31 Days of Halloween { interview + giveaway } Ghost Hunting Team, fearless\les\adj:
Today we are joined by Angelique of Vampires and Tofu, who interviewed a local a team of local ghost hunters. If you have any paranormal questions for the team, feel free to ask them in the comments section. [Note: this was supposed to appear yesterday, but I (Teresa) had a family emergency and I couldn't post it. I apologize.]
fearless\les\adj:! Visit their Facebook Page!
First of all, how about you introduce us to the team. Do the members have specific roles/responsibilities/ during an investigation?
The team consists of 5 people, and only a few of us have an actual “role” so to speak. Beau and Matt tend to take care of the PR aspect most of the time, while Beau also has a tendency to taunt spirits instead of being respectful. Brad, and Alex have been doing this sort of thing for a while longer than Beau. Janelle, however, is very sensitive to energy, and so far every time she has said she felt something, our video, or audio, OR pictures have proven her abilities to be very accurate. It tends to boil down to Beau and Brad being the “Lead Investigators”. Matt is the main PR guy, while Alex and Janelle (though her abilities are priceless) are the “Investigators in training”.
Did anyone have any experience with paranormal investigations before fearless\les\adj:?
Beau, Alex, and Brad had a fair amount of experience. Brad and Alex always did cemeteries, and hotels. Beau used to do investigations every now and then at any abandoned places that was around. Janelle never really investigated, but she always knew when something was going on because of her ability to feel the energy that the rest of the group wouldn’t have been able to feel. Matt also played around with it every so often at cemeteries, but it was never too serious for him.
How did you all come together?
It actually started because of Matt. He was working on a zombie film called “Dead Pedestrians“, and he asked Beau to have a part in it, and he also wanted Beau to score the film. He ended up needing a hospital to film at, so Beau found the mental hospital that ended up being the main investigation of the documentary. After going there the very first time to look at the location for the zombie film they realized that they had stumbled upon such a haunted place that they absolutely had to investigate it further. Beau then got in touch with Janelle, Brad and Alex, who had all been friends of his for a while, and they agreed to join in on the investigation. The investigation ended up producing such amazing evidence that we chose to make this film.
Do you all believe in paranormal entities or are any of you skeptics? If you do believe, what was the defining moment that made you a believer?
Alex: Then I saw their face, and I’m a believer.
Beau: There’s no way to describe it really. Nothing specific happened, but after the audio, and pictures from the mental hospital, I don’t see how anyone could say that there isn’t something more…
Janelle: It really started when I was able to feel, and identify the energy really.
Brad: It was when I was a kid. The first time anything happened to me I was living in Texas. Right across the hall at our house is where my brothers room was. I heard someone talking, so I thought someone called my name. When I opened the door to his room, there was nobody in there. When I turned to walk back I felt hands swiping across my neck with cold air. Years later my dad told me about a guy that hung himself in that very same room, and hung there for 6 weeks.
Matt: I’m honestly on the fence. To me, seeing is believing. I’m compelled to know more, but to this date I haven’t had a strong enough personal experience to lean one way or the other. I don’t think you can truly classify any of these experiences into one category. In my opinion, it’ll take hundreds of years of science to come up with plausible conclusions to any of this sort of thing.
What have been your scariest experiences?
Alex: I was pulled during the investigation at the Naval and Military Academy. It didn’t really bother me, or scare me at the moment, but for some reason it was really hard to relax, and or fall asleep once I got home. I guess I was a bit freaked out.
Janelle: For me there are 2 really. The first was the minute I stepped onto the property at the mental institution. The energy of that place was making me feel the agony, and pain that the place had endured. It actually made me feel like I was going insane. The second was when we were in one of the rooms there, and I felt, and heard something breathe on my neck.
Matt: I’d have to say it was the bats at the Naval and Military Academy. I wasn’t looking forward to getting rabies.
Brad: Matt scaring the shit out of me at the Military Academy. Just walked up right behind me. It’s actually happened a few times…
Beau: By far it was running from the cops at the mental institution. The entire group was up at the front of the property, and I was alone at the very back, and I was going into the school house that was built on top of a cemetery. Not only did I have to deal with a raccoon, but then the cops rolled up and cornered me. I literally sprinted to where we set up our base, and then I had to wait for the group alone in the pitch black, and I was hearing footsteps, and voices, but the only part that scared me at all was the cop. I didn’t care about ghosts, or anything at that point, I was just terrified of the cops.
