Respect the spirits, 'Ghost Hunters International' star Dustin Pari tells Wayside Inn paranormal investigators

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Respect the spirits, 'Ghost Hunters International' star Dustin Pari tells Wayside Inn paranormal investigators
November 7, 2011
by Linda O'Dell Ash
nvdaily.com

The spirits of Wayside Inn were active on Saturday, to the delight of paranormal investigators who met there to learn more about the inn's hauntings as well as a chance to work with Dustin Pari of SyFy's "Ghost Hunters" and "Ghost Hunters International."

Clay Smith, of the Spirit Watch paranormal group that put together the group investigations, a lecture about Wayside's ghosts and brought Pari in as the celebrity guest for the "Spirits of Wayside Inn," described the event as an "overwhelming success."

"We had 130 people there for the lecture, 69 of which participated in the group investigation in five groups, " Smith said. "We rotated the groups and Dustin, so everyone would be able to interact with Dustin. Dustin was able to work each of the five locations and everyone had a chance to work with him."

Smith added that "I cannot tell you enough what a kind, down to earth, gracious and sincere person Dustin is. His demeanor contributed to the success of the event and put all of us at ease. An incredible guy."

Group investigations

Smith said the inn's basement that night was very active.

"Boxes were moved when a sign of presence was asked for," Smith said. "This happened to two groups, one of which was working with Dustin."

Smith also said one woman had her name called by a spirit, and the "strong smell of perfume was also present for one group in the crawl space area."

He said several people told him that they had captured EVPs - electronic voice phenomenon.

Evidence presentation

The event started at 3 p.m. on Saturday with a meet and greet with Pari, who spoke with each person and signed autographs. Also present were psychic medium Susan Lynne and author, reiki master practitioner and sensitive Joy Andreasen, who have taken part in past investigations at the inn.

Participants then made their way to a meeting room where Smith showed two video presentations - one on the history of the 214-year-old inn owned and operated by Jacob and Lois Charon, and the other a presentation of evidence Spirit Watch has collected over the past year during investigations.

Among the evidence:

Some people can feel a circular cold spot in the inn's lobby, next to a fireplace and small statue of a dog. One employee said she saw an apparition of a woman in a long dress with a high collar floating in that spot.
A dishwasher's apron is untied by unseen hands.
EVP recordings of horses whinnying.
Objects have disappeared and mysteriously reappeared.
Wine glasses have been seen moving by themselves at table 16 in the bar area.

One piece of evidence that generated a lot of discussion was an infra-red camera image of what appears to be a Civil War soldier astride a horse.

Dustin Pari

Dustin Pari's introduction during the lecture came by way of a video of him singing "Eye of the Tiger," a spoof of a video by actor Jensen Ackles, aka Dean Winchester of the TV series " Supernatural."

That set the stage for the quick-talking, animated Pari, 34, who drew applause and laughter throughout his discussion, topics of which included what he's seen and learned about the spirit world in his travels around the world with "Ghost Hunters International," a lecture on the four major categories of paranormal activity, and equipment used during his investigations.

In regards to the depiction of paranormal activity on the small and big screens, Pari said there's "a lot of nonsense out there in this field...

"It is very unfortunate because the spirit world is around us all of the time and it's something that really deserves respect and you can have a really incredible interaction with it, but usually it's very subtle. It is not as grandiose as you see on some of these programs. It's not as crazy as things flying across the room..."

Pari said he does not use the term ghosts very much.

"I don't believe in ghosts at all. I think it seems laughable, but i do recognize the fact that there is a spirit world around us and that after we pass away, regardless of what religious affiliations you may or may not have, there's energy inside us and there's a soul inside us, and it seems to go somewhere."

He offered the group four major categories of paranormal activity:

Residual activity: "Energy that seems to be trapped and continues to play itself out." He said this is not "true" spirit that you can interact with.
Intelligent spirits: "These are people that were alive just like we are. They had bills to pay, they had jobs, they fell in love." He said that these spirits "should be respected" and that it troubles him to see people sitting in the dark and screaming insults in the dark.
Poltergeist activity: Knocks, bangs and moving stuff, he said, may be the result of "agents" in the room. He explained that there is a theory that certain people - teenagers and menopausal women - can cause this type of paranormal activity. Stress relief, he said, is important if you have poltergeist activity. He recommended exercise and therapy.
Inhuman entities: This is the biggest category, he said, that everyone wants to talk about and what many movies and shows focus on. "It's amazing how many demons have been on TV the last couple of years." Pari said he does not buy into a lot of what is being said on this topic. He said that he has been in this field since he was 15 and that he has probably come across one or two things that he would consider inhuman entities.

Pari has traveled the world filming paranormal investigations for "Ghost Hunters International" and said that as he has stopped and talked to people about the spirit world, it was "fascinating to see commonalities throughout the world" on the subject. He urged the audience to "take a more cerebral approach to the field" and that the "more you know about the subject matter the better your chances are going to be to try and gain interaction."