IF there’s something wrong in your neighbour hood and it don’t look good, who are you going to call? Well it would seem that when 56 year old Alan Smith is not working as an electrician by day, he is out helping rid people from troublesome spooks.

There are no proton packs, beakers over flowing with sticky ectoplasm or P.K.E – (That’s Psycho-Kinetic Energy metres to the non ghost hunters amongst us) insight.

With his down to earth attitude he seems to suggest that ghost hunting is just like any other hobby such as stamp collecting or building model areoplanes.

“I’ve been ghost hunting for 26 years now. It’s something that I have always been interested in, the element of the unknown is just exciting to me”.

With most hobbies everyone has a rough idea where to begin, for example which club to join, however the question on my lips is – Where does one start when that hobby deals with the undead?

“Well to begin with my team (Ghost Lab) obviously wait to be contacted either by email or phone. If we think there is sufficient grounds for an investigation we usually ask if we can visit them for an interview.

“During the interview we ask what kind of activity has the individual been experiencing. We find out what sort of person the interviewee is like as regards to their general behaviour, do they suffer mental illness or are they on specific medication.

“After the interview we then consider if thee really is any paranormal activity, if so we find it useful if we can perform a vigil. This may last up to 12 hours, during which time we employ video cameras which include night vision, sound recorders, themometers incase there is a sudden drop in room temperature and tape recorders. So we are basically talking about equipment worth the value of £2,500- £4,000.

With the element os suspense and unpredictability in ghosthunting, certain people would not dare attempt to go on a quest searching for evidence of the afterlife. There are also those who believe what Alan and Ghost Lab do is nothing more than a waste of time, but what about the over-enthusastic?, The words enthusiastic and hoax seem to compliment each oher in the world of the paranormal.

Alan laughs as he seems to be only too familiar with the over enthusastic: “In some cases it is obvious from the early stages of the interview that the person or persons are…… to put it bluntly nutcases!

“For example, we had one guy who claimed he was being visited by your typical grey lady spectre, he was telling us this while dressed in a batman custome and no he wasn’t going to a fancy dress party! After several years of investigations you get a good idea if the person’s genuine or not. Also most of the time you will find that people easily misinterpret natural phenomena as being paronormal”. With much discussion regarding the tools of the trade for ghost hunting and seperating the genuine hauntings from the fake, one vital subject seems to have been missed out – THE GHOSTS!

Alan lifts his eyebrows and pauses before answering, he admits it’s a good point to raise:

“Usually a haunting causes much distress for those who are living in the haunted property It is hard to describe but there is usually an atmosphere that seldom disappears, sort of oppressive, you can feel it when you walk around the property. Poletrgeist activity is different in so much as the activity is more impish than menacing.

“For example things will go missing such as keys then reappear again hours or days lster in another room. One favourite trick of a poltergieist is to move fridge magnets. On numerous occasions I have gone into a room, while our equipment has been set up, came back into the kitchen and the magnest were all over the place. This has happened  during a vigil and when no other person could have possible entered the room to move the magnets.”

Images conjured up by ghost-hunting, such as chacing spectres through foggy cemetries, stormy nights and delapilated buildings filled with strange groans certainly feeds the humain imagination of just how scary and exciting ghost hunting can be.

answering honstly Alan freely admits: “There is really no best places as regards to paranormal activities. Yes most people are of the opinion old halls, country manors and castles are the best environments for seeing apparitions but that’s just not entirley true. We have had many investigations in Parks, new homes, petrol stations and building sites.

“I have had people even ask me if we get more cases during halloween and the funny thing is we have never attended an ghostly expeditions on this specific night!”.

With banging doors and floating objects by some unexplained force, a sudden drop in temprature and spine chilling screams from the mysterious past, what can be done to send those unwanted spooks on their way?

“Well it seems to be that if we carry out an invesigation with a vigil, the haunting usually stops pretty soon or it becomes more tolerable in the occupants. Sometimes people have insisted we bring a vicar to do an exorcism on the property , however we personally find this seldom works.”

Obviously the whole conversation regarding ghosts does make the hair on the back of your neck stand up and goosebumps slowly spread like a rash over your flesh. One would like to believe being a ghost hunter must mean experiencing the bizarre and unexplainable.

Alan’s facial expression answers that query as she shares some of his unbelievable experiences.

“While we had finished conducting an investigation at a pub in Northampton, we had almost decided that we were not going to find anything, It was about 2 a.m and as we were talking with the landlord as we packed up the equipment, all of a sudden we all could see the outline of what appeared to be a man in a cloak walk over to the otherside of the bar and fade into the background.

“Another strange experince was at Salmsbury Hall. We captured the lights going off and on and as we replayed the video tapes we caught an image which looked like a small child running across the reception area, there was a definite chill in the room when this happened!”

Driving around certain parts of England, setting up the specialised equipmet and interviewing the ocasional odd ball, Alan still believes ghost hunting certainly is not a thing of the past. Despite the people who do not understand, Ghost Lab carries on with their investigations regardless.

A question which still needed to be answered, What did Alan have to say to the non-believers?

“You will always get people who don’t believe in something they don’t understand, fortunately Ghost Lab know different so if you don’t believe that’s fine with me.”

                                                                                ENDS