INTERVIEW: Jason Hawes, Steve Gonsalves investigate more of this strange ‘Ghost Nation’
Photo: The paranormal investigators of Ghost Nation travel around the United States looking for spirits and ghosts. Photo courtesy of Travel Channel / Provided by press site with permission.
It’s not an overstatement to say that Jason Hawes, Steve Gonsalves and Dave Tango are obsessed with ghosts. The team has been investigating the paranormal for many years, and their adventures have provided many hours of thrilling television.
Their latest show is called Ghost Nation, and the second season of the Travel Channel series kicks off Wednesday, April 22 at 8 p.m. On this new set of episodes, audience members can expect the trio to research things that go bump in the night in houses, a prison complex and even a tattoo parlor. It’s all in a day’s work for these paranormal P.I.’s.
Hawes is the founder of The Atlantic Paranormal Society, known as TAPS. He has been in the ghost business for 30 years, working with law enforcement, religious organizations, government agencies and private individuals, according to his official biography. His TV claim to fame was 11 long seasons of Ghost Hunters, the landmark reality series that ran on Syfy. When he’s not looking for poltergeists, he’s penning books — he actually has six to his name, all of them bestsellers.
Gonsalves, Hawes’ righthand man and a former police officer, has been in the paranormal investigation business for nearly all his life. He was a main cast member on Ghost Hunters, Ghost Hunters Live and Ghost Hunters Academy. He claims to have investigated more than 1,000 haunted sites.
Recently Hawes and Gonsalves jumped on a conference call with journalists to talk about their spirited adventures. Here’s what they told Hollywood Soapbox:
On whether they prefer to investigate new locations or places that have been investigated already …
Hawes: Well, I love going to the places we’ve never investigated before. Because we’re going in, there’s no expectation of anything. We’re going in being the first and being able to get our hands on it. A place that’s been investigated a thousand times really isn’t that exciting to me, I mean, so many different people have either pulled out evidence, or already been able to figure out what’s truly going on. Us going in first, no idea what we’re … gonna be dealing with, trying to figure all the answers ourselves, I think that’s the most exciting ones, wouldn’t you say Steve?
Gonsalves: Yeah, I would definitely agree with that. There’s a different energy … and I don’t mean a paranormal energy, I mean an energy amongst the investigators. … You know, places that haven’t been investigated before, especially by us, there’s just a different excitement about them. But, you know, it has pros and cons. … One of the trappings of investigating a place that has been investigated … quite a bit is that half of the stories you know, or half of the claims come from the paranormal teams. And you’re not quite too sure of, you know, how strict their evidence collection is — you know, you may be chasing around a voice of someone named Bob who died in a certain room. But then, you know, maybe that team didn’t do their proper research and that person never died in that room. … There are trappings on both sides, but I would definitely agree that it’s a lot more fun, you know, when we get to be the first to go in there and sort of trail-blaze the location.
On whether they are fearful of any of their investigations …
Hawes: Not fear, I think excitement. Of course, you might get startled from something, but I think you always need to be on guard because you never know what you’re walking into. You never know who’s on the other side of that door and what problems are going on. Are they paranormal? Are they medical? Are they some other issues? So you’re walking in sort of blind-sighted with everything happening there, so you always need to be on guard. When it comes down to ghosts and hauntings and things of that nature, it’s not scary to us; it’s intriguing because we look at it like … adding a piece to that puzzle.
[Read Hollywood Soapbox’s previous interviews with Jason Hawes.]
Gonsalves: You definitely can get startled, you know, if you’re anywhere and someone, you know, slams a door. … You’re gonna jump, you know. It’s almost impossible not to, but to us it doesn’t translate into fear. It translates into excitement, into let’s find out what that is, you know. That’s when you get to become an investigator and you’re no longer an observer. You know, now you’re trying to figure it out and see what is happening, and the more paranormal, the more extreme, any of that, just means more excitement for us.
On why the Northeast and East Coast seem to be the focus of so many investigations …
Hawes: Well, I have to agree with you. … It always has just incredible activity out this way, and you get places everywhere from Maine all the way down to Florida that just have some incredible locations, and some credible, incredible activity.
Gonsalves: Yeah, you know, we’re lucky to live in New England for us, you know, because New England is, you know, quite a bit of a hot spot for this sort of activity. And I think anywhere, you know, that you have the history, you know, more trauma that can happen and more love that can happen … more of any of that sort of extreme emotion, you’re gonna have … the more potential for hauntings. And you’ll see that in places like Florida, you know, and New England and some of the earlier settled spots.
On why it seems children are impacted by paranormal activity …
Hawes: One hundred percent because children aren’t conditioned. To a child, anything’s possible, and we talk about this all the time, where children are more prone to see things than adults because again everything’s possible, right. I mean a big bunny brings them a basket; a big fat guy comes down the chimney. It’s not until we start telling them their invisible friends aren’t real that we start closing them off or conditioning them to our belief system. … I mean, they’re wide open, so they’re able to see things that adults are totally shut off from.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Ghost Nation returns for its second season Wednesday, April 22 at 8 p.m. on Travel Channel. Click here for more information
As a Spiritual Healer for over 30 years, I have seen children affected by paranormal activity. In most cases, it is not actually what people think. Sometimes it is due to a ghost in the home, but in most cases it is because a parent has black magic on them and the entity from the black magic is causing the paranormal activity.