Interview with The Maine Paranormal Society

This month I'm very honored to announce the publication of an excellent interview I had with Jim Blanche of the Maine Paranormal Society (formerly Central Maine Paranormal). Jim Blanche is the Tech Manager and Lead Investigator with the group. I spent about 30 minutes or so with Jim on the phone, and we covered the history of the paranormal research group, the type of investigations they've done, and the sort of findings they've uncovered. We also talked a bit about the sort of equipment they use and how they classify "evidence." It's very positive to note that they are strict when classifying a location as "haunted," versus having "paranormal activity." In particular we discussed EVP evidence and how those can often be explained through normal RF signal interference. Read the full interview at LoveToKnow Paranormal. Due to word count limits, I had to really edit down the interview for LoveToKnow to keep the most important and relevant parts, but there are additional comments Jim made that I'd like to discuss a bit in this post.

The Maine Paranormal Society Team

Most importantly, I'd like to give credit to the full team at the Maine Paranormal society for the fantastic scientific endeavor that they work at for absolutely no pay or even for very little credit. If more folks in our society had these kind of inquisitive minds and professional attitude toward the paranormal, I think we'd go a long way toward finally finding some of those elusive answers. The team listed at the Central Maine Paranormal website includes:

Jason Porter - Original Founder (no longer with the group)
Adam Wright - Founder and Director
James Blanche - Tech Manager and Lead Investigator
Holly Densmore - Co-Founder and Case Manager
Jennifer Moreau - Medium and Investigator

Other Investigators and researchers with the group include:

Will Gillway, Patti Gillway, Dwight Thurlow, Allison L. Ryall, Kelli Richards and Joshua Thurlow

All of the investigators and lead staff represent a significant level of expertise in their own individual fields. For example, Jim is an EMT and is attending school for Computer Technology, Jennifer Moreau is also an EMT and photography is listed as her hobby, Will Gillway has an B.A. in History and is working toward a Masters in Criminal Justice, and Allison Ryall Allison also has a B.A. in History and an M.A. in American and New England Studies. Overall, this group represents some great talent.

Interview Excerpts

Below are a few select excerpts from the interview. One of the most significant topics of the interview was related to the most recent investigation that the group is currently conducting in Biddeford, Maine, which was covered by the Sun Journal. Jim provided a littel bit more insight about that investigation during our interview (check out the LoveToKnow link above for more info on that.)

Excerpts from the phonecall:

"A young woman had a two year old son who was seeing an apparition in the closet, and they also experienced burning sensations on their legs, and a dripping sensation coming from the feeling. So, we obviously try to go in and debunk things. The burning and dripping we had a hard time debunking, because there was nothing there that would obviously create that. It was a clean ceiling, there was nothing hanging down and there was nothing there to create that."

"And then one of my investigators, she had a personal experience outside of the investigation when she got home. She woke up in the middle of the night and smelled smoke, and could hear water being sprayed on the side of the building. It actually woke her out of her sleep and she thought the building was on fire."

"It varies, I mean it's either feast or famine most of the time. Right now we have a couple of cases, next month I think we're going to a case four hours away. I mean those are a few of the cases we have right now. There's definitely more during October, that's when a lot of cases really pick up."

"I've never actually had a personal experience. Actually most of the people in the group have not had a personal experience yet. Adam hasn't, Holly the case manager hasn't. A couple of people, Jen and Kelly, are pretty much the only people who've had personal experiences."

"The coolest house we investigated was the house in Waterboro that was featured on Paranormal State. It was an awesome experience. We were able to debunk things, and we didn't have any personal experiences, but it was just awesome to experiencing being in the house that they eventually featured on TV."

"They're tough, I think a lot of them aren't EVp's, I mean you can have voices from across the hall. There's some theories that radio waves can get picked up on things like baby monitors. They can really be contaminated from other sources. We had a case where a client experienced stuff going on on a baby monitor, and we were able to debunk that because you can make it pick up stuff on a radio like other handheld cb radios."

"We cover the entire state of maine and even New Hampshire. We had a couple of cases in Salem, NH, and almost had a couple of cases in northern maine. We kind of share New Hampshire with the New Hampshire Paranormal Society as part of the TAPS family."

Final Words

I would like to thank Jim for taking the time to talk with me for this insightful interview, and I'd like to thank the entire team at Maine Paranormal for the excellent public service they provide for families in Maine who suffer through the emotional and psychological suffering and trauma related to hauntings and other paranormal activity. Keep up the great work.