To order a book just click on the cover

---

                                                                                        
First of all, thank you for doing this interview.
I think that it is a good idea. There are so many groups doing this and they just remain silent, and the more that we talk to each other we can gain more ground in the field. No offense to them, but groups like that probably don't have much to offer. The great cases are still ahead of us. If I ever felt that my best work was behind me then I would be done. If you think that the greatest case was last year, then hang it up.

What do you have to say about people in the filed that are just starting?
For me it seems like the magic number is 1 year, because a lot of people get into this and they will do it for 3 months or six months and go away. People that have been in it for a year seem to be more serious and are starting a web site and publishing their findings, they seem to be taking it a little more seriously.  If you are looking for a group to join, ask about them in other places, reputation is everything,  and also a lot of reputable groups don just allow anyone to join.  This is something that the group and the person needs to feel comfortable with, this is like a job and you will be spending a lot of time together, such as overnights. You need to depend on everyone in the group for their wits and their credibility, and if after talking to people if you are worried about any of those factors then its probably not the group to join. Read everything that you possibly can, read the Science aspects, read the psychic aspects and see where you stand. You always will bring your own baggage, like you religious beliefs, and background. Attend Conferences. Always trust yourself, if you don't believe what you are hearing study more.

What would you suggest for someone who is looking for help with something paranormal?
That's a tough call, some people just want some kind of an independent verification of what is going on, and in that case there are a lot of great groups out there that can come in and do really thorough investigations and tell you what they find. They can do a report on the phenomena whatever kind it may be, photographic, EMF, Audio recording, and the research of the history of the location. For people that want some kind of "clearing" that it much trickier, and I have yet to have found anyone who has some kind of magic bullet of such a thing. We have one case where the woman involved was raised Christian and some of the people that she had in were witches and they did a blessing and sprinkled sea salt across door trims, casting circles, and these kinds of things. My thought is that that is really silly, not that witchcraft is sill in any way, but if you are dealing with these kind of situations for example with her being Christian, you should not call in a Rabbi to blow the Shofar. People have ways with their own faith in dealing with these things, and what works for one person doesn't work for another person. If whatever you are doing is not in the context of the belief system of the people involved it will not be as effective. In some cases we have found that the more elaborate the Exorcism is the more people think that it works. But the clearing is really the trickiest part. I am really leery of anyone who can promise a clearing, and especially if money is involved. If someone calls and says it will be $500.00 to clear the house, they should paint it too. What concerns me is that I understand what kind of work and time goes into this, with the background research the property research interviews and all takes a lot of time and expertise and I value it. But at the same time we never charge because there is no governing body to oversee this and consumers would have no recourse. In any industry where consumers have no recourse it is called a black market, and that's not a label that we need when we are trying to be taken seriously by the public. I know that it costs us a lot of our time and spare money with the cost of equipment and things like travel and hotel rooms, but when the subject of a price comes out I think that we are in trouble.

What do you think of sharing the findings of the research that we all do?
I think that we should have the right to publish the finding but we still need to respect the peoples privacy. You should be able to discuss the findings and bring it to a larger community, to put it in book magazines, and on web sites because that is a big part of what you are doing it for. If you cant communicate your findings that is almost like not doing it in the first place.

How long have you been researching the paranormal?
I have been interested my whole life. I grew up in NewTown Connecticut which is right next door to Ed & Lorraine Warren and I have known them since I was 10 years old. I remember seeing their lectures from a very young age, and I remember growing up with friend that were very matter of fact when it came to their houses being haunted. I had a business card that said "Paranormal investigator" when I was 10 years old, I typed it up on the typewriter. When I got out of College I was a newspaper reporter, and on Halloween we always looked for the local Haunted special interest stories. That is how I started getting published in the field and I got completely hooked talking to eye-witnesses and hearing testimonies, researching the history of the location to find out if that adds any credence to what they are experiencing in the location. Of course when it does line up it is like a paranormal home run. I started the web site in 1999. I started having books come out in 2004 and then I started doing lectures and radio shows. Its kind of growing by itself now, and I have been doing it full time for about 2 years.

Do you work with other during you investigations?
I typically work alone, because I am interested in interviewing the witnesses. Typically I find that when you walk up to people with a big group it is very intimidating, and one of the challenges is being able to create what people in the newspaper industry call "instant repair" that is just something that you just get good at when you do it a lot. One on one you can really look the person in the eye and build a trust to get their story. Its very personal and profound, and they are trusting you with it. You are letting them know that you are not going to make them look like a fool, which nobody should do in the first place. If you weren't there when they had an experience you cant really comment on it. You can only document it as best as possible. That is something that really bothers people that have had an experience, people will tell them "Your just making it up". How can you tell them that, you weren't there. Its like me telling you you didn't have Corn Flakes for breakfast you had a Blueberry muffin, and you say you weren't at the table when I had breakfast you cant tell me what I had. That is so frustrating for people and I can see why people choose to clam up about it and not talk to people. When you start listening to people about the little details about their experiences, you earn their trust, and that is something that you should not take lightly. So I commonly work alone, but if I feel that there is something going on I am one that approaches things from every possible angle.  For example one person that I worked with claimed that they were having health issues because of the situation in their house. That may be, but they should also be talking to a Medical Dr. If you ever feel that your health is in danger I am a big fan of seeking out medical help. If your having heart palpitations call you Dr. don't call your local Exorcist or Ghost Hunter. Then of course approach this from a scientific aspect, there definitely seems to be some correlation between Electromagnetic fields and these manifestations. So it makes sense to bring in science minded people and try to document what is happening. Then you also need to deal with it on a spiritual level, and that is where you bring in the background of the people. If you have christians, lets get a minister to say a blessing. The one thing that people don't like to hear is that sometimes your going to need a psychologist, to make sure not only that the people involved are balanced in every way, but these things can be very tormenting and you need to be able to talk about it, and some paranormal investigators are just not qualified to be on the receiving end of that conversation.

