Interest in the paranormal seems to play a large part in our culture, from ghost stories around the campfire to the scary movies we go see. Most people have a personal tale to tell, of a noise they’ve heard, or a shadow they’ve seen. For most of us, the story ends there, as a story. For childhood friends Nick Wypych and Andy Wood, the story is just beginning. Inspired by TV shows like Ghost Hunters and Ghost Adventures, Wypych, 23, and Wood, 24, drew on their life-long fascination with the paranormal, and began investigating local haunts.
What started as a few friends checking out creepy buildings has grown into a substantial investigation force with big plans for the future. The group, named Paranormal Pursuit, formally started in October 2010. They’ve investigated several local hotspots of paranormal activity, including the Iron Island Museum and the Kelly Hotel, with plans to investigate well known sites like the Buffalo Naval Park and Old Fort Niagara.
Fresh off an investigation of the Iron Island Museum in Lovejoy, Wypych and Wood sat down in a quiet corner of Spot Coffee Sunday morning to talk about their group, what they do, and what they have planned for the future.
The idea for the group started from seeing similar groups on TV. Wypych and Wood decided to put the ideas they saw on the shows to practice. The pair set out to investigate the paranormal to see if there was anything to the stories they’d heard from various friends and acquaintances. “We just really wanted to prove or disprove if there is anything out there,” Wood says. Wood had already been on a few investigations, and decided to bring Wypych with him. “He brought me along to one,” Wypych says, “and I was hooked instantly.” The idea for the group started to form. “When Ghost Hunters first came out, I started watching it, and it piqued my interest,” Wood says. “I realized we could start doing it ourselves. That’s kind of like how we got this whole thing going.”
The group has grown to nine investigators, although they’d like to get to 12. Every investigator goes through a training that Wypych and Wood put together, using TV shows and reference books as the basis for their training. The curriculum teaches new recruits how to use the cameras and recording devices used during investigations, as well as what questions to ask the spectral inhabitants they seek out. “Most people don’t understand how to do that,” Wypych says, referring to the ways the group uses to reach a perspective specter. “You know?”
As the group has grown, so have their plans. While investigating the Naval Park this weekend, and Old Fort Niagara in a few weeks themselves, they plan on introducing tours where they will bring interested people along for the investigation. They’ve already had talks with both the Naval Park and Old Fort Niagara, and hope to begin the tours over the summer. While other groups offer similar tours, Wypych and Wood hope to offer a unique experience. “We want to organize (the tours) so people actually learn from them,” Wypych says. “We want to show them how to use the equipment, show them the procedures and have them sit down with us and have them actually try to make the contact.”
One of the services Paranormal Pursuit provides is investigating private residences where the homeowner believes paranormal activity exists in the home. Through making contact with spirits in the home and determining their intentions, they say they’ve had some success alleviating the fear some have felt dealing with paranormal events in the home. “They’re scared, they don’t know how to deal with it,” Wypych says, referring to the homeowners. Adds Wood: “It’s basically to just really calm the family down. We don’t want them to be afraid in their own home.”
Wypych and Wood have both ghostly experiences on investigations, with Wypych’s coming earlier in the morning, while at the Iron Island Museum. “For the first time ever, I saw a full-body apparition last night,” he says, wide eyed. “It scared me pretty good.” Despite the occasional scare, they both love what they are doing, and hope to do it for a long time. “It’s fun, we have a blast doing it,” Wypych says. “If you’re a believer or a skeptic, we can make you a believer.”
More information can be found about Paranormal Pursuit on their Facebook page.