Interview with medium and paranormal investigator Chris Fleming

Matt Barlow from GhostMag chats to television medium and paranormal investigator Chris Fleming in an exclusive interview. We discuss his first paranormal experiences, ITC apps, his worries about artificial intelligence, reuniting with Gail Porter for Spooked Scotland and the forthcoming Discovery+ series Spooked Ireland.

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When did you first realise that you had a unique ability to communicate with spirits?

That’s an interesting question because I don’t know exactly what age or time I first started communicating with spirits. I think it would have been around 3-4 years old.

My first recognised paranormal, or in this case, unexplained experience was when I was about 1.5 years old and we lived in Long Island in New York City. This would have been around 1968-1969. My mom had told me, based on what I described to her, that this was our apartment when we lived there. In my memory, I had seen a slit of light appear and heard voices and whispers coming from it in front of my crib. I got out of my crib and hobbled into the hallway.

I saw the TV with antennas on the right, which was all white noise and static as broadcasting, I assume had ended, and the female babysitter was asleep on the couch to my left. I saw the door was open but the screen door wasn’t. I walked towards it reaching for this light as the floating light guided me. I want to mention what my mom told me, we lived on the 2nd or 3rd floor and the wooden stairs led outside. That was the entrance and exit.

The next thing I remember, I was sitting on the sand, looking at the water and this same vertical light took off or closed up over the water. The moonlight was also shining off the water. I reached for this light as it began to vanish. It was a brilliant white and light blue but was vertical like a compressed star on its sides. I felt I knew who or what was in the light. It made me happy, and I giggled. I don’t know if any time passed, or how long I was sitting there. The next thing in this memory was a dog barking and a man with his dog came up to me from the left while I sat in the sand in my diapers. That is where the memory ends.

My mom filled in the blanks for me when I told her this. My dad played hockey for the New York Rangers and my parents were out to dinner from 1967-1969, so we lived in Long Island in an apartment during the hockey season. My parents were out to dinner and my mom got worried (she had a sixth sense) that something was wrong, so she kept calling on a pay phone to see if I was okay. The babysitter kept saying I was. Still worried, my mom told my dad they needed to go home. When they arrived. Our neighbor with his dog was holding me in his arms at the bottom of the wooden railing steps to our apartment. He had found me sitting on the beach all alone, which was a few blocks away. How I got there is still a mystery.

I described this experience in my Spirit Talk Podcast in January 2019 and a few other early happenings.

On my 40^th birthday, back in 2007, my mom gave me a framed finger painting drawing that I had done when I was around 3 years old. I had drawn circles with faces, happy, sad, etc flying around a tree outside. I told my mom that these were spirits in the trees that I could hear, and would talk to me, but I could not see them, but based on what I drew, I knew how they felt. She asked me if these are the ones in the house, but I told her “No, They didn’t come into the house”, the ones in the house were different ones. So I guess that would have been the first time that I realised that I could hear spirits, around 3 years old. I have this painting hanging in my meditation room and cherish it greatly as a reminder of one of my earliest encounters.

Is it accurate that you encountered paranormal occurrences in your childhood home? Can you share some experiences?

That would have been in Hoffman Estates, Illinois on Park Lane. When we moved into a brand new house that was built in the fall of 1970. It was our family’s first home. That’s where things started to occur. The first thing that I remember was the things that were coming out of the walls. I’m not sure if it began right away or in early 1971 but there were these shadows and various human forms. And then there were these soldiers, bodies, and battles.

After we got settled in the home my mom had my room covered in a soldier print wallpaper. I know she was proud of it at first. It was wallpaper prints of soldiers from the 1700s in their uniforms of red and some in blue, holding rifles and bayonets. It didn’t really interest me, but my mom thought it would be good for a boy’s room. 

My parents first thought that the wallpaper was giving me nightmares, and I believed them. But, I saw soldiers from various time periods, dressed differently but all the same. Some were coming out bloody, some had lost their arms, some had blood over their face, some were dead and some were dying. It was terrifying. I would see these horrific visions where the wall would disappear, and the whole wall was somewhere else. Scenes playing out. Sounds of loud bangs, metal, screams and yells.

It was terrifying, so terrifying that I would scream at night, hide under the covers or in the bathroom tub. Enough was enough, my parents had the wallpaper removed. They changed the wallpaper to tigers and leopards. Things still came out of the walls, but not the soldiers. These things were different. Dark shadows, small forms, and somethings that had no face or identity to them. My parents refused to change the wallpaper again, so I had to deal with it.

