Paranormal News provided by Medium Bonnie Vent

Blocked-up drain or a ghost in the attic -- who ya gonna call?

Posted By BRIAN GORMAN, ZAP2IT

Jason Hawes admits that he's probably the last guy you'd expect to be an expert on the paranormal -- and that may be why he seems to have so much credibility.

The fact that Hawes is anything but a blind believer inspires confidence.

Hawes is half of a pair of plumbers -- the other being Grant Wilson -- from Rhode Island, who cofounded The Atlantic Paranormal Society and star in a reality series about it: "Ghost Hunters," airing Fridays on Space: The Imagination Station.

The show is new here, but in the United States, where it's in its fourth season, "Ghost Hunters" is a cult hit.

"The show is doing phenomenal in the United States," Hawes says. "Which is surprising, because Grant and I signed on to do 10 episodes, figuring the show would be canceled right away. We thought, 'Nobody wants to watch what we do.' "

When TAPS members track down things that go bump in the night, Hawes says, they do everything possible to try to come up with a real-world explanation.

So one thing you can't accuse the Ghost Hunters of is sensationalism.

"Anybody can say a place is haunted," Hawes says. "But we go in looking for an explanation. Not to shoot at other shows, but some shows could find a paper bag to be haunted.

"That's not who we are. We've been called in by the United States Air Force and Coast Guard, the Army, the Navy -- because of our approach."

The show goes out of its way to portray its heroes as normal, hardworking people who just happen to have an interest in proving -- or disproving -- paranormal activities. And as often as not, the team is able to attribute phenomena to natural causes.

The series is part supernatural thriller and part drama about a group of people trying to get along.

Investigated haunted houses range from a Southern plantation to the Stanley Hotel, where "The Shining" was filmed, to the neighborhood where the Manson murders took place. And there are the technical glitches and personnel problems that go with any organization made up of a lot of people with different attitudes and ideas.

For example, Space began its run with the second season, and the first episode joined a story line about one member of the team who is on the verge of being fired for sloppy work.

"We're a team of people who have been together since 1990," Hawes says. "So the way we interact with each other, we're a big family."

"We do a lot of speaking engagements -- 1,500, 2,000 people at a time. And honestly, what most people say is, 'You guys are down-to-earth guys. You're normal people. You're not talking over our heads.'

"We're the typical blue-collar kind of guys. I'm a plumber by trade. I'm not Dr. Jason Hawes. I'm just Jason Hawes, the plumber and the master tech who used to work on computer systems in cars."

Though the Ghost Hunters have been plying their trade on TV for the past four years or so, TAPS has been around almost two decades.

Hawes and Wilson founded it after Hawes experienced his own paranormal encounter, which he says he prefers to keep private.

"It's not just that I was a nonbeliever," he says. "I just never thought about it. And it thrust me into a field."

When he started exploring the paranormal, he says, he found a lot of "people who were willing to say anything is haunted."

So TAPS was born, and over the years, it has investigated hundreds of cases, free of charge, for people who have asked for help.

Hawes says the nature of the job means the people occasionally are as strange as the occurrences. Once, Hawes and Wilson were met by a woman who had a loaded shotgun behind the door (they had a fortunate bad feeling and left quickly). And recently, a 51-year-old Pennsylvania man was convicted after sending threatening e-mails to Hawes.

TAPS has branches and affiliates all over the world -- including in Canada. And, Hawes says, he regularly consults experts in fields ranging from nuclear physics to forensics.

"Every case stands out because each is a learning experience," he says. "Whether it's one you disprove or one you can't explain."

Even after years of weird occurrences, Hawes says he's unwilling to assume everything paranormal is also spiritual. In some cases, he says, there's an odd occurrence caused by something electromagnetic -- but not necessarily ghostly.

Perhaps most intriguing are the contacts Hawes has made with people who seem to be in another age -- which, he says, implies there may only be a "thin veil" between times.

And, of course, there are the ones that are truly creepy -- shadows in windows, images no one saw captured by photograph, whispered words that are only audible on tape.

"I'm a believer," he says. "But I also believe that 80 percent of all claims can be disproved."