Is the Washoe House haunted?

If there’s something strange in your neighborhood, who you gonna call? NorCal Paranormal Investigators! The name probably doesn’t leap to mind the way the “Ghostbusters!” lyric might, but you’re more likely to get your call answered.

The five-person crew, armed with cameras, digital recording devices and other tools of the trade, combed through the 1850s-era Washoe House in the wee hours of Oct. 2 to investigate whether the Petaluma landmark is haunted. Spoiler alert: They say it is.

For those keeping score, Sonoma County has seen an uptick in local paranormal activity – at least in the media. Petaluma-native Amy Bruni, veteran of SyFy’s “Ghost Hunters” is back on the air appearing in TLC’s all-new series “Kindred Spirits,” airing Fridays at 10 p.m., and filmmaker Tom Wyrsch’s documentary “Haunted Sonoma County” premiered in Sonoma recently.

Norcal Paranormal Investigators, however, isn’t seeking the limelight so much as dealing with the aftermath of those that - to paraphrase the movie “Poltergeist” - didn’t go into the light. Ushering spirits, demons and otherworldly anomalies from one plane to another (or as often not) is just part of the job, said Douglas M. Carnahan, founder of Norcal Paranormal Investigators - or NPI, as it’s emblazoned on the team’s matching T-shirts.

“We have to debunk it just like anything else. Not all of them are demonic as everyone often thinks and thank God for that,” he laughed.

Indeed, the first rule of any investigation, Carnahan said, is to keep an open mind. This includes being available to the possibility that a rational, scientific explanation might exist as much as a paranormal one.

For someone who spends so much time dealing with the ethereal, Carnahan is a decidedly down-to-earth fellow. He’s a large man with white hair and keen, probing eyes that are shrewd but sympathetic and boast the kind of hard-won shine that comes with having seen things.

Like most of his crew, Carnahan was drawn to his work through a personal experience with the unexplained. In the mid-80s, Carnahan was in his Fremont townhouse kitchen when a force struck him in the chest. Over six months, the encounters intensified. He intuited that the phenomena was paranormal and sought to connect with a community who shared similar experiences.

“This was back before the Internet, and especially on the West Coast, there was nothing to grasp onto besides the local palm reader and that wasn’t going to help,” he recalled with a wry smile. “I ended up having to deal with it on my own.”

Three decades and more than 600 investigations later, Carnahan and crew bring their unique services to those in need throughout the greater Bay Area – free of charge.

“A lot of investigations come from people at their wit’s end. They’ve tried to have other people help them out with no success and they come to us as a last resort,” said Carnahan, who explained that there’s a spectrum to paranormal activity wherein demonic presences are at the far end. In layman’s terms, most disturbances he encounters are ghosts, which he defines simply as “residual energy.”

“It’s just a broken record that goes on and on,” he said. “It’s not necessarily evil. You may hear footsteps on the stairs at certain times of night or chairs being pulled along a wooden floor.”

Spirits, however, come in two flavors - human and nonhuman, which can be “angelics or demonics.” Naturally, this presumes the existence of an afterlife, in the very least, if not a bevy of other spiritual considerations.

Carnahan faces the bigger questions with a kind of philosophical shrug befitting a man who’s seen a lot of weird stuff. He’s less concerned with neatly ascribing the experiences of those he helps to specific religious traditions as he is with addressing the needs of the spirit at hand. He’s an equal opportunity ghostbuster.

The crew investigating the 19th century roadhouse are similarly affable and open-minded. Some are veterans, others are in the midst of their training with Carnahan and his right-hand-man Jason Cobb.

“This is probably my 20th investigation,” said crew member and Petaluma resident Brian Clark, whose effervescent enthusiasm is capped by a precision-engineered mohawk. He was on photography duty as well as additional digital recording.

“I’ve seen all kinds of things,” said Clark, who recounted an overnight residential investigation in which something forcibly yanked him from the bed at 4 a.m. “That was an eye-opening experience. I’ve seen things, I’ve been talked to, I’ve been responded to, I’ve heard my voice being called back on recorders. But this was ‘Wow.’”

Clark is credited with capturing some of the “wow” factor from the Washoe investigation too, according to NPI case manager Tami Oakey, who was on hand conducting an “electronic voice phenomenon” session using a digital recorder while others wielded an EMF field meter or took photographs in other parts of the landmark.

“I was sitting in the bar area and asking questions,” Oakey recounted in the days following the investigation, “when all of a sudden a really cold gust of air came across myself and Jason. You could feel the temperature change and the breeze go across you,” she said, pointing out that no one had opened any doors or windows.

But that was just the beginning. Toward the end of the night, Clark took a couple of photos containing what appeared to the crew as photographic evidence of the tavern’s paranormal occupation.

“In one photo is an apparition from the torso up of a balding gentleman standing near the window. You can totally see him and you can see right through him,” said Oakey.

Additionally, another apparition, donning a cowboy hat, can be spied standing next to the balding specter.

“It’s basically two spirit images in one photo,” said Oakey, who endeavored to keep palpable excitement aligned with her professional demeanor.

All in a night’s work.

Carnahan sagely explained that each spirit is an individual.

“Sometimes they’re lost, sometimes they need help. Sometimes they’re mad they’ve passed. Our old saying is ‘If you’re an a-hole in life, you’re an a-hole in death,” he said.

To learn more about NorCal Paranormal Investigators and Douglas M. Carnahan, visit npiencounterstv.com and dmcarnahanpi.com respectively.