Proo(f) That Ghosts Exist?
October 29, 2013Earlier in the week I was able to sit down with Brad Mavin from Proo(f) Canada. We talk about the paranormal, skeptics, spirits and more.
Proof has been seen recently on Innerspace on the Space Channel as well as working with CTV on a special segment and managing their own YouTube series of Proo(f) TV. Brad is loaded with a wealth of information and experience that would be virtually impossible to get all down. There is something exciting about picking the brain of someone who is completely enthusiastic about what they do. If you have ever been curious about the paranormal in any way, keep on reading as I had the great opportunity to speak to Brad and he wants to give you some very interesting insight on the things that go bump in the night.
I’m sitting here tonight with Brad from Proo(f). Can you tell us a little about yourself and Proo(f)?
My name is Brad Mavin, and I’m one of the co-founders of Proo(f). My wife Katie, my good friend Paul, and I formed Proof about 3 years ago now in an effort to bring credibility into the paranormal community. We all had experiences with other teams over the years and had some souring experiences at times where we were the only ones contributing and it got to the point where I wondered ‘why are we with other people that don’t take it seriously’?
We wanted to be able to say, “look, we are breaking the mold about what you think about a paranormal investigator” or “we are breaking the mold about paranormal groups” and wanted to show that we are different. That’s really why we formed Proo(f). We have the ability, we have the tools, and we are lucky enough that we have decent jobs that we have extra money that we can put towards it too, which is not something that all people have. We knew we were able to put more into it than some people can. It was a matter of being a business for us in a way so we wanted to do our own thing.
The Proo(f) Team.
Are there any skeptics on the team?
Yeah, absolutely! The cool thing about Proo(f) is that we are really just five people and everyone has a different opinion about the paranormal which we thought was key when we were forming the group. We wanted a small team because we wanted a team that didn’t have each others back. When you get these bigger teams it always somebody slapping each others back and we didn’t want that. We knew that we had a small team that we were comfortable with and we had everyone from a really strong believer in Paul, who is sensitive in a lot of ways. He’s not psychic or anything like that but he is sensitive and he picks up on spirits. Then going down the list you have Katie who is a believer who is also sensitive and has no idea how to use that sensitivity and gets really upset about it at times. We’ll go to an area and she will just break down and have now idea why and she hasn’t tuned into that sensitivity yet. Then you’ve got me that’s sitting right in the middle and I believe there is things out there–I just don’t believe we have all the tools in front of us yet to explain it. So is it a ghost? Is it a haunting? What is a ghost and a haunting? I believe there are things out there, but what is it? Then you have Ben who doesn’t believe in anything. He could slimed by Slimer and he wouldn’t believe that it was a ghost. Its kind neat when you get us all together and we get an EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon) for example and Paul says “listen to this”, and Katie says “yeah, maybe” , and then I’m like, “hmmmm I don’t know..”, then Ben goes “really?”. So then you really kind of get everyone at each other but then in the same respect there’s times when I get something and everyone challenges me. It’s really good to have that dynamic because it lends more credibility to the team.
How long have you been involved in the Paranormal?
For me personally, it all started off as a kid. Everyone thought my grandparents house was haunted back in Newfoundland. I was probably 10 or 11 years old when I wanted to find out why because I had experiences in that home that I couldn’t explain. I knew from that point forward there had to be a way of finding out answers to this stuff and life’s mysteries. It was later on in my early twenties when I was living in Halifax and I found a paranormal team. I met up with them and had a great time for a couple years and that’s when I thought that I liked what we were doing and I liked using more scientific based tools to try and explain the paranormal.
From there I took a two year course in parapsychology because I really wanted to learn more behind the psychology behind psychic ability. I formed my own team at that point with my really good friend Martin and we had a really good run in Halifax. After that I had a break for a couple years, you end up going about in life doing other stuff. All of a sudden I move out here with my wife and suddenly I’m back into it full time and now more than ever it’s about making Proo(f) a brand and making it the number one paranormal group in Canada. The idea, and, I’ve said this from day one and people either say “yeah, good luck buddy” or “that’s awesome”, is that I always thought we should have a TV show in Canada that is the equivalent of what we see coming out of the States quite a bit. That just doesn’t exist here and that’s where we want to step in.
The Peterborough County Jail
What is Proo(f)’s most frightening experience?
I think it’s probably different for all of us. I’ll never forget one the first investigations that we did at the London Grand Theatre. This was the first investigation that Katie did. She got dragged into this. She never really had an interest the paranormal, ghosts, or hauntings and she said if anyone had of said years ago that I would be doing this she would have said that’s crazy. But, thanks to her husband “Ghostbuster”, here she is. That night I had never seen this side of her before as she came up the stairs, and I was setting up the DVR system, she was bawling her eyes out. She fell to the ground and couldn’t move. So for her, the first experience was probably the most frightening because she didn’t understand what was happening to her.
