Tag Archives: paranormal interview

The Ghost Hunting Housewives!

Posted on February 1, 2024 | Leave a comment

When I came across the Ghost Hunting Housewives, my first thought was, “Wow, that’s a real catchy name for a paranormal team.” That thought was immediately followed by, “How cool! I’m interested in how they got into this!” In addition to being the most interesting paranormal team in the world, they are also super nice and got back to me immediately when I asked if they’d like to be featured on The Phil Factor.

The Ghost Hunting Housewives are Carol Windham and Crystal Hill and they’ve been best friends for over 20 years.  Let’s find out more about them:

TPF: When you created your team name, did you realize that it’s the catchiest paranormal team name out there?

Carol & Crystal: When we came up with our team name, we were aiming for something that would stick in your memory and shout out our love for all things paranormal. We’re a group of housewives, juggling home life like pros, but still making time for our passion. We’re thrilled to hear you find it’s catchy! It’s like our way of saying, “Hey, ghosts and ghouls, we’re here, and we mean business… while also managing the chaos of daily life!”

TPF: What has been the most rewarding part of being paranormal investigators?

Crystal & Carol: One of the absolute best things about being paranormal investigators is being able to help people find answers and some peace of mind. When we can show them evidence or offer explanations for those spooky occurrences, it’s like lifting a weight off their shoulders. Seeing that relief and reassurance on their faces after a bout of uncertainty or fear is what makes our job truly rewarding.

TPF: Do you limit your investigations to possible ghosts, or do you work in other paranormal specialties?

Carol & Crystal: While our primary focus is investigating possible ghosts and hauntings. We love digging into the history of a location to uncover more about its ghostly past. But hey, we’re not ones to shy away from a good adventure—bring on the Bigfoot hunts! We got inspired by our favorite paranormal investigator, Jack Osbourne, especially that episode where he went on the search for Bigfoot. We thought, “Why not? That sounds like a blast!” Who knows, maybe our next investigation will involve more than just ghosts – the wild world of Bigfoot might be calling!

TPF: As someone who appreciates a good Bigfoot sighting and has recently interviewed a Bigfoot expert, I love that you’re open to Bigfoot adventures. I bet that in your neck of the woods there are a lot of Bigfoot sightings. What has been the scariest thing that has occurred during one of your investigations?

Crystal & Carol: One of the scariest moments from our investigations happened at Pauly Jail.

Picture this: A late-night session, a storm rolling in, and us busy with an EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena) session upstairs. Out of nowhere, we hear these loud, echoing footsteps marching up the stairs, coming closer and closer, and then suddenly, silence. It was like someone—or something—decided to pay us a visit. We went to check it out, but there was no one around. Guess a curious ghost wanted to join in on the investigation fun!

TPF: What’s been the funniest thing that has ever happened during an investigation?

Carol & Crystal: We were deep in the woods during one of our investigations, cameras rolling, all serious about our ghostly business. And then, out of the blue, here comes this dog, full-speed ahead! Cameras everywhere, recording everything, and none of us saw it coming. We all practically jumped out of our skin because, well, unexpected canine companions aren’t usually part of the paranormal package. It was a hilarious moment that caught us totally off guard!

TPF: Would you be interested in having your own paranormal show if a network approached you? (I’m just putting this out there in the universe to help it manifest)

Crystal & Carol: We are definitely open to the idea of having our own paranormal show if a network approached us. It would be a fantastic opportunity to share our investigations, evidence, and experiences with a wider audience.

TPF: Could you tell my readers more about your mission to save historical properties?

Carol & Crystal: We hold a deep appreciation for historical properties and the narratives they encapsulate. Our mission goes beyond exploring potential hauntings; we’re dedicated to playing a role in the preservation and restoration of these historical sites. We organize events to raise funds, contributing to various projects. Additionally, we conduct raffles at the paracons we attend, and the proceeds go towards supporting these projects. We often invite friends to join us during investigations, encouraging voluntary donations for these initiatives. It’s important to emphasize that contributing is entirely voluntary. We hope that we can raise awareness and foster enthusiasm for supporting the maintenance of these historical wonders.

TPF: If one of my readers were interested in having you do an investigation of their home, what part of the country do you work in?

Crystal & Carol: We are based in Louisiana and Alabama, but we are willing to travel anywhere for investigations in the USA, as long as we have enough time to get our affairs in order. If your readers are interested, they can contact us to discuss the possibility of investigating their home or location anytime, and free of charge. Our email is: ghosthuntinghousewives505@gmail.com

TPF: Thanks so much Carol and Crystal!  Thank you for your time and insights. I certainly hope you get that TV series! I think you two would be great! For my readers who want to find them on the socials, just look for Ghost Hunting Housewives everywhere! From the YouTube link above you can subscribe to them there and here’s their FB: https://www.facebook.com/ghosthuntinghousewives .

