Considering that Halloween hits at the end of this week, it seems a good time to talk about another of my geekdoms: the paranormal. It’s not something we talk about much on the show (I think it’s been mentioned maybe twice), but Kylan and I are paranormal investigators. A few years ago we even founded a team. But my love for all things ghosty goes back to my childhood.

First off, when I say paranormal, I mean ghosts, spirits, hauntings and the like. I’m not into the alien/UFO side of things, nor am I interested into cryptozoology at all (that means creatures like Sasquatch and Nessie, in case you don’t know the term). I have a mild, passing interest in some psychic phenomena (the real aspects of it, not the fortune tellers and charlatans), but I wouldn’t lump that in with my geek.

I can’t say exactly when this interest began. I mentioned in an earlier blog that there is definitely some Disney influence involved. And I saw the movie Poltergeist when it came out (I was 8 or 9). I read ghost stories as a kid too, the fiction and the non-fiction (those Time Life collections were great). But as far as I’m concerned, I’ve simply always been interested in ghosts. I’ve never been scared of them, more fascinated and wanting to know what they’re about.

The reading and the investigating has never stopped. I had a few experiences when I was younger, but I’ve had even more over the past few years since I’ve been actively investigating haunted locations. I’ve read up a lot on other people’s experiences and theories about the how and the why of hauntings. I don’t expect everyone to believe in ghosts and I don’t expect people to agree with my theories about them. But I know what I have experienced personally and there are things I can’t ignore. So yes, I believe in ghosts. Do you?