As long as you’re not terrified by it, enjoy the fact that you got to have something that most people don’t.
Bryan Bonner grew up on horror movies and now he works to explain what’s behind them. A founding member of the Rocky Mountain Paranormal Research Society, Bryan works to help people who have been scared by terrifying occurrences in homes and businesses. With science on his side, he conducts experiments, tests, and investigates everything from ghosts, UFOs, conspiracy theories, and more. He works with medical doctors, psychologists, geologists, physicists, astrophysicists, and astrobiologists! This ghost hunter looks to educate the public through humor, creativity, and compassion.
If that wasn’t enough work, he can also be found on the “Do You Like Scary Movies” and “They Did It” podcasts. Get to know Bryan and find out what inspires him to hunt the pesky paranormal.
Come meet Bryan at the final StarFest Convention May 13-15, 2022 at the Hyatt Regency Denver Tech Center. Click here to find out about this wonderful event.
Colleen Bement: Thank you very much for taking time out for this interview. My readers are definitely into the paranormal and learning more about what you do. Tell me about yourself and what is the Rocky Mountain Paranormal Research Society.
Bryan Bonner: I am the, for better or for worse, Founder of Rocky Mountain Paranormal. We are going into our 22nd year, and over the decades we have been investigating every imaginable type of paranormal claim and trying to put some actual scientific method to the research and see what we can find. It’s been a lot of fun and we’re looking forward to the next one.
CB: Do you have fun doing it and do you have a crew?
BB: Do I have fun doing it? Absolutely, or I wouldn’t have put up with it for this long. (laughs). A crew? We have a very small crew, but we also rely on a short list of experts. We’re not the experts in anything. We analyze what we can and say what field can we bring into this to help us that may be able to help us understand what’s going on. We work with people from all types of different backgrounds. We work with medical doctors, psychologists, geologists, physicists, astrophysicists, and astrobiologists, we’ve called these people in the past and will continue to call them because it’s nice to be able to deal with real scientists when it comes to finding a real answer.
CB: You’re a guest speaker at StarFest and I know your fans are excited. Two questions: What are you most looking forward to at StarFest and, what are your thoughts on it being its final convention?
BB: You’ve kind of nailed it right there. Being able to go in and speak at StarFest it’s like home. We’ve done talks there for well over a decade, and haven’t been there for a few years, and knowing that this is the last one, it just feels like the place we need to be. Prior to that, I think my first StarFest or StarCon, was, I believe the second or third one that ever happened. I go way back when it comes to visiting the con.
CB: I go back to 1997.
BB: I’ve still got my 1983 entrance badge. It’s going to be fun and I think that hopefully, something takes its place because it’s an important niche that Colorado doesn’t really have. It’s much more personal. If you go to Fan Expo or something like that, it feels big, it feels corporate. It’s still fun, but it doesn’t have that it’s-being-run-by-family feel to it. It may be because I go back that far, but it kind of feels like home.
CB: I’m super impressed with your experience and the research that you’ve done. What inspired you to get into this field?
BB: Bad choices, heavy drinking. (Laughing). Realistically, it’s kind of a stock answer, but it’s true. When I was growing up and was five or six years old, my mother was a fan of horror films. She wanted someone to watch them with and my father was running a business, so, me, the young child, got to watch all of the scary movies. She finally stopped and said, let me explain. These aren’t real. This is what’s going on, this is how they make them. I was intrigued and that’s one of the reasons that I became an absolute horror fan.
Years later, I’m seeing all these movies coming out saying “based on true events,” things that happened in real life, and I said hold on a minute–I didn’t think any of this was real. It made me start diving into OK, what are the claims behind these movies? Why are they saying they’re based on something that actually happened, and 20 some years later, here I am.
CB: Do you feel that you’ve proved some and debunked some?
BB: I’ve definitely debunked some, and I’d like to say that I’ve proved some, but so far I can say that, and this will sound kind of egotistical, but on the scientific level, nobody has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt anything paranormal. We keep trying. We keep coming up with interesting claims, but definitely have things that will say I don’t know what that was. I don’t know is a perfectly fine explanation until we have more research. Until we have more data. I don’t know.
There have been a lot of things out there.
One thing that I worked for was called “The Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge,” where they offered a million dollars to anybody that could come up with a scientifically testable and agreed-upon test for anything paranormal. That was for over 20 years, and strangely enough, nobody got it. But I’ve had weird experiences, I’ve had things that I haven’t been able to explain, and that’s what keeps me going. Being able to go places and say I have no idea what caused that but let’s keep looking into it. Running the true scientific method, you can’t jump to any conclusion was or wasn’t something unless you have absolute proof. We keep looking for answers every place we go.
CB: Can I, for a moment, be “one of those people” who question the paranormal? I think because I’ve never experienced anything, I am skeptical. Is it just that I am not open enough?
BB: I’ve asked myself that question for decades. Being skeptical is the way to do it because the true definition of skeptical is open to any answer and being able to be open to all possibilities. Now, being cynical, that’s different. That’s either side that you absolutely do or absolutely don’t and can’t be convinced either way.
When I’ve talked with people that have had some sort of an experience, and I can’t explain it, and they tell me that they had some sort of experience ten years ago and they ask me to explain that, I say no. I don’t have enough information. I don’t have enough data to tell you what it was. If I do, maybe we can talk about it. But at the same time, it’s very rare that people get to have a perceived paranormal event. As long as you’re not terrified by it, enjoy the fact that you got to have something that most people don’t.
It’s an unusual field to be in because the odds of us actually witnessing are pretty slim. Now, we keep trying.
CB: I’m hoping for that day that I witness something. In the meantime, I am definitely going to be at your panel at StarFest.
BB: We’ve done talks at StarFest for 10-12 years now and every one of them has been almost standing room only. People just enjoy the topic so much.
CB: Tell us about your podcasts “Do You Like Scary Movies” and “They Did It podcasts.” AND, what other projects do you have in the works that you’re allowed to tell your fans about?
BB: I always have more than I can handle, but if you want any of the paranormal research stuff or any of the events that we’re doing go to RockyMountainParanormal.com. You would probably be interested because most of our investigation, there’s a complete, downloadable PDF report for all of those. You can read about the history, the investigation, and just anything and everything.
I do have two podcasts in the works right now. Being the horror buff that I am and a fan of everything scary, bringing one back from the dead as they say called “Do You Like Scary Movies” featuring everything spooky and scary. That is doyoulikescarymovies.com. And I have another one that I’m working on…conspiracies. It’s all weird conspiracies, weird concepts, weird things that are going on out there. It’s called the “They Did It” podcast, because, you know, they did it! The easiest way to find that is to go to Facebook and find the “They Did It” podcast. We’re about to release the second one of those in a day or two.
See you at StarFest, Bryan!
Written by Colleen Bement
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