Ghost hunter finds paranormal inactivity

Vincenzo Ravina
vravina@gmail.com

The custom license plate on Rob Fader’s car says GHOSTS.

By day, Fader is a concierge at the Prince George Hotel. But when he’s off the clock, he’s spending nights in potentially haunted buildings with cameras and audio recorders.

Fader founded the Halifax-based ghost research group, Grim Undertakings, eight years ago. Investigating hauntings is “sort of nerdy and boring,” he admits.

“Since we don’t bust ghosts or cleanse houses or anything like that, we basically just sit and wait and try to document anything that would happen .… The majority of the time, nothing happens. You spend hours going through tapes, getting nothing.”

He has heard unexplained whistling, footsteps, keys jingling and furniture moving. But he’s hardly ever able to capture these events on tape.

“Sometimes you wonder if something there is watching you and thinking, ‘You know what? I know you’re not ready yet and I’m going to do something and then for the rest of the night I’m not going to do anything.’”

Despite these skittish ghosts, he’s managed to capture some strange voices, whispers, whooping and other noises on audio recorders, and some mysterious motion on camera.

Nothing conclusive, but certainly a bit strange.

He puts the audio and video up on his website, grimundertakings.ca.

Fader’s interest in ghosts was sparked in 2002, when, on a whim, he searched the Internet for information about ghosts.

Intrigued by the amateur research being done, he decided to grab a friend and hang out in graveyards. Grim Undertakings was formed, and now four other volunteers research ghosts with Fader.

They are self-funded and investigate hauntings for free. They all have day jobs. They tend to sit in the dark and wait for something to happen, with several cameras and audio recorders going.

The Grim Undertakings website lists 23 investigations, including the Five Fishermen restaurant, the University of King’s College and several houses and cemeteries.

Even after eight years of ghost research, he has yet to see a “full-blown apparition.”

He prepares himself mentally for the possibility of seeing one whenever he’s investigating.

“I don’t think I’d run away because I think I’ve been waiting so long to see one and I know it’s not going to hurt me. So I don’t think I’d treat it like a shark or a bear or something.”

He says he’d try to get as much information from the ghost as possible before it disappears.

Fader’s fiancée has been lucky enough to see a ghost, he says. The two were staying at an old bed and breakfast, and his fiancée awoke in the middle of the night only to see a “shadow person” – an inky black figure that’s darker than the dark.

“I was kind of jealous in the morning,” Fader says.

Ghosts that won’t show themselves aren’t the only frustrating part of investigating hauntings. Fader also has to deal with the living.

“People are still like, ‘You do what? You’re a Ghostbuster? Do you have the beams and stuff? The ghost traps?’ And I’m like, ‘No. That’s a movie.’”

Fader has been approached to take part in ghost hunting TV shows, but he turns them down because the similar shows he sees on TV are so ridiculous.

But the work is also rewarding.

“It’s a good feeling when someone says to me, ‘I’ve never told anyone this,’ or ‘Everyone I’ve ever told has laughed at me. Thank you for not laughing at me. That was a really scary experience that I had.’”

In 2002, he never expected that he would still be going on ghost investigations eight years on.

But, he says as long as he can afford to buy tapes and continue funding his research, he will keep it up.

When he dies, he says he hopes to haunt the Prince George Hotel.