We also lived in Salt Lake City in Utah for about six months because my dad moved on to another hockey team. I had a friend named Chip that I used to play with. He was a boy with dark blonde hair, about the same age. He’d come to the door and ask to come in and we would go inside the apartment or we’d go outside and play.

But years later, my mom told me he was simply an imaginary friend and he didn’t exist. That there was no one there. I would talk to him and play with him, but my mom saw no one. She assumed he was not real, and allowed me to play with him even sometimes setting the table when I asked her to so he could sit down. Chip would tell me she couldn’t see him, but I thought that was just part of playing, a game we played pretending my mom couldn’t see him.

As an adult, 56 years old, I’m telling you right now he was not imaginary. I still remember this boy, as well as some of the conversations we had. I also remember when he took me to introduce me to these other kids, his friends. At first, the other kids looked at me and then each other and said “Wow, you can see us too?” And I said, “Of course, I can see you!” I never thought anything of it at the time because they just looked normal and were all solid.

I remember the day that Chip told me he had to leave and that he wasn’t coming back. I said goodbye and I remember that he walked away and disappeared. So that would have been, if I remember correctly, around  1971-1972 when my dad played hockey for the Salt Lake Eagles.

I always thought that Chip only existed when I was in Salt Lake City, but my mom said he started appearing in the house in Park Lane and followed us to Salt Lake City. I had no idea what was really going on until many years later. I believe he was trying to warn me and protect me from something bad that almost happened involving a man that lived in the complex as well. It didn’t make sense until I was much older and I recognized a few things. I had that “Oh my god!”  moment of realization and I cried when I realized how lucky I was.  I discuss this in my Jan 2019, Spirit Talk podcast.

Were you scared of the interactions with spirit at such a young age?

Yes, I was terrified of the things coming out of the wall and the darkness from the soldiers to the dark entities. Who wouldn’t be?

As I got older, I thought that the soldiers may have been a past life. I never had any answer about that. It made no sense to me, so I didn’t really talk about it too much until things occurred in the first and second seasons of “Help My House is Haunted“, when I came in contact with the thousands of soldiers at the Great Fulford and the 20 soldiers down this alley at Uncle Toms Cabin.

I started noticing a pattern regarding some of the spirit communication and how soldiers were reacting to our presence at these locations. Even the coal miners that cheered, that were captured on EVP.  These events started connecting. I remembered further, an event at Gettysburg on one of the battlefields when we were filming a pilot called Ghost Country, back in 2014.

I collapsed on the battlefield, dislocated my elbow, and came in contact with Civil War soldier spirits that were screaming out in pain and torment, dying on the battlefield. Trapped souls, living their death over and over again. Then I saw this dark entity keeping them there. I started speaking in tongues which we were able to decipher later by playing it backward. We caught this on video and audio. It was terrifying but also remarkable.

Putting it all together made me realize that soldiers from all different wars, battles, and time periods, many of them were still here. Trapped due to various reasons. Some were kept here by dark entities, some were stuck due to beliefs and mental anguish, and some felt they were never prayed for and therefore their beliefs, their religious or cultural ideology kept them here.

When we caught on audio at the Great Fulford soldiers yelling out “They found us!” followed by this loud cheering and then at Uncle Tom’s Cabin, saying, “We march for Fleming”, it hit me. I’m a little emotional right now because of this because as a child, you’re terrified when these things appear to you. You don’t know their intent, their purpose, you are just a child.

When I actually prayed for them and we helped them cross over I came to the realization that the things I saw as a child somehow knew that one day I was going to be in the right place in the world to help them.

I firmly believe that now, there’s no other explanation. They were appearing because they were wanting help from the past or future, whatever you want to call it. What is time? We don’t understand how consciousness works in the spirit world when it comes to time. As a child, I was not old enough, nor experienced enough, or knowledgeable enough to know why they were appearing to me and what I was seeing in the visions.

The other stuff that I was terrified of, were the dark entities, these dark forms. These creatures, which we now call imps, I believe may have been these dark forms originally, but I didn’t see their true physical forms until they started appearing in the home until after we did the Ouija board. Which would have been over the years of 1976-1979. Back then they were just devils. Pure Evil.

