Swindon UFO Research

Hayley Stevens Interview

Most haunted appears to be similar to Marmite. It is equally hated and loved for its portrayal of the paranormal . Do you think shows like this add any value to paranormal investigation?

In essence Most Haunted is a television show. It's main aim is to entertain people and it does just that. Over the years it has introduced a lot of people to the world of paranormal research and I think that in a way the show has made the paranormal seem less taboo to the general public which helps legitimate researchers a lot more when it comes to being approached by people who believe they have witnessed something strange.

People seem more likely to talk openly about what they have witnessed because the subject of the paranormal is now openly talked on telly, in magazines, online etc.

However I personally believe shows like Most Haunted can have a damaging effect too.

When you get people who try to copy the most haunted style of investigating a haunted location and claim to be serious paranormal researchers it can be quite damaging for the research field and can hamper proper research being conducted into anomalous phenomena.

Not only that but the show uses techniques such as ouija board, table tipping, glass divination, use of the occult, seance's and the like and they have no place in paranormal research.

You have become more sceptical over the last three years, what event or realisation started you on your sceptical journey?

I started to question my beliefs in the existence of ghosts and an afterlife etc. after an investigation during which the owner of the property was caught purposely faking paranormal activity. It made me realise that perhaps I was being slightly naïve. We only caught the person faking the activity by chance as they were hiding behind a door and a team mate of mine happened to shine their torch in the right place at the right time.

It made me wonder what else I may have been fooled about without realising it and that is when I started to be more thorough with my research, we turned the teams investigating techniques around and I have to say it has been a change for the best.

What is the most unusual thing that has happened to you during an investigation?

I don't think that any two odd occurrences can really be compared and I have witnessed many strange things. I have witnessed doors opening on their own, chairs that people are sitting on being moved, I remember vividly at one location asking what I thought was an empty room "was that you that made that noise?" only for a voice to whisper right behind me "you know it was" when there was nobody behind me. I remember turning to a team mate with my eyes wide open to find that they had their mouth wide open as they had heard it clearly too.

However I always have a slight doubt in my mind as to whether these things were as unexplainable as I thought they were at the time. I always have the whole 'it could have been this, it could have been that' battle in my head. There is one occurrence though that nobody has been able to explain.

W.P.R were conducting a joint investigation with another local team that we have worked with on several occasions at a certain location that for privacy reasons I cannot reveal the name of.

We had paused between vigils in different areas of the large location and were all seated on the floor talking. As we were talking I caught something moving out of the corner of my eye and I turned my head in time to watch a little boy wearing blue/grey clothing run across the other end of the area we were sitting in and disappear out of sight around the corner. He was about thirty feet away and yet I can remember how his shoulder length brown hair was bouncing up and down as he ran. He was so clear.

I sat there frozen to the spot thinking that I must have gone mad when suddenly two voices to my right said "did you guys just see that?" - three of us had witnessed the same thing at the same time. The premises was locked up and all investigators were sitting together. The only other person in the building was the security guard who definitely didn't look like a little boy. It could have been psychological but the fact that three of us all saw the same thing really gets me every time I try to rationalise it.

There is a lot of different types of equipment that can be used by investigators from EMF meters to ghost boxes. Does this equipment really detect anything paranormal?

Nope. Remember, a meter can take a reading but it can't tell you if it is abnormal or not. Gadgets can help you to monitor a location - the temperature perhaps if cold spots are reported, but in general my opinion is that too many people rely on gadgets to conduct their investigations with and interpret the readings they get incorrectly due to pseudo-scientific theories. I personally rely upon my five senses, common sense and my trusty camcorder.

Can you explain why you became a paranormal investigator?

As a child I grew up fearing my own house. I suppose the activity that we experienced would have been referred to as good old fashioned poltergeist activity and it was terrifying.

Of course as I grew older I began to wonder about what had occurred more and more and I began to join online communities dedicated to paranormal phenomena, I would often be found with my nose buried in books on the subject and I found it so fascinating and yet. I still had MY questions that I had to answer. Reading other peoples stories and opinions was interesting but it didn't answer my questions and so I decided that perhaps the only person that could answer the questions I had was me, and so I began to try, and I am still trying today.

What are your aspirations for WPR and yourself in the paranormal field?

As mentioned before I used to live in a house that I was terrified of. I have known past clients who have been too scared to sleep with their lights off and I can relate to it, so if I can help people to stop feeling like that, then I will do everything that I can to do so.

Over the years I have personally learnt so much about how reported paranormal phenomena isn't always as weird as it seems. W.P.R have been able to cut the myth out of so many peoples experiences and I suppose our aspirations would be to continue doing so. Learning and helping. Learning and educating without the assumption that we know everything.

What is the most impressive location you have investigated?

I get asked this question all the time! I cannot name a lot of the locations we have visited due to privacy agreements with the owners and one of the most impressive is in that list I am afraid.

You would think that the most interesting haunted locations would be the creepy old castles, and the spooky manor houses but I have actually found it to be quite the opposite.

A lot of the weirder stuff I have witnessed has happened in two storey houses or tiny countryside pubs.

Has anyone on your team ever been found to be faking phenomena? What is your policy regarding this type of behaviour if detected?

I personally have a zero tolerance for fraudulent practice during any part of an investigation and I think very lowly of people who advocate such behaviour in the paranormal research field and this is why I am such a big fan of sites such as badpsychics and badghosts who help the educate the public on how easy it is to be fooled.

We have never had a team member purposefully fake activity but If we were to then they would be asked to leave the team with immediate effect.

As a team you have to be able to maintain a trusting relationship with your team mates, and once that trust has been broken by one person it can have a terrible effect on the team as a whole, so we would take no risk by allowing the person who faked something to come back.

What is your opinion regarding the fact that ghosts are merely part of the human experience and do not represent anything other than psychology?

It really depends upon what your personal definition of a ghost is because lets be honest - nobody is 100% sure.

There are many theories about what people see when they see a ghost. An apparition of a dead person? A replay of something that happened long ago caught in the natural fabric of the building or location? A psychologically or environmentally induced hallucination?

I wish I had the answers, but I do not. As a paranormal researcher I am able to tell people what might have caused their experience, I can tell them what the more probable explanation is, what may have influenced their senses, or how they may have misinterpreted something completely logical.