Want to help the Paranormal Knights capture a ghost on camera?

In Pure Spirit talked to Chris Kiley, creator of Paranormal Knights, and asked about this Indiegogo campaign and his experiences in the field.

Who are The Paranormal Knights? What do you do?

We are a collection of paranormal researchers, multi-denomination experts, sound technology professionals, film makers and technology engineers. Through the use of a very rigorous screening process, we have a team that is not only able to discover evidence of possible spirits, but also able to distinguish the difference between a normal and paranormal event caught on film or recording devices. This is why we have chosen the word Knight. It represents a set of values that we consider essential. Truth, Valour, Bravery, Honour and Perseverance. It also doesn’t hurt that we think it sounds pretty cool.

A Paranormal Knight, with a previous group or by yourself which locations have you investigated already? Favourite location?

Prior to building the Paranormal Knights team, I myself investigated a collection of haunted houses, cemeteries, insane asylums, private home investigations and abandoned buildings. My favourite location, tough question. Each location hold a little something special for me but my top choice to return to is the Dorea Institute. Dorea was an institute for mentally ill orphans back in the 40’s and remained open until 1995. What is so intriguing is that the so called “mentally ill” orphans were part of a group in the range of 20,000 orphans falsely accused of insanity so that experiments could be done on them without anyone questioning it. They were part of the “Duplessis Orphans” and the Dorea Institute was so close to the U.S. border that tunnels were created so American doctors could secretly enter Canada to partake in the experiments. Unfortunately due to the horrible conditions, exposure to toxins and the property owners lack of cooperation, we could not investigate in depth. We’re not giving up though. We’ll make it back there someday!

Also, what has been your favourite discovery?

My favourite discovery is one that happened just recently. We visited a mass grave site that contained hundreds of bodies dating back over 200 years. The site was used for military and civilian personnel that were stationed at an old fort nearby. Almost instantly our EMF reader was registering some intense activity, however it was only in one small two foot radius. The signal would come and go about every 3 minutes but always in the same spot. We did a sweep of the entire location and found no other activity and no possible sources of electromagnetic interference. Returning to the original spot, our EMF reader continued to register a high frequency in regular intervals. We discussed some possibilities and thought perhaps, being a military grave site, that it was a guard doing his rounds. Passing the spot on each time around the grave. Here’s where it gets really exciting! The next time our EMF reader went off we followed what we considered to be a logical path for a guard to make and we were able to follow the signal for a good 5 feet before the EMF reader lost the signal. All caught on film. Very exciting!

The Indiegogo video promises you’ll find supernatural activity. Isn’t that a really bold promise to make?

You’re right, it is a bold promise. They key to finding evidence is first having a location that is haunted. Sounds simple enough but in reality it’s not always the case. There needs to be a reason WHY the location is haunted. With the help and insight from parapsychologists and psychologists we have devised a list of elements that would be the main source of a haunting. We have put our list to the test numerous times in both haunted and non haunted locations. The results have spoken form themselves. Locations that contained no elements from our list, had no activity that would suggest any evidence of the supernatural. However the areas that did contain at least one of our elements, we have found a large variety of unexplained events. This is why I’m so confident that by investigating locations according to our elements, we, and of course the viewers, will find some sort of evidence.

Why do you think there is not already compelling evidence of the supernatural? Or is paranormal, by very definition, never going to be normal?

Another great question! That’s really THE question, isn’t it? I think there’s two issues here. One is that, at this stage the majority of the scientific community has not embraced the investigating of the supernatural, so research in the field is considered a little fringe. Only a handful of Universities world wide teach courses in Parapsychology. If we had more minds trained in the field, I think we would be much farther ahead than we are today. Mind you, we once thought the world was flat, and that the stars moved around the earth as it stood still. So although I am a believer in science, history has proved that it’s not always right. The second issue we face is confusion. Often a paranormal investigation and ghost hunting are considered the same thing. They’re not. It would be like saying crime scene investigation is the same as CSI on TV. One is for evidence, one is for entertainment. The more we pay attention to true investigations, you will see a pattern emerge. That to me, is what compelling evidence is all about.

Sadly there’s only one way to truly find out what’s on the “other side”, and by then it’s too late to tell anyone. That being said, we as a human race has always been trying to understand the world around us and records of spiritual contact date back when humans scratched drawings on cave walls. Could that many people be wrong?

What tips do you have for ghost hunters and paranormal investigators?

A good paranormal investigator must first investigate. It’s essential to know your surroundings and details about your location. Go there during the day, gather all the details about the place, things in the surrounding area, history of the location, anything you can get your hands on. The more information the better. It’s super important because, as an example, flickering lights in a house built before 1940 are common because of the old electrical standards. We once had a woman hear scratching from inside her closet, when in fact it was a tiny branch that would scrape her aluminium siding. If you are a paranormal investigator you absolutely MUST rule our anything that could cause whatever is happening at the location. If you really want to find evidence, then treat it like a crime scene. Figure out why these things happen. Once you rule out every possibility, now you have some serious evidence! Oh and one last thing… don’t do that ghost taunting they do on TV. We always stick with the mind set that, if there is a spirit there, they were once human. Would you go talk to a jerk if you were a ghost?

It is really hard to raise money and budgets for paranormal investigations. Why do you think that is?

Well I think that unfortunately some people have given paranormal investigation a bad reputation. Not everyone takes it seriously so when they go out ghost hunting, they do all sorts of unprofessional things. I once interviewed someone who told me that she communicates better with spirits while she is under the influence of large amounts of alcohol. Even I laughed at that one. This is the struggle we, as a community, face. We get piled into one giant group. Once the word paranormal comes out, we are often instantly grouped in with those who like to just play around. Police and Intelligence Organizations like the FBI take it seriously, proven by the fact that they hire clairvoyants on important cases. SO… here’s my call to action for all you paranormal investigators! Let’s raise the credibility of the science. When our show is aired, we’ll have ways for you to see our investigations and interact with us. I invite you, Andrew to join us! In fact I invite everyone! Let’s bring paranormal research out of the fringe and into every day thinking!

In Pure Spirit

There you have it – a Q&A from the founder of the Paranormal Knights. Have you ever attempted something like the investigation group and film team combo that Chris is doing? Let us know about your experiences in the comments below.