An evening exploring the paranormal with the Vancouver Paranormal Society
The society shared their annual presentation about their investigation process and findings with a twist
The Vancouver Paranormal Society's next presentation of their findings is on Oct. 27. (Abby Luciano)
From ghosts and spirits to orbs, non-profit Vancouver Paranormal Society (VPS) unveiled their findings from their investigations over the last year at historic residential sites on. Oct. 13 at the Historic Stewart Farm.
The VPS is the oldest running paranormal research team in Canada and offers free services like investigations to provide a peace of mind for people. Kelly Claire Berge, president and director lead investigator, showed the audience visual and audio evidence of their findings from the Stewart Farm house over the past year.
“Whenever we’re investigating, we’re looking for reasonable, logical explanations,” Berge said during the presentation. “We’re collecting data, evidence, to [prove] that the client’s validate what they’ve been experiencing.”
The two storey wood-frame Surrey farm home was built in 1894 by John Stewart, who immigrated to Canada from Scotland, for his wife Annie Stewart and their two sons, William James and John Massey. John married Annie 10 years prior in Nanaimo, and the family lived in the home for decades. They were known as a hardworking farm family and the home depicts what life might have been like in Surrey between 1890 to 1910.
For the investigation, a team arrives together on the site and sets out the equipment they need like cameras, voice recorders, and spirit boxes, a device that scans FM and AM radio waves to help connect with spirits, to the most active areas. The investigations run between three to five hours. Afterwards, the team has two weeks to review and submit evidence to the client to ensure they know what’s happening in their home or building as soon as possible.
Berge’s team has seen tons of evidence from the Stewart house, like John being able to communicate with the living, known as traditional or classic hauntings. This is when a spirit has the ability to communicate and interact with the living through responses like opening and closing doors, lights turning on and off, and objects being found in a different spot than previously left.
Berge thinks the activity in the farm house may be a residual haunting, when a spirit may have attachment to a person or specific object, are confused or unaware that they have died, or have unfinished business before they move on.
“Or, they just love the home that they lived in or the location that they were alive in and they visit it,” she said. “I think that’s what happens at Stewart Farm, they just love this property, they love where they established themselves.”
Berge also showed photos of Annie upstairs and audio recordings of her speaking using basic equipment like a digital camera and audio recorders. Other sites they showed during the presentation were the Lampliter Gallery Cafe in Langley and residential settings.
In an interview with The Runner, Berge says these investigations are important to help the person, family, businesses and other locations feel safe in their space and validate them.
“As part of a team [and] as an investigator, the importance of investigating is … so they don’t feel like they’re crazy, and that they have someone to talk to about this, that’s not going to think they’re crazy.”
Berge says she got involved with VPS because of her experienced paranormal activity her whole life.
“My first experience was when I was around 10 years old,” she says. “My sister and I, and all of our neighbourhood friends back in the day in North Burnaby, decided to go exploring in the summer to North Burnaby sugar shacks behind Pete’s Market.”
Loose and missing floorboards, a big mound of dirt that looked like a packed down grave, and an old tattered hangman’s noose are some of the things Berge saw, she says.
“I went to bed wide awake, and I turned towards my closet, which is like two feet beside me and I saw an opalescent floating skull at eye level in between my bed and the closet door … I was just freaked right out,” she says.
“My mom ended up in the whole closet and turned on the light … I never slept in that room again. But it really flared my interest in the afterlife on who we really are.”
Berge hopes that the presentations bring awareness to Historic Stewart Farm and the history behind it to the family and their workers.
“People live before us, and they set the stage for where we are now,” she says. “Whenever I go there, I imagine what it was like back then, wearing the dresses and what life would have been, what a daily routine would have been…. But I also revere what they did and their strength and fortitude.”
The next presentation will be held at the Historic Stewart Farm on Oct. 27 from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm. Although the event is sold out, people interested can sign up on the waitlist.
