Paranormal State

About Paranormal State

The television show, Paranormal State, chronicles the paranormal investigations of the Paranormal Research Society of Penn State (PRS). These investigations most often cover hauntings or poltergeist activity. Ryan Buell founded PRS in 2001 when he was only 19.

Founder: Ryan Buell

You can only understand the methods and mission of Paranormal State when you understand Ryan Buell's background and his reasons for founding PRS. The PRS website states that its main mission is to "Scientifically and spiritually explore" the supernatural. This balance of science and faith is where PRS stands apart from other paranormal research organizations. In 2007, Ryan separated the Paranormal Research Society into two parts, the Field Investigation & Research (FIR) branch, and Parapsychology & Laboratory Research (PLR). This effort solidifies Ryan's effort to bring perfect balance of faith and science into all of PRS' investigations.

The Cast

While the Paranormal Research Society of Penn State has a large number of members, the show's cast actually consists of five major personalities.

• Ryan Buell: Serves as the Director of PRS. Producer Betsy Schechter began filming for the show in 2005 for A&E, and subsequently made Ryan Buell a producer for the show.
• Katrina Weidman: Katrina joined PRS in 2006 and serves as an interviewer.
• Heather Taddy: Heather uses her experience with film and media to serve as the team documentarian of paranormal phenomenon.
• Sergey Poberezhny: Sergey, a native of Sevastopol, Ukraine, offers his technical skills to the PRS team as the team's tech specialist.
• Eilfie Music: Eilfie's past experience regarding various faiths and the occult allows her to serve the PRS as the team's occult specialist.

The Paranormal Research Society

The A&E series only offers the public a very small portion of what the PRS of Penn State does. The PRS team actually consists of a large group of members and investigators.

PRS Members

Ryan Buell structured the organization of PRS to encourage serious study and investigation of the phenomenon. As previously stated, the two major methods he used to do this were to branch the organization into two departments: the Field Investigation & Research (FIR), and the Parapsychology & Laboratory Research (PLR).

Finally, PLR requires potential student members to shadow field investigators on at least three investigations, and complete a full research paper. On the PRS website, Ryan writes: "Right away, the interested in investigating dropped 80%." This technique shows that Ryan Buell takes a more serious and academic approach to the topic of the paranormal.

Taking Part in the Discussion

There are several ways that the interested public can take part in the discussions surrounding PRS investigations. These include:

• Ryan's Blog: Up to May 2008, Ryan updated his blog at least monthly, and the public is free to comment on it.
• PRS Forum: The Penn State PRS discussion forum provides the public a place to discuss the paranormal and PRS investigations.
• A&E Forums: A&E also provides a discussion forum for the television show Paranormal State.
• Submit Your Story: The A&E website for Paranormal State provides a submission form for the public to report their own haunting for potential investigation by PRS.

The National Paranormal Conference

One of the largest movements within the paranormal community is a new kind of paranormal conference called Univ-Con. Univ-Con is the brain child of Ryan Buell, and it was started in 2002. His vision for the converence is that it will introduce new views covering the whole gamut of the paranormal, including methods of investigation. The stated goal of the conference as stated on the website, is "education". Impressively, this year Univ-Con is even going to offer grants and scholarships to deserving applicants.

The vision of Univ-Con is to unite and grow the community of paranormal investigators into a collective group, working together to find answers to some of the worlds most difficult and intriguing questions. The Univ-Con conference is a very important first step in that direction.

This year, the conference will be held September 11-14, 2008 at Penn State. Some impressive speakers will be present, including:

• Robert Englund: Famous for playing the fictional character Freddy Krueger
• Dr. Michael Shermer: Founder of The Skeptics Society
• Josh Gates: Host of Destination: Truth on Sci-Fi
• Bill Birnes: Famous author and publisher of UFO Magazine
• Brian Harnois: Investigator on Ghost Hunters International on Sci-Fi

Also appearing are Lorraine Warren, Chad Calek, Ryan Buell himself and many others.

Watching Paranormal State

Paranormal State is somewhat similar to the popular show Ghost Hunters on the Sci-Fi Channel. However, it is also very unique in that the show employs a wider range of methods and tools that the investigators of Ghost Hunters don't use. The PRS approach encompasses many of the same scientific tools and protocol, but under Ryan's direction, investigations tend to embrace many spiritual and occult techniques as well. Whether this approach brings more balance or more confusion to the investigation is currently a very hot debate in the world of paranormal research.