’s our aim. We don’t provoke any spirits that we suspect are there.”

Phillips agreed.

“I’ve been sensitive to the spirit world since I was a kid,” Phillips said. “I’ve been called crazy many times, been accused of watching too much television. But there’s more to life than what you can see. And when you do this for as long as I have, you become more sensitive to it.”

Many of the group’s members are professionals, including police officers, federal investigators, attorneys, doctors. As many as six paranormal members are Scottish Rite members (including Lugo and Phillips), which makes sense, Lugo said, because of the Mason’s acknowledgment in a supreme being, of a power higher than man.

In fact, one of the main reasons why members investigate the Kansas City temple is because Freemasonry ceremonies (and the type of people they attract) are emotional and intense. Lugo said many of the spirits that inhabit the temple were former masons.

“There’s no reason for anyone to have any fear coming here,” Lugo said. “I think most people agree that there are only positive forces in this building. For a person to be afraid, that’s usually at a site where there was great emotional stress, like a murder.”

Common experiences within the temple include unexplained noises, including flushing toilets, closing doors; frequent and intense EMF readings; photographic images depicting what appears to be human figures; sensations like being watched, getting chills.

“People say they feel like they break spider webs with their face, which is impossible considering where they were walking,” Lugo said.

Lugo and group members don’t stay just in Jackson County. During the past several years, group members have investigated sites throughout the world. They have traveled as far as Rome, South America, Peru, Florida, or as close as Kansas, Iowa, Ohio. Members want to investigate many local sites, including the Midland Theater in downtown Kansas City. There’s a house that David’s son, Ryan, wants to investigate in Raytown.

“A lot of areas are interesting, but a lot of areas are city-owned and they  don’t want that kind of attention,” Lugo said.

To become a member of 10th Dimension isn’t as easy as you think, either. The first requirement is the belief in a supreme being; the second is that your feelings and/or attitude toward the spirit world is positive; the third requires all applicants host an investigation, where group members monitor how you conduct the event, how you treat the environment.

“We’ve had some pretty crazy people come to us,” Phillips said. “Sometimes it’s embarrassing how they act.”

Following a hosted event, members vote and decide.

In the ballroom, Matt’s EMF device remains quiet and blank. As the group members talk, a single blip appears on the rectangular box.

“There...” Matt’s voice is urgent. “There’s something.”

The remaining miniature bulbs light up and Matt’s arm shakes.

“That’s something...”

Phillips remains motionless, watching the device. He steps back and shows group members, including staff members from The Examiner, a large table.

“This is a prop they built and used for the movie Truman,” he said. “They left it here.”

The lights disappear but reappear again seconds later, responding to the click of a camera’s shutter. Matt looks up at his father and then at the rest of the group. He doesn’t appear afraid, only excited, as if he’s expecting someone he’s met or encountered before.

“I don’t think it’s the kid...”