What is paranormal activity?

It is the occurrence of inexplicable happenings. Bumps and knocks in the night, an eerie presence, a hovering vision…

The paranormal can be so spooky and quite unbelievable to many, horrifyingly real to those who have experienced the supernatural. How do we explain that which we do not understand? The unseen. To protect our sanity we try to deny it. The transparent, little girl floating down the hall is not a spirit, I imagined it. Must have been the salami I ate with the hot chilly. But here’s the thing, if enough people have these experiences, then surely it’s a subject worth pondering. Who better to ask than a Paranormal Investigator?

So many people are drawn to watching scary movies and like to go on ghost tours.

It seems people want to be scared! There are even those, the bravest of them all, that are determined to face these unseen happenings head-on. Perhaps if they walked in Bill’s shoes, they might not be quite so keen. His stories might just make them shiver and quiver. But then when the salami can’t explain it all, who you gonna call? In addition to this, how many spooky events happen that actually have straight forward answers to them? Not paranormal but in fact events caused by other explainable factors. This is where Bill comes in. 

Move over Bill Murray, Bill Tabone, is the founder of the Australian Paranormal Society. By day he is a dedicated every day human working for a local council, by night he makes contact with paranormal activity. 

Bill has explored the paranormal realm for the last 30-40 years, and is known all over the world. His passion lies in helping anyone experiencing the paranormal in their homes and educating the public through tours and lectures. 

Where is the most haunted place you’ve been?

Aradale Asylum up in Ararat. I’m lucky enough to run an investigation tour there once a month. There’s so much unstable energy there because the old ways of treating patients with psychological disorders weren’t always the kindest. There were a lot of people locked up that shouldn’t have been. Wives could be locked up for hanging out clothes on a Sunday or reading too much. Also, I believe places like that attract negative energy anyway. 

Has there ever been a moment where you’ve been scared for your life?

Oh, for sure. We’ve worked with a lot of dark entities. Not necessarily demonic, but unfortunately when a human passes, their personality doesn’t change. A person that’s nasty in life will be a nasty spirit too. There have been times where I’ve been attacked or seen people attacked from things you can’t see. I’ve had to pull people out of buildings because they’ve been hurt or made ill.

Have you ever been hurt?

I’ve been scratched and bitten, pushed; I’ve had things thrown at me. We do what we call ‘grounding and protections’, spiritual protections to protect our energy. However, one time, when there was a few of us, some were less experienced. So by protecting them, I left myself open and copped some negative energy. I was ill for 4-5 days. 

Not your average job! What do you love about it?

I say there are no experts in the field because we know so very little about the paranormal. We’re out there exploring things that you can’t see, and trying to work out ways to connect with the other side. I find it intriguing that we can have these experiences. To me, it’s just fascinating to be able to make this contact.

Not all our cases are dark, although those involved, the clients, are usually fearful but it has more to do with fearing the unknown that what’s actually there. Some cases are very positive, especially when we find leave peace for the spirit or spirits involved and also for the living. 

Many times we need to help spirits that haven’t crossed over or moved on, sometimes they are stuck, lost or confused, sometimes just stubborn, among other reasons and didn’t cross when their time came. This is very rewarding and positive work and those in spirit are usually very happy to have help. 

One example is a little girl who was stuck in an old miners cottage, I felt her come and hold my hand because apparently I looked like her dad with my beard and she felt safe, it was a gentle little girls hand holding mine but it was definitely there and was extremely cold. We were ecstatic to help her cross over.

Another is the time we helped an old lady who was stuck in her old house, we actually heard her cross and it was beautiful. We believe the sound we heard was a portal opening, the sound it made was beautiful, and when the sound stops the old lady had gone. We all get shown gratitude for helping in different ways, for example I usually feel my cheek being gently stroked right at the time they are crossing, but others experiences different things like a warm glow over their body of any number of other signs. 

Why do you think some people can see or sense ghosts, while others can’t?

I believe everyone can see to begin with. I can’t, but my partner is a very strong medium. As children, people will say “you’re talking to an imaginary friend, don’t be so stupid”. Kids shut down, so when they become adults, they shut off. I think it depends on how children are treated when it first starts.

When there is paranormal activity, what are the leading scientific indicators that there is activity going on?

Frequency and temperature are part of it. Cold spots, for example, are a sign that there’s a spirit trying to manifest, taking energy from the air. Then again, it could just be an open window. We’ll look at the temperature and work out why the temperature dropped. Is there any black noise, what are the EMF levels (Electromagnetic field), is there anything that might be causing these events that can be explained simply. Then once we’ve eliminated them, if there’s anything else that’s unusual, we can run the investigation. A variety of still and video cameras. These work in the normal light spectrum and some work in infrared, Ultraviolet, multi spectrum and full spectrum ranges. Thermal cameras, and motion sensors, there’s lots of unusual gadgets!

Do you believe humans transmit frequency, so when there is high emotion in the house, there can be disturbances generated?

Oh, 100%. Human emotions create what we call the residual haunting, where the emotion is caught up in the environment and replays sometimes. A classic example is a lady in a castle in England on the 3rd of July every year. Why? She’s doing the same thing. So, she’s not actually a spirit. She’s energy trapped in that environment, in the walls, in the rock. There’s a whole theory behind that called ‘stone tape theory’, but that’s another story. When the environment and time are right, the 3rd of July for example, then you get emotion playing back, so you’ll see the scene that created the emotion. 

What would you say to someone who doesn’t believe in the paranormal?

I never try and push my beliefs onto anyone else. On my investigations, if someone is negative, I’ll pull them aside and ask them to have an open mind. We used to run a public investigation at the Melbourne Royal Hotel. The husbands were bored, but the wives were really into it. We have machines, like modified radios, that allow the spirits to come through, and you can hear their voices. I pulled out the spirit box and just asked to hear someone’s name. It said one of the husband’s first and last name. His mouth fell open. He shook my hand afterwards and just said I’d changed his mind.

If you would like to dive deeper into the Australian Paranormal Society or buy tickets to one of their events, visit their facebook page where they have close to 96, 000 followers.