As paranormal investigators, many of us know now they exist because we’ve come in contact with them during our cases. Some don’t believe in them at all, which is fine. Encountering them changes all of that. So experience is key to a greater understanding. Especially in the paranormal. I saw them again in 2009 and dealt with them during an infestation in my current home from 2009-2014. I wasn’t the only one that did.

Having traveled to various parts of the world, you learn they have different names. They also have variations in their form but range from 1-3 feet tall. Just like different species. Very gargoyle-like. You can see their image in almost every culture and religion throughout recorded history. They go back all the way to the Sumer civilization during the time of the Sumerians in Mesopotamia. The Sumerian priests knew about these demons and called them Gallas. 

It’s recorded in their writings, and drawn on hieroglyphs. The Middle East call them djinn, and other cultures have varied names for them. But our term in the paranormal that we mainly use is imps, little devils. Some spirits we have recorded on EVP call them “Monsters.”  Call them what you will, they exist and it’s not that hard to prove it if you know the signs and what to look for.

Unfortunately,  back in the 70s we gave permission for them to come into the house using the Ouija board not knowing it was them. We were tricked. Sometimes when you talk to spirits, they will pretend to be a human spirit or something else, even a loved one and as soon as you give them permission, they’re now infesting your home.

There was also another demonic entity that appeared at the edge of the bed when I was sleeping in my dad’s room. This would have been around 1975-1978. This large type of demonic type entity lit up the whole room, shrieking in this horrific sound reaching for me. I could never replicate the sound because I haven’t heard anything similar since.

My dad went flying off the bed. I went flying off the bed. We were scrambling to get away from it. When we were both on the floor, he grabbed me to protect me. He got on top of me to protect me from this thing and then it vanished. He picked up the phone, the old rotary phone to dial the police. I said, “Dad, they’re gone”. And he realized that there was nothing the police could do.

I believe my dad was always terrified after that. He started going to church every weekend and I believe it was because of that. He wanted his faith to protect him, so it didn’t happen again. We never spoke of this incident again. If I tried, he would say “Drop it!”

During those years we had several babysitters quit because of these things and the ghosts in our house. I’ll never forget the one sitter when these creatures came out of the wall and morphed into a black mass from the closet and chased me. I raced into my parents’ room where the sitter was folding laundry. She turned around and saw it and screamed. 

I jumped behind her for protection and she started praying and tossing the laundry at it.  These things frustrated from prayer, went away. The next day she quit. My dad drove her back to the city of Chicago and told him, “You have the devil in your house!”

That particular experience would have been around 1977 and has stuck with me ever since. This is why now as an adult, I can sense them at times and am no longer afraid. I know what they are and their purpose. Spiritual Discernment is important.

You’ve demonstrated a remarkable ability to connect with spirits using EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena) and ITC (Instrumental Transcommunication) devices, can you remember when you recorded your first EVP?

I first became familiar with recording ghost voices back in 1977. Which we call today EVP (electronic voice phenomenon). Because we were having all this stuff happen in the house, I was always looking for answers and ways to prove it. One night there was a commercial for a documentary called Amazing World of Psychic Phenomenon on TV. My mom let me stay up late that night to watch it and we watched it together. It was a turning point for me.

During a segment of that documentary, they had scientists that were recording EVPs and proving ghosts were real. Ghost voices captured on reel-to-reel and cassette tape. Because of that, I asked my mom to get me a recorder.

My dad came home a couple of weeks later with a reel-to-reel player, and I started recording EVP. I captured my first EVP when I was about nine years old, so I’ve known about EVP since then. I wish I still had that reel-to-reel player and tape of my recordings today. I do have ones from 1978 when I upgraded to a cassette player, but to have those first recordings would be priceless!

I loved using recorders. I still do. That’s my number one go to, but I have also been experimenting increasingly with apps. I’ve used them on many of my Paranomal Access Events because I saw the success some of my attendees were having when we tested them. They are easy to use and a little bit clearer to hear than the spirit box.

Even if you’re doing the spirit box or using ITC devices or Apps, you should always be recording the session so you can go back and review the evidence because we always tend to miss some of the responses.

With the rise of mobile apps in ITC experiments, such as those featured on the show “Help My House is Haunted” where you served as a medium, do you believe they can provide accurate results?

Yes, absolutely. I’m the one that expressed an interest in the results from these ITC apps to Barri Ghai and that he needed to further test them.

Barri didn’t really believe in them at first until we got some cool responses on the second season of “Help! My House is Haunted” . He also began testing them at his events.

