GALENA, Ill. -- Nothing about the situation seemed spooky.
As Chad Griffiths carried his groceries to his apartment, he was unaware that what was about to happen would change his life's course.
"I got to my door, and this force suddenly blasted," he said. "It knocked me backwards, and my grocery bag went flying. It was so intense that I was thrown backwards across the hallway, and my neighbor called the police, thinking I had been attacked."
Yet no intruder appeared. At that moment, the Galena-based organization Paranormal Research of Illinois, or PRI, formed, albeit unofficially.
Now, Griffiths oversees about 20 people interested in the realm of paranormal possibilities, and the group began traveling nationwide in September 2008 to investigate homes and businesses with reports of unexplainable activity.
Among the ranks is Galena resident Barbara Reittinger. During the day, she serves as general manager at Galena's Culver's restaurant. By night, she acts as the PRI's sensitive, a term more commonly compared to a medium.
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"For the longest time, I thought I was just weird, but it turns out I'm just paranormal," she said.
Griffiths, Reittinger and the rest of their team travel from town to town, conducting research to show whether something supernatural exists. They have conducted more than 30 investigations so far.
"The thing we do first is meet with the client, see what they have been seeing, and then we set up a team to go in and see what we can find through audio and video recordings," Griffiths said. "We're not trying to say, 'Yes, there are ghosts, and you have to believe in them.' We just gather the evidence and let you decide."
