Ghost Hunting 101: The burden of proof on 'spectral evidence'

Ron Kolek is an environmental scientist who just happens to believe in ghosts.

Not only does he believe in them, he founded the New England Ghost Project to hunt them down and conduct investigations into their presence. But he wasn't born a believer.

"I never believed in ghosts. I never believed in psychics," Kolek confessed to an audience at his recent ghost hunting seminar, Spectral Evidence: Ghost Hunting 101, held last Saturday night as part of Salem's Festival of the Dead. "I thought they were a bunch of charlatans here to take your money."

But that changed the day Kolek had a pulmonary embolism in a hospital intensive care unit. At that moment, he said, he had what he calls a "strange effect." He felt warm and was surrounded by a bright light and voices that he couldn't understand.

"It was a comfortable feeling," he said. "Like I was going home."

The feeling quickly faded as he awoke and found himself lying in the ICU. In the following weeks, his experience opened the door to a curiosity about the spirit world.

During his recovery, Kolek enrolled in a television production class and created a show about ghosts. Soon after the class was finished, he created the New England Ghost Project. Together with fifth-generation psychic Maureen Wood and a team of technology specialists, Kolek leads investigations into "the unknown field."

The seminar he hosted sold out, and people were packed into the seats in the basement of the Hawthorne Hotel.

Wood took a poll of the audience: "How many people here have had a paranormal experience?"