How many books have you published?
My sixth book was just published and I have two more coming out next year, and Im already working on the next one. Anything that Im working on has to have to bring something new into it just to keep me interested, I don't want it to just be the same old thing. Nest year I have a book coming out called "Haunting the Whitehouse"  and I actually had the opportunity to go to the Whitehouse and interview some of the staff. It took a couple of Congressmen and a lot of phone calls and letters to get me in. It was such an honor to be in there. It is also a book for young readers, And we are using ghosts as an innovative way to teach history, and I don't think that you can study ghost without studying history. I have been getting a lot of letters from kids who are around 10 years old, and that is great because that is about the time that I started getting interested in it. Then I started getting contacted by teachers who wanted to use my books in the classroom. That made my month when I heard that someone was doing that.  When you talk about ghosts you can get kids full attention,  and then they have to their own investigation.  Its like there is the ghost of a man with a beard on the second floor of the Whitehouse. Why would that be, why would he be here? Then you learn that Abraham Lincoln has been seen near the Lincoln bedroom. It is really an innovative way for them to look at things. But when we try to bring our critical thinking and scientific theories into this we need to realize that its still a spiritual endeavor, and makes us ask some really big questions about things like what happens after we die and life after death, what does religion mean, and all kinds of questions. I just love this field because it combines History, Spirituality, Belief systems, Science and everything in between. Im also working on the book Weird Massachusetts which is the state that I live in, it is part of the Weird series from the History Channel. It is great being able to do that book because it not only covers ghosts but other subjects as well such as U.F.O.'s, Big Foot, and all kinds of natural phenomena. Im also working on a book on my religious beliefs, because it is powerful force and it really intrigues me.

What impact do you think that the media's attention to all of this has had?
I think that it is great. If you talk to some of the people that were in the field years ago like the Warrens, Hanz Holzer & Brad Steiger, they will tell you how hard it was for people to talk about the subject. Now you have people on their regular jobs talking about a TV show and they will say things like "did you see what happened last night on the ghost whisperer?" and they will talk about similar experiences that they have had. Its just not so batty to talk about where as 40 years ago, you would be in a white coat and a padded room.
One of the drawbacks is that we don't have any kind of governing body, so being a ghost hunter is something that you can do bu simply waking up and saying that you are one. So people who aren't really qualified to do much of anything can start doing this, just by putting up a shingle or a onsite. Then people let you into their homes, and it can be messy. It is going to take a big effort from all of us to help with that situation. People will see an episode of Ghost Hunters on SciFi and tomorrow they buy an EMF meter and a digital camera and they are out there doing the same thing, but without much experience behind them. People are still learning so much about how we do these things, we still have to answer to the Skeptic community that seems to take a great issue about what we are doing, and that's ok I think that they are an important part of the conversation. The only thing that bothers me about the Skeptic movement and it is not the majority of them just some with the louder voices is that they say science is a far as it can go and that is ludicrous, things that we are doing today, even 10 years ago seemed like science fiction. One of the arguments is that "ghosts are against the laws of physics" And I say ghosts are against our current understanding of the laws of physics. Quantum physics are opening up all kinds of possibilities, now Im not much more qualified to quote what Ive read in a few books, and seen in a documentary or two but the notions are definitely intriguing. Such as time not   being linear, that the speed of light might not be constant, all of these thing really lean towards paranormal phenomena. I think that science may help us unlock a lot of these things. I also think that the individual ghost hunters in cities all over the world are helping us move to towards some big steps in opening this up. For example next year we are going to be opening a central database where people can log in data from investigations, to see if there is a certain set of criteria so we can start to line these things up against each other to see trends. We are going to put together a symposium to decide what criteria are needed, so it is not just me deciding what we need to look for. There will be no "kingpin" it will just be a collective effort.

So do you approach this from a more scientific or metaphysical approach?
I like to keep myself open minded. Im a reporter by nature so I try t remain objective to whatever I am investigating, so if someone is going to talk to me about the impressions that they get, especially the psychic experience that one cant quantify all I can do is listen. Ive never personally seen a ghost, I have never had that experience. I believe in ghost, because I have interviewed well over a thousand people who have had this experience and I can just hear it in their voice and see it in their eyes, that they perceived it to be true. I accept the possibility that there are ghosts. I also accept the possibility that that these things might be purely manufactured. I don't mean like Speilberg type special effects, but some people might wish them into existence. Or that some types of poltergeist activity is some type of psychokenisis, where someone is causing these things to manifest without fully understanding what it is that they are doing. That is still incredible and deserves study, its the power of the brain that we just don't fully understand yet. One of the theories with E.V.P. is that the researcher is imprinting the voices onto the tape, but I still say wow..... how does that happen? If that is what is happening that is still incredible. As far as photography, there are natural explanations like cold weather and your breath fogs up in front of the camera. And Orbs... I don't dismiss all orbs, because I have talked to people that have seen floating balls of light. But I have some really good explanation of how the images can occur naturally from camera manufacturers and professional photographers.



                    

---

---