“Are all castles haunted?” asked John Zaffis, on stage at Springfield Technical Community College.
“Heck, yeah,” he replied.
Considered one of the foremost authorities in the paranormal field today, Zaffis came to STCC for a pre-Halloween visit on Oct. 18 to share stories about his life as a paranormal researcher. Zaffis starred in the SyFy paranormal reality TV show, Haunted Collector, and runs the Paranormal and Demonology Research Society of New England, which he founded in 1998.
In the auditorium of Scibelli Hall (Building 2), Zaffis showed images on the screen of photographs revealing mysterious milky blobs that he said could be signs of paranormal activity. He collects strange objects like creepy looking clown dolls and an old wooden desk from a school. He collects swords and armor from the renaissance period.
In his presentation, he talked about a grandfather clock that he says shows signs of paranormal activity.
After his hour-long talk, Zaffis toured parts of Garvey Hall looking for paranormal activity.
“I get into a bad habit of going to places and getting myself into trouble, where you’re not supposed to go. But, those are usually my best experiences,” Zaffis said.
He recalled going into one building (not at STCC) that had caverns and tunnels. “I got very cold,” he said. “This is something people do experience when you go into a haunted location. People will get that ice-cold feeling. Why does that occur? Because your energy is getting drained from you.”
While giving his talk from the stage at Scibelli Hall, Zaffis and the audience occasionally heard some rattling sounds from backstage. Was it the wind or something unexplained? Zaffis wondered out loud if a ghost backstage was interrupting his presentation.
What are his conclusions about Garvey Hall? Marketing and Communications hopes to share a video of the tour soon. Stay tuned.
Zaffis’ audience included students, faculty and staff. Anyone interested in learning more about subjects related to the paranormal can take History of Witchcraft and Superstition, a popular course taught by Steve Vossen (who attended the Zaffis presentation). Sharon Conte also has put together a packet of the STCC & Bones brochures she did throughout the years along with interesting news articles and pictures. STCC & Bones contains stories about odd occurrences on the campus.
