Who ya gonna call?

More people witness paranormal activity that one might think, according to local ghost hunter

Name: Patrick Zakhm

Age: 42

Occupation: Paranormal investigator

Bio: This enigmatic St-Michel stud has been on the prowl for spooks since the early ’90s. Initially a skeptic, he says he first became convinced “the entities” were a genuine phenomenon after a medi­um he met at a psychic fair apparently started yakking with an ancestor of his whom Patrick only much later on learned truly existed. “He’d been a famous shoemaker in Africa who was murdered by other shoemakers for giving away free shoes to the poor.” Having done “much practice learning to become sensitive to the vibes of ghosts,” Patrick says he’s developed his ghost detecting abilities to the point where he’s now regularly called upon by freaked-out Montrealers who believe something very, very fucked up is going down in their digs but have no idea what to do about it. “They can’t call 911, the police will just laugh at them, so they go online and find me.” Should chairs be flying around your attic for no apparent reason and you’re thinking it’s just gotta be a spook having a tem­per tantrum, contact him at montrealparanormal.com. There’s a good chance Patrick and his team of ghost experts will swing by free of charge to investigate the situation.

How come ghoulies on those ridiculous Ghost Hunters TV shows always seem to understand modern English, even when they’re being tracked down in Gabon or Nicaragua? “I don’t watch those shows, it seems they only do them for money. But entities communicate through thought. There’s no language, but it’s like someone is talking to you. They are thoughts that you know are not your own. But you must know yourself very well to make the differentiation.”

Why do folk always go ghoulie hunting at night? What difference does the time of day make to a non-physical entity? “I believe it’s because your physical senses are weaker and spiritual senses more awake. I’m not entirely sure why, but you contact more ghosts at night. You just do.”

How come the ghosts people claim to encounter always seem to come from relatively recent history, post-Enlightenment spooks if you like. Shouldn’t there be Neanderthal and primitive man ghosts as well? “Ancient man was much more in tune with nature and the conscious of the soul. They were more inclined to move on to the next plane when they died.”

Do many people suggest he might be better off talking about ghosts with his psychiatrist instead of them? “You know that with certain people you’re just wasting your time talking about it, and I try to avoid wasting my time. Many people are still skeptical when they come to me, but they have open minds and are trying to understand what’s happened to them. Many, many people contact me but I’m sure there’re many more Montrealers who won’t share their ghost experiences for fear of what people will think of them. They know people will go, ‘Are you on drugs? What kind of pot are you smoking?’ But they open up to me because they know I understand. I get e-mails all the time. All the time.”

Last book read: Voice of the Silence, by Helena Blavatsky.

Musical preferences: Shania Twain, Stevie Wonder, Rihanna.

Words of wisdom: “Destiny is like a goal in someone’s mind. How to reach it is our freedom.” ■

COMMENTS? DIMWIT@OPENFACE.CA

Short URL: http://www.montrealmirror.com/wp/?p=20695