Spooky is as spooky does: Darkness Radio host David Schrader

Ghost Bussers

Supernatural conference descends on Victoria; end of days draws near

There’s a growing interest in ghost and spirit hunting these days—and it’s not just here in Victoria, where the spirit world is, apparently, active . . . as are those who believe in it. It’s all over TV, with reality shows about hunting ghosts popping up with shocking regularity (I’m told there are now eight). And this week, locals are going to have a chance to dive deeper into the spirit world when the Got Ghosts? convention sets up shop at the Empress. It’s a chance to get acquainted with, among other things, some ghost-hunting groups.

“There are a lot of groups out there, but there are not a lot of credible groups,” says Lisa Reyna, founder and president of the Nevada Spirit Seekers, who are helping to put on the conference here in town—their first in Canada conference, after a handful of American ones. “If a group is charging you to help with paranormal activity, they’re not credible. We help educate the public and help people that are dealing with paranormal activity, we do grief management, sometimes we’re counsellors; we just go into their home and sit with them for a few hours and counsel and that’s all it takes.”

Reyna says the group chose to have the conference in Victoria due to its reputation for being a strong spiritual centre, as well as it being a good tourist attraction and a “good excuse to come up” and visit. She says that the conference—which offers seminars, lectures and classes, guest speakers (including local historian and go-to ghost guy John Adams), night-time investigations of local haunt spots and is being hosted by paranormal radio celeb David Schrader—offers a lot of bang for the buck.

“There are seminars about electric voice phenomena, learning how to communicate with spirits and loved ones,” says Rena. “And then there’s information about equipment—how to use and set it up—there’s information for people who are trying to get a group together, what the protocol is for that, proper investigating . . . You have your experienced people and a lot of people who just want to learn how to record or whatever. Anybody can do it; it’s pretty simple.”

Reyna says she’s been intruiged by spirits and ghosts for a long time; it was when her mom passed away that she became really interested in exploring it all more.

“Usually it takes the loss of a loved one because then you get curious, wondering if there really is life after death, and you start doing research and you get that first orb picture, and that’s usually all it takes,” she says. “We find a lot of people will send us pictures with an orb, and that’s all it takes, that one thing to get the spark going.”

And as for why a greater amount of people are getting interested in—and experiencing—paranormal activity, Reyna has a rather chilling answer.

“It’s a pretty wicked world we live in,” she says. “I’m sorry, but I think the world is ending. I don’t know how you feel about that, but a lot of people believe that the veil between us and the spirit world is thinning and that’s why more and more people are experiencing paranormal activity.”

I ask Reyna if she feels the end is in our lifetime; she says she does. But does she feel the end is in sight, and why?

“I do,” she says. “Just the way history repeats itself, destruction, just a lot of things. And am I OK with it? Yes. I don’t mean that in a negative way, I’ve come a long way. You know, you’d have to know my past life, but I’ve grown a lot and doing the paranormal has really helped me understand a lot more about not being afraid to die and not being afraid of a lot of things. I guess I’m more prepared in that aspect.” Reyna pauses, then laughs. “I don’t want it to happen tomorrow, don’t get me wrong. I just mean spiritually I have grown tremendously. I’m not afraid of it like I used to be.”

At least that’s a measure of hope as we apparently go into the end of days. M

Got Ghosts? Conference

Sunday-Wednesday, July 6-9

Fairmont Empress,

721 Government

Tickets $100 • 775-219-3728