Roswell Paranormal

Ladies and Gentlemen,
For the faint of heart, for those who are elderly and the young, for those who scare easily, I offer this WARNING… if you proceed reading this column, Joyhorror and HorrorNews management can not and will not be responsible for what happens. I’m not saying this website is haunted but we have had some “occurrences” lately. I’ll leave it at that. Are you positive you want to continue? So be it. Today we explore the supernatural with Dianna Avena from Roswell Paranormal Investigations. There’s no turning back now.

How did you get involved in Roswell Georgia Paranormal Investigations
I had been investigating with several local teams for a few years. Jason Hawes, our good friend from Sci-Fi’s “Ghost Hunters” asked my husband and I to start up our own team, so that we could represent TAPS in GA. I realized the best way to reach my goal of adding to the general knowledge in the paranormal field, and to help people needing assistance, was to direct our own team. Therefore, we founded RGPI ( www.roswellparanormal.com  ) and it’s been great.

We’ve been able to foster the atmosphere that I wanted as an investigator all those years. We train our team members, we allow them a lot of freedom and create an atmosphere for them to contribute as much as they’d like. They are fully involved in the entire process of each case, which had been lacking for us as investigators when we worked with other teams. We are busier than any other team that I’m aware of, usually booked up with at least one investigation per weekend, for a couple of months in advance. Our most exciting investigation as of late was when the GA Aquarium called us in to investigate the traveling Titanic Exhibit that they were hosting! We experienced quite a bit of activity there, and documented it as well. Here is a press release about that on the GA Aquarium’s website: http://www.georgiaaquarium.org

What are your opinions about tv shows like Ghost Hunters and Paranormal State?
We are close personal friends with the cast of each show, and we really respect all of them and their shows. I’ve seen a difference amongst the general public since the beginning of “Ghost Hunters”. People are more willing to speak freely of their own experiences now since these shows have become mainstream. It’s not such a taboo topic to speak about. In general, “Ghost Hunters” in particular, has really helped the field of paranormal investigations. They show the public what we do as investigators, so it has helped us to be seen in a respectable, responsible light.

How many investigations have you done?
There’s just no telling. If I had to take a guess, I’d say somewhere in the neighborhood of 250. These range anywhere from “cool, fun” ones, where we go into historic places, to the many, many private residences we get called into.

What is the strangest thing you uncovered during any of your investigations? That’s a hard one to answer. “Strange” to most people may not be very strange to me. We have seen shadows, movement of objects, and we capture EVP’s (electronic voice phenomena) all the time. We have come across some very strange people on our investigations. I could probably write a book about some of those stories. Some of the clients, and some other paranormal investigative teams out there constantly have me scratching my head.

As far as paranormal phenomena goes, I’ve had my name loudly whispered into my ear once. I felt that was strange, and pretty frustrating at the same time. It happened while I was walking from room to room, alone. There were also none of our IR cameras on me, and I didn’t have a digital voice recorder rolling.

Did anything ever just scare the hell out of you?
Yes, but it wasn’t because it was a ghost. It was because it startled me, so it was just a human reaction to it. My husband and I were investigating Waverly Hills Sanatorium in KY. We were there with Chip Coffey, Rosemary Ellen Guiley, Patti Starr and a few other friends. We were all concentrating down a dark hallway, focusing on trying to see shadow people crossing the corridor. Everyone was very quiet. I decided to squat down to just get a different angle on what we were watching. An investigator right behind me snapped a flash photo, which really surprised us all. It was so dark and quiet, and we weren’t prepared for that. Well, in the flash, out of the corner of my eye, I saw an “orderly” standing just to my left. In that instant, I looked over and then the light was gone from the flash. I sort of screamed because suddenly seeing a tall man wearing white, close enough that I could’ve reached out and touched him was very startling. I fell backwards and immediately shined a flashlight where he was standing. He had vanished. In that instant though (during the flash), I had seen a dark haired man standing against the wall with his arms crossed. He had a short-sleeved white shirt on and white pants.

Tell us about the Roswell Ghost Tour?
The Roswell Ghost Tour ( www.roswellghosttour.com  ) has been in existence since the fall of 2000. My family and I attended it at that time and really loved it. We went back many times until I finally asked the owner at the time if I could be a guide for him. I was the main guide for a number of years until my husband and I purchased it from him in the fall of 2005. It has evolved quite a bit since it’s beginning, but much of it is still the same. We still have no gimmicks, we still do not wear costumes or speak in fake accents. We tell of CURRENT paranormal phenomena that is occurring the very historic Roswell Mill Village area. We also tell a lot of that rich history, and why we feel it contributes to the paranormal phenomena in the area. The Roswell Ghost Tour is led by paranormal investigators, so the tour attendees inevitably get a bit of an education about paranormal investigating as well.

Do you have a favorite movies as it relates to ghosts or haunting?
Not really. I allow myself to be entertained by them, but sometimes I get annoyed by Hollywood’s spin on ghosts and what they are. Over the years I’ve had to work with families and individuals who have bought into what scary movies have “taught” them about what ghosts are. Not every ghost is out to scare you. Not every ghost is evil. In fact truly evil and scary energies are extraordinarily rare. That’s a concept that is pretty difficult for many people to accept.

I recall enjoying “The Others”. It focused on a concept that few people think about. There does seem to be the occasional ghost that simply doesn’t realize that they’re dead. I also enjoyed “The Sixth Sense”. I happen to know Denice Jones, who is the mother of the real boy that this movie is based upon.

Do you believe in intelligent extra terrestrial life ?

Yes I do. I know that since I live in “Roswell”, many people automatically think I live in Roswell, NM, but I live in Roswell, GA. My research and interests have focused on ghosts thus far, and I imagine they always will. I watch documentaries and shows on television that focus on ETs, it does interest me quite a bit. I believe that there is much that our government has kept from us for a very long time.

As much as people like to tell me of their experiences with the paranormal, I’ve also heard many stories from people about their experiences with UFO sightings as well.

hope you enjoyed this edition of Unexplained Confidential and you know there are always more spookers right around the corner. As a matter of fact, our old friend from New Jersey Ghost Hunters Society, L’Aura Hladik (see 11/18/08 interview) invited me to join this really cool paranormal community America’s Haunted Roadtrip http://www.americashauntedroadtrip.com/   so I’m inviting all you guys to come check it out and join. Here is my haunted homepage http://www.americashauntedroadtrip.com/profile/Joyhorror  , I’m going to try to get a blog up over there at least once a week.

As always, contact joyhorror@msn.com  will any and all things creepy or the location of where you buried the body.

Later F’N’ Later,

Mike Joy