After I didn’t return to the show, we continue to keep in touch and always discuss the latest tech, our findings and research as well as ways to capture better responses. He is one of the most passionate and best ITC investigators out there I have ever worked with. Jayne is phenomenal as well. They are always improving their technique, equipment, analysis, and study of this phenomenon. Barri is now a big fan of the apps because he has heard, captured, and analysed some of the direct responses. The proof is in the data.

That’s what the paranormal is about. You share, you work together and you experiment together. And if you don’t believe it, you run some tests. That’s what we did and now Barri is a firm believer because he’s getting those same results. I look forward to seeing how far he takes this and what he learns from his own research and the cases he does.

There are a lot of false positives depending on which app you use but once again, record your sessions, go back to it, and mark it where the results are.

There are a bunch of responses and recordings that Ryan and I got from Haunted Scotland that never made it on the show that is phenomenal. I intend to post them in the near future so people can hear some of the remarkable conversations and evidence that we’ve captured.

This is what I love about doing what I do. As a kid I used to cower under the covers, lock myself in the bathroom, and sleep in my parent’s room due to fear to now facing and helping ghosts and confronting dark spirits. I never thought I would be doing this, but as they say, things happen for a reason. With technology today, we are proving it!

Could you share which devices you primarily rely on and offer any advice for individuals keen on recording EVPs?

I would say get a good digital recorder. But the thing is it’s consciousness, your consciousness, and your expansion of your environment that allows you to connect. Our consciousness is connected to the electromagnetic field, it’s connected to the ether.

Some people say the ether doesn’t exist. That’s not true. The ether does exist.  It has no drag to it. Is connected to all things in time and space, like a spider web. And the electromagnetic field is part of the ether. One field of the plane of many. Don’t rely on the recorder, just know that you’re sending your thoughts and your questions out into the etheric environment, and spirits are constantly recognizing it and communicating themselves by projecting their thoughts.

We just don’t hear them. Unless of course we get a direct voice phenomena response or we tune in psychically. They’re always transferring information, thoughts, and ideas as well as conversations. You access that with your own thoughts and your recorder will tend to pick segments of that up, whether it’s present or even past experiences, past memory, or place memory.

The key thing is to find a recorder you like. I’ve used multiple recorders. Mostly Sony, but also Phillips. Some recorders didn’t work for me, so I didn’t use them. So find a recorder that you like, practice with it many times, and learn how to use it. Also, establish the use of a good audio software program.

I spend over 20 bucks a month for Adobe Audition because Adobe Audition is one of the best ones out there. There are some that are free, but you always want to be able to amplify, and filter through the noise levels.

You want to be able to mark and recognize some of the lower EVPs and responses that are there that are just as good once you amplify them and remove any noise that is overlaid or distracting the actual responses. We call this forensic audio analysis. You have to put in the time with a top-quality set of headphones.

You’ve been pioneering and innovative and embraced new tools in paranormal investigations throughout your career, including the use of K2 meters and the Spirit Box, the latter you helped develop with Gary Galka. Is there one piece of evidence using a spirit box or equivalent which really stands out as compelling evidence of the paranormal?

I was doing an episode of Dead Famous. I think it was at Saddle Creek Lodge. There was a ghost group that was there using a K2 and it was lighting up. When it was lighting up, they were saying, “Yeah, look, we’re talking to spirits”. I go, “Well, how do you know you’re talking to a spirit and it’s just not something else?”, because we do know that the K2 is hypersensitive to low frequencies (ULF) and it was not devised for the paranormal.

I remembered that in my childhood house back in the 70s I would ask the spirits to dim the lights using the direct response method, which was termed by William Roll with regards to spirit communication. “Can you do it two for yes, one for no?”, and it would blink twice for yes or one for no. This principle was borrowed for me from the Ouija board. Either go to yes or no to answer simple questions. It worked back then! So having this in my experience, I reflected back on that in this particular situation.

I looked at the K2, I said “Well, can they light it up? Two for yes, one for no…Spirits, are you with us?” And all of a sudden the K2 lit up twice. Then I started acting out questions. I said, “Okay, so if there’s a female here will you blink three times?”

Sometimes to get the attention of a spirit I will move my hands to get motion in the environment because I know when we release physical motions, not only mental and human emotions but also physical, it tends to interact more with aether and the spirits. They can sense movement like a radar.

If you’re just standing there asking questions, that’s great. But when you get fully active with your physical body and emotions and you move about, you are affecting the electromagnetic field. Sending out waves. Simple, right?

