Markham

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 Bagg.



Mr. Bagg, who works as an employment advisor in Markham, 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. Bagg 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. Bagg said.



To get a better idea of what a ghost is feeling, Mr. Bagg 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. Bagg 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. Bagg’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. Bagg 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. Bagg said. They became much harder to write off as imagination.



“I was starting to think I was paranoid or having hallucinations,”  Mr. Bagg 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.”



Mr. Bagg’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. Bagg said.



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



For those who doubt Mr. Bagg’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. Bagg said. “I do charge for my lectures.”