Jeff Belanger, pt 1

Jeff Belanger’s first book, The World’s Most Haunted Places, covers history, folklore, and true ghost encounters. It’s a world tour of historic haunted locations and includes interviews with scores of witnesses. In 2005, Belanger will publish two more books covering supernatural topics with New Page Books.

Jeff has been studying and writing about the supernatural for regional and national publications since 1997. In 1999, he launched Ghostvillage.com with a mission to provide ghost research, evidence, and discussion to ghost enthusiasts from around the world. Today, the site is the Web's largest and most comprehensive supernatural community, receiving more than three million hits per month with more than 10,000 email subscribers. The site includes a vast library of personal ghost encounters submitted from around the world, in-depth articles on the paranormal, book reviews, message boards, and other resources dedicated to the study and discussion of ghosts.

Melanie: Jeff, you’ve said that ghost hunting is a sort of spiritual experience for people. Can you elaborate? Is the pursuit of paranormal experiences a spiritual experience for you?

Jeff: I was raised Catholic. I went through Sunday school all the way to confirmation. When I was in high school I pretty much stopped going to church completely. When I was in college I actually became a staunch adversary of all religions because I viewed religions as man-made, flawed by nature, and sometimes dangerous. While I still believe that to some extent, I've certainly softened my stand on it. I still believe all religions have a lot of it wrong, but I also believe all religions have some of it right. If someone gets peace, understanding, or comfort from their religion, then that can't be a bad thing.

Tamara: I feel the same way. While religion has never appealed to me, I think it's as valid for someone who does follow a faith's tenets as my lack of belief is for me. I was listening to a psychiatrist talking about patients who believe they've been possessed and the harm he believes their doctors do if they turn to exorcism when other methods fail to help them. The critical psychiatrist posits that science doesn't believe in possession, therefore it's wrong to play into someone's delusion. I think he's merely showing that science is as dogmatic as any other religion and the truth is that whatever provides relief for the patient is the best option.

Melanie: I find it to be that way for me personally also. For me, it's a sort of personal quest for answers. Being raised Southern Baptist, I was taught that you don't question certain things, you merely accept them. Blind faith and all that. But I questioned things--was the earth really created in 7 days? Did Cain and Abel marry their sisters? How is it physically possible to cram two of every single species of animal on earth into one boat? You know, the usual logic-defying conundrums of the Bible. But when I asked these questions, the answer I got was "Because the Bible says so," which told me absolutely nothing. While I’m not an atheist, I have realized I needed to go in search of some of my own answers elsewhere.

Tamara: In the diety-worship department I've always been an atheist. In popular parlance, however, most people would call me an agnostic because the usual belief is that if you’re an atheist, you cannot have a spiritual side. Which is why I like to confound people with the term, Zen atheist. The Tao concept works best for me, but that’s certainly not true for everyone. I think that whatever works is what matters, not how it works.

Jeff: In college I came pretty close to becoming an atheist. I had thought/reasoned away all of the arguments supporting my own religious upbringing, but I couldn't quite explain it all away. My own personal conclusion is that there are still miracles. The fact that we even exist is one of them, and I believe that is the work of a divine creator. That's as far as I've gotten. What team that divine creator supports, be it Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Wiccan, or the Red Sox, I have no idea. After college, when I began writing for newspapers and magazines, I loved chasing the local ghost stories around Halloween. I got to speak with people who obviously had a profound experience. I found it very similar to when a person finds a religion and has unshakable faith from that point forward. But I think there is a huge difference between finding religion and experiencing a ghost or spirit.

Tamara: Absolutely

Jeff: In finding a religion, you're expected to have the profound feeling, plus buy into all of the dogmas, contradictions, and all of the other baggage that goes with that belief system. That belief system then gives you its idea of what (if any) afterlife awaits. When someone experiences what they believe to be a ghost or spirit, the witness now has proof of an afterlife. There's nothing to buy into or affiliate with -- it's simply a profound experience in and of itself. That simplicity is what attracts me to the ghost experience. On the one hand, there's nothing more to it beyond the encounter, on the other hand, the implications are huge and beg us to explore our own mortality and spirituality deeper.

Tamara: Hear, hear! It's uncharted (or at least less dogma-inflicted) territory. It gives me great joy, as compared to dogma, which gives me great pain. It's a mystery, a never-ending one. Perhaps that's the appeal for many of us.

Melanie: I definitely think that’s part of the appeal for me. Organized religions won’t touch the realm of the paranormal at all, aside from their own version of it. My own experiences have given me evidence that possibly we do go on existing after this life, although I'm still searching for more because I've never gotten the one definitive piece of evidence that would convince me 100%. I'm perhaps 95% convinced at this point. Is it that same sort of quest for you, Jeff?

Jeff: For me, studying the supernatural is a scientific and research-based quest that can't exist without some ideas on spirituality. I'm not saying there are definitely spiritual answers laying ahead of me in this work, but I'm pretty sure there are some good leads.