You’re also showing them that you want to engage because you’re getting very physical. So I would act out the questions. And what I mean by that is I would really use my physical form around the room saying, “Hey, I really want you to respond.”

Just set down your recorder or device and engage.

For the most part, they like when we engage.  They would light it up three times. If I asked seven times, they lit it up seven times. I realized this device can be used using this direct response method to get information from the spirits. I ended up getting my own K2 and used it on the Dead Famous show a few times and then, of course, used it at some Paranormal events such as the Queen Mary and Stanley Hotel back in 2006 and 2007.

Ghost Hunters saw what I was doing. Jason and Grant were at one of the events. They tried it, were impressed with the results, and had me on the show. The rest is history.

We are now more certain spirits can communicate as well as affect the EMF field. Keep in mind, this was done previously by using the TriField meter prior to paranormal TV. It wasn’t until devices with lights became more visual and interactive that we took greater notice.

With regards to the Spirit Box, the first time I used the demo live on TV, (Ghost Adventures Live in 2009) was special. The responses we got, with so many paranormal investigators across the whole world witnessing it live, was one of the most exciting and significant things to happen.

Since I had the demo, the only one that existed at the time, I took it with me when I went to Mexico in Nov of 2009 and captured some amazing responses. When things would happen around my house, I would whip out the spirit box and record some audio sessions and have some experiences.

I ended up recording my father after he passed away. My father passed away on July 11 of 2009. The Spirit Box demo was completed around October 2009. I captured him speaking to me first in November 2009 in Mexico and again in January 2010. And I have those recordings. So for me, it was the most compelling, and heartwarming evidence of life after death. I love you, dad! For those that know, know.

I’m not going to call it paranormal. I’m going to say this was the most compelling evidence for me of life after death because my father and I talked about communicating while he was alive. I told him how to make contact with his mind and spirit and how important it was to me, and my dad did it, he actually did it, and he still does it.

So for me, the spirit box gave me the opportunity to communicate with my father and heal very quickly from his passing. Proving, we don’t die. Our soul and personality are eternal.

Which other ghost hunting equipment could you not do an investigation without?

My Sony digital recorder. I have to have my digital recorder at all times. I’m not really big into EMF devices anymore, even though I was at one time. I want to hear them speak. I need to hear their voice. I do like to have something there to register if there’s a change in the room but for me, it’s all about EVP and ITC.

That’s always been important to me, in proving ghosts are real. Hence my first experiences with EVPS from the 70s. That’s what I want to use now – an ITC device.  I know we will continue to develop more and more technology and ways to communicate until eventually get to having the telephone where we can just talk to our loved ones whenever we want.

Could you share which external speaker you recommend for best results with the spirit box devices?

The Orbit, the Altec Orbit speaker used to be the best ones, but then they stopped making it, and then the prices shot up. I still think that’s a great speaker.

I also have a JBL speaker, a flip speaker that I use. I like the JBL flip because it also has Bluetooth and line in and I can adjust the volume on it just by pressing a button.

With Gary Galka working on a Pro version of the P-SB7, can we expect to see this as part of your ghost hunting arsenal in the future?

Maybe. I don’t know. I have not used the PSB7-PRO Spirit Box, and I’m not really involved with anything that he’s creating these days. The only thing I was involved with was the P-SB7 and the P-SB11, but Gary has gone on his own with everything he’s doing.

I’m more interested in the ITC way of apps and further technology that I’m discussing with some individuals. Gary is really just focusing on the radio stuff, but I do expect to get a version, the Pro version of the SB7, and test it in the future.

I shared with him for years my results and how I used Adobe Audition to take out the white noise and tried to think of ways to filter it out in real-time. I imagine that is why he came up with the ANC and APF processor because other investigators and myself had the same concern. How can we get rid of the noise?

His new ANC device is great. Whether you use the APF processor or the ANC device (adjustable noise control) it eliminates some of the noise and the playback is much cleaner. You may have seen this during the Comlongon Castle episode of Haunted Scotland, when I ask the female spirit questions and you hear her voice several times respond clearly.

What we’ve learned with the P-SB7 is you have to record the sessions. There can be things you’re missing. You bring it to the audio program, you take out the white noise, you amplify, and there are all these other voices in there that you miss that are extraordinary.

