“Ghosts can be tackled in the same way a wicked human is”

Read to know all about ghosts and evil spirits.

India’s very own bravo ‘ghost-buster’ Gaurav Tiwari, chief founder of Indian Paranormal Society and ParaNexus representative in India, answered all the questions on spooks and spirits during a conversation with Resham Sengar of Zeenews.com. Gaurav and his team has investigated haunted locations for TV shows like MTV Girls Night Out and have now partnered with Zee TV’s Fear Files.

How did you become a Paranormal Investigator? It all started when I was living in Deland, Florida, USA, to get trained as a commercial pilot. I was allotted a flat with five friends of my friends by the Flight School. All of us seriously experienced something at that apartment for long that turned me from a hard core non-believer to a sceptic. I wanted to know about this phenomenon. Thus, I came back to India with two licenses, one to fly commercially, and the other was a certification that I was more serious about – “Certified Leading Paranormal Investigator” Certificate from ParaNexus Association of Florida. I established the Indian Paranormal Society in India with those five friends in 2009. What was your main agenda behind this start-up? My main agenda behind establishing IPS was to investigate, research, and understand the human condition through the scientific study of aerial, anomalous and psychical phenomena, its reality and its effect on humanity. Like everyone else, I also endeavoured to know the realities of the Grand Scheme of life. Delhi is a much-talked about city when it comes to having haunted spots. According to your investigations, which are the prime haunted locations of Delhi? Delhi has a very old history. This place has been ruled by many. Many deaths, many tragedies have happened in this land. We have recorded something strange on our equipment in the ruins near the Jamali-Kamali premises. A Paharganj cemetery had given us positive results in the investigations, many people still experience something ghostly near the ridge in North Delhi. Maximum numbers of people also claim that a place near Deer park is haunted, but we haven’t got a chance to investigate the place yet. Please name some major haunted spots pan India. What did you discover there? Kuldhara- Rajasthan. This is a place where we repeatedly recorded abnormal things in the atmosphere. We could establish positive communication with something ‘unknown’ all the times we have visited this place. We were also accompanied by TV production house and News Channel people at various times. During one of our TV show shoots at Kuldhara, one of our non-believer reality producers got partially possessed after witnessing apparitions. The old abandoned Army Cantonment of Meerut is the place where we experienced maximum activity till date. We have witnessed apparitions, positive communications, recorded EVPs, have found various unexplainable anomalies in our pictures, etc. A lot of hype surrounds Bhangarh in Rajasthan and it has even made it to the list of one of the scariest places in India. Is the place really haunted or cursed as it is generally said? Indian Paranormal Society is the first ever team to officially investigate Bhangarh (The most haunted place in the world – as mentioned by many magazines, journals, blogs, and internet) scientifically at night. It is said that whoever goes to Bhangarh at night, never returns. But I am here telling you remembering all that happened there. I had a chance to be alone in the night at Bhangarh. My investigation team was on the other side of the huge property and I was alone at the main fort where people have reported maximum paranormal activity. I did not want to come back finding nothing from there. I hoped to see the spirit that is supposed to have killed many. Nine hours passed in investigations, we had several experiences, but none turned out to be paranormal or ghostly. It is just that most of the people who visit the place at night are drunk. Often wild animals from the nearby Sariska Wild Life Reserve drop in there in search of water and attack anyone if they are hungry. Overall, anyone going there alone can surely freak out due to the strange sounds and activities of wild animals and the spooky scenery. What kinds of ghosts are there? There are ghosts of mentality, belief systems, and pre-conceived notions. What are the tools you use for your paranormal investigations? Some of the equipment we use to detect abnormality in the environment and investigation are: EMF Meter to detect Electro-magnetic fluctuations, MEL Meter to measure humidity, temperature, EMF, radiation, Infra-red Thermometers to measure surface temperature, Infrared Cameras to record infrared videos in complete darkness, EVP Recorders aka audio recorders with very sensitive microphone, Night Vision Digital Cameras and Laser Grid to notice any movement of shadow/apparition. We also communicate using Table-tipping method, using typtology- (an old technique to ask spirits to communicate by knocking or rapping on the wall as answers). If we find anything during investigation that cannot be defined by main-stream physical science, it is paranormal for us. Do ghosts come out only during night time? Ghosts or ‘consciousness’ of human beings that survives physical death have no relation with day or night. Paranormal activity is independent of time. But we investigate at night because the environment is silent. What is the nature of ghosts and spirits? Are they good, bad or both? The “Survival Hypothesis” is a theory that states a person’s personality and consciousness survive the physical death of the body. That means we will have same emotions, same pain, anger, love, hatred, etc. even after death. That being said, a good person in life will be a good person after death. A bully in life will be a bully after his death. However, Good or Bad is an ‘external’ perception. No one wants to be bad or evil. Everyone tries to show his or her best behaviour at any point of time. His or her ‘good-behaviour’ can be bad for others. We all grow up learning from the experiences of our life. What is the strategy you can suggest to deal with a ghost? The best way to defend yourself from a rowdy, bully, or evil spirit/ghost is to stand for yourself. When we stand for ourselves, we send out an energy signature/gesture that we cannot be easily bothered. That keeps the ‘evil’ from a spirit at bay. If you are self-possessed, you cannot be possessed by anything else – living or otherwise. What has been your toughest investigation till date? Did it give you the creeps? I have been recently investigating a case in Bijnor, UP, where a house had an unexplainable fire problem. Things automatically caught fire in this house. We tried to test everything scientific/natural possible to rule out any logical reason for this fire incidence, but we failed every time. What can one do when the ghost is hell-bent on killing the person? Is divine intervention the answer or even paranormal experts’ help would help to save one’s life? Broadly speaking, if ‘they’ (ghosts) are the consciousness of human beings that survive physical death, they are not magical. They can be tackled in the same way a wicked human or bully is. The more ‘fear’ you show to bullies or evil spirits, the more powerful they become. The day you stop pumping in air to this fear, and treat them like other human being with different mentality and nature, our irrational fear about them will go away. Those who stand for themselves, have a healthy self-esteem, are assertive, and take responsibility for themselves are never bothered by any other ‘consciousness’ – living or otherwise.