Meet the Six Nations squad pursuing the paranormal and searching for spirits

While trick-or-treaters will be scouring the streets for candy on Halloween, Todd Thomas and other members of the Six Nations Investigating Paranormal Encounters team will be gearing up to search for spirits and the supernatural.

Thomas and his team, also called S.N.I.P.E., have been chasing down spirits across Ontario for over a decade.

"In my Native heritage and culture, we've always dealt with the spirit world … it's always been a part of my life," he told Craig Norris, host of CBC K-W's The Morning Edition.

"As a kid … my older brothers tried to scare me and shared many, many ghost stories with me. It always resonated with me."

His team stars in Ghost Hunters of the Grand River, which just launched its second season and airs on APTN.

Showing respect to spirits

Artie Martin, a member of the team, told CBC Hamilton the squad brings a range of high-tech ghost hunting gadgets like motion detectors and electronic magnetic field detectors instead of Ouija boards and dowsing rods.

Martin said they like to strike at 3 a.m., also known as The Witching Hour. "It tends to be quieter and spookier," Martin wrote in an email.

"But the paranormal tends to be present all the time."

Scientists say there is no evidence that ghosts really exist, it doesn't stop S.N.I.P.E. from looking.

"We welcome skepticism because most of our team members, we're all skeptical," Thomas said.

He added what makes his team different from others is their Indigenous approach.

"It's a basic respect for spirit. We've all grown up with it in our clans and it's something we respect," Thomas said.

Haunting reports grew during the pandemic: researcher

John E.L. Tenney, a a paranormal researcher and former host of TV's Ghost Stalkers, previously told As It Happens reports of haunted houses grew during the pandemic.

"Times of stress really do something to human psychology, and so you see people having deeper, stranger dreams. You have people reporting a higher amount of ghosts in their house or haunted houses," he said in May 2020.

"It doesn't mean so much that they're going crazy, but perhaps they're just becoming a little more introverted and perhaps getting to know themselves a little better … they're spending time in their house, which they normally don't do at certain hours."

Despite the reported uptick in hauntings, Martin said only a fraction of all investigations he has ever done led to something "unexplained."

That figure lines up with Tenney's experience, who said he has investigated thousands of cases but only saw fewer than 100 where "something really unique and strange is happening."

Thomas said he generally feels some places have "more energy" than others.

"But for me it's more excitement, like 'Oh man, I hope something happens tonight,'" he said.

'Be careful, you might find what you're looking for'

Martin said the most common explanations behind spirit sightings are reflections and shadows.

"There was a moment in Tyendinaga [Mohawk Territory, near Belleville, Ont.] where the team was sure they got something," he said.

"The second I seen it though, it was obvious to me that it was Todd's shadow.  But it was casting from a long distance away which made for some good debate."

Thomas said on Nov. 21, the team is starting filming for Season 3 and heading to Kitchener-Waterloo.

Martin has advice for people who plan on doing their own ghost hunting and don't have the same equipment as S.N.I.P.E.

"Our traditional knowledge keepers in our community would say, 'Be careful, you might find what you're looking for,'" he said.

"Start with your cell phone, take photos. Use the audio recorder. Maybe you might find something — or someone."