You won’t find them hunting for ghouls and ghosts, staking out abandoned buildings for spooky social media content, or dealing in exorcisms and rituals. The Canberra Paranormal Investigators are out helping locals whose lives might be affected by a sinister presence they can’t quite explain.
Lead Investigator and demonologist, Joe Catanzariti, and investigator, Angela Tait, don’t charge for their services; rather, they are motivated by the desire to help people who may be going through something distressing and scary.
Joe was first exposed to the paranormal in his youth, at his family home in Canberra. They heard footsteps when no one was walking, lights flickered, heard rapping in the walls and loud bangs when nothing had fallen. Joe says he didn’t know much about it then, however, over the last 20 years he has been exposed to more paranormal encounters.
“I’ve seen specifically diabolic effects from demons and the diabolic spirits and how it affected my life. I ended up going on this path to help people that were in a similar situation to me because there are people suffering out there,” says Joe.
Angela moved to Canberra in 2003 and comes from a Vietnamese Catholic family. Her family have always had a huge interest in spirituality and the supernatural, recalling many hours spent swapping experiences and ghost stories.
“I guess I have a bit of a spooky family but on top of that, like my dad is a deacon, I’ve got an auntie who is a minister in a Presbyterian church,” she says.
Angela says both positive and negative forces have remained an important theme in her life, and studied psychology hoping to get to the bottom of it. She is open to trying to figure out what is out there through methods scientific, academic and unorthodox.
Understanding diabolic influences
Joe describes the subdivides of evil spirits as human and inhuman. The inhuman are pure spirits, ones that have never walked the earth; they have been led to a person or household.
“The demons are highly intelligent beings; they’ve got knowledge of the ages. They’ve been around for thousands of years. They also know every individual person inside out, like you know yourself, they know you,” he says.
The human evil would be someone malicious throughout their life; their soul can be utilised by demons which can manifest with the demon in control. Joe says both are no laughing matter, and has experienced an attack.
“I couldn’t even tell you what fear it was, there was a lot of heat, I got spun around, I got levitated. You could feel the clench of these large hands grabbing my ankles and lifting me up, I was paralysed, I couldn’t even open my eyes, I couldn’t speak,” he says.
According to Joe, figuring out how a spirit was invited in is one of the first steps, as there are many avenues in which a person can unknowingly welcome a spirit. Dependence on drugs, a struggle with childhood trauma, and generational influence – whether someone in your family tree saw a witch doctor or has felt a presence – are just a few.
“Someone’s gone to an antique shop and bought something, and they put it in their home and behold, they’ve got this diabolic spirit in there that’s affecting your life,” he says.
Spirits can also impact people who have experimented with witchcraft, voodoo and new-age spiritualism.
The investigators say women are more likely to be affected by a diabolic influence, as they tend to be more sensitive, attuned and vulnerable.
“Most people have steered away from mainstream Christianity and are looking at these other things to do to spiritually empower them and give direction, so the occult. It can be satanic cults, too. They’re quite alive everywhere but you don’t hear about them,” says Joe.
The stages of influence
The infestation that Joe experienced in his childhood home is the first of the diabolic stages, the vague presence. There could also be whispering sounds and an unexplained tug or pushing feeling.
The next stage is what is referred to as oppression, which is when the influence or presence sets out to hurt aspects of your life.
“It’s out to destroy your life basically. It’ll start to affect your finances and your health. You start to get worn down and be thrown to the ground eventually that you’re so exhausted. We’ve seen a lot at that stage,” says Joe.
If left to grow, oppression turns into obsession. This stage is quite involved and sees people start to change and turn to vices like drugs. It can create or escalate mental illness and can lead to suicidal tendencies.
“Then there is the chance that it can go to full possession, not as common, but if it does get to possession, it means that the demon has taken over the will and body of the person,” he says.
Someone who is in the possession stage is prone to trances of rage where they become violent and aggressive, their personality changes and their voice may become deeper and not like their own. Joe says they will probably appear that they are mentally ill and may have an aversion to holy objects, and can’t enter a church.
This stage needs to be treated seriously with many protocols in place to differentiate between mental illness and paranormal influences, he says. However, he and Angela are not, and should not be, in the position to diagnose someone.
Getting in the investigators
Angela says she doesn’t know if anyone can call themselves a paranormal expert, as it is the big unknown. She says by the time people get to them, they are a bit embarrassed or ashamed thinking they are going to sound crazy, yet some clients feel better, lighter and more at peace just by talking through the situation.
“When people usually come to us, it’s usually because they’re desperate. They’ve tried everything; they’ve been to doctors; They’ve been to psychologists, and they have tried people coming to [smudge] sage in their houses with sticks and things like that. They usually just want help,” says Angela.
Clients reach out to Joe through the website; they will have an initial chat where he decides if they should investigate. If so, he and Angela set up a time to have an informal chat with their client. By this time, they will have a feeling of whether they are dealing with something and need to bring out the equipment.
They use electromagnetic field equipment in their investigations, but don’t rely on it as they say there are errors. They go through each room and do readings. If a spirit is present, the sensors spike and register. Joe says the device is also able to pick up changes in air pressure and temperature. This all gets recorded on an SD card which they can review later.
The pair set up an SLS camera to map the room, bouncing back any anomaly it comes across, plotting it as a stick figure. Any possible entity can be shown on the screen, and recently one was detected sitting on a suitcase.
“It was kicking its legs and things like that, it was just chilling, that was a really clear one that mapped out, it was a full body. Sometimes when you get the map, they are sort of distorted,” says Angela.
They approach all cases with an open mind and reserve judgement until they have all the facts. Though not a psychologist, Angela says she looks through social psychology lens, trying to understand people, their social behaviour and what could be influencing them. She says it can be tricky to differentiate between mental illness and a diabolic influence or whether one has led to the other.
In some cases, when investigations reveal no paranormal presence, they suggest other help, such as ways to get the client back in touch with their communities, youth groups and other health services.
“Other times I’ll be like there is something strange happening here, and we will find evidence with the equipment. There is something a little bit more to just what’s going on,” says Angela.
If the pair suspect something is afoot, they recommend their client get their home blessed by an ordained priest or spiritual head of the home. They provide a prayer and suggest getting holy water, burning frankincense and myrrh, and opening all the windows.
“You always hear on paranormal sites and things, people go in with sage smudging. Sage smudging actually doesn’t work or it can make things worse,” says Joe.
For non-religious clients, the pair explain this is the proven method they know of and allow them to make their own decision. They agree that the most important thing is to eliminate the cause because if that isn’t dealt with, the presence will return.
“If someone is into tarot cards, if they continue to do that and they’ve blessed their home, it is futile because you’ve got that window that is open there, the entry,” says Joe.
Both the investigators regularly attend church and say a prayer before and after attending any client’s space.
“It’s almost like spiritual self-care because we don’t know potentially what might follow us home or what might influence us further,” says Angela.
“One thing we need to do when we work on cases is really protect ourselves and follow our faith. That is one of our best weapons, so we don’t get too much retaliation,” Joe adds.
Contact Canberra Paranormal Investigators via https://canberraparanormal.wixsite.com/website-1
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