Galway’s own paranormal investigators ain’t afraid of no ghosts

They may not drive a pimped-out hearse like the ladies in the most recent Ghostbusters movie remake, and they certainly don’t return home covered in green goo – with a vacuum box of ghosts in hand – but Galway-based Paranormal Supernatural Investigations (PSI) certainly aren’t short of equipment when they go out on their ghost-hunting adventures.

“When we come across paranormal activity, we use digital voice recorders to record Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVPs), and EMF meters, cameras, an infrared video camera and full spectrum videos,” explained PSI founder James Moore.

Electronic Voice Phenomena or EVP is a term that is regularly used among ghost hunters and describes the sounds found on electronic recordings that are interpreted as spirit voices. EMF meters are also used by ghost hunters to measure fluctuations in electromagnetic fields.

There are many paranormal theories that suggest spirits have the ability to manipulate electromagnetic fields, and the team at Paranormal Supernatural Investigations certainly do their part to prove these theories.

“If there is activity, the lights on the K-2 meters start flashing,” said an investigator on the team, Colm Lydon, and many of the videos these ghost hunters have uploaded to the internet would support this.

And while there are plenty of sceptics when it comes to ghosts and ghouls, Mr Lydon maintains that supernatural activity is quite common and “if they’re sceptics, they’re shocked with the evidence we get”.

In fact, each member of the team has had an experience with supernatural activity. The whole reason PSI was set up goes back to an experience James Moore had while living in Birmingham.

“I saw a spirit in my house, walking around on the upstairs landing. I thought I was seeing things, but then I saw it again two more times. It was about six feet tall and static grey in colour and male.

“I was in bed and then I suddenly woke up at three in the morning. The bedroom door was open and that’s when I saw a figure crawling along the landing. Then it stood up and walked away. Three weeks later, the same thing happened again at three in the morning.

“The third and last time it appeared again at three o’clock in the morning, but this time I spoke to it. I sat up in the bed and said ‘Can I help you?’ It stood up and it seemed to look down at me for about a minute. I asked it the same question again. It turned and walked towards my brother’s bedroom and walked through my brother’s bedroom door.

“After that, it never came back. At first I was a little freaked out. I didn’t know what to think at the time. But it didn’t bother me the last two times. Since then, I’ve been interested in the Paranormal, so I decided to set up PSI.”

Many spirits are on a cycle, he said, which is why this spirit chose the same time in the morning to walk the same path: “They are called residual spirits. They replay the same thing over and over again – like a recording, some believe.”

So far the team at Paranormal Supernatural Investigations consists of eleven investigators: Founder and Lead Investigator James Moore; Lead Investigator Ronan O’Grady; and Investigators Colm Lydon, Noelle Maher, Katie Welby, Ann Crowe, Philip Costello, John Francis Gibbon, Martin Ward, Gabriel Creaven and Lorna Howard.

Each member of the team has his or her own reasons for joining PSI and their own inspirations for hunting down paranormal activity in Galway and further afield.

“When I was younger, I had an entity come to my room and it was choking me. I wouldn’t sleep in my room for months after,” Colm Lydon explains, and various studies and documentaries would prove that he’s not the first to experience something like this.

In fact, many people across the world have had visits from the ‘night hag’, an evil entity who sits on the chest of a man or woman lying on their back at night. This causes paralysis, and sometimes the night hag will even choke or smother the victim, while they lie powerless beneath her.

The ‘Sleep Paralysis’ phenomenon is one that has been around for a long time and continues to be a paranormal experience that plagues numerous people. Many have put what has become known as ‘Old Hag Syndrome’ down to hallucinations or nightmares, but the vision of the night hag has been a common enough report to suggest it might be more than that.

According to the team, much of the paranormal activity they come across is from the ghosts of those who have passed away, and in many cases, they come across these spirits while on one of their late night graveyard investigations.

When there is a spirit nearby, it often appears in photographs as an orb of light, a shadow blocking the camera, or a wispy, smoky vision over a headstone. These images coupled with the loud beeping and flashing lights of the meters are, quite possibly, enough to change any sceptic’s mind.

Many people are reluctant to believe in the existence of ghosts and spirits, but none can say for sure what really happens when we die. James Moore is convinced that the spirits of the dead are here for a reason: “to watch over us, maybe…”

And with Halloween approaching – a night historically known as the ‘night of the dead’, where the souls of the deceased would walk the earth – the people of Galway should be on the look-out for any unusual or paranormal activity in their neighbourhood.

And if there is something strange, Paranormal Supernatural Investigations are on call to check it out – free of charge: “We do get asked [to investigate paranormal activity], not hired. We don’t get paid to do these investigations. And we are going to continue doing these investigations to help people.”

■ For more information on PSI, you can find them on Facebook under Paranormal Supernatural Investigations – Galway. Their Facebook page consists of a series of videos taken while out on their adventures, as well as photographs of activity they have come across.