Using the ANC or APC can help, but anyone using the P-SB7, must always record their sessions with a high-grade recorder. Then play it back and go through it and mark it. I’ve gone back through a recording where I thought I got three or four responses, and I have dozens upon dozens of responses just in that 10-minute session.

It gets to a point where I’m like, “Oh, my God. There are so many responses that I didn’t hear”. So we have to get to a point where we are able to hear every single response and respond accordingly. I think that’s what he’s doing with some of his new devices to where you can play it back and listen to it again. A nice leap forward in the right direction if you ask me.

Do you believe apps and AI could be the future of ghost hunting or will there always be a place for more traditional methods?

Yes, but here’s what I’m worried about. When we get into the darker entities in consciousness, I believe that they will figure out a way to control or manipulate AI.

We do know that they can interact with software, radio, electromagnetic frequencies, and brain frequencies. They no longer have a physical body. They’re already communicating with us through ITC software and various technology. What happens when they learn to control the artificial consciousness of AI? Which has no soul, but can possibly now have a soul behind it?

That’s what I’m concerned about because I’ve already experienced and witnessed some really scary shit with AI that has created images or said things that no one else knew about. I’m using one app with AI, and I asked it a couple of questions, and it said stuff that was really scary.

No one else knew. I didn’t mention it in text, data, or online. So for me, we have to be very careful. We are forgetting about certain dark entities and stuff that may be able to manipulate it.

Now, some people are going to say hogwash. They don’t believe in that. I really don’t care as you don’t have 50 years of experience in this field doing what I do and coming in contact with these things. If you did, I assume you would be on the same page as me and understand what they’re capable of. What we are sometimes dealing with in the spiritual realm.

I will argue that if I need to. Man makes mistakes and unfortunately in the advance of science and technology, there are some taking this seriously.

You will return to our screens in the UK on “Spooked Ireland” this autumn with a similar team as the well received Spooked Scotland show, can you give us a sneak peek into what viewers should anticipate?

Yeah. Gail is not a part of it. They wanted to go with a different presenter since we’re in a different country. I’ve watched every episode. I have my opinions on some of the episodes. I think it’s very different from the first season. I think there are some really great moments and it has gone in a slightly different direction.

I think people are really going to enjoy and appreciate that Evelyn and Ryan have really stepped up this season. You’re going to see a lot of great things they do and contribute to the investigations.

Having seen all the episodes before the final edit I am not sure what will make the final cut or not, but from what I saw they get some remarkable stuff and make contact that will really impress and shock people.

Some of the experiments that Evelyn does and the results she gets are phenomenal. Ryan too. I think people are going to enjoy that. I can’t say much more about it and I may have said too much. I’m not allowed to give away the locations but I loved some of the locations and wish I had more time at many of them.

How was the experience of reuniting with Gail for “Spooked Scotland”?

Like we never stopped doing Dead Famous.

I always knew it was going to happen. Gail and I talked about it for 15 years. We tried to revamp the Dead Famous series a few years ago with Two Four Productions. I had created a new treatment with an evolved feel to it. They loved it and they started to pitch it but I didn’t hear from them again.

I tried to reach out multiple times but never heard back. It is frustrating, but I think it’s their loss because viewers can see how great we are on camera together,

We always work well together as a duo and it was like we never left. I think Dead Famous could’ve still been going strong today if certain things didn’t happen back then.

I was really disappointed when Gail told me she wasn’t coming back for the next season of Spooked (Haunted in the USA) because I felt that we had something to build upon, but I do believe that somehow, some way in the future, we will work together again.

I know a lot of people complain that she was really scared but I want to share with you WHY she was scared. We hadn’t worked together in 15 years. Gail’s house is haunted. She’s had experiences with ghosts since then. She has also opened up her consciousness to where she is very sensitive, because of her experiences at Hotel Coronado and at the Queen Mary. She became sensitive to female spirits and children’s spirits. She feels their emotions. She can sense them and they begin to affect her.

She doesn’t know how to control that, and she doesn’t want to really do that. So when it was happening to her at a lot of these locations in Scotland, she was feeling like she was losing control. That was terrifying for her.

So she would always want to leave because she was scared and was being affected physically as well as mentally by these things. They didn’t allow me to really explain that much in that season of Spooked Scotland. I would have liked that to have been discussed a little bit more, but the thing that I liked about it is how Gail was also experiencing things like she was an extension of me.

Except for one incident which was truly alarming. When she posted that she collapsed and hit her head on her social media, I truly believe it was because of a spirit following us. I mentioned it the day before to the crew while we were filming upstairs at Tron Theater, and I felt she had an attachment.