How have your experiences affected your beliefs?
Alex: Well I was raised Catholic, but I have always been more agnostic. I’ve always been the “I’ll believe it when I see it” guy. So, it hasn’t really changed my beliefs so to speak, but I do paranormal investigations for that very reason. I need to really see it.
Brad: I totally believe more now than I ever did in the past. The things that we have come across and captured have just set my beliefs even more in stone.
Matt: I have to admit, in the beginning, I didn’t believe at all. I really thought those ghost TV shows were total fakes, and it’s only now that I know for a fact that they are fake.
Janelle: The weird thing is that I always grew up feeling things, and I never knew what they were as much as I do now after doing this. Now it’s more like I actually know what is there, and I’m more or less wanting to know more about it.
Beau: I am more afraid of the police now. However, some of the things we got… You just can’t explain. If there was ever a doubt for me, there sure as hell isn’t now.
What has been the most challenging aspect of being a paranormal investigator?
The hardest part so far has been getting access. Legally, anyway. It’s close to impossible to get permission to enter condemned places unless you have a corporate TV station backing you.
If money and permissions weren’t issues, where would your ultimate investigation be?
By far, it would be the mental institution that we did. By far. We’re still paying off the tickets that 3 of us got…
What’s next for fearless\les\adj:?
The next step really is to try to get this film into the right hands so that we could be recognized for the effort, and hard work that we have put into this.
Do you have any advice for readers interested in doing paranormal investigations?
Alex: Try to do it legally, it’s no fun getting CAUGHT. Always know that the ghosts are not what you should be afraid of. My best best best very best advice is, if you hear, or see anything during an investigation DO NOT run away, run towards it. And don’t get scared until you get home.
Janelle: Do not under estimate what is there, and respect it. You’ll get better results that way. And don’t get arrested.
Matt: Watch the documentary.
Alex: There you go.
Brad: Contrary to what the tv shows say, and do, you don’t need Thousands of dollars worth of equipment. You don’t need steroids, or MAC make up either.
Beau: Stop being afraid to call these other groups out. The paranormal field isn’t really a science that is as concrete as biology, but it’s still a science. What do scientists do? They call one another out to either prove, or disprove their findings. Just because we’re not afraid of these big *%@#!!&* on TV doesn’t make us bad, it just means that we want the absolute truth. We’re not concerned with our image, or ratings on TV, we want to be part of the advancement of paranormal research. I totally stole that term from Brad too.
Giveaway
Angelique is offering up two of her favorite books for one lucky winner: Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill and Speak with the Dead: Seven Methods for Spirit Communication by Konstantinos. Contest open to US residents only and ends November 6th. Books will be mailed by Angelique, not Read All Over Reviews. Here’s the rules:
- Be a follower of Read All Over Reviews (GFC, Facebook or Twitter)
- Be a follower of Vampires and Tofu (GFC, Facebook or Twitter)
- and fill out this form; simple as that.
Synopsis: After defeating the djinn summoned by the vengeful vampire priestess she encountered in Vegas, and making a few unexpected friends in the Paradox PI team, we re-join Kitty Norville—late-night radio show host and the world’s first celebrity werewolf—a year later back at the KNOB station in Denver, Colorado.
Synopsis: When we last saw celeb werewolf Kitty Norville, she had been confronted by an enigmatic word—Tiamat—burned into the door of her beloved restaurant and pack hangout, New Moon. It was then she learned that the gauche cliché of “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” is nothing more than a lie. But the brand on the door was only the beginning. Soon, danger and murder surround Kitty’s life and she is faced with an even bigger evil that forces her own view of the supernatural to broaden.
A New Science of the Paranormal: The Promise of Psychical Research by Lawrence LeShan, Ph.D. © 2009 Quest Books. ISBN 978-0-8356-0877-0. Paperback. Science/Paranormal. 133 pages. $14.95 US. [ 
The Ghost Files: Paranormal Encounters, Discussion, and Research from the Vaults of Ghostvillage.com by Jeff Belanger. © 2007 New Page Books. ISBN 1-56414-974-9. Paperback. Paranormal. 221 pages. $13.99 US. [ 
Ghost Worlds: A Guide to Poltergeists, Portals, Ecto-Mist & Spirit Behavior by Melba Goodwyn. © 2007 Llewellyn Publications. ISBN 978-0-7387-1195-9. Paperback. 241 pages. $14.95 US. [ 
