Spirit Searchers was a UK-based paranormal investigations team active from May 2004 to 2007, and a precursor to the Society of Paranormal Studies (SPS). Its co-founding members included Gary JJ Spate, Sadie Ingoldby-Spate, Neil Smith, Tanya Smith, Matt McKiernan, Susan Shreeve, Jody Shreeve, psychic medium Paul Drake, and Gary Adams.
Not to be confused with a later, unrelated group that adopted the Spirit Searchers name and the spiritsearchers.co.uk domain after this original team disbanded. The two groups have no connection beyond the shared name.
History
Spirit Searchers ran as an active investigation team from 2004 through 2006, operating a public-facing website with news updates, feature articles, a photo gallery, a message board and an online shop, alongside its investigative work.[1]
Investigations
Spirit Searchers conducted investigations across a wide geographic spread for a team of its size, covering locations in Essex, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, North East Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.[1] Investigated sites included two British Army barracks (Carver Barracks in Saffron Walden, Essex, and Deverell Barracks in Ripon, North Yorkshire), public houses, hotels, a nightclub, retail premises, and several private homes.[1]
The team described its case history as inconsistent by nature: some locations, such as Oxfam Savers in Grimsby, produced no activity detected by the wider team and only impressions reported by the mediums present, while other sites were reported as considerably more active.[1] The team's own account singled out an investigation at The Corner Pin public house in Donington Le Heath, Leicestershire, as its most prominent case, during which several team members reported being physically attacked by what they took to be spirit entities.[1]
The Mosborough Stone Mystery
In August 2005, Spirit Searchers conducted a private investigation of a property in Mosborough, near Sheffield, following a large stone found standing on two breeze blocks in the garden — resembling, by the team's own description, a miniature obelisk.[1] This investigation was carried out at the home of Alex Birch, who identified himself to the team as the photographer behind the 1962 UFO photograph taken in Mosborough, and separately described having been visited by figures he identified as the UK's equivalent of the Men in Black, said to have worn conventional black suits.[1] The team's investigation of the property did not detect any paranormal activity.
Legacy
Spirit Searchers closed in 2007, with Gary JJ Spate and Sadie Ingoldby-Spate going on to found the Society of Paranormal Studies, continuing the investigative work of the earlier team.