I was upset and angry no one was listening to me. The very next night she had a mishap. She passed out and hit her head. She got a concussion. This was a big reason why she wouldn’t investigate Castle Menzies. It just happened in that city the night we arrived and when she walked in there later to investigate, she couldn’t do it.

It was something either from Tron that followed her or something at Castle Menzies that didn’t want her there. I felt terrible that I didn’t put my foot down, regardless of what others believed or didn’t believe. I know better. I should have protected her. During the investigation of Castle Menzies, the same thing almost happened to Ryan. It did happen to me near the stairs which they kept in the show. I collapsed backward and damaged the SLS camera. I lost all control of my body, my eyes stayed open and I never blinked during the fall. It was bizarre. I feel it was all connected. Who or what was it? I don’t know for certain but it was either the entity from Tron or the dark things at the castle.

During our investigations, Gail would sometimes communicate with these things and bond with the children’s or females’ emotions. The spirits would attach to her emotionally and she would tell me how she was feeling, which was just extraordinary.

That’s why I’d like to continue working with her in the future. I feel she has opened up and has become a conduit which of course, she needs to be careful of as well. For some, it is very scary and they don’t want to have this sense or ability. That is why she was scared a lot. Bless her.

Can you share the most compelling piece of evidence you gathered during your investigations in Scotland?

Some of the EVPs we got were great, particularly the banshee or the spirit pretending to be a banshee at the Banshee Labyrinth pub. The crew was blown away and freaked out that we were capturing all that in real-time.

It was right there in the moment. When you do ITC, sometimes you’ll get some A-grade EVPs right there upon playback. Sometimes you can’t quite make it out, but when you go listen through the computer and audio program during playback, then you recognize it. It’s in those moments when it’s so crystal clear and shocking that I think it’s the most extraordinary.

Playing the flute and hearing the flute back on the Franks box at Brodick Castle was also extraordinary and I’ve replicated that on other devices such as the Spirit box and ITC apps during investigations.

I’ve done that at many locations in Illinois witnessed by 20 or more people, running experiments with the flute. It’s happened again and again. It’s amazing when spirits respond and use music to communicate with us.

During your time in Scotland, you had a particularly unnerving encounter at Stirling Old Jail. Could you tell us about that experience?

When it happened I didn’t know whether to say something or not, because I knew if I said something, people were going to make fun of it. I’m going to be teased. People aren’t going to believe it. But the thing you need to realize when you are a paranormal investigator when you’re a scientist, when you’re a writer, a journalist, a reporter, whatever it is, you are there to share what you experienced. To share what is going on.

I realize it’s not about me, even though people may say it’s about me. I mean, it happened to me, yes, but I have to state what happened, and that’s what I did. Even the crew said, “If you don’t want this in the show, we won’t put this in the show.” I said, “You know what? I feel if I don’t put this in the show, I’ll be upset because people don’t get to see what happened”.

So here’s what happened. We walked into the jail. We’re in one of the rooms and Gail is interviewing one of the female tour guides that’s telling us what is being experienced. As she was telling me, I felt something.

The closest thing I can compare it to is a proctology exam, when they go to check your prostate. They put a glove on, they put their finger in you, and then when they pull out, you feel the glove coming out. It’s an uncomfortable feeling and I hate it. I’ve always hated when I had to go to my doctor and get that checked. But that’s what I felt and I was in shock when I felt that.

I walked out thinking, did I just get violated or did I experience something from the past? I couldn’t tell at the moment. Then the woman guide tells us that’s what they used to do in this room. They used to check the prison inmates either for a medical examination or to make sure they weren’t hiding something up there.

So was that being done to me by a spirit? No, but I feel, no pun intended, it was a place memory that I was picking up on. It had happened to other people in the past when they were inmates and played back while I was standing there. It’s not something I expected to experience, but It made it into the show. Some people were shocked. Some people made fun of it and this and that.

But you know what? As a paranormal investigator, and a presenter on a TV show, you have to share the story of what happened to you and there are a lot worse things that could have happened to me or to us.

As you plan to return to Scotland with Go Scotland Tours, what should participants look forward to during the Spooky Scotland Ghost Tour?

Well, it’s going to be fun. The thing is, I’m not working. What I mean by that is that I’m here with a bunch of friends to have fun. I’m going to try communicating with these spirits when I go to all of the locations that we went to on Haunted Scotland.

