Shhh! Most g-g-ghosts aren’t really sc-c-c-ary, spectre specialist Cameron Bragg says

By: Sean Pearce

Everyone knows the annoyance caused by an unwanted guest in the house, but what do you do if that nuisance guest is a nuisance ghost?



One possible solution to that conundrum is amateur ghost researcher Cameron Bragg.



Mr. Bragg has been involved in ghost research for more than two decades and often refers to his forays into the paranormal as haunt scene investigations, because he tries to focus on the spirit’s attitude in hopes he can help the situation.



“I try to be a calming influence and look at the ghost’s behaviour,” Mr. Bragg said.



“Some of them just want to be left alone and think of you as being in their space and are trying to fight back with you. For the most part, though, most ghosts are confused, sad or depressed.”



In some cases, an active or agitated ghost can be calmed by simply sealing off a room or attic and giving them their own space, Mr. Bragg said.



To get a better idea of what a ghost is feeling, Mr. Bragg sometimes works with a psychic.



Still, it’s not always necessary to have a medium around to determine a ghost’s feelings.



Banging, rattling, stomping, yelling and other disruptive activities can be just as telling.



Mr. Bragg stresses it’s important those who feel they have a haunting on their hands keep a running tally of the ghost’s actions so he can better gauge its behaviour. It gives him an insight into the ghost’s motivations.



Now many might be skeptical of Mr. Bragg’s work and that’s fine, he said, because he was once a skeptic, too.



All of that changed, however, in 1988 when he moved into an apartment in Thornhill that just so happened to have an unexpected houseghost.



“I didn’t care about ghosts back then, because I was busy with work and family,” Mr. Bragg said.



“When the ghostly happenings first started, I just put it down to a busy schedule and I thought it was just the strangeness of living in a new place.”



Yet, even when the novelty of the new apartment wore off, the ghostly goings-on continued, Mr. Bragg said. They became much harder to write off as imagination.



“I was starting to think I was paranoid or having hallucinations,”  Mr. Bragg said. “I’d hear noises down in the living room at night and I’d go downstairs expecting someone to be there and yet there was nobody there.”



While living in the apartment, Mr. Bragg and his first wife welcomed their first child.



His wife occasionally felt the ghost’s presence or noticed its handiwork, too. Sometimes, the ghost would even move their infant daughter’s bottle up onto a table when it had fallen to the floor. It seemed almost pleasant sometimes.



“It was sort of a helpful ghost,” Mr. Bragg said.



“Still, you wouldn’t want to get water in your eyes in the shower, because when you closed your eyes you always felt like you were being watched.”



Still, while most of the strange occurrences at the home were generally pretty benevolent, some of the haunted happenings could be much more frightening.



Mr. Bragg said his sister later confessed she wouldn’t visit the home anymore, because the telephone there began ringing wildly at one point and whenever she answered there was only strange garbled noises on the other end, accompanied by yelling.



Every time she hung up, the phone merely started ringing again.



Eventually, Mr. Bragg and his wife moved, but they were later informed by the superintendent the home was once occupied by an elderly couple.



The husband got sick at one point and died in hospital and the widow lived alone for a time afterward before dying suddenly in the home’s kitchen. Mr. Bragg has since attempted to contact the tenants who live there now and the new superintendent, but neither seems particularly interested in permitting a ghost investigation.



Mr. Bragg’s interest in ghosts only grew following that first experience. He visited various second-hand book stores, read up on the subject and accumulated the tools required to investigate spirits and spectres.



Today, those tools are comprised of an electro-magnetic field detector, compass, voice recorder, digital camera, video camera and other equipment. A big part of the investigation is first eliminating other possible causes for a haunting.



“We do an environmental assessment of the home first and make sure any electro-magnetic fields aren’t the wiring or something like that, but if we find a field somewhere there shouldn’t be one, like in a rocking chair, that could be something,” Mr. Bragg said.



“You find the rational before looking for the irrational.”



For those who doubt Mr. Bragg’s investigations are legit, he points out the fact he doesn’t charge for them and views them as a public service. Any money he does make from ghosts, comes from lectures and workshops he conducts.



“I can’t guarantee a ghost is going to leave  because of what I do, so I don’t think it’s ethical to charge,” Mr. Bragg said. “I do charge for my lectures.”



One such lecture, entitled An Inconvenient Ghost, will be at the Newmarket Public Library Sept. 16.



The cost of the lecture is $20 and will be one of four held across the region.



A Newmarket haunt



Mr. Bragg said Newmarket’s historic Pickering College is refuted to be the home of one restless spirit, dubbed the Grey Lady.



Rumoured to be the ghost of a nurse who worked in the school many years ago, the legend has been perpetuated by the occasional sighting and even the odd photograph of the spirit.  



Got ghost?



Here are some possible signs:

 

• Catching movement out of the corner of your eye, turning your head and seeing no one.


• Hearing voices or noises that can’t be readily explained by schizophrenia or the obvious.


• Rappings and knockings.


• Orb’s showing up in family photographs.


• Seeing smoky apparitions or shadow people.


• Difficulty sleeping, feeling pinned to the bed.


• Moving/disappearing objects.


• Cold or hot spots without the obvious reasons for them.


• Smells or odours and not the obvious ones.


• Electrical disturbances and problems with appliances, lightbulbs, etc.

Spirit statistics



An Ipsos-Reid Poll in October 2006 states 47 per cent of Canadians believe in ghosts.



Eighteen per cent believe they have been in the presence of a ghost.



Nine per cent believe they have lived in a haunted house.



“Newmarket has a population of about 71,000 people, so there is the potential of 6,400 haunted homes out there,” Mr. Bragg said.



“I welcome Newmarket to share their haunted experiences with me via my e-mail if they like.”



Mr. Bragg can be reached at thehauntclub@cogeco.ca



Other York Region haunts



Know of haunted spots in the area? Live in one yourself? Interested in sharing your ghost stories and other true tales of the paranormal? E-mail spearce@yrmg.com