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| Dave Harkins |
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| ZTALKRADIO SUNDAY NIGHTS FROM 9-11 EST |
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| THE OZARKS PARANORMAL SOCIETY |
I am Dave Harkins, founder and Director of The Ozarks Paranormal Society
(T.O.P.S). I have been active in paranormal research for all of my adult life.
I have had many different paranormal experiences since childhood and have been
actively seeking answers since my early teens. My Grandmother who was a
Registered Cherokee Indian was very active in different spiritualist churches
in our area, so I was exposed to many occult practices from a very early age.
By the age of eight she was teaching me how to read the Tarot and how to do
Psychometry. Anything to do with Metaphysics was very fascinating to me which
really disturbed my parents to say the least. I soon began ready anything to do
with the occult that I could get my hands on including works by Aleister Crowley,
Madam Blavatsky, Hans Holtzer and Anton LeVey to mention just a few.
In 1980, some friends and myself started a Metaphysical Occult bookstore in
Fresno California, which is still in business today. Through association with
the store I encountered many people who were touched by paranormal events in
their lives who felt that they had nowhere else to turn. Looking back now there
were no paranormal TV programs and the church would have seen them as being
crazy it now makes sense to me why they sought us out for help. Through my
interest in the occult and the paranormal as well as meeting these people it
was only natural for me to investigate many of their claims. So my journey into
paranormal investigation began. Since moving to Missouri in 1985 I have
investigated many paranormal places and happenings in and around the Ozarks. Several
years back I met others in the area that had the same interests in the
paranormal as myself. So, in 1997 we started a group called Ozark Mountains
Ghost Hunters which was around for many years, but with many of the group
moving away I was back to the solo thing for several years. In 2006 after
meeting more folks in the area with a strong lure to the paranormal field The
Ozarks Paranormal Society (T.O.P.S) was founded.
We have investigated dozens of places over the years, mostly private
residences and businesses as well as many more and lesser known historical
locations. At the present we are very focused on investigating American Civil
War locations here in Missouri and Arkansas and Mississippi.
Most recently we were asked back in August by management of the 1886
Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs Arkansas to come in and preform an official
overnight investigation of the property including the infamous morgue in the
basement of the hotel where TAPS caught the apparition of the soldier in front
of the locker with the number two on it. We had a very interesting
investigation of the property to say the least and have lots of evidence to
back up many of our experiences at the location. We are planning another
investigation of the hotel to focus on some of the areas that we found to be
more active.
Back in August of 2011 we were the first team of paranormal researchers to
be allowed into Wilson’s Creek Nation Battlefield near Springfield Missouri for
an overnight investigation of the battlefield including full access to the Ray
House which was used during the battle as a field hospital by both the Union
and the Confederate Armies. We were accompanied by an armed ranger who was nice
enough to take us into parts of the park that are off limits to the general public.
In October of 2011 we were once again granted access to Wilson’s Creek
National Battlefield for an overnighter, but this time we were accompanied by a
production team from the Travel Channel to film for their upcoming show
“Legends Of The Ozarks” Which aired January 21st 2012 and is still
being shown regularly on the Travel Channel, most recently as last Friday.
Next month myself and fellow T.O.P.S Team Member, Author Bud Steed and I
will be travelling to Mississippi to take part in the Delta Paranormal
Project’s fundraiser for MS and St. Jude’s sponsored by SPARS and Truth Seekers
Paranormal. Bud will be speaking about his two books and some of the other
speakers include Patrick Burns, Marley Harbuck Gibson and Keith Age. We will be
participating in investigations of different local locations.
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