What does it take to be a paranormal investigator? Should you live in a spooky castle on the hill? Dislike going out in the sunlight? Frequently commune with the dearly departed? Dress like Vincent Price.
The reality, it seems, is reassuringly much more down-to-earth! In fact, a high tolerance for sitting patiently in dark, abandoned buildings probably helps. As does the ability to remain calm if a pigeon suddenly launches itself at you from the shadows.
Paranormal NZ’s Mark Wallbank and Sam Collier have pooled more than a decade of investigations together, along with considerably more of Mark’s own experience in the field, to write The Ramblings of a Paranormal Investigator: A Practical and Common-sense Guide to Exploring the Paranormal, drawing on what they’ve learned first-hand.
For Mark, who began conducting his own field research at the age of 12, the book is something he’s wanted to do for a while.
The book is not a collection of ghostly tales or information gathered from elsewhere. “We’re only sharing stuff that we’ve learned ourselves,” he explains. That includes ideas, gadgets, and techniques they’ve trialled, mistakes they’ve made, conclusions they’ve reconsidered, and lessons learned through actually spending night after night in locations associated with unusual occurrences.
It’s an approach that reflects Paranormal NZ itself. Formerly known as Haunted Auckland, the group is New Zealand’s longest-running and most active paranormal research team. Its members aren’t unquestioning believers, but neither do they set out to deliberately disprove everything they encounter. Instead, they’re comfortable occupying the grey area somewhere in between.
Sam’s fascination with the paranormal began considerably earlier than his involvement with the team.
A child of the 80s, he grew up with older brothers who fed him a healthy diet of spooky movies, starting with Ghostbusters before progressing to gutsier horror. The X Files was another favourite, feeding a general curiosity about what else might be out there.
Years later, one of those brothers spotted a Facebook post from Mark, who was looking for new Haunted Auckland team members, and tagged Sam, who quickly responded. “I’m really interested, and I’m keen and reliable,” he remembers telling Mark. “I treated it like a proper job application.”
They discovered they were both former Pakuranga College students, and before long, Sam was invited to take part in an investigation at Puhoi Centennial Hall. There was just one small additional request from his new team leader: could Sam give him a lift?
“And the rest is history.”
Sam remembers sitting quietly during that first investigation and feeling a little awkward, particularly when it came to talking out loud to an apparently empty room.
Then, during a communication session, all the lights in the hall went out when the team asked a question. A check of the fuse box revealed that the fuse had been switched off, although there was no obvious reason. “I was hooked after that,” he smiles.
However, anyone who thinks paranormal investigation provides non-stop supernatural excitement should adjust their expectations.
“True paranormal is rare, sporadic, and never on cue,” says Mark.
Sam compares investigating to going on a fishing charter. You can prepare, turn up and spend hours trying, but there’s no guarantee you’ll catch anything.
Sometimes the cameras are running, and absolutely nothing happens. Sometimes, frustratingly, something happens just after they’re switched off.
And occasionally, something occurs that remains hard to explain.
Sam vividly recalls an investigation at an old girls’ school. The team was sitting at the bottom of a staircase when they heard a locked door upstairs apparently slam, followed by the unmistakable sound of footsteps coming down the stairs.
Several team members heard this, and the cameras captured the sound. Oddly, the one person who didn’t hear anything was wearing headphones connected to an audio recorder, so they would have been expected to hear the noise most clearly.
Still, experiences like this don’t prompt Mark and Sam to immediately declare “Ghost!”
“Having an open mind and being logical” is one of Sam’s most important pieces of advice to would-be investigators.
You also need an instinct to investigate a strange occurrence rather than flee from it. “There’s that general curiosity about running towards, not away, when something happens,” says Sam. “It’s about wanting to find out the answers.”
Mark agrees; curiosity is essential. “My grandmother always told me: ‘Never be afraid to ask questions, because that’s how you learn.’ So, no matter how silly the question may seem, just ask it.”
Both chaps describe themselves as “everyday Joes” who are inquisitive, enjoy a mystery and want to figure things out. It’s equally important, Mark believes, to admit when you don’t know something, and to be prepared to change your mind.
There have been occasions when he and Sam thought they understood something, only for another experience to completely upend their explanation. The paranormal remains an unknown field, and definitive answers can be frustratingly elusive.
Then there’s patience. Endless patience.
An investigation doesn’t necessarily stop when everyone packs up and goes home. Hours of footage and recordings may still need to be reviewed and analysed. Questions raised on the night can lead to weeks (months or years) of further thought and research. “A lot of people don’t realise the amount of work that goes into it. It takes a long time to do it properly.”
Some questions linger. Mark still dwells on an unexplained incident at Puhinui Homestead involving a torch apparently travelling down two angled flights of stairs. The team partially captured what happened on camera and later returned to try to recreate it, adding more cameras and angles in an effort to understand what they’d witnessed.
Even now, Mark isn’t prepared to label it definitively. “Is this what a ghost is? Is this what a poltergeist is? Is this what it’s all about? Is this what I’m looking for? Or was this something natural?
“I really want to be sure I’ve got my facts right – but maybe I’m just being stubborn!”
Maybe that’s The Ramblings of a Paranormal Investigator’s most important message? Paranormal investigation isn’t necessarily about proving that ghosts exist.
It’s about noticing something unusual, resisting the temptation to leap to a conclusion, and being curious and resilient enough to keep asking why.
