In the middle of a seated crowd, Sam Kogon took pictures of the air in front of him. At all angles-towards the ceiling, at the ground, straight ahead. The pictures he took looked as if they were casualties of a dropped camera or a stray finger. But the 20-some, seemingly random pictures Kogon took had a purpose.

Kogon believes in ghosts. He felt one on Tuesday night in Bray Hall at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. But wait, he heard it too. And he wanted to capture it on film.

‘I felt this breeze come from the ground and go up,’ said Kogon, a freshman ESF environmental science major. ‘And then it just stayed.’

But Kogon and the crowd around him didn’t gather because of a spirit. Seated in the middle of the students, a man held everyone’s attention. Or rather, the tiny portable radio he was using to hold court with the spirits mesmerized his audience.

John Zaffis, a self-proclaimed ‘Godfather of the paranormal,’ spoke in Marshall Hall Auditorium on the ESF campus Tuesday night about his work with the paranormal, and then helped students ‘communicate’ with spirits in the 92-year-old Bray Hall.

Zaffis conducted a ‘conversation’ with spirits for over an hour, asking questions like ‘who are you?’ and ‘why are you here?’ A low voice answered the questions, and eyes in the audience got wider while some students clutched those nearby.

At one point, Leah Flynn, director of student activities for ESF, asked the spirit her name.

‘I definitely heard him say ‘director,” said Flynn, who said she believed in spirits before Zaffis’ presentation. ‘It’s an old building, I’m sure there are other spirits here.’

Flynn said that in the late 1980s, an ESF employee was murdered in Bray Hall, and that’s why she suggested the building for a ghost hunt.

Between Zaffis’ two-hour presentation and ghost hunt, he cemented some beliefs in the paranormal, converted others, and left some skeptics.

Tim Watson, a senior wildlife science major, said he thought he heard some voices come through on the radio, but isn’t convinced he had an encounter with the paranormal.

‘If it’s something I can’t see, I’m not sure that it’s real,’ said Watson. ‘I think a lot of people were buying into it though.’

Zaffis buys into it. More than that, he believes it. All of it.

Ghosts? Yes. Demons? Seen one. Haunted objects? He has a barn on his Connecticut property full of them. Exorcisms? He has audio recordings of some. Ouija boards? Couldn’t pay him a million dollars to use one.

Zaffis, who has been studying the paranormal for more than 30 years, admits he hasn’t seen all types of paranormal activities. He stressed multiple times throughout his presentation that one needs to keep an open mind. Some things just can’t be explained. It’s as simple as that.

He showed the crowd of about 50 people pictures of spirits or ‘energy,’ which show up as shadows or white blobs. He told a story of a vampire puppet that a child claimed was haunted when its mouth moved of its own accord. He played tapes of the exorcism that the movie ‘The Exorcism of Emily Rose’ was based on.

‘It’s important to take photos, to get evidence whenever possible,’ said Zaffis. ‘You have to study different religions and cultures to understand what different people believe in.’

His approach to all things paranormal and the unseen was almost scientific. To explain the presence of spirits, Zaffis said energy can’t be destroyed. Why do people like Kogon feel cold when a spirit was around? The spirit is drawing all the energy out of the room. He said, Patrick Swayze’s character in the 1990 movie ‘Ghost’ as an example of how ghosts use energy.

Zaffis and his work have been featured in many TV specials, like ‘Unsolved Mysteries,’ ‘A Haunting,’ and many Discovery Channel documentaries.

Most notable was ‘The Haunting in Connecticut,’ the story of a family in Connecticut who moved into a funeral home in the 1980s, and then begin experiencing the presence of demons. Zaffis and a team went to the house to work with the family, where Zaffis had an experience that almost made him quit working in the paranormal field for good.

While doing some research, he said he saw a demon go down a flight of stairs. Eventually the family got peace after an exorcism was performed; it took some convincing for Zaffis to continue his work.

‘I took it as a challenge to continue to help people,’ said Zaffis.

A question and answer session took place after the presentation, and then the group walked to Bray Hall to see if any spirits would make themselves known.

Are there really spirits in Bray Hall? Some thought they heard it through the radio static, leaning closer and asking questions. Some stood in the back with folded arms, looking as if they didn’t know what to believe. But they stayed.

‘There’s like, pools of cold,’ someone said as Zaffis leaned closer to the radio.

‘It could just be a draft,’ countered someone from the back of the room.

Zaffis took everyone up to the third floor near the balcony, where the spirit ‘said’ he was. On the walk up, Kogon sifted through his pictures, looking for a white blob, or a shadow of something.

‘There are a few white blobs,’ said Kogon, pointing to the digital screen. ‘But it could be dust or something. It doesn’t necessarily mean anything.’

eaconnor@syr.edu

Published on October 6, 2009 at 12:00 pm