Thursday, April 19, 2007

Do you scare easily? - icWales

Do you scare easily? - icWales

As a paranormal investigator, John Sutton has helped to exorcise houses and seek out the truth behind spooky activities.

Now, with the help of his wife Lisa, he runs Ghost Knights, a company which organises paranormal evenings and clairvoyance shows in South Wales.

You can see his latest event at St Mary's Hotel, Pencoed, on April 27 - an evening with Bridgend medium Margaret Challenger.

And it will be a night of unique entertainment, whether you are a sceptic or a believer in the paranormal.

Mr Sutton, who has been in the job for 13 years, said: 'Being a paranormal investigator, I have to be sceptical.

'Mediums have to show me something concrete and the feedback from the audience when we used Margaret was good.

'She had a very good rapport with the audience.'

Apart from the quality of the medium, he also believes the setting is key to the atmosphere of the evening.

He said: 'St Mary's is a fabulous place, it's a nice location.

'I believe it's haunted as apparently there is something in one of the rooms.

'It's also got nice surroundings.'

The Suttons set up Ghost Knights to give people a more informal and honest insight into the paranormal.

'People don't seem to want to go to a spiritualist church so we thought we would bring the paranormal to people,' said Mr Sutton.

'We want to run an honest evening's entertainment.

'It's a good night's entertainment and it's safe.'

While the paranormal has never been more popular thanks to shows such as Most Haunted and Haunted Homes, he believes Most Haunted has been both a blessing and a curse to his industry.

He said: 'In my opinion it has caused damage to the business by making people think that people get possessed or attacked regularly in investigations.

'That has only happened to me once and it's very rare.

'I feel our evenings are more of an education to people.'

As well as providing entertainment, Ghost Knights donates £2 to the Ty Hafan hospice from every ticket sold.

Mr Sutton, originally from Yorkshire, said: 'I'd never heard of it before until I moved here but it feels great to be able to support the work they do.'

And he hopes to continue supporting the hospice through events lined up for the future.

He said: 'We do investigate houses and are planning special events with crystal healers and different mediums.

'We are just planning things for people to give the paranormal a try.

'Nothing nasty is going to happen, no-one is shown up, you just get to have a bit of fun as well.'

Tickets cost £10 on the door. For more information, visit http://ghostknights.moonfruit.com/.