There was once a man who wanted to sell his bungalow in Goa. There was only one problem: every time he hired a worker or plumber to renovate the house, they would refuse to work. They complained that there was a ghost in the house. He finally approached Team Pentacle for help.
Bengaluru-based Nisha Verma, one of the co-founders of Team Pentacle, was part of the investigation team at the bungalow in Goa in May 2016. She vividly recalls the day when they first entered the house. Nisha claims they “saw a white apparition. The spirit was a woman who had lived in that house and had passed away there. We clearly heard her say: ‘Get out, get out’.”
BENGALURU - KARNATAKA - 14/04/2019 : Team Pentacle - Bengalurus very own ghostbusters, in Bengaluru on April 14, 2019. Photo: K Murali Kumar / THE HINDU
Neither created nor destroyed
How would she explain such a phenomenon to sceptics? Nisha says: “Spirits are energies, and according to science, energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it only changes form.”
The other Bengaluru team members, Kamesh Sahu, Prafulla Mannewar and Diana Subhakar speak of their experiences with Team Pentacle. “When they are approached for an investigation, they go with the intention of proving there are no ghosts. Kamesh says, “Many cases turn out to be false alarms. We have a scientific approach. We ask questions, conduct a proper background check and assess the person’s behaviour.”
The team then show the gadgets they use for their investigations. “We measure energies with closed-circuit cameras and digital video recorders, thermal cameras/imagers, a full spectrum camera, and audio recorders, in particular, an Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) recorder.” says Kamesh.
BENGALURU - KARNATAKA - 14/04/2019 : Team Pentacle - Bengalurus very own ghostbusters, in Bengaluru on April 14, 2019. Photo: K Murali Kumar / THE HINDU
Nisha is the co-founder of Team Pentacle and says she is India’s first certified woman paranormal investigator. “I did a six-month course at The Institute of Metaphysical Humanistic Science, which is located in the US. You need 90 % to receive the certification. The course includes both theory and practicals. They show photos, clippings and audio and we have to identify the levels of EVP and if any of those are doctored or are they for real,” says Nisha. The Mumbai-based Team Pentacle has members across a few cities, including Bengaluru. “It was started on January 1, 2013 by Shishir Kumar and Ayush Raina, Rohit Kumar, Chinmaya Tiwari and me. We have about 20+ members,” says Nisha.
The team say they have conducted about a 100 investigations in India and 35 investigations in Bengaluru. “We are sometimes approached to investigate cases by people who have tried every recourse, including pujas , and nothing has worked.
Sometimes we find cases from newspapers and websites,” says Prafulla. When asked if they take money for their investigations, Nisha says: “We have not taken a single rupee from anyone.”
The team have all taken the Certified Paranormal Researcher (CPR) and Certified Paranormal Investigators (CPI) courses to become certified members. “We see how passionate a person is,” says Nisha, “This is not a fun group doing ghostbusting for thrills.” For details visit Team Pentacle’s Facebook page.