Thanks for reading and keep it spooky! ~Phil

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Interview with a Pretty FN Spooky Psychic

Posted on May 21, 2023 | 5 comments

Just in case you don’t understand the title, my blog guest today, Amanda Paulson, uses “PrettyFNSpooky” as her moniker on most social media.

Amanda Paulson has participated in multiple media projects with paranormal research in the Pacific Northwest, taught workshops on spirit communication and amassed hundreds of thousands of views making spiritual-related content for the company Tamed Wild. In 2022 Amanda created the first Dark History Tour Series for the Campbell House in association with the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture and is in her second term as City-at-Large Representative Historic Preservationist for the Spokane Historic Landmarks Commission. She has been featured in the YouTube series Ghost Files, profiled in popular publications Apartment Therapy and The Inlander, and her personal writing published in Haunted Magazine and The Feminine Macabre Vol.1. 

TPF: Hi Amanda and thanks for visiting The Phil Factor. You have a pretty long history of paranormal involvement. Why were you interested in the paranormal, and how did you get started?
Amanda: My experience began when I was 7 years old and living in a haunted duplex with my mom and grandma. I would watch my dolls and other bedroom knickknacks mysteriously move at night and have detailed nightmares about the house being “haunted”. When this activity followed me after we moved, I grew an interest in understanding the purpose of these experiences and finding irrefutable proof. I started investigating in 2008 when I joined the Billings Paranormal Investigative Society in Billings, Montana. They taught me everything I know now about equipment and how to conduct a private or residential cases. I eventually moved away and left the team but they are undoubtedly responsible for my growth and where I am today.
TPF: When I started following you and reading your social media, your Emotive Touchpoint theory immediately grabbed my attention. It rang true to me. Could you tell my readers about your Emotive Touchpoint theory?
Amanda: The Paranormal Emotive Touchpoint theorizes that there are soft spots throughout the world where the other side is closer or easier to contact. These soft spots, or touchpoint’s, present themselves to us by giving us what I call “odd emotions” like nostalgia, deja vu or liminality and do not require the location to be traditionally haunted. They are simply spots that are charged by emotion and still reverberate emotion, that give us a clearer means to communicate with any entity on the other side. Kind of like finding the right station on a walkie-talkie, or a better Wi-Fi  connection – I believe the key to it all is to pay attention to our living emotions.
TPF: For most people, when they hear paranormal, they think of seeing or communicating with ghosts. For you, what was your most definitive experience with “the other side”?
Amanda: I have some experiences that I’ve shared on my blog that felt rather definitive (like my time staying alone at the Lizzie Borden House) but today, I’d say my most definitive experiences with the other side are from the mediumship readings that I have been doing for others. I use a technique that allows me to enter a trance state and journey the living’s subconscious and in that space, I sometimes come across messages or visions from people who have passed away. Hearing stories from the strangers that I’m reading for afterward, that match exactly with the spirits I’d been communicating with for them, has provided me with better “proof” than I had ever gathered in my 15 years of ghost hunting.

TPF: You are starring in a documentary, Death Is With Me, that will be released later this year. What is that about?

Amanda: Death is With Me is a paranormal true crime documentary based out of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State and tells the true story of the Lady of Lake Crescent. It follows my journey researching the Lady of the Lake and investigating her purported ghost. But when the investigations take a strange turn, mine and the crews understanding of the intersection of violence, history and the supernatural, change forever. We premiered in Seattle recently and will have another screening in Orange County, California soon but it will be publicly released on a streaming platform sometime later this year.

 

TPF: A lot of people fancy themselves to be paranormal investigators. Are there any dangers for amateurs who muck around in the paranormal?

Amanda: It’s my personal belief that there are no outside, spiritual dangers of exploring the paranormal though that can change for others with different spiritual or religious beliefs. I believe though that it’s important to ground yourself and check in with the state of your mental health as you search for the meaning and understanding of life after death. The topics explored in the paranormal field can be heavy and it’s important to know your North Star – your reason why. That inner knowing and strength will guide you and protect you along your search for the other side.

TPF: Amanda, thanks so much for taking the time to share your knowledge and experiences with my readers. Amanda is a great follow on social media, so here are her links:

Blog: www.prettyfnspooky.com

IG: Prettyfnspooky

Twitter: Prettyfnspooky

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prettyfnspooky/

TikTok: Prettyfnspooky

The ‘Death is With Me‘ movie: Follow here! 

Readers, as always, thanks for reading! If there are any other paranormal subjects that you’d like me to research and/or get a guest for Paranormal Month, just let me know in the comments!

