Brandon Alvis is the paranormal technician for the Ghost Hunters team—his twin passions for history and the paranormal lead him to establish the American Paranormal Research Association (APRA). Brandon has investigated over 200 public and private locations with APRA, many of which bare historical significance. Investigations have included mental hospitals, prisons, well-known murder sites, cemeteries and private homes; as well as more famous sites like Alcatraz Island, Preston Castle, and the South Pittsburg Hospital.
As a natural skeptic, Brandon researches every location meticulously before he begins collecting evidence in an effort to make the study of the paranormal as credible as possible. Over the years he has spoken at historical locations across the United States and has appeared in the New York Post, MTV News, Travel Channel, Discovery Channel, Science Channel, and most recently on Ghost Hunters on the A&E Network.
The paranormal has been a popular topic for many years, and we were fortunate to have Brandon Alvis on the show to talk about it. Having met Brandon some years ago, and having the good fortune of participating in some paranormal investigations with his group APRA (The American Paranormal Research Association), I got to see first-hand Brandon’s research approach long before TV cameras introduced him to a worldwide audience. Brandon is one of the most serious and thorough paranormal investigators I’ve had the pleasure of meeting—and his years of experience and his insights into this field are very valuable as can be seen in the recent seasons of Ghost Hunters on A&E.
On this edition of West of the Rockies, we talk to Brandon about science and the paranormal, his scientific approach to investigating this mysterious field, some of the notorious locations he's visited, and his work as the paranormal technician of the A&E TV show, Ghost Hunters.
We’ll also discuss some of the equipment he employs on his investigations with Ghost Hunters, various aspects of paranormal research, and his upcoming book, Elements of a Haunting: Connecting History with Science to Uncover the Greatest Ghost Stories Ever Told, co-authored with fellow Ghost Hunters team-member, Mustafa Gatollari.
Below is a partial transcript from our interview with Brandon Alvis—it has been edited for clarity and readability. For the full interview, click the YouTube link at the top of this page.
One of the immediate noticeable differences in the new Ghost Hunters, is the scientific equipment used by the team during investigations. Asked about these new devices and their use in paranormal research, Brandon said:
“One thing that we did with the new version of Ghost Hunters is, instead of using a lot of the tech that is made specifically for the paranormal (or what I call ‘garage tech’), we implemented devices from other industries into our research.
The reason we did that: not only because we can gather more data, but that information, that data, and that evidence can be looked at by a third party—a technical industry that can really tell us exactly what the data is that we’re collecting.
That’s something that we heavily implemented into the new Ghost Hunters—that’s why you see the difference in the equipment, and the way we use the equipment. We had these third-party experts that can really help us understand if we’re dealing with something natural, or something we can’t quite explain.”
Expanding on this new equipment, Brandon elaborated on how it is used, and we also wanted to know if the new gear is more reliable—to which he answered:
“We started using a lot of data loggers in Ghost Hunters (which is something you never really saw on the shows, or you didn’t see a lot in the research period). We’re trying to correlate environmental conditions to a time-stamp, and to a phenomena that we believe to be paranormal.
Once we have that information/data, we can go to an expert, say a scientist, an engineer, a medical doctor—whatever that device might be, and say, ‘look, this is the data we collected at this exact moment, it correlates with this [unexplained event]. Is this a natural phenomena? Have you seen this before?’ So using the data loggers is something that has been fantastic.”
Having investigated so many locations, we asked Brandon if there is a particular type of location that tends to be more active than others. He answered:
“It’s tough—it’s always different with locations. Obviously history plays a major part into any of the phenomena that we perceive to be paranormal, or supernatural. But I think there is always what we call ‘the element of a haunting.’ There’s the specific type of history, the specific environmental conditions that are associated with these places that have a lot of activity.
Again, that varies—that could be an old victorian house, it could be an abandoned mental hospital, it could be a brand-new apartment building; it all depends. But I think that the environmental conditions, and the geographical locations have a lot to do with it. What that means right now? We don’t quite understand. But by trying to implement science, and trying to find data/empirical evidence, I think that’s going to take us to that next level of understanding why some of these locations are more active than others.”
On the topic of locations, we asked Brandon about locations not often associated with the paranormal (such as churches), that can be very active. Are we to assume that not all paranormal activity is negative as the connotation tends to be? Brandon replied:
“You see a lot of the shows that are out there now, and a lot of the paranormal investigators that jump to the conclusion that all activity (or perceived paranormal phenomena) is negative in some way—and that’s definitely not the case. I think more times than not, its really not negative, there could be a positive experience within in it.
We think about the idea that energy is neither created nor destroyed. Our bodies are made up of energy. Our brains are firing off neurons right now. So where does that energy go when we die? Does it retain consciousness? That’s the big question.
