During this ghostly season, tales of the boogie man and ghouls are slightly more believable, but for one Lehi mother of two it was the month of February that changed her view on the paranormal.

SEEING FLOATING BALLS OF LIGHT in their hallway and hearing her 2-year-old daughter screaming "scary" in an empty room isn't something Melissa Troutwine bargained for when she moved into her new home in January.

"I've always seen things out of the corner of my eye," she said, but "you always want to discount it."

At first it was the little things -- the family dog wouldn't go into their home and strange spots would appear in family pictures, Troutwine said.

But on the night of Feb. 28, Troutwine couldn't discount anymore. Her son and daughter were screaming and, while Troutwine's husband went to check on the kids, she saw balls of light. At first she thought it was headlights from cars passing her home, Troutwine said, until the orbs of light began to move and came toward her bed.

"I didn't know what to think," she said, adding she wonders if her home, actor Wilford Brimley's old house, was built on the foundation of a previous home.

However, local historians can't remember a home being there before hers.

Troutwine isn't the only person who has witnessed the paranormal in the seemingly safe confines of Utah County. The founders of two of the leading ghost hunter societies in the state witnessed their first paranormal experience in Happy Valley.

Growing up in a home near the mouth of American Fork Canyon, April Page, one of the founders of Utah's Unexplained, said she was exposed to the paranormal early in life.

"Always nice," the ghosts who lingered at Page's home would lock windows and doors when wannabe intruders would try and break into the home, she said.

Taking her interest in the unexplained beyond her childhood dwelling, Page joined Utah Ghost Hunter's Society, and began following in the steps of the group's founder, Chris Peterson.

Peterson, who started the group with his wife, Nancy, in 1994, had his first paranormal experience while walking through the Lehi cemetery. The couple placed a camcorder that captured audio in the cemetery and came back an hour later. What Peterson heard transformed his curiosity into a more than decade-old passion.

" 'Come on now, we're not going to hurt you,' " Peterson said about a voice the camcorder picked up in the cemetery. "You could hear this as plain as day. My jaw had just hit the floor; I couldn't believe what I heard."

Since then, Peterson and UGHS have gone on and conducted numerous investigations. From Lehi to Payson, Utah County is the home of many paranormal hot spots. Cemeteries, hospitals, the old Utah County Jail and private dwellings all can be host sites for the unexplained.

Ghost hunters use computers to extract and clean up electronic voice phenomena -- aka EVP -- from audio recordings. They also use photographs, electromagnetic frequency emitters and night vision equipment to try to catch a glimpse or sound bite of the unreal.

EVP, the "most intense evidence of all," is Peterson's favorite technique to use when hunting down the things that go bump in the night.

"A photograph can be about anything, but when you hear a voice start talking to you," Peterson said, we are "able to use that to validate a lot of what we do."

There are two types of hauntings. A ghost or spirit of a person who either doesn't know he or she has deceased or refuses to leave the place they are haunting; or, there are residual hauntings, Peterson said, in which energy from a certain event is trapped and continues to loop, like a broken record, but does not interact with the living like a ghost or spirit can.

But dealing with Casper-like entities can be chilling.

"It can be kind of a 'oh crap' kind of moment every once in awhile," Peterson said about interacting with ghosts.

Page, who is investigating the old Lehi Hospital, said on several occasions she has encountered unfriendly entities.

"Fear feeds negativity," and negative energy, or any form of energy, fuels the paranormal, Page said.

But for the most part, the paranormal isn't anything to fear. During a presentation Saturday at Camp Floyd, Michelle Lowe, one of the founders of Research Investigations of the Paranormal, said there really isn't much to fear when it comes to the unexplained.

The group not only does investigations in private dwellings and commercial buildings, it also reaches out to children to help them understand there isn't anything to fear.

Children often hear and see things that adults can't, Lowe said, but that doesn't mean they should be afraid.

"Sometimes invisible friends aren't just invisible friends," she said. "For the most part, there is nothing to fear. I would rather have kids be scared of strangers."

Katie Ashton can be reached at 344-2548 or kashton@heraldextra.com.

Conducting your own ghost hunt:

Debunk it as much as possible. Try to disprove any finding before concluding it is the paranormal.

Go out in pairs. Never go out alone, always have another person for safety and as a witness.

Not all orbs in photographs are actually orbs. Dust particles, light and water vapor can create the illusion of orbs.

To collect EVP, you can use either a digital or tape recorder. If using a tape recorder, never use the same tapes twice, it can pick up back tracks.

While out using a recorder, take off jewelry and empty out change to avoiding picking up the jingling noise.

When listening to EVP recordings, get a good set of high-quality head phones and listen at a low volume, to help prevent your ears from getting tired.

-- Tips courtesy of Utah's Unexplained.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.