Defining the Paranormal Spotlight: Jason Hawes
Welcome to Field Notes from the Beyond!
Welcome to our first Defining the Paranormal Spotlight! For this issue, we’re going to focus on our newest category:
Ghosts & Hauntings: Know Your Investigators
Jason Hawes - Co-founder and lead investigator of The Atlantic Paranormal Society, one of the stars of the Ghost Hunters television franchise.
Jason Hawes is best known as the face of the long-running paranormal television series Ghost Hunters. Most people also know that Hawes continued working as a plumber for Roto-Rooter long after he became a “household name” for people interested in the paranormal. He also brought fellow investigator Grant Wilson into the plumbing business.
You may not know Hawes did not originally create TAPS as a television project or even as a formal investigative team. Before it became The Atlantic Paranormal Society, the organization started in 1990 as the Rhode Island Paranormal Society, functioning largely as a support group for people who believed they were experiencing unexplained phenomena. Hawes operated it from a spare room in his apartment in Warwick, Rhode Island.
Hawes emphasizes a skeptical approach to investigating. One of the core philosophies behind TAPS was attempting to debunk paranormal claims before declaring anything supernatural. This approach helped Ghost Hunters stand apart from many competing paranormal programs that leaned heavily into dramatic demonic encounters and possessions. Hawes frequently argued that investigators should first look for plumbing issues (not shocking), electrical faults, structural noises, or human error before considering paranormal explanations. We whole-heartedly agree with him on this!
Hawes also wrote several science-fiction and thriller screenplays over the years, though none became major productions. He co-authored multiple paranormal books that reached the New York Times bestseller list, including Ghost Hunting and Seeking Spirits, both fun reads.
One unusual chapter in Hawes’ life involved owning a reportedly haunted hotel. He and Grant Wilson were once co-owners of the Spalding Inn in Whitefield, New Hampshire. The inn became popular with paranormal enthusiasts before the pair eventually sold it in 2014. We’ve been talking about him recently in Headlines from the Beyond for his purchase of the Conjuring House, though that’s still somewhat tied up in the courts. Here’s a couple of our episodes talking about it:
Hawes credits his own paranormal sensitivity to an experience involving Reiki energy work when he was about twenty years old. According to Hawes, a girlfriend practicing Reiki triggered unexplained experiences that eventually led him to seek guidance from noted paranormal researcher John Zaffis. That connection became a major influence on Hawes’ entry into paranormal investigation.
Despite decades in the paranormal spotlight, Hawes remains a somewhat polarizing figure within the ghost-hunting community. Admirers praise his grounded, methodical style, while critics debate how much television production influenced later seasons of Ghost Hunters. Regardless of where you fall on this argument, you have to admit that he has profoundly influenced paranormal investigation and television. Check out his YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/jasonhawes
Here are a few interviews he’s done:
Coming Up Next
Next in Field Notes from the Beyond:
This Day in Paranormal History
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We are a group of scholars interested in understanding paranormal, supernatural, and anomalous phenomena from an academic perspective. We want to document and validate experiences people have and study them in a rigorous way to bring credibility to these phenomena. Join us for our monthly podcast Beyond the Human and follow us on Spotify, Instagram, and Patreon to learn more about who we are, our methods, and what we want to learn!