Halloween like Christmas for paranormal fans
Halloween is a great night to do a paranormal investigation, says southern Alberta’s West Canadian Paranormal Society lead investigator Ben Martin, but really any night when you are at an interesting location interacting with the spirit world is a good night to do a paranormal investigation.
“For us, we treat Halloween as a special day where we remember some of the cases we have worked and some of spirits we have had a chance to interact with,” says Martin. “Some of the cases have been rather intense: Dealing with everything from some rather nasty demon-like cases to some beautiful emotional experiences, like people having interactions with loved ones who have gone.”
Martin says since 2015, when he started with West Canadian Paranormal Society, he has certainly had to harden his shell to fear.
“You definitely have those moments where things send that chill up your spine, but you can either react to it as, that is very spooky,” he says. “Or you can go, ‘that’s very interesting and I need to know more.’ So we try to go at it from that perspective.”
Martin recalls experiences like the time the group photographed a shadow figure of what they believe is a dead coal miner on a home built on the site of the old Galt Coal Mine. Or the time a previously confirmed locked door opened on its own beside them at a reportedly haunted location. Or the wonderful atmosphere and animated spirit activity they encountered at the Empress Theatre in Fort Macleod.
“For the first little while doing this it was kind of intimidating, but over time you just get used to it and that spooky factor sort of fades away,” says Martin. “The fear kind of goes away and you better understand why the paranormal exists, and how to best interact with it.”
To view some of the paranormal adventures of the West Canadian Paranormal Society see their YouTube channel “Paranormal Chronicles.” You can also find the society on Facebook and Twitter.