Think there’s a ghost roaming around the grounds or through the halls of your home? Probably not, the founder of one of the state’s longest running paranormal investigation groups told Vicksburg Lions Club Wednesday.

“You have to be very through with these things because 80 percent of these ‘haunted’ places that we are called into are not haunted at all,” Mississippi Paranormal Society Founder Brian Riley said. “Out of 348 places, probably about 60 I’ve been able to study are haunted.”

Though hauntings are relatively rare, Riley is still a believer and said there are several private homes and tour homes — Duff Green Mansion, McRaven House, and others — that are haunted in Vicksburg.

“We try to debunk and disprove the paranormal,” Riley said. “Whenever we can’t disprove it, it’s paranormal.”

Riley said his group has never investigated Kuhn Memorial Hospital on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard because the building is collapsing, contains asbestos and is contaminated with black mold.

“I don’t particularly like going to old structures like that,” he said.

A separate group of ghost hunters found the body of a 69-year-old Sharen Wilson there in late June after she was abducted from her home on Drummond Street and killed at the hospital.

Riley said a paranormal investigation involves much more than hunting for ghosts. Members of the eight-person team put in hours of research on the history of supposedly haunted buildings and residences.

“It’s not that we just go in with a bunch of equipment,” he said.

Of course, there is plenty of equipment for monitoring radio waves, electromagnetic frequencies and other signs of ghost and spirits.

There are three types of hauntings and the first two — residual and intelligent hauntings — are relatively harmless, Riley said.

In residual hauntings the same events happen repeatedly, and in intelligent hauntings, sprits are able to interact with people, Riley said.

“You always hope to find Casper, but sometimes you find something else,” Riley said.

The something else Riley was speaking of are demonic hauntings, he said. In those cases spirits are malevolent and often scratch or injure people, he said.

Riley said he’s investigated at least one demonic haunting in Vicksburg, though he typically passes those cases on to a group in Natchez that is more experienced in demon investigations.

“As a Christian, those are the very most upsetting types of cases,” he said.