By Elizabeth Ward, '08 |Staff Reporter

Devin Callahan looks around Madison Hall as what could be orbs loom above him. Ghost hunters claim orbs are visible only through photography, the white circles are visible only through photography and are not attributed to camera malfunction or spotting on the lens. The ghost hunting tour was given by John Zaffis, a paranormal investigator, after his presentation Sunday, October 15.

  Photo By Jennifer Callahan, '08

Paranormal researcher and ghost hunter John Zaffis visited Morrisville on Oct. 15 and spoke to the students about what he does. In his lecture, Zaffis talked of his teen years up until the present, which he is still very much involved in after 34 years.

At the age of 16, Zaffis became interested in the paranormal after his grandfather passed away. Wanting to know more, he went to his uncle and aunt, who were hesitant at first to introduce him into the world of the paranormal.

"I had told my uncle, if you don't show me right now, I will go to someone else!" Zaffis said. "He told me that he would rather show me so he could keep an eye on me".

Zaffis went on to describe his early days of ghost hunting. "We didn't have all this infrared like we do today," Zaffis said. "In the old days we used psychics." Pictures have also played a major part in ghost hunting. Zaffis showed a number of pictures to show what a spirit or ghost would look like.

The most interesting and chilling time during his presentation came when he described the most terrifying and complex case that he had ever investigated. The case involved a married couple and their children. One of their youngest children had been diagnosed with cancer and could only receive treatment in a certain area. The whole family eventually ended up moving into a new house.

Up until this point, everything sounds fine. The catch of this story is that the new home the family moved into was previously a funeral home, and the basement where two of the boys’ rooms were was where they had kept the dead bodies. Strange things began to happen, and the whole family felt they were in danger. It took Zaffis and his team a total of nine weeks to break this case and help the family.

Not everything Zaffis talked about was as chilling. He talked of a case in which a man's wife had died and was trying to communicate with him. The husband, devastated, wanted to move and leave all of the items belonging to his wife behind. But her piano would play a song the couple composed anytime he talked about leaving. It wasn't until Zaffis made the husband realize that the wife wanted him to remember her that the music stopped playing.

Not to scare everyone completely, Zaffis went on to say that nine times out of 10, unkind spirits only interact with people when they are given ways, such as playing with a Ouija board.

He also claimed that even though he has seen it, it is very unlikely for someone to become possessed. "I haven't seen anybody's head spin around," Zaffis said. "Not yet, not to this day."