"Paranormal Investigation without the superstition!"

About Us

I'm Ian McCallum (39) and since I was 9 years old, I’ve been interested in the paranormal, so much so that I believe it is a “calling”. My brother got a book for Christmas back in the late 1970’s called the “Hamlyn Book of Ghosts”. I read it more than he did. The stories captivated my imagination and some of the photographs in the book gave me chills.

Moving onto nearer the present day, I’ve been actively involved with paranormal investigations since May 2005. I’ve been everywhere from humble domestic residences, abandoned hospitals, well-known “haunted” venues in Edinburgh, to various castles dating back as far as the 13th Century.

In June 2006, I was involved in several investigations in Northern England too - namely the battlefield at Marston Moor, near York. This was probably the bloodiest battle of the whole of the English Civil War.

Back in December 2006, I happened to visit the U.S.A. and got to investigate some interesting places.

My previous hobbies and areas of interest come into play when I’m on investigation and carrying out evidence analysis. One of these hobbies is amateur photography. Since I was 12 years old when I got my first 35mm SLR, I’ve taken photographs, developed my own black and white film and photographs. I was using my local photographic club’s enlarger when I was 13 years old. Since that time I’ve owned several 35mm SLRs, lenses and flashguns. I gave up the hobby for sometime and came back when I purchased my first digital compact camera.

Stemming from photography I developed an interest in amateur videography too. I bought my first camcorder back in 1993 and developed a liking for it. I started to use a digital camcorder when investigating with another group. This lead to me purchasing my own digital camcorder and building upon what I had learned.

Experience in these fields, coupled with a little common sense and a hint of logic always helps. This is why I became the Techie guy in my previous group.

Talking of experience, some of my interests and hobbies come into play… I can usually spot a false positive photograph fairly quickly. Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to explain to the layperson where their erroneous interpretation has come from. I tend to be sceptical in some areas as I believe if they can be explained by a non-paranormal explanation, why resort to a paranormal one? One example I could give happened to me when I was a young boy. I’m sure this is quite common to many people. Every night I would see my coat hanging on the back on a closet door, and then my imagination would kick in. I would imagine that it was a man a black cloak looking at me. Needless to say this scared my silly.

Other events happened to me as well… I was looking out from the shoreline where I used to live and saw a large silver object in the distance hovering above the beach; it was at a distance of about 3-5 miles. My imagination took hold, and I erroneously assumed it was a UFO. Thank goodness there was someone nearby with a pair of binoculars… I plucked up courage and asked them if I could borrow them for a look see. I was astounded what I saw; it was a hot air balloon that had landed on a distant beach. It was one of those fancy shaped ones, a head and face with a baseball cap on with a cigar in its mouth - mostly silver in colour.

Maybe now you’ll understand why I’m sceptical with things that are shown as photographic and video evidence. If I as someone with knowledge of light and shadow can be fooled by an optical illusion, then we all can.

Anyway, back to ghosts… There have been times whilst on an investigation that I’ve seen, heard and experienced things paranormal that can’t be explained rationally. I don’t class myself as suffering from Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity, but I’ve think I’ve seen the results of this in others. I believe that there are spirits and ghosts out there; I’ve even experienced them in my home. I don’t particularly class myself as sensitive either. I guess if you work in this field long enough, then you “open up” to things seen and unseen.

For sometime now I’ve wanted to start my own group, one based around a more scientific and evidence based ethos than I’ve previously seen “out there”. Other groups have different methodology than WOSPR©, some groups are based wholly on feelings and “psychic” intuitions, others are very cynical in their outlook. With WOSPR©, I’m trying to strike a balance between. Blind faith in purely spirit or blind faith in purely science can be damaging to this field of research. Close minds are a terrible thing. Total belief that everything is a ghost or on the other extreme, everything is “in the mind” does no-one any favours. That’s why I look at evidence very carefully. If it can be explained rationally, then great. If it can’t, then it may be paranormal. I believe that many so called “hauntings” have a mundane, everyday explanation to them.

