Have you ever felt a tingly chill suddenly brush your neck, as if someone whispered in your ear? How about that feeling that you're being watched? You either have a peeping- tom problem or a haunting on your hands.
When there's something strange in the neighourhood, who you going to call? Some people turn to John Mizzi, a Toronto-based investigator for Paranormal Studies and Investigations Canada. Just don't call him a ghost buster.
"We don't vanquish ghosts. We just investigate to see if they are there. First, I look for natural causes such as creaky stairs or cold spots that are just drafts," says Mizzi, an electrical mechanic by day and ghost hunter by night.
Mizzi comes to each potential haunting armed with an array of special equipment. He's fully-loaded with infrared lights, EMS meters that read magnetic fields, thermal meters, a shotgun microphone and most importantly, three tape recorders.
"I bring three tape recorders and place them near different people. Most of the electronic voice phenomena readings indicate that ghosts communicate directly near our head level, as if they are whispering to us. So when you're alone sometimes and hear a faint voice, it could be more than your imagination," says Mizzi.
You'd think a paranormal investigator would be fearless, but Mizzi admits to getting creeped out sometimes.
"I still get the willies late at night. My scariest encounter was when I was a kid. Our house in Etobicoke was haunted by a ghost that would run across my bedroom hallway at night. One time I woke up to find a large indent in my bed, as if someone was sleeping beside me," says Mizzi.
As far fetched as ghost hunting might sound, the Toronto Ghosts and Hauntings Research Society reports that there were over 20 paranormal sightings in residential homes and lists over 70 hauntings in public buildings and businesses, ranging from the Keg Mansion to City Hall, where there are definitely evil spirits and scary new taxes lurking around that need to be vanquished.
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