Remember Ghost Busters? The movie that introduced us to paranormal investigations and travelling through space and time to fight ghosts? The movie turned into a multi-million dollar franchise and the concept of paranormal investigations became popular and somewhat glamorous. But IRL, it isn’t so. We got in touch with Savio Furtado, a Government Certified Paranormal Investigator, Researcher, Parapsychologist and Exorcist. He is literally a ghost-buster! We asked him all about his job, experiences, beliefs, and even his views on horror movies. We got the full scoop on what it’s like to be a paranormal investigator in India and left no spooky detail behind.
What Does A Paranormal Investigator Do?
To put it simply, we methodologically investigate the supposedly haunted locations and sites with logic and modern gadgets to check if the mysterious activity is truly paranormal or due to natural causes like geomagnetic hot-spots, high EMF, or any other such disturbances. If we are sure it is caused by paranormal forces, we step in to rectify them.
, says Furtado who is associated with
Parapsychology and Investigations Research Society
(PAIRS), a government registered organization working in the field of parapsychology and paranormal activity. PAIRS was co-founded by Rev. Sarbajeet Mohanty and Pooja Vijay, who rightfully direct and encourage it’s members. Furtado, under their supportive guidance, travels all over the country to investigate demonic and haunted locations and works towards getting rid of their evil energies and entities. Pretty cool, right?
How Exactly Does Paranormal Investigation Work?
This was a burning question and we all wanted to know the answer. In movies and TV shows, paranormal investigators are often shown doing a complete reconnaissance of the location in the middle of the night and using high-tech frequency readers, fancy night-cameras, powerful mics and more, but how true was this? Furtado said that there were 2 stages to this: Pre-Investigative and Investigative.
Pre-Investigative Phase
To employ his services, clients need to fill a form and sign an agreement. They need to give him access to the location and their experiences, both past and present. It needs to be assured that the anomalies are due to supernatural causes and not natural ones. Many times people confuse their own hallucinations as paranormal elements. Furtado says,
Pre-investigative processes include deciphering as much as possible about natural causes to the disturbances, probing common beliefs and apprehensions, interviewing clients and their folks for a 360-degree perspective to the phenomena, etc.
A lot of supposedly haunted cases are solved or dismissed at this stage. If the study still does not unearth any natural causes, and our psychics additionally suggest an anomaly, then we visit the location armed with all gadgetry to investigate the location.
Investigative Phase
Once they are certain that the case is indeed a paranormal one, they go in armed with their gadgets and devices. Furtado says that t
he gadgets may either be mundane, like temperature guns, laser grids, motion detectors, night-vision cameras. Or specialized ones like EMF sensors, ghost meters and full-spectrum cameras. But it is how he sets up and utilizes these that help him solve the case.
Furthermore, he has deep-rooted knowledge in f
ace reading, graphology, behaviour analysis, hypnotherapy, alpha-mind control, dream analysis, Neuro-Linguistic Programming and more. This helps him understand his cases better and solve them in the best way possible. He says,
Once you gain so much knowledge, it is
difficult to deny the fact that there is more to a person’s psychology, behavioural pattern and thought process than that which merely meets the eye.
What Exactly Does A Paranormal Case Look Like?
Furtado has far too many anecdotes to share when it comes to his cases. One of the interesting cases he worked on was on the outskirts of Mumbai. Two souls were fighting each other at a haunted house of worship since their death decades ago. After reading the energies from the pictures shared, Furtado confirmed the back story from the local villagers. He was actually warned against visiting that place post-sunset. The temple had been enveloped in glass, trees and wild growth and the entities had become pretty strong, malevolent, and stubborn. One particularly violent and hurt entity actually manipulated the surrounding creepers and bushes to prevent Furtado from moving around! Finally, he used a bit of psychic force and technique to break the spell and sanitize the place before leaving it. Furtado, along with his team solved the case successfully.
Do Horror Movies & TV Shows Really Depict Paranormal Investigation Correctly?
Furtado says that while some recent movies do portray paranormal activity more realistically, many still rely on over-dramatisation and gimmicks. He says that pop-culture and urban legends, common occurrences like a drop in temperature and goosebumps are associated with hauntings. This isn’t true. He says,
I’m not a fan of the horror movies dished out, both, in the distant past and the last decade. Past movies stereotyped ghosts and entities with absurd forms like beastly canines, zombie-like, having bloodshot eyes and more. Some Indian movies also relied on ‘sleaze factors’ to sell tickets! The more recent movies have confused jump scares and sudden sound effects for the actual horror. But then, I believe art has to be granted that creative license to depict the invisible on a visual medium. Otherwise, how would you creatively portray an invisible soul on screen?
Do You Have A Message For The Non-Believers?
Furtado was a non-believer at first too, but once he started learning about energies, human psychology and elements did he start to understand the paranormal spectrum. He says,
It’s perfectly okay to not believe! Even I didn’t at one time. But don’t belittle someone else’s research just because it isn’t up your alley. Just because you don’t hear the music, does not mean it isn’t being played.
Paranormal investigation not only exists but is an important part of the world we live in, whether you believe in it or not. So, if you think there’s something spooky happening around you, don’t brush it off as your imagination, for it could be something much more than that!
What do you think about paranormal investigation? Share it with us in the comments below!
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