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An Interview with Real Ghostbusters Part 2

Posted on May 7, 2023 | 5 comments

Who remembers what movie those ghosts are from? It’s one of my favorite paranormal movies. If you haven’t read Part 1 of my interview with the paranormal investigators from the Monroe County Paranormal Investigations, scroll back and read that too. These guys are interesting and funny.

Me: What was the funniest thing that ever happened during an investigation?

Rob: “The bed” is probably the funniest. So we’re investigating this house in the city.  I am not a little person.

Brian: Neither am I.

Rob: Brian and I together; not little people. We’re investigating this home. We have two brand new investigators working together downstairs. We’re upstairs. I’m sitting on a bed, and I say, “Brian, come over here and look at this. You’ll see how the light is reflecting.” He sits on the bed and the bed collapses.

Brian: Not quietly! Baboom!

Rob: There’s a huge crash and between the two of us there’s 140 pounds of humanity. It lands on the floor. The two brand new investigators were downstairs and the homeowner says, “What was that?”

Brian: I was on the floor crying, laughing thinking “Oh my God. What are we gonna do?” One of the new investigators yells up the stairs “Are you ok?”

Rob: Do you know how hard it is to yell “We’re ok” while you’re laughing?

Later the whole team talked a lot about feeling evil in the air when they enter some haunted places. All four of them indicated that at one time or another they had felt something, an energy upon entering a structure or room that had made them emotionally upset or fearful.

Rob: It was an explosion of energy in that one location.  It was such an emotional intense event that I didn’t sleep for a week. I slept maybe ten minutes at a stretch and every time I closed my eyes  I would wake up and I would swear my hands were covered in blood and there were police cars in my driveway coming to get me. I texted Stacey and I said “I don’t know what any of this means, but there’s a rose colored heart, there’s an egg, somebody painted the word love, and there’s a motorcycle. I don’t know what any of that means.”

Stacey: So I was doing research on the case Rob is referring to. I wanted to know more and know where the person was buried. I went to the cemetery. The stone was rose colored, and there was her face.

Rob: It was an old picture and it had faded so it was just an oval egg. The guy behind her stone was a biker so he had put a Harley Davidson little thing on top of his gravestone.

Stacey: Then there was a little plaque that said “love” in white.

Brian: The only kind of advice that I’ll typically give to people, if you have activity in your home is this. Imagine, if you’re dead and don’t know, if somebody comes into their home, you’re going to be like “Hey! Hello? What are you doing here?” And they’re not hearing or responding to you, you’re going to make noise, Smack, bang bang bang, right?

What if instead, when you get home you said, “Hey, thanks for watching the house for us today”? You just acknowledge them. It is amazing how many times that when we tell people to do that, everything quiets down.”

Me: I agree with that last piece of advice. It’s what I did in my last house. After moving in there were often sounds of footsteps upstairs when no one was there. Other times there were unidentifiable noises. A couple times I smelled cigarette smoke when no one had smoked in the house. So I began greeting the spirits each time I returned, and the mysterious noises eventually disappeared.

There’s so much more they said that I could go on a few more pages. I sincerely want to thank everyone at M.C.P.I. for enduring my questions and allowing me to accompany them on a ghost hunt two days later. If you want to hear how that went, come back on Tuesday!

Have a great Sunday! ~Phil

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Interview with the Real Ghostbusters: Part 2

Posted on May 5, 2022 | Leave a comment

Who remembers what movie those ghosts are from? It’s one of my favorite paranormal movies. If you haven’t read Part 1 of my interview with the paranormal investigators from the Monroe County Paranormal Investigations, scroll back and read that too. These guys are interesting and funny.

Me: What was the funniest thing that ever happened during an investigation?

Rob: “The bed” is probably the funniest. So we’re investigating this house in the city.  I am not a little person.

Brian: Neither am I.

Rob: Brian and I together; not little people. We’re investigating this home. We have two brand new investigators working together downstairs. We’re upstairs. I’m sitting on a bed, and I say, “Brian, come over here and look at this. You’ll see how the light is reflecting.” He sits on the bed and the bed collapses.

Brian: Not quietly! Baboom!

Rob: There’s a huge crash and between the two of us there’s 140 pounds of humanity. It lands on the floor. The two brand new investigators were downstairs and the homeowner says, “What was that?”

Brian: I was on the floor crying, laughing thinking “Oh my God. What are we gonna do?” One of the new investigators yells up the stairs “Are you ok?”

Rob: Do you know how hard it is to yell “We’re ok” while you’re laughing?

Later the whole team talked a lot about feeling evil in the air when they enter some haunted places. All four of them indicated that at one time or another they had felt something, an energy upon entering a structure or room that had made them emotionally upset or fearful.

