Is Smith Hall really haunted?
Jean-Pierre Giagnoli is a real-life ghostbuster. He is a paranormal expert and co-founder of the Southern California Paranormal Detectives.
In October 2013, Giagnoli and his team came to Chapman University to investigate suspicions of ghosts in Smith Hall.
Jean-Pierre Giagnoli
Q: Why was a decision made to conduct this investigation?
A: I’ve co-lectured at Chapman with (sociology) professor Chris Bader and he told some stories about Smith Hall in particular being haunted, so we thought it would be cool to conduct an investigation.
We set up kind of an impromptu one. It wasn’t very efficient, but it worked out pretty well. We wanted to see if we could confirm any reports of the haunting in Smith Hall.
Q: What did the investigation consist of?
A: We tried to do it as we usually do. There were some restrictions that came into play like we weren’t able to get power and energy shut off in the building like we wanted to. Having that many students and people can sometimes hinder an investigation.
We have a camera infrared digital video recorder system that we use to record and try to capture any visual evidence. We also use EMF (electromagnetic field) meters. Those are very sensitive so a computer, a refrigerator or a TV could be read by this type of equipment.We want to try to eliminate all energy sources and find a neutral zone where the equipment would get readings that would be abnormal and seemingly come out of nowhere.
My brother is a medium so we use the spiritual and the scientific to conduct investigations. We’ll keep him away from all the information to make sure he doesn’t hear about whatever activity reports there may be before we go somewhere. We also use digital audio recorders to capture electronic voice phenomena (EVPs) so in case things happen where the human ear can’t hear it, these audio devices have greater range to capture sounds that may be recorded.
Q: What were some of the findings from this investigation? Anything interesting?
A: We didn’t get a lot of activity but there were a few strange things that ended up happening once we left. Room 215 in Smith had an EMF meter left in there and it was not near any electrical outlets or devices that would have manipulated the meter itself … and the meter went off.
I know we had a student in, I think, room 214 that walked in by herself and she thought she saw someone out of the corner of her eye but there was nobody there.
My brother, the medium, also picked up a few impressions, including two men from before Smith Hall and possibly Chapman even existed.
Q: Can you explain more in depth what a medium is and what they do?
A: It means, for example, a TV is a medium, right? (My brother) is a medium to the other side – the spirit world – so they communicate with him. When he goes to a haunted location, he’ll sometimes get feelings or mental images, hearing names and things so he’s able to pick up information that way. He’ll get impressions of people or things that could’ve happened to people or in a certain area or property.