DCPA NEWS CENTER
Enjoy the best stories and perspectives from the theatre world today.
Enjoy the best stories and perspectives from the theatre world today.
“I’m one of the few people who won’t say, ‘Well, I grew up in a haunted house. I didn’t grow up in a haunted house,” says ghost hunter Bryan Bonner.
Bonner is explaining how he ended up working on the Rocky Mountain Paranormal Research Society, which investigates claims of ghosts and other unexplained activity across Colorado.
“I’m kind of a horror movie nerd, and because of my obsession with that and anything bizarre, it seemed to be the place to go.”
Bonner’s passion is just one aspect of the field of parapsychology, which, according to Psychology Today, includes:
This last category is Bonner’s specialty. In a field that is frequently treated by outsiders with disdain and even mockery, Bonner is a proud skeptic himself. “Skepticism is a good thing, by definition. A skeptic is somebody who’s open to the possibility of any answers until they’ve concluded their investigations,” he says. “I’ve always wanted to bring back the word skeptic. It’s been hurt.”
The first thing that makes him look askance is anyone who promises training or devices. He employs an evidence-based approach to ghost hunting. “If that thing beeps or buzzes, you are predetermined to say oh, this is my proof. We look at all of the claims, all of the evidence, which is why the scientific community likes us and will usually listen to us if we have a question or a comment,” he says.
The organization is funded out of Bonner’s pocket (“It’s painful,” he says), and takes no money from the people who call him. Otherwise, he says, those clients would expect their desired outcome.They raise some funds through educational outreach. “We speak at a lot of schools, we do educational talks at libraries, they seem to love us. We can come in under the guise of ghost hunting and then we slip a little science in on them and they don’t know that they’ve been educated, which is fun.”
The organization frequently taps experts, such as medical doctors, audio engineers, and on a recent project, four branches of the U.S. government. A client had the group investigate a building that they believed held mineral deposits underground, leading to the haunting of the building.
“Well, why we may not be able to prove that the ghosts exist on their own basis, let’s look at the claim and see, well, do these minerals even exist there?” Bonner recalls. “We found dirt. Well, bedrock and dirt.”
For another recent case, they set up surveillance cameras in a restaurant in Arvada. Watching the overnight footage, they saw a chair move without anyone in the room or an apparent explanation.
“We spent what felt like forever trying to figure it out, and that’s when we brought in the experts,” Bonner says. “Nobody seemed to be coming up with any logical causes, but after three years, we were in there filming a TV segment, and we figured out what caused it. There was a floorboard that extended out into another room. When somebody walked by in another room, it caused the floorboard to flex and it moved the chair.”
Not everyone wants a ghost to be found. “We always hope we find a rational reason, because a lot of people who contact us are kind of freaked out by something that’s happening in their home or their business,” Bonner says. “The businesses want to have a ghost. There’s nothing like a good bed and breakfast that has a ghost story to go with it.”
Got a ghost? Learn more about the Rocky Mountain Paranormal Research Society.