Rob: It was an explosion of energy in that one location.  It was such an emotional intense event that I didn’t sleep for a week. I slept maybe ten minutes at a stretch and every time I closed my eyes  I would wake up and I would swear my hands were covered in blood and there were police cars in my driveway coming to get me. I texted Stacey and I said “I don’t know what any of this means, but there’s a rose colored heart, there’s an egg, somebody painted the word love, and there’s a motorcycle. I don’t know what any of that means.”

Stacey: So I was doing research on the case Rob is referring to. I wanted to know more and know where the person was buried. I went to the cemetery. The stone was rose colored, and there was her face.

Rob: It was an old picture and it had faded so it was just an oval egg. The guy behind her stone was a biker so he had put a Harley Davidson little thing on top of his gravestone.

Stacey: Then there was a little plaque that said “love” in white.

Brian: The only kind of advice that I’ll typically give to people, if you have activity in your home is this. Imagine, if you’re dead and don’t know, if somebody comes into their home, you’re going to be like “Hey! Hello? What are you doing here?” And they’re not hearing or responding to you, you’re going to make noise, Smack, bang bang bang, right?

What if instead, when you get home you said, “Hey, thanks for watching the house for us today”? You just acknowledge them. It is amazing how many times that when we tell people to do that, everything quiets down.”

Me: I agree with that last piece of advice. It’s what I did in my house. There’s so much more they said that I could go on a few more pages. I sincerely want to thank everyone at M.C.P.I. for enduring my questions and allowing me to accompany them on a ghost hunt two days later. If you want to hear how that went, come back Saturday morning!

Have a great Thursday! ~Phil

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An Interview with Real Ghostbusters: Part 1

Posted on May 3, 2022 | Leave a comment

Picture courtesy New York Times

If you’re in the States, Happy Paranormal Day! If you’re elsewhere, just enjoy your regular day and read my interview with some real ghost hunters. To be fair, I’ll say that they are not ghostbusters or ghost hunters. They are Paranormal Investigators, and I was fortunate to spend some time with them.

The gentlemen in question are not all gentlemen. There are some ladies that like to get spooky too. About a week and a half ago I went to a presentation by the members of the Monroe County Paranormal Investigations. The MCPI is a not-for-profit organization. When a home or business owner calls them to request an investigation they will not be charged a penny. To me, that gives this organization credibility. They do what they do for the mystery and science of it. As an organization, they have done investigations in over one thousand homes and businesses.  Below are my questions and their answers edited for length.

Me: Do you ever disagree about what you’ve seen, heard, or experienced?

Rob: “Every. Single. Investigation.”

Brian: Yep. The one with the football thing; we almost had a knock-down, drag-out over that. I’m just like Nope. Nope.”

Rob: “He was convinced that because it was only moving, the little lights on the wall were only moving that much, that it wasn’t movement. But that much is movement! If  it moves that much it’s moving!”

Brian: But I was arguing that the thing is this big and it’s only moving such a…”

Rob: Movement is movement! It moved Jerry! (Seinfeld reference. If you get it, you win 50 Phil Factor dollars to spend in the gift shop on the way out)

Picture courtesy of Live Science

Me: Has there ever been a time when you were emotionally moved by an encounter?

Rob: Brian and I were called to a case. Healthy 27 year old people die. It sucks. We went out, we sat down for over three hours. We investigated for maybe 20 minutes. For the other two hours and forty minutes we listened to this woman’s story. Her 27 y.o. daughter went to a doctors appointment on Thursday, was given a clean bill of health. She was dead on Saturday. The only thing that happened was on Friday, her husband, who was in the military had come home. They knew that the husband was both verbally and physically abusive. So they attributed that to what happened.

Brian: The girls mother was insistent, obsessed.

Rob: Because of this, she had lost her job, alienated her husband, and basically made her other younger daughter feel like she was completely invisible because she became obsessed. There was an autopsy done. Natural causes. There was nothing founded. There was a second autopsy, same result. The state reviewed the autopsy and found nothing different. She got so obsessed that she was collecting cans and bottles to come up with $5000 for a renowned expert to do another autopsy. We got so emotionally involved in that case that Brian has actually been to the cemetery with flowers for the young ladies grave.

Brian: The mother, I think we’re kind of painting her in a negative light. She was a sweetheart. Her grief had driven her to do all this stuff. As paranormal investigators, there’s a lot of grief that we deal with. A lot of times what we do ends up being counseling. Sometimes there may not be anything going on in their home. They just want there to be.

Rob: Do you think people want to be haunted? Of course. You had an argument with someone and they pass away and you didn’t get a chance to resolve the argument.

Phil speaking to my readers:  There is plenty more to the interview. Part 2 will post on Thursday. I found that last story about the grieving woman surprising and fascinating. You never see that side of paranormal investigations on the ghost hunting TV shows. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this in the comments.  On Saturday I’ll post my experience going on a ghost hunt with them.  Have a great Tuesday!

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