John Zaffis (born December 18, 1955) is a

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Not ...

researcher born and based in

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. He starred in the SyFy paranormal

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show, '' Haunted Collector'', and runs the Paranormal and Demonology Research Society of New England, which he founded in 1998.

Career

Zaffis has over forty years of experience as a paranormal investigator.Coast to Coast
/ref> Research has taken Zaffis all over the United States as well as

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, and

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. He lectures at colleges, universities, and libraries throughout the United States, although usually not under academic auspices. Zaffis currently runs the Museum of the Paranormal located in Stratford, Connecticut. He also starred in and wrote the

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

''Museum of the Paranormal'', which was released in spring 2010 and produced by New Gravity Media. His first book, ''Shadows of the Dark'', was co-written with Brian McIntyre and published in 2004 through iUniverse. A documentary film on his work and personal life, called ''John Zaffis: The World Within'' and produced by CORE Films (which also produced the paranormal documentary series '' Scared!''), was released on September 3, 2010.

''Haunted Collector''

Zaffis starred in a documentary TV series on Syfy called '' Haunted Collector'', which premiered on June 1, 2011. It features him, his son, his daughter, and three other crew members searching for ghosts in certain buildings people call upon him to investigate. The premise of the show is that the crew finds an item in the building that may have some sort of connection with a haunting. The show was initially cancelled in November 2013. It has subsequently been renewed and as of October 2016 is releasing new episodes on

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Other media appearances

Zaffis has made appearances on '' Unsolved Mysteries'', '' Fox News Live'', and the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...

documentaries ''Little Lost Souls'' and ''A Haunting in Connecticut''. He currently co-hosts the ''Paranormal Nights'' radio show with Brendan Keenan. Zaffis was also in two episodes of '' A Haunting'' ("The Possessed" and "Ghost Hunter") where the main characters of both episodes are possessed by harmful demons. In the 2008

docudrama Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television show, television and feature film, film, which features Drama (film and television), dramatized Historical reenactment, re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of docu ...

''The Possessed'', he plays himself as the demonologist. Zaffis also appeared and was interviewed in the 2009 '' Ghost Adventures'' episode at the

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factory. He also appeared in the 2009 '' Scared!'' episode filmed at the Grand Midway Hotel. Zaffis has appeared six times on the long-running radio program '' Coast to Coast AM'' from 2005 to 2007. Often, he is a guest and co-host on the ''Beyond Reality Radio'' program hosted by The Atlantic Paranormal Society's Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson. He has also appeared in several episodes of the

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's paranormal reality TV program, ''Ghost Adventures'', as well as on ABC's investigative program, '' 20/20'', and on Piers Morgan's cable talk show broadcast on CNN.

Personal life

Zaffis admits that he was initially very skeptical of the existence of

ghost In folklore, a ghost is the soul or Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit of a dead Human, person or non-human animal that is believed by some people to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely, from a ...

s, until one Wednesday evening when he was sixