It might be shocking for coworkers at Tinker Air Force Base to find out that their co-worker in the electrical engineering department spends many of his free hours studying and talking to ghosts.
For Logan Corelli of Midwest City, this "non-paying second job" is more than a hobby. He said he spends anywhere from five to 20 hours a week researching, organizing his team, making videos and other such duties for two organizations he is involved with as a paranormal investigator.
"To me, that's a job," said Corelli, who serves as co-director of Oklahoma City Ghost Club (OKCGC) as well as founder of the Oklahoma Paranormal Union, which is less than one year old. However, this job is compensated only by donations and fulfilled interest.
Through these organizations, he has been able to travel across the United States and throughout Oklahoma investigating private residences, old hospitals, hotels and outdoor areas. Corelli said he has visited sites in states including Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Louisiana, New Mexico and Texas.
Corelli has been studying paranormal activity for several years. He holds a doctorate degree in parapsychology from the University of Metaphysical Sciences as well as a master's degree in metaphysics. At Flamel College, Corelli earned certificates in parapsychologists, paranormal investigations, electronic voice phenomenon (EVP) technician and unidentified flying object investigation. These were all wrapped around a degree in paranormal studies. He started his education, however, with an associate degree in psychology from Rose State College.
Since then, he has also been ordained as a reverend for the University Church of Metaphysics.
His fascination with the paranormal began at age eight, when he had his first encounter with the spiritual world.
Corelli and his mother were vacationing at The Fountainhead, a lodge at Lake Eufala. During the day, they had wandered around the lodge, swam in the pool and seen many other guests doing the same.
In the evening, they retired to their room. Corelli went to get ice at the other end of the lightless hallway. He said that as he finished loading ice into his bucket, he noticed a shadow hovering by the coke machine, but there was nobody there. Trying to push it out of his mind, he began walking back towards the room, only to find that the shadow was following him. Whenever he sped up, the shadow would eventually catch up. Finally, he broke into a run towards his hotel room. He threw the ice on the floor and began banging on the door.
The shadow caught up with him, stood behind him and disappeared before his mother opened the door. When Corelli explained to his mom what had happened, she wrote it off as a child being spooked. Then, the rest of the evenings events unfolded.
Corelli and his mother had been hearing construction noises throughout the day on the floor above them. At about 7 p.m. that evening, Corelli's mother called to complain about the continued noise and asked if construction could stop before they wanted to go to bed. The manager replied that the construction crew had left at 5 p.m. At that, Corelli's mother advised the hotel to send somebody to investigate the noises.
Next came the mysterious knocks on the door. At first, there was a knock and run every 15 minutes. Then it was every 10 minutes. Then it was every five minutes. Thinking it was a child playing jokes, Corelli's mom decided to frighten the perpetrator by waiting and opening the door when they knocked.
At the next banging, she opened the door and yelled, but nobody was there. A moment later, with the open door in her hand, the knocking at the door ensued.
Directly following that incident, the old television in their room flipped on. The screen was a bright red and Corelli and his mother heard a man laughing. His mother quickly unplugged the television.
The room was dead silent for a moment. That's when Corelli and his mother noticed the sound of rushing wind. The windows begin shaking and the sheets begin moving but the trees outside remained still.
"It felt like it was in our room," said Corelli.
The final straw was when a window pane begin fogging up as if someone was breathing on it. When the words "You're dead" appeared, Corelli and his mother left the hotel.
A few years later, when Corelli submitted a paper about this at Flamel University, his professor remarked that the incident may have been centered less around the hotel and more around Corelli himself.
That was not the last nor the most frightening situation Corelli would have with the paranormal world. At 11, he was struck by lightening. At a friend's house at age 12, he was lifted from his bed when something grabbed his ankles.
After high school, Corelli began to re-think the situations that had happened to him earlier.
"The interests started coming back," he said. He began to read into parapsychology and look into local ghost groups. It was in the most obvious of places, the cemetery, that he began testing the field.
While working at U.S. Cellular in 2004, a coworker encouraged and helped him start a ghost group after learning about his interest. This friend, Ron Cross, is still with Corelli today. The first group he formed was called PROS, or Paranormal Research of Organized Studies. Their first site to investigate was an old-party place on 119th Street by Draper.
Corelli later switched and got involved with OKCGC, where he joined a previous member as co-director.
"When I took this group, I took it by the hands and said, 'We are going to work,'" said Corelli.
In that year alone, the group completed over 25 investigations. One site that group has investigated in the past is Mitchell Hall on UCO's campus.
"I want to go back," said Corelli. "If that could be arranged, I would go back."
He remembers Mitchell Hall being full of sights, sounds and smells indicating a spiritual presence there. What hurt his investigation was the number of people. Corelli said there were too many distractions to do efficient work. It was a three team effort to investigate the building.
A video of this investigation can be found on the OKCGC's Web site.
Authoring a book and maybe teaching classes are what lie in the future for Corelli. He also plans to continue his investigations and research.
"When I got involved with this, my overall goal in everything was to educate the public," he said.
OKCGC and OPU accomplish this goal by inviting people to attend investigations on haunted places that the group visits. One such opportunity is coming on Oct. 26 in Fort Reno. From 8:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. guests are invited to attend tour of the fort where they will learn history. They will also be able to actually go through a paranormal investigation. The $30 cost covers the investigation as well as provides food and a DVD of OKCGC's first investigation of Fort Reno to participants. This will also serve as a fund-raiser for the group.
Corelli said that many people believe everything is a poltergeist. However, he noted that many things can be explained scientifically. Some incidents, though, are interactions with the spiritual world. When allowing people to observe, the group refrains from imposing their views on their audience.
"We let them draw their own conclusions," he said.
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