I hope this has given you a little insight into me and my methodology. Now get off your armchair and get involved in paranormal research!

I’m Alison McCallum, Co-Founder of WOSPR©.

When I was a little girl, I used to feel different because I could see ghosts. I also felt like a weirdo because no-one else could see them and this felt more like a curse and less like a gift!

Now that I’m 34 I realise that more people experience "things" than actual say.

One of my pet hates was seeing “shadow people” as it left me fairly scared. Even more unsettling was hearing your name getting called when there’s obviously no-one there. For many years, I tried to block this ability to see and hear spirits, but this only made it worse. This used to lead to the occurrences happening more frequently.

The paranormal never seems that far away and that’s the reason I want to investigate it and obtain some understanding of it.  Now I'm aware of how one's own mind can play tricks upon one's self, especially when your young.

*For the cynical trivial nitpickers, this doesn't mean that I claim to be a "medium" or anything of the sort!  A lot of this happened to me when I was a lot younger and now I realise that much of this can be explained away by imagination, environmental and psychological factors.*

Hi my name is Susan Cocozza, I'm 32 years of age, and am an investigator with WOSPR©.

I live in Larkhall, South Lanarkshire with my husband Vince and many pets.

I have had a keen interest in the paranormal for a number of years now and have had a few personal experiences that cannot be explained. I love visiting historic locations and finding out the events that have happened in years gone by, that gives the location the character it has in modern day.

My main aim is to find out what exactly is the cause of a haunting, now I'm not saying completely debunk, but I enjoy the scientific part of paranormal investigation. If something can be rationalised, that is good, but if something cannot...all the better.

I do believe that there is more to it when we pass over and I guess its a bit of a personal journey in discovering exactly what lies ahead when we are gone (that its not just all darkness).

To those who read this, I am pleased to meet you and I hope this gives you an idea of why I am here

Thanks for reading

Susan

 

Hi my name is Tommy Miller, I'm the youngest member of WOSPR© at 20, which can be quite intimidating at times but the team are very accepting and welcoming.

They are like my spiritual family... pun intended! I've been interested in the paranormal as long as I can remember, which sounds cliché because everyone says that but it's the truth. I've had several experiences when I was younger and it's always been on my mind that maybe it was my imagination or maybe there is something, I would like personal confirmation as to what's going on, and if there is anything after this life. I like to stay open minded, I do believe in the after life, although I'm in no way religious, but I keep a sceptical head on my shoulders and I don't get scared easily so I can rationalise thing's before I run away screaming.

I know Ian will hate me for saying this but my interest peaked when I started watching Most Haunted on LivingTV, I saw what they done and thought, "I'd like to try that." I read into it and got my facts straight, got even more interested and decided I would try and join a group. I tried several groups but they wouldn't give me an opportunity because of my age and after a few years of applying without success I gave up trying. I always took the opportunity to visit places like Edinburgh and take their tours of the Vaults, Graveyards etc as well as go on their over-night vigils. I then received an e-mail about WOSPR© looking for team members and decided to give it one more go and got accepted! Since then I've met a bunch of great folk in Ian, Alison, Susan, Vince and always enjoy meeting up with them.  In a way I’m on my own personal quest for answers but ultimately we are a team & more importantly, friends, looking to contribute to the field.

Hello my name is Vincent Cocozza and I am soon to be 32 years old and I am an investigator with WOSPR©.

I have had a long interested in the paranormal and like to think that I am level headed enough to tackle things from a scientific point of view. This is mainly due to both my academic and professional qualifications as an Environmental Technician.

I have had experiences in the past that could be classed as paranormal and still trying to determine the true nature of that happen,

My interests are Cult TV, Gaming and even going to the gym.

One of my greatest fears is heights and back in October 2007 I abseiled of the Forth rail bridge for charity.

I am currently looking forward to the continual development of WOSPR© and hope to get the opportunity to visit new and interesting locations.