By Jim Iaccino
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Ghost Hunters International team members Barry Fitzgerald and Dustin Pari.
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Ghost Hunters International recently premiered it’s new season on SyFy with fantastic ratings. Team Members Dustin Pari and Barry Fitzgerald answered questions about the show, and what scares them.
Question> How hard or easy is it to spook you?
Barry> My biggest nemesis has to be mannequins. And I have to say that those truly frighten the living hell plain out of me. And because I have my main sense on - I'm there to do a job, I'm there to look for ghosts and all of a sudden this dummy should be leaning against somewhere maybe where it shouldn't have been before. And it’s truly - it’s absolutely frightening the hell out of me. I have to say that in Argentina in the case that’s coming up that they had images of - it was the death images that was taken back in the Victorian times where people would have been propped up and different things around them. And a photograph would have been taken. So I was in a dark room obviously with my own camera taking photographs of these photographs because I'd never actually seen them before. And the only thing I had to focus - or the only thing I - light-wise I had was the autofocus on the camera. So as you can imagine as I turned around and there was this small dummy of a child leaning against the wall. Well I have to tell you this, I screamed louder than (Brandy Green) ever could. And I think all of them nearly split their stomachs laughing at me. But I hate those things, I really do.
Question> When you guys investigate a location that is known to have hosted famous people do you try to contact that person or does that even factor into the investigation?
Dustin> No I mean it doesn't factor in as, you know, do we do anything different as far as putting all our effort it. But anytime that a location has a somewhat specific - especially somebody of notoriety then we are going to make that effort to contact them. And the benefit of course being someone of notoriety is that we can try to use names that they may have been familiar with. We can try to look up a little history on that person so that when we direct our EDP questioning we can try to get into their mindset a little bit. I think it's, you know, it’s our shared viewpoint that it’s very important to try to use to the best of your ability questions that are more likely to elicit a response rather than, you know, just throwing out there the stock questions like what is your name, how long have you been here. We want to try to make an emotional connection that may make them come forward and respond to us.
Question> Is there any new equipment out there that you guys haven't employed yet that you want to get a hold of?
Barry> We are going to be bringing new equipment along. It’s going to be some revolutionary new video equipment. And we start - we start filming I believe later this year. That new technology is going to come along because it takes the full spectrum technology must further.
Question> I've been a Ghost Hunters and Ghost Hunters International fan ever since they both premiered. And I know that Jason and Grant have had experiences in their life that sort of gravitated them to hunting ghosts. We never hear too much about the other individuals like yourselves, Dustin and Barry, whether you've had paranormal experiences growing up in your childhood that sort of lent you to do this. And if you had without revealing too many details could you tell us a little bit about them?
Barry> I think from my perspective I have to say that a lot of people who get involved in this field do have experiences as children. And certainly I was no exception. And growing up in a property back in Ireland it presented phenomenon to my parents. And they of course not wanting to frighten the children said nothing about it. But it was just a matter of time when the children themselves were going to be introduced to this. And certainly I was the first. And it was the middle of the night and I seen the figure coming up the stairs. And I was aware that that person should not be there. And that was my first time of seeing an apparition as it climbed the stairs. It was only years later that I confessed to my parents to seeing this. There were other things that happened on the property as well which would still plague my dreams. And the house now to my knowledge is now ripped up - that remains. I'm aware that the last family to stay there only lasted a month. And that was very intense. And that intense that it still plagues my nightmares.
Question> What about you Dustin?
Dustin> It’s hard to follow up such a tale. The Irishman really knows how to relay his experiences. I had a similar experience though. When I was about 8 or 9 I was living in a house in Providence, Rhode Island with my family. And I was awoken during the night and I had seen a shadow figure that was standing in the doorway of my bedroom. And, you know, there was my bedroom then there was a hallway and the kitchen light was on so this thing was backlit. But it was just one of these very shadow figures that I've actually been encounter a couple of times since doing my investigations. But they’re very elusive. They seem to move very quickly. And it’s very interesting, the phenomenon and really still trying to get answers on that. But that was the first thing that really got me interested in going out and looking for these answers. And since then it’s kind of taken on a much larger picture and almost like a spiritual quest if you will to get more confirmation about, you know, what happens to the spirit after we pass on from this life.
Question> Just to shift gears a little bit because we've been talking about something very serious, what have been your funniest experience or experiences at locations? I'm sure you've had a couple. Maybe?
Dustin> Well some of them we'll have to censor I think at the end of the show. Certainly I know in last week’s episode everyone gets to see how I reacted to a flock of pigeons as they came flying out of the rooftop in Argentina. I've been plagued by pigeons and bats.
I'm not a big fan of things just randomly popping out in the darkness. I can take a spirit starting to show itself but if something is flying at me I get pretty startled and I often fall down things or knock people over. It gets a little crazy.
Barry> Probably from my own perspective staying at the same location they had dummies of people around the location. And there was a small dummy of a child which was propped up against a wall in the dark. And of course I happened to see that and those are my biggest nemesis. And I seen that I literally did scream louder than (Brandy Green).
Question> What was the most convincing piece of evidence that you ever collected on an investigation?
Dustin> The most convincing pieces - I'd have to say that for me one of the best pieces of evidence we ever captured was we were doing a prison in Latvia and there was a voice that came through there - it was a just muddied voice of a woman who spoke in Latvian for about seven or eight seconds. And it was captured on all the pieces of equipment that we had in the room as well as our production equipment. And to me that was the most impressive pieces that had come down the pike. And it was very emotional. There was something in her tone that was very touching. And to this day it’s one of my favorite experiences.
Barry> And certainly one of mine would have to be a photograph that was taken down in Australia which is coming up in the shows. And for the life of me I can't explain this. I have tried and tried and tried with science - using science it simply couldn't have happened. And yet it did. And I'm perplexed by the entire episode. And - but that’s coming up so you'll get to see that as well.
Question> Was it a human image that you picked up or what - just curious.
Barry> Let’s say it was a figure. For once - I'm not going to say.
Question> Okay fair enough, fair enough.
Barry> No worries.
Question> The other companion show to your show is Ghost Hunters Academy. And I had watched all six episodes of that. And it looks like two people have graduated from the academy and will be joining you in their investigations. But I didn't know if they’re coming on board the end of this season or next season; do you guys know when?
Dustin> No I was just saying that we haven't filmed with them as of yet. The episodes that are airing currently are the ones we had just finished up while those guys were actually in the academy.
Question> Okay great, well happy ghost hunting.
