1) What is the Paranormal Research Society?

The Paranormal Research Society is a student-run club at Penn State University. It consists of undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, staff and town residents. We are a diverse group of investigators with various religious and cultural beliefs. Our ultimate goal is the scientific and spiritual pursuit into the unknown.

2) What experience led you to the work you do today?

I had an experience when I was young. It stuck with me ever since. I didn't have anyone to talk to about it or anyone to help me cope with these experiences. When I founded PRS, our goal quickly went from just trying to document paranormal experiences to trying to help people cope with and understand their own experiences.

3) What is it like for a family to deal with a haunting?

The biggest concern I have when I walk in to a home is whether or not the clients/family will fall into hysteria. I've seen some cases where people, under fear and hysteria, have done some very bad things to themselves and others.

When people are frightened and they lose that sense of reality, they can do irrational things. So, whenever we run in to cases with hysterical clients, the first thing we do is to get them to calm down and start to think rationally.

In the episode "Devil In Syracuse [3]," you saw a family that was in hysterics. Everything, in their eyes, was the work of the devil. They had so many real-life problems that they needed to focus on first before we entertained the notion of supernatural phenomenon. So we had the family go through counseling, asked them to clean up their lives and focus on their problems before we dealt with the paranormal.

4) What role does skepticism play in your work?

It doesn't always come across this way on the show, but I'm actually a big skeptic. But just because I don't believe a client is experiencing the paranormal doesn't take away from the fact that THEY believe they are being haunted.

There are a lot of cases where I can't prove it was paranormal, but I also can't disprove their claims, either. So what do I do? We do our best to determine if our clients are mentally stable and rational. If so, and they still believe they're being haunted, we entertain the possibility that there's supernatural activity and we apply theory.

In other words, if they believe they're being haunted by the spirit of John Smith, we say to ourselves, "Well, if there is a spirit here, getting a medium to try and convince the spirit to move on would be a good resolution, or perhaps a house cleansing, et cetera." But skepticism is very healthy and I always encourage critical thinking. One of our advisers for PRS was a complete skeptic and atheist, so that was interesting.

5) Can you think of an example where you didn't need much convincing that there was no rational explanation for something?

There were a few cases where there was some extraordinary activity going on, but all the way until the end we continued to look for rational explanations. Heck, I still look back at cases and think, "Well maybe it could have been this..."

6) While you rarely get freaked out, can you think of an example when even you were scared?

I was on a case where a client's child threatened to stab me. It was possible he was under some demonic influence. That scared me for a moment because I was warned by two psychics before going into the case that they sensed a possible stabbing.

7) Can you tell me why children are more likely to see dead people?

I think children might be more open because they haven't been taught by society to shut down their experiences yet. As we grow up, we learn that supernatural experiences are taboo and not to be talked about. We start to rationalize everything and ignore the possibility.

Most of the time, yes, it can be the imagination, but sometimes, perhaps, it's something more.

In the first episode, "Sixth Sense," we had a boy who was literally claiming to see dead people. We were concerned that it was over-active imagination or a mental condition, but we were able to rule most of that out before we did the actual investigation by talking to his medical specialists. Some of the things he was saying were quite extraordinary.

8) Why might a spirit torment the living?

Well, why do human beings torment one another? Fear, jealousy, anger, et cetera can all be possible explanations.

The truth is, none of us truly know. In theory, we believe that most spirits remain because they don't know they're dead or that they're in denial of their physical death. So they remain behind and try to continue to participate in the physical world.

9) What is the darkest agenda you've ever encountered?

There is definitely a fascination when it comes to the demonic. Some people like to look at the demonic objectively outside of religion, and I think that it's hard to do. I am Roman Catholic, and we as Catholics definitely believe in the personification of evil.

Demons are intelligent beings that have been around since before man. The attack is almost always psychological. They are an organized entity who's main objective is to seek the ruin of souls.

Does that sound heavily religious? Yes, but our belief in the demonic comes from our belief in Satan and Jesus Christ's ability to expel demons. I've seen some very dark things come from demonic cases. I've seen clients and even my own investigators, including myself, change in result to dealing with the demonic.

10) What techniques are used to drive out a spirit?

I don't drive out spirits. I have resorted to conducting a layman's house blessing when we couldn't find any clergy to do it, but when it comes to driving out spirits, we prefer to bring in outside expertise.

In the episode, "Devil in Syracuse," we had a layman demonologist, Keith Johnson, and medium Chip Coffey conduct a Deliverance (a lesser-form exorcism that can be conducted by laymen, as long as they are Christian). We have had priests and pastors conduct spirit cleansings.

11) How has the TV show changed your work...what's it like being watched by millions?

It has come in different phases. The first phase was in dealing with a full production crew building themselves around us. Their job was to understand PRS and document our investigations. The second phase was in seeing the final product.

It's weird watching your life crammed in to a 22-minute television show. The third phase, which I just got in to, involves millions of people watching it. I've read people saying that our show is completely fake or that we're actors and I just laugh.

I've also received thousands of e-mails of support from across the continent and that is very strange. I've also been recognized about a dozen times since the show came out, and that's definitely weird.

On Christmas Eve I got to call two young fans, one in the fourth grade and the other in second grade, and they were in comple disbelief to hear from me. It's so cool to connect with people and I'm honored that thousands have taken the time to write about their experiences.

12) Biggest sources of controversy over the show?

Hands down, it seems to be two things: the demonic and the "lack of evidence and investigating." When it comes to the demonic, it's a no-win situation for me. For one, the demonic episodes were actually one of our last cases we did for the show, but the network wanted to air those first.

They're very strong episodes, and for some, I think they came across as too strong. You don't know us yet as people, and don't yet know a lot about our techniques and suddenly we're dealing with a potential threat that is very personal to us.

The other involves the investigating methods. Some people are having difficulty realizing that this show isn't about finding evidence. That doesn't mean that we don't conduct a thorough investigation. But there's not enough time in a 22-minute show to feature us investigating every aspect. However, each episode is truly different. In some episodes, you see more of our investigative methods.

I look at season one of Paranormal State as one big experience. I think people should wait to judge our show until they see all 20 episodes. But at the same time, I know that we're not going to please everyone.

I've gotten over that pretty quickly. I've learned that some people are quick to judge us based on 22-minutes of TV time. We've been doing this for over six years. Our investigations take anywhere from one to five days, and there is a lot that we do. We know that we're doing good work and we care about our clients. That's what matters to us.

13) When you die, if you were to haunt a place - where would it be?

IF I die, which I haven't yet decided if I will yet, I would like to haunt the PRS institute building. I can be a legend that future investigators can talk about. By haunting the PRS building, I will be able to keep a close watch on all the investigators.