I am beginning a series of interviews with paranormal groups from around the world to see what we have in common and what differs, what techniques are new and interesting, which ones are tried and true.
In this interview, I communicated with someone I found through my dear friend, Courtney from Haunt Jaunts. She featured Nathan on her blog and his intriguing articles. He is a very intelligent psychic in Poland with a wonderful attitude about the unexplained. He is on a great site you have to check out called "A State of Mind" and it has just about everything you ever wanted to know about being psychic and developing psychic talents. Here's my fascinating interview with him:
AUTUMN: Does Poland have many haunted sites? Are there any that were so interesting you had to go back several times and check them out again?
NATHAN: It might have appeared that Poland was totally un-haunted at first when I was beginning my investigation work. But within few months, I alone was able to identify dozens of "public haunting" (haunted public areas such as castles, restaurants etc.). With time me and the team I'm part of - Anomalium. We managed to collect a lot of info regarding haunted places - public areas, private homes and flats. There's a lot of such places - due to the fact our country have quite a history, I like to compare Poland to England from time to time when it comes to haunting.
There's one place I really enjoy - haunted hospital in Olesno, Opolskie. One night it was abandoned, all patients were evacuated, and all equipment remained. The site was investigated many times by many people and individuals - things are happening, noises can be heard, objects are moving. In the next few weeks I'm planning an individual investigation back there, I want to spent a night alone and see if anything will happen.
AUTUMN: What do you use when doing a ghost study? Tools? Methods? Psychics? Other types of things you've tested? Do you do cleansings of haunted places to send the spirits away?
NATHAN: Our team is very young and we're still in a process or re-organisation, you know - budget issues. We prefer cold logic and scientific investigations, we believe 90% of all paranormal activities do have logical explanation. We also use equipment, like camcorders, digital cameras and voice recorders. More technology is on its way, but we also use psychics and priests - I'm an energy worker myself, but honestly, I can't get proof with my skills, only with technology, you know? Cold scientific proof is what we're always looking for.
Of course, sometimes we really encounter paranormal activities - ghosts, spirits, poltergeist. In such situations, psychics and priests are required, as scientific minds are not skilled in sending spirits away. When it comes to dealing with things, it's my job to make sure the spirit will be send away, and negs and demons are dealt with - years of studying and practising the occult knowledge repay itself.
AUTUMN: Do you find that psychics or equipment pick up ghostly active more accurately? In what way do you use a psychic in a study, what is their role in the investigation?
NATHAN: It's pretty simple - a psychic's task is to confirm if the place is or isn't haunted. If it isn't, then the team focuses on finding out why the activity occurs if there's nothing paranormal in it. If psychic confirms there's something weird with the place, then we're focusing on capturing paranormal activity. As I already said, psychics and other energy workers are useful when it comes to dealing with things. But we do not take psychic impressions and psychic reports as proofs for anything - those are just guidelines for the team, not for the research itself.
A psychic can pick up things - so can the equipment. But for scientific purposes, only physical proof like videos, recordings or photos can be valid, nothing more. We try to keep the balance - technology for getting proof and keeping our professional approach, and psychics for helping people and spirits. Sure, some members of our team do not like the idea of using psychics, but so far they manage to live with it
AUTUMN: What do you think is missing from most modern day investigation teams?
NATHAN: The balance, I guess - many teams focus only on getting hard scientific data, other teams focus too much on magic and psychic stuff. Without balance we can't really come up to conclusion. That's what works with Anomalium - a psychic says "there's something here" - and the geek guy takes a photo looking for some ghosts. And when the psychic says "this place isn't haunted", then the geek starts looking for the broken pipe that makes noises.
I believe you can't investigate paranormal activity if you will focus only one technical or only on psychical side of the activity. A balance between these two elements is needed.
AUTUMN: What is your goal in paranormal investigation? To come up with a theory? Get proof of the afterlife? Learn what techniques work the best? To make contact?
NATHAN: In the team, everyone got his or hers own goals. Most of our members want to get proof for themselves so they can confirm their own experiences from the past. Some want to help people who experience paranormal - some want to help spirits that need to be sent away. Some seek cold proof for reality of paranormal phenomena. Personally I want to help people, and feel the adrenaline rush since I have that need to hunt things that haunt. And it's also a great way to gain some practical experience since my goal is to become a professional paranormal activities seeker - but that's another story...
So, with this fascinating interview over, I have to say that it's amazing how lives can parallel. Here is Nathan, a psychic like myself, who likes to use the psychic like a bloodhound and then the scientific/documentation aspect to find more evidence of haunting. To be psychic and know your own person variation of the skill (because everyone has a different way of interpreting and receiving), is to have a biological early warning system. For some people, it might be goose bumps or feelings of being watched and for some psychics, like myself, I touch thing and have the memories contained within. The combination of sensitives and technology is the ideal combination and what Nathan said about the psychic's findings not being proof of haunting is exactly the right attitude. Definitely check out his site (link above) and see what he has to say. The articles are fantastic. He's that dangerous combination of sensitivity and intelligence, that I suspect he will be making a name for himself in the field and you can say you read this article about him when he was starting out...
**Since blogger is being a real bastard and now showing comments, I'm going to paste them in here as they come by email.
Magikalseasons said, "Wonderful interview! Being Polish and still having family there I'm intrigued. Haven't been but I'd love to one day."
Dan said, "Great interview! Nice to hear from Nathan, and I think that his "hunting" theories are sound!"
Courtney said, "VERY cool interview! Thanks for the mention. I'm glad I could hook you both up so you could ask him these great questions, Autumnforest. Really, they were very thoughtful. It's neat to hear his style of investigating, which sounds similar to many of the ones here. And I love his "balance" answer. GREAT!All in all, a very fantastic interview. Thanks so much again for the mention and link back! ;)"
