Thursday, January 25, 2007
By PAT CAHILL
As Grant S. Wilson and Jason Hawes crept up the spiral staircase of the old lighthouse, they saw a figure grab the railing and look down at them. They quickened their steps, ran after him and found ... nothing. A dead end. Two padlocked doors. No one at all.
Just another day in the life of "Ghost Hunters," the TV show on the Sci-Fi Channel that follows the real-life exploits of a team of unusual investigators.
Now the public is invited to meet the stars of "Ghost Hunters" in person, Saturday, 1 to 5 p.m., at the Eastfield Mall in Springfield. Joining Wilson and Hawes will be their fellow ghost hunter Steven A. Gonsalves, who lives in Springfield when he's not on the road filming.
Admission to the event is free. Autographs cost $10, with proceeds going to The Republican's Newspapers in Education program.
The Sci-Fi Channel calls its hit, which has a crew of 10, an "alternative reality show." Gonsalves appears on camera as well as serving as technical manager, in charge of equipment.
He says he has been reading up on ghosts since he was 13. His mother is one of his biggest fans. "She always wants to go with me!" says Gonsalves.
He is not fazed by being on the TV. "It feels like you're talking to a black box," he says, "not like 6 or 7 million people are watching you."
Fellow ghost hunters Wilson and Hawes never did find out who was in that lighthouse in St. Augustine, Fla. But a camera in the building did pick up traces of the figure.
"He was walking around, and then he zipped up three flights of stairs in about a second," said Wilson in a telephone interview. "He leaned over the railing a couple of times, and once he just totally disappeared."
The ghost hunters have also explored prisons, schools, libraries, castles, aircraft carriers and many other sites of strange happenings. They never charge a fee for their services.
Wilson has been researching paranormal phenomena since he was a teen-ager in Scituate, R.I. "It's not scary to me," he said.
He compares himself to a marine scientist sitting in an underwater cage to observe sharks. "It's fascinating," he said.
The TV show grew out of an organization called The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS, get it?), headquartered in Warwick, R.I. Hawes founded the group in 1990, and Wilson soon joined him.
The local branch has about 25 members in Massachusetts in Rhode Island, but Wilson said the TAPS "family" is global. There's even a TAPS "para magazine."
Wilson says the ghost hunters rely on reason to solve paranormal mysteries.
"We have a logical approach," he said. "Common sense is our biggest weapon. We don't summon spirits. We don't use a Ouija board.
"About 80 percent of what comes our way is natural phenomena that the person (who asked for help) just doesn't understand," he says.
"Sometimes it's a plumbing issue. If a toilet flushes by itself at night, that doesn't mean it's a ghost."
What looks like a mysterious orb in a photo can be light reflecting off a speck of dust, said Wilson.
And what about furniture that moves by itself, which his team has also been called in to investigate? "It's not necessarily a ghost," says Wilson. "It can be some force we don't understand. It's like lightning and thunder were to the ancients."
Whatever fireworks happen on the show usually center on ghost hunter Brian Harnois. "We're all good friends," said Wilson, "but, as in any relationship, you have to vent sometimes." Most of the arguments are about time constraints, he added.
Both Wilson and Hawes are married and have children. Wilson said his penchant for ghost-hunting does not conflict with his being a " a pretty religious guy" who teaches Sunday school. He does believe in an afterlife.
He tries to pass on his confidence and sense of security to the people who have asked for his help. Some of them are terrified and confused.
But not all of them. Some people, he said, actually like the idea of being haunted.
"Ghost Hunters" has been on the Sci-Fi Channel for three years. It airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m., six months at a time.
http://www.masslive.com/living/republic ... thispage=2
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