Paranormal Investigator Dustin Pari visits UB

The student center was abuzz with talk of the paranormal Thursday evening as students crowded the social room to learn of the highly active spirit world. The University of Bridgeport welcomed Dustin Pari, a paranormal investigator formerly a member of SYFYs "Ghost Hunters" and "Ghost Hunters International."

 "I enjoy spending time with my family, working on classic cars, writing satirical commentaries, playing Guitar Hero, eating cereal and watching cartoon," he states on his personal website, paranormalrockstar.com, showing that he's just a normal guy who enjoys "constantly looking for proof of the afterlife."

At 9pm, the lights dimmed and Dustin took the stage, opening the evening with a PowerPoint presentation about the afterlife and what we consider to be a haunting, be it poltergeist, residual, intelligent activity or the rarest case of all, inhuman spirits like the Jinn or demonic and angelic elementals.

He explained further how he and fellow investigators hunt for these spirits using electronic equipment to record voices and sounds and video cameras to hopefully catch evidence of the dead on film. Some popular equipment the Dustin himself uses included a Full Spectrum Camera that relies on ultraviolet light to see what humans cannot and a Digital Voice recorder (DVR) to record Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVPs). Ghost hunting equipment is highly sensitive because spirits speak and manifest on frequencies humans cannot access.

Finishing a relatively short presentation, Dustin finished with photos and audio files borrowed from a fellow investigator to prove to the lively crowd of students that the dead walked among them. Before the social room emptied, he performed an EVP session with his own RTDVR (Real Time DVR), calling on any present spirits to make themselves known.

At 10pm, those lucky enough to obtain one of 40 tickets to go on a ghost hunt with Dustin headed outside to explore campus for the deceased. Due to minor inconveniences, the original path of the tour brought the group to the Seaside Park playground where the spirit of a young girl was asked to come forward, but to avail. The group of 40 later trekked over to the abandoned houses lining Park Ave. where their creepy presence made the perfect location to hopefully listen to the dead.

Despite a lack of paranormal activity, Dustin expressed his thanks in students coming out to see him and took the time to take pictures with students. Everyone had a great time, leaving the tour with knowledge and a new respect for the dead, not to mention never being able to look at the abandoned houses on Park Ave. the same way again.