TAPS - The Atlantic Paranormal Society

For those of you who checked out the live Halloween show, you got a real taste of ghost hunting. The sitting for hours and staring at a screen waiting for something to happen. Hearing noises and trying to figure out whether it was one of the team or someone from the "other" team.

I was hearing noisy voices and footsteps quite often, which I dismissed as the investigators and crew wandering throughout the place. If I heard something odd when the place was otherwise silent, that's when my ears would perk up and I would wish I could rewind it a listen again. That's something else for actual ghost hunting. After sitting for hours staring at the screen while it's being recorded, all those hours of recordings will be watched again to make sure nothing was missed. We try to take notes and point out times and locations of anything odd so that we can review it later.

Overall, it was fun switching cameras and watching the "panic button" investigations on the live show.

Jason Hawes created The Atlantic Paranormal Society, or TAPS, with fellow plumber Grant Wilson. Both are part of a small, blue-collar Rhode Island community where many of the TAPS members were born and raised.

His own highly personal paranormal experience (which he prefers not to discuss) prompted Jason to do more than wonder about an afterworld. He launched TAPS from a spare room of his apartment.

Jason met Grant more than a decade ago, and they're best friends. Jason's three girls and twin boys consider Grant an adopted uncle, and Grant's kids view Jason the same way. Their wives, also friends, respect TAPS's mission, but keep their distance. Each has asked her husband not to bring his paranormal work home.

Jason enjoys chasing ghosts, obviously, but he also loves spending time with his kids, deep-sea fishing and writing screenplays - he has written four sci-fi/thriller stories.

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When Grant Wilson's not hunting or plumbing, he's whipping together an authentic Italian dish (he spent two years in Italy and speaks Italian fluently). He also can be spotted writing songs on the piano and guitar, and penning fantasy novels.

He and Jason Hawes met more than 10 years ago, and they live in the same small, blue-collar Rhode Island community where many of the TAPS members were born and raised.

Like Jason, Grant had a life-altering experience with the afterworld, and both prefer not to discuss the incidents. In doing the show, Grant has encountered human ("regular" ghosts) and inhuman (demons and such) hauntings.

Grant is humble, self-assured and inquisitive as TAPS searches for answers, and he is comfortable with unsolved events. Through the years, Grant and Jason have not forgotten why they do what they do - to find answers for themselves, and to help others who have experienced paranormal activity but don't know what to do about it.

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Steve Gonsalves is the TAPS technology manager and evidence analyst. It is his responsibility to train all TAPS members how to use and maintain the team's wide range of high-tech equipment.
As the technology manager, Steve oversees all members of the TAPS Tech team. This includes investigators, technical advisors and investigators-in-training. Steve has been a public speaker and educator about paranormal phenomena for more than 10 years. He is also the co-founder of the TAPS publication, Paramagazine.

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Dave Tango, has worked with TAPS for the past several years. His current role within the team is as an investigator and evidence analyst. Dave has always been interested in the paranormal and loves being able to find answers to the questions he has.

"I used to perform professional magic shows for children and adults alike, so I still have a fond interest in magic and illusions," said Dave.

In his free time he enjoys listening to electronic music, brainstorming inventions and spending all his money on gadgets. Dave also enjoys photography, art, working out and music creation.

And although in ghost hunting the team sometimes encounter spirits that may not be so nice, Dave enjoys being around people who are caring and considerate of others.

"My heroes are the kind of people who do things for the less fortunate, who are always giving without wanting anything in return."

Kris Williams was born in Massachusetts and raised in New Hampshire as the oldest of three children. Her close-knit family was always open to the possibility of the paranormal - specifically ghost hauntings.

"My mom grew up in a house that was very active [with paranormals] and my father's side has had several experiences over the years," said Kris.

And although Kris was raised as a believer she still considers herself to be a big skeptic. She is known to not believe things unless she sees, hears or feels them for herself and is given the opportunity to personally debunk them.

These same strong opinions, keen analytical skills and her friendships with Jason and Grant are what brought her to TAPS. TAPS offered the opportunity to: have explanations for the things she'd experienced, indulge in her love of history and utilize her background in genealogy, which started off as a fourth grade school project and then turned into a life long obsession.

"Jason and Grant felt my experience with researching the dead through genealogy would carry over well in the field of the paranormal. They also felt they needed a no nonsense, rational female, who didn't scare easily and could also stand her ground in a group made up of mainly males," said Kris.

Before joining TAPS, as their historical researcher and investigator, Kris worked as a flooring installer and carpenter for three years. She's also worked in electronics and has a background in art and experience with photography, which has come in handy working for TAPS.

Amy Bruni is a good example of what happens when a hobby, turns into a passion, which in turn becomes a way of life. Like many in the paranormal field, Amy grew up in a haunted house. Yet, unlike most in that situation, Amy's family embraced it. Her Father was an amateur paranormal investigator and routinely, he and Amy would investigate haunted sites. At a young age, she was reading and absorbing everything paranormal related she could get her hands on - and as she grew to adulthood, that didn't change.

Her first investigative job was with a paranormal team in Sacramento, California. And eventually her lifetime of supernatural knowledge drew the attention of Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson of The Atlantic Paranormal Society and the SCI FI Channel series, Ghost Hunters. She then began helping them with various TAPS activities and shortly thereafter, she helped form the first ever TAPS satellite team, TAPS West. Since then, Jason and Grant have recruited Amy to be part of the TAPS home team on the East Coast and now she travels with the show as a core team member.

Most recently, Amy has been using her connections in the field to conduct important research on the nature of group dynamics in the paranormal, and she's also begun lecturing on ghosts and the supernatural.

Her goal is to work across the paranormal community with the hope that serious field research can occur and then be shared within the society.

    

Ghost Hunters International follows the adventures of a team of paranormal investigators as they apply their principles of scientific debunking to some of the most legendary haunted spots around the world.

Like their U.S. counterpart, TAPS (The Atlantic Paranormal Society), Ghost Hunters International is a squad of real-life ghost-hunting experts - ordinary people who investigate and attempt to debunk claims of otherworldly activity. Comprising veteran TAPS investigators Robb Demarest, Dustin Pari, Brandy Green, Joe Chin, Ashley Godwin and Barry FitzGerald, the Ghost Hunters International crew is primed to uncover some of the most startling paranormal evidence yet.

For More info check out Ghost Hunters International.