Do You Believe in Ghosts? Paranormal Expert Makes Haunting Presentation at Library

With Halloween in recent memory, the Hillsborough Public Library held a program on Tuesday night focusing on how to find one of the holiday’s traditional mascots—ghosts.

The 90-minute program, “Ghosts: What They Are and How to Investigate Them”, was presented by Gordon Thomas Ward, an author and paranormal investigator who specializes in finding—and communicating with—beings and spirits on the “other side”. The presentation featured Ward’s views on ghosts, instructions for those interested on how to conduct their own sound-based paranormal investigations without costly equipment, and a question-and-answer session with audience members, all of whom believed in ghosts from the outset.

“I’ve spoken here before and I did one on Lewis and Clark and Historic Haunts of Central Jersey,” said Ward. “I’ve become sort of a regular speaker here. I have a list of libraries in the region that I send out fliers to every once in a while.”

Ward’s interest in the paranormal began when he was a young child. His family’s house in Bernardsville, according to Ward, hosted spirits who would make unexplained noises and even appear from time to time.

“Your father knows everything when you’re seven or eight years old,” said Ward. “It was the first time I could remember my dad standing there and, when we’d ask ‘what is that?’, he’d say ‘I don’t know.’”

Ward, who is part of a paranormal investigation agency called “Haunted New Jersey”, stated that there are three types of paranormal beings: apparitions, which have an awareness of themselves and their surroundings, residual ghosts, which are “impressions” or “recordings” upon their locations, and poltergeists. Ward urged the audience to be wary of misconceptions about poltergeists, as they do not quite fit the stereotype set forth by the 1980s movie of the same name.

“It’s not a ghost, and it does not have a consciousness from the other side,” said Ward. “We think it is nothing more than energy that comes from a living person in that environment. Unbeknownst to them, their energy affects things in that environment.”

Ward stated that conducting one’s own paranormal investigations is surprisingly uncomplicated. Key traits to possess include a historical background of the place being investigated, an open mind and logic.

Too often, Ward said, paranormal activity programs on television paint an alarmist picture of spirits, many times blowing a small, inconsequential noise out of proportion for entertainment value.

“Anything that’s on TV, I’m a little more leery of,” he said.

All one really needs to conduct paranormal investigations are items such as a K2 meter, which measures electromagnetic fields in an environment, and a voice recorder. The electromagnetic fields may project a metaphysical presence of a paranormal being, while a voice recorder may pick up sounds made by a spirit called Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVPs).

According to Ward, each voice has its own human voice signature, which makes it easier to detect which spirit in question a voice may belong to—especially if investigators visit a site more than once.

This is different from a direct voice phenomenon, which occurs when a noise is heard on-site. EVPs are only heard on the playback, and Ward stated on Tuesday night that he has heard several on digital recordings—including some that have mentioned him by name—following his investigations.

“EVPs cannot be heard at the time of the recording, which is what sets EVPs apart from direct voice,” says Ward.

Despite Haunted New Jersey’s recent efforts to explore more into paranormal activity, skeptics still remain. Part of the reason could be due to the field’s presentation in the media, while a lack of communication between paranormal activity groups does not help the cause, either.

“Most groups don’t talk to each other, which I think is a crime,” said Ward. “If we pooled our resources, we’d know a lot more, but people are very proprietary about what they’ve found out.”

Ward, however, is sure of one thing; his experiences with the paranormal—as well as those of anybody else—have not just been a figment of his imagination.

“If you talk to anybody who has had these experiences, they are as sure about this as they are that you guys are sitting in this room right now,” said Ward.