Rise in paranormal activity

During the week I was asked to contribute to an article about Haunted Auckland for the Sunday Star Times, written by Shabnam Dastgheib, on the question of there being more calls from the public for paranormal investigations on private residences. I was quoted in the article; but for background information, here is my full email reply to Shabnam:

"We haven't noticed any rise in callouts this year. We don't receive that many, but when we do they seem to come in clusters. I would say that has more to do with random clumping than any widespread paranormal influence. Also, the release of a new Paranormal Activity or similar movie can get people thinking about ghosts a bit more than usual, and influence them to attribute paranormal causes to (generally unconnected), unexplained events, or coincidences.

"When there were fewer paranormal groups in the country, we used to get more media coverage, and more callouts. We've been keeping a lower media profile lately, but are still going strong as a team of ten. Our two newest team members are a medical doctor and a psychology graduate.

"The work our team does is split between call outs (usually to private houses or flats, sometimes to businesses) and investigations of public buildings, theatres, etc, that we generate through contacts and discussions.

"We would like to receive more calls from people, but we know that Kiwis can be a bit reticent to talk to strangers about things that spook them. Also, the positioning and perception of our team is hopefully fairly balanced between a scientific approach and being open minded about the paranormal, so we don't tend to get calls from people who just want confirmation of their belief that their place in haunted. We are inclined to find natural reasons for ghostly experiences, which can leave some people feeling disappointed and others relieved! But this doesn't mean we don't believe in the possibility of there being ghosts. We are sure that people experience ghosts, but what ghosts really are remains almost a total mystery."


Relevant links:

Original Sunday Star Times article, featuring Mark Wallbank of haunted Auckland:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/9829337/Spooks-on-the-rise

Stuff article as posted for The Dominion Post: http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/capital-life/9834105/Calling-in-the-ghostbusters

Haunted Auckland website: hauntedauckland.com/
Core Paranormal website: www.coreparanormalnz.com/