For me, it was a number of years ago and it was before Proo(f); I was in PEI and I had an investigation where our psychic and I were up in the room and there was a lamp in the room. We turn around and this lamp is floating in mid-air between him and I and smashes down on the floor. In that same investigation, we had a wireless DVR system and the cord to the monitor melted to the wall downstairs. For me that was a very scary investigation and I know that the others have had some as well. It’s like our teammate Ben says “I’m not afraid of the paranormal because I don’t believe in it, but there’s something about fear that just takes over at times. No matter what your beliefs are, everyone experiences fear.” That’s where our tag line originated from: fear is the only variable.
Can you explain some of the key pieces of equipment that Proo(f) uses and a little about what they do?
You know, the funny thing about equipment is that in the last ten years, every team had an audio recorder and an EMF meter. This was a common thing to have as it measures electromagnetic fields and is used to hopefully detect if something comes around you. Now there’s websites dedicated to new pieces of equipment which really are all fabricated out of things that are used by people in their regular day jobs. All lot of the tech stuff you don’t need. I encourage people to use their own tools because, why not? This is a field that anyone can research, but start out with the basics like a flashlight, pen and paper; those are your best friends.
Get an EMF meter or a K2 meter that measures electromagnetic fields, then maybe an audio recorder, but you need to go out and buy the latest and greatest unless you know what you are doing with it. One of our latest pieces of equipment is a Mel meter that does shadow detection, acts as a rem pod to emit EMF, has an EMF reader built into it, static thermometer, a flashlight. It’s like a swiss army knife for ghost hunters. I like to use it because it’s similar to an EMF meter but when something goes near it, it makes a noise and gives you an indication. One of the real neat things is paranormal apps, which is something that is very highly debated just like any paranormal tool, but there is a number of paranormal apps that have been developed. One that we use is called Ghost Radar which works basically the same way an EMF meter would work by using the compass in your phone with the idea being that if there are such thing as a ghost, you’re asking to communicate with the device that you have. It’s no different than if you’re using an EMF meter and asking it to come near it to make the device to go off. You’re asking the spirit to come near your phone and pick out a word in the dictionary database in the app and use it. To me that’s no different from one to the next.
Former military base / mental hospital
Can a spirit follow you home and harm you?
I’m going to speak from the point of view of the average person. As a more skeptical person, I would probably lean more towards that you would have to have that kind of faith to believe that it could happen to you. Having someone on the team being sensitive like my wife, I know that she would tell you yes, it can follow you home. She has talked about how we have come home form and investigation and been woken up by someone that is yelling at her. In her mind, yes, things do come home with her and I don’t doubt that she believes that. As a skeptic, I would want to lean more towards her being amped up by the night, but who am I to be saying that? So yes I do believe that you can open yourself up to something coming home with you.
Being harmed is a really funny one. You see this all the time on television where someone has claimed to have been hurt or they have markings and scratches and stuff like that. I myself have never seen it happen in real time and a lot of times where people come up with a scratch, I tend to think that if I had an itch I would scratch it too and you can scratch yourself pretty lightly and still leave a mark. So there are people that claim to have been hurt by spirits and they certainly believe it but I’ve never seen it firsthand. I’ve had feelings where it feels like someone is touching you or cold spots so when you think about that you have to ask is it possible that something could be stronger and hurt you? My answer would be probably.
What advice can you give for anyone that is interested in getting into the field of Paranormal?
There’s tons of advice to give. First and foremost be objective and don’t overdo it. So many people want to believe that there are ghosts so bad that they will compromise pretty much anything. People want to believe in the paranormal so bad that every piece of dust they see in a photograph or every weird little artifact in a picture is paranormal to them. You can’t jump to those conclusions. You have to be objective so that you can say if there is any way that this can be disproved, then you have to go with that idea. If you were to show me a picture and it had an orb on it, I would tell you there is a possibility that it could be dust. You may tell me you believe it’s a ghost, but if there is a possibility that its dust, then its dust. For investigators, their biggest problem can be wanting to believe so bad that they aren’t being objective.
Number two; never go on an investigation alone. A lot of people want to this and they can’t find a team to join so they will go and do it themselves. If you think there’s a possibility that something can harm you, you don’t want to be doing stuff like going alone. Never trespass, that’s not access and it’s not permission. If you were to get injured, you’re not insured. Never fake what you have and ask for advice.
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