11 minute read
Ghost Hunters - Chronic Encounters Exclusive
by Chynna Pearson
Have you ever seen something that you can’t explain? Maybe something lurking in the dark? Or how about an object moving when it wasn’t supposed to? Did people believe you when you told them or did they call you paranoid and crazy?
Here at Chronic, we tend to believe the scary stories. Every bump in the night has a story to it and, honestly, Oklahoma is a place full of history and haunted places. I hope you agree when we say that going to those places sounds interesting at least, maybe even fun. So fun that ghost hunters should actually go and tell us about what they saw.
So we did just that. In case you all didn’t know, Chronic magazine has a ghost hunting team. Yes, a ghost hunting team! They are called Chronic Encounters and they are a badass group of people. Truly! (I mean you kind of have to go out and hunt for paranormal activity.)
The group is made up of five awesome and fun people, four in front of the camera (BrittanieAnderson, Gloria Garcia, Morgyn Duncan, and April Gordon) and one behind (Nate Golden). They visit haunted places around Oklahoma and publish videos over each one. Be sure to check out their pages, just search Chronic Encounters!
Since Halloween is coming up, I had the opportunity to speak with the wonderful people of Chronic Encounters and hear about their travels and adventures. Now, I do want to preface this with the fact that I may be a scary movie buff but, real-life scary things? I’m real life scared. But, I am totally willing to learn and be more open to the spiritual side of things, if you know what I mean (I am getting better!)
Chronic: So what do you guys do exactly? Brittanie: Basically, our whole thing is we want to combine Oklahoma cannabis culture and paranormal investigation. So normally, what I tell people is that we get violently high and go ghost hunting.
Morgyn: Yep! Brittanie: That’s kind of our whole thing. (Laughs)
Chronic: What are all of your roles in the group? Morgyn: I am the team's historian, so I do a good amount of the history research behind each haunt we visit.
April: I am our financial manager! Nate: I do production, I am the guy behind the camera.
Brittanie: Well, I do a bit of everything- Morgyn: Brittanie is our Head B*tch in Charge! (Laughs)
Gloria: Well I do research and also paranormal investigation on the spiritual side. I am the one who is more incontact with the spirits and things like that.
April: Yeah, she is our spiritualist for sure. Brittanie: Definitely, definitely. That is where our protection spells come from, all of our prayer before we start.
April: Our resident witch! Chronic: Since y’all get “violently high and go ghost hunting,” is there a favorite strain or type of weed that you tend to lean towards before ghost hunting?
Morgyn: Well, I wouldn’t say we have a preferred strain, more of a preferred method. We really enjoy joints and dab rigs.
Gloria: I also like bongs. April: Oh yeah, Gloria always has a bong with her. (laughs) Her bong and her purse, everywhere she goes.
Brittanie: But, we do try to stick to sativas or sativa hybrids. Just so we aren’t dragged down. One risk that we run doing this is that there is a possibility for couch lock.
We don’t want to get couch locked when we are ghost hunting because that would be a bad place to do that. So, we tend to stick to sativas and sativa leaning hybrids.
Gloria: I like to mix them up actually Morgyn: Yeah, Gloria’s joints are dangerous like that.
April: Yeah, gorilla finger joints. (laughs) Chronic: So, have you all always believed in ghosts and paranormal things like that?
Morgyn: I’ve had experiences since I was a child, so I have definitely always been a believer. This is definitely right up my alley being a part of this team and this show. Gloria: Yeah, definitely, same here. Always. I’ve seen things as well too, man.
Brittanie: I would say that I’ve always been a believer but I was always the kind of person that would try to explain away as much as I could. So this has been kind of a reality check, of sorts. There are things that you see that you can’t just explain away. This show has really made me more of a believer.
Nate: I, on the other hand, have ex perience in the realm of skepticism and being the active ghost antagonizer.
April: Yes, anytime that I want to go do something stupid he’s the one that will say, “Alright let’s go do it!” Yeah, so if that doesn’t tell you I do pull a ‘Zak Bagans’ sometimes.
Morgyn: Oh my god, I never
thought to compare you twobut I’m just going to have tostart calling you Zak whenyou want to climb sh*t.April: Don’t you do that!
Chronic: So whenever youguys get ready to go on oneof your trips, how muchresearch goes into it?Brittanie: It all depends on
the location. For example, ifwe are doing a cemetery,there may not be as muchinvestigation that we can dothere or as much research.Like the historical locations,Gloria and Morgyn are alwayson top of research. Theyusually start researching assoon as we know we aregoing there so at least acouple weeks of research.Chronic: Do you guys only do
Oklahoma or do you all travelto other states?Morgyn: So we are actually
about to start branching out!Right now we want to focuson Oklahoma because this isthe heart and soul of wherewe started, we want to getour following up, and wethink Oklahoma should behome for our group. So that’swhat we are trying toaccomplish and kind of bringin the Oklahoma cannabisindustry.We want to be a way to show
off all the amazing growersand minds within theindustry, the beautifulcommunity that we have outhere, both cannabis andparanormal related. But, wedo have plans to expand, it isa matter of time at this point.We really want to focus onour fans here first!Gloria: We do expand in the
sense of other stories andcool things from other states.Side note: Once the team expands into more states they do have some haunts that they’d love to go to, some still in the United States and some overseas. The teams said they’d like to visit The Stanley Hotel, The Lizzie Borden House, the catacombs in Rome, The Winchester House, Eastern State Penitentiary, Alcatraz, The Queen Mary, Roswell (New Mexico), and Greyfriars Kirkyard.
Chronic: What’s the craziest place you all have visited together? Everyone: El Reno Barn! Definitely, El Reno Barn! (laughs)
Brittanie: That barn... I really think something followed me home from that barn. It was our most recent visit too.
Side note: The El Reno Barn in El Reno Oklahoma is a haunted attraction that opens up with scare actors and things of that nature but it is really haunted.
The Chronic Encounters Team said that they had never felt like how they did that night or seen anything like they saw that night. That night was unexplainable.
They heard things they couldn’t explain and some visitors had even had panic attacks from the heaviness of the air around them.
Even Nate saw things that night and he is a heavy skeptic when it comes to paranormal things. According to the team, it was the most scared they have ever been (so far).
Chronic: Can each of you tell me about your favorite paranormal experience, with or without the group?
April: Mine, that has stuck out to me for the longest time now is something that happened during one of our first investigations together at the 101 Ranch. I wasn’t the only one that heard it but we kept hearing drums, we kept feeling things, things touched me, things were whispering in my ear, it was... I’ve never felt more alert in the middle of nowhere before. And I feel like either an energy or just an overwhelming that just stuck around the air followed me home. It affected me for a week or two. I kept thinking that I was seeing shadows around my home. I was touched by something in my home a couple days after. It was one of the craziest experiences and something that emotionally and mentally latched on to me. It was very intense. Even thinking back on it I’m like, “Alright, where’s the weed.”
Morgyn: I think for me The Stone Lion Inn. There was a lot of activity in the basement. We had split up into two groups and at one point, my group was at this door. The door started opening and I was literally convinced that the other group was going to walk through that door. Nobody was there. It was very unsettling and I felt a gush of cold air. There were a bunch of responses through our equipment and it was mind blowing to me. I had never really seen that much activity.
Brittanie: I think mine- I am going to be a bit different here and talk about one that’s not with the group. It was the first real paranormal thing that had ever happened to me. And if I didn’t have witnesses I’m sure none would believe me.
I was at my friends house and they had been telling me, “Oh, it’s haunted,” but I never believed them. One night her mom was doing the dishes and had the silverware drawer open and I watched a fork fly across the room. Like it just flew. They were like, “So, do you believe us now?” And then I definitely did. It was the first time that I was like, “Oh sh*t ghosts are real and I’m not prepared to deal with that.”
Gloria: I have quite a few, I don’t even know. You know what? I’m going to go with last night. Last night we went to Train Tracks in Mustang, we were all doing our three minute self investigation.
I was asking the spirits that were there questions and wandered off toward the road, away from the railroads. I asked the spirit to give me a sign because it was one of the few times I felt scared on a haunt. I think I spoke to it, the app said, “Woman, we’re both. Born October.”
The presence was that of a woman, specifically the mom who passed away on the railroad tracks, and it was very scary since I was born in October. I'm shaking just talking about it now.
Nate: For me, most of my paranormal experiences happened with other supernatural creatures that like to annoy you during the day like skinwalkers and stuff. But I hadn’t really had much that bothered me until I started following these girls around who are apparently just spirit magnets. In Guthrie, we had gone away from the street to some abandoned buildings and they were asking questions. Everything was going fine but the building behind me was silent when we arrived but then after the questions were asked it began creaking and groaning.
You could see bullet holes that came from the inside. (This was where Chinese refugees were kept over a hundred years ago and they were not treated well. It was full of restless spirits.) Side note: Oklahoma has a lot of history and not all of it is good.
The Chronic Encounters team has a goal to show that Oklahoma isn’t just cows and cornfields but it has a lot of intense history as well. “Oklahoma as a whole is haunted as f*ck.”
So what’s next for the Chronic Encounters team? 31 Days of Halloween!
They will be posting a video everyday so check out their social media. The next haunt they go to will be in Guthrie at a haunted attraction that is actually haunted, called Guthrie Haunts.
They will be the second team to investigate the area. Keep a look out for their spooky shenanigans. (Also, they wanted to thank our editor, Therein, for bringing them all together. They probably wouldn’t have met without him, so the team and the fans, thank you very much.)
Getting to do this interview was a blast. However, while writing this interview, some spooky things began happening within my computer, it’s like it knew I talked to people who had come into contact with ghosts! The recording of our interview began to disappear from the folder and when it was finally found, all of their voices had changed and some were nearly unintelligible.
In fact, one area of the audio is completely new, I do not remember recording it. (If I had the courage to get an EMF reader and see if it said anything, I would! But I don’t want to provoke anything in my own house.)
Other than something potentially haunting me now, I had a wonderful time talking with the Chronic Encounters team. I’ll leave all you readers with this,
Stay high, stay happy, stay spooky!