Say someone passes on—they do retain consciousness, and that energy is still alive in some way. If they enjoyed going to a place (such as a church), why wouldn’t they visit that in death? Those are the big questions. I think a lot of the time, you have a lot more positivity out there than is portrayed in a lot of the shows and a lot of the research nowadays.”
In an episode of Ghost Hunters filmed in Fort Stanton near Lincoln, New Mexico, people reported seeing a shadow figure, but it didn’t quite look human—asked if it’s possible that some of these entities are not humans that have passed on, Brandon said:
“That’s very possible. One thing that we have to take into account and think about, is the possibility of inter-dimensional activity. You think of things like transversality, and dimensions intersecting at certain points—maybe it’s something that’s beyond earth; maybe it’s something that was not human at one point, that was always an entity in its own form.
That’s something we have to take into account, because we can’t go in with a preconceived notion and a bias. We do that, we’re not really investigating the proper way. So we absolutely have to always look at all possibilities, and you never know: it could be something inter dimensional, it could be something that very well has never been of the flesh.”
Haunted locations can be found in just about any city, anywhere in the world—but is it possible for an individual to be haunted? Brandon tells us:
“I believe that, yes. There’s been a lot of cases we worked over the years—actually one we did on season one of Ghost Hunters, where we went to a house where this woman was having these very traumatic types of activity and hauntings going on in her house, to the point she moved out of the location.
We went in to investigate, we set up all of our equipment, we run an entire investigation—absolutely nothing happens. Night two we come back, we bring her back to the house, and things just go bonkers—completely crazy. So, I think there are people that (in some way) do have, I don’t know if you want call it an ‘attachment,’ or have some type of energy associated with them that attracts entities, or maybe they put off that energy themselves. But we have totally documented that [as we did] in season one of Ghost Hunters.”
In an episode of Ghost Hunters, group leader Grant Wilson said that there is a difference between ghost hunting (what many amateurs do) vs. paranormal investigating—and that many beginners in the this field often may not be aware of what they may be getting into. We asked Brandon what are the differences between these two practices, and what are the risks? He tells us:
“I always refer to that term as ‘para-tourism’: people that watch the shows, they read the books, they see the movies, and they want to go out and have that experience for themselves—almost thrill-seeking in a way. They want to put themselves in that environment.
They don’t understand the amount of time, effort, and dedication that really goes into trying to find answers. You just don’t show up to a location for an hour, just like a TV show, and have all these fantastical things happen.
Paranormal research is when you dedicate your life, dedicate significant periods of time, and make sacrifices to go out there. To really try to find true answers and provide that information to other people; instead of going to a location for a night, and trying to have these experiences they witnessed through media. That’s something I completely agree with Grant on, and something him and I have talked about many times.”
Brandon has produced everything from short-form content, to feature-length documentaries—so we asked if writing a book was the next step in this progression? He tells us:
“It was definitely part of the natural progression, but its also the perfect format to get 17 years worth of work out there in a way that’s going be more compelling than a visual format. The visual format is always great. It’s a lot of fun to watch, and you can do a lot with it. But you can add a lot more research and a lot more information into a book.
That’s something that [co-author and fellow Ghost Hunters team member] Mustafa Gatollari and I—we wrote this book, we signed publishing deal with Llewellyn Worldwide, the book’s going to be out on January 8th. We’ve been actually very lucky that we’ve been number one in the “ghosts and haunting” category on Amazon for quite sometime now which has been really fantastic.
This book was a way for us to implement everything we’ve been talking about in this conversation: implementing scientific principles, implementing a set of ethics, standards, protocols, and methodology that’ll hopefully push this field forward and really help us be taken seriously. So taking all that information we’ve had for 17 years and putting it into this format, has been absolutely amazing.”
Of all the locations visited while filming Ghost Hunters, the book will cover six—we asked Brandon why he narrowed it down to those specific locations. He said:
“We narrowed it to those locations because I think that was the perfect way to show the implementation of these ethics, standards, protocols, and methodology. All of these ideas and this research we conducted—all of these locations had results that worked in that favor.
Not only are we implementing these amazing different techniques, we’re also implementing a classification system for ghosts and hauntings, which is really something that’s not been done before. Working with Dr. Harry Kloor for so long (this amazing world-renowned scientist), he always said, ‘in order for us to be taken seriously, and this field be taken seriously, we have to classify the phenomena.’
You don’t go to a zoo and say you saw a bunch of animals. You go to a zoo and say you saw lions and tigers and elephants—so we implemented that into this book, and into these cases that you’re going to read about.”
Elements of a Haunting by Brandon Alvis and Mustafa Gatolari will be out on January 8, 2022—be sure to pre-order your copy here. To learn more about Brandon visit his website, and to keep up-to-date with his up-coming projects, be sure to follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