Our tour guide has jam-packed the itinerary every single day and is taking us to all these amazing locations. We are also going to a couple of locations that I never got to go to when we filmed that they added to this tour.

Plus, I’m going to Loch Ness. Loch Ness is on my bucket list. I’ve always wanted to go since I was a kid because I want to hear all the stories, see the photographs, and decide for myself whether it’s real or not.

We’re going to have a lot of fun. We’re going to get to hang out together for over a week, and we are going to go to these places that I went to on the show. So you’re going to get a lot of the background stories, and we’re going to run experiments and try to communicate with the spirits at some of these locations. Come join us if you can!

Space for this one-of-a-kind tour is limited. You can register your interest on the Go Scotland Tours website.

Of all the locations that will be visited during the tour, which one is your favourite to investigate and why?

I liked Edinburgh. I liked the Edinburgh Vaults and I liked the Banshee Labyrinth.

I like also Castles. Comlongan Castle was cool because I came in contact with a black knight and the woman that he was in love with. He shared his story and told me what happened to him. There was a Laird of the Castle that would have this knight go out to collect taxes and property dues or whatever else from farmers. He’d dress up in all black and they used to think he was the devil because if he didn’t pay, he’d take stuff from you.

Sometimes people were killed or executed. He led a very lonely life and a very evil life, but that was his job and that’s what he had to do.

He fell in love with this one woman from the town but he wasn’t supposed to have a relationship because he was a knight that was sworn to this king or this Laird. When the Laird found out, he had her executed and then he banished this knight, or he had him sentenced to death. It was such a horrible thing. This guy is doing all these terrible things because it’s his job but then he finds some decency in his life, something to look forward to, this woman, this love. And then their lives are ruined.

Their spirits had been trying to find each other. They were trapped there. So I came in contact with him and her, and I got their voices on the recording. I hope I brought them some peace and helped them cross. Reflecting back on his story, I’m like, “Wow, this would make a great movie, The Black Knight”

His story and spirit were remarkable, but because it didn’t quite fit the narrative of what we were supposed to focus on in the investigation of that location, they didn’t put it in the episode. I felt it was just as interesting, but the revelation of the woman that had been pushed off the top of the Castle was also mind-blowing. They can only include so much in 42 minutes.

Her story, the truth that came out was beyond amazing.  We got the truth from her all these years later. She didn’t commit suicide. She was pushed. We captured her stating this multiple times, not only on EVP but also on the spirit box in real-time using the ANC attachment to the P-SB7 Spirit Box.

So you can see why I love going to these castles. The stories they tell. I would love to own one and have the spirits around. My goal is to spend the night or week in a castle, as I get to know the spirits, documenting it. I think that would be extraordinary.

Finally, We have seen a number of TV paranormal investigators begin to start producing their own shows. Destination Fear / Project Fear are now on YouTube and Michelle Belanger is currently crowdfunding for her own show. Would you ever be interested in coproducing your own paranormal show in the future, where you have more control over what makes the cut?

I have a short informative video series I have been toying with for several years but never got around to doing. During filming this past season of Spooked, I was speaking with one of the owners of the castle location we were at and he said to me, “What good is all this knowledge and experience if you don’t share it?”.

It made me think, not only do I need to write my book, but I also need to do this short series I have wanted to do. Do it my way, from the heart and from my lens of experience. 

After a lifetime of paranormal encounters, 23 years of filming paranormal TV, and working with some amazing people over the past decades, I realized coming off of Season 2 of Spooked that I need to do what I know best, from my paranormal perspective. So I am looking at creating and producing content moving forward, with the intent to further contribute to this field. 

I have been developing some projects in various forms of media, based on topics, cases, and things over the years that I find interesting and have wanted to investigate and pursue. There are stories I want to tell and people out there I want to work with again. I am not sure how moving forward will end up, whether on TV or through independent channels, but it’s time for me to share what I know and contribute this knowledge while I am still on this planet. 

It’s important to me not to let others limit or prevent me from doing so, as well as to be the best version of myself. I realize I have been too trusting or naive in the past as there are some people that don’t want you to succeed. They tell you one thing and do another. It is important who you work with and that they have the same integrity, intent, vision, and passion that you do about the paranormal with the most important thing in mind, allowing you to truly be you. 

Let’s see what the universe brings. 

Thank you for allowing me to share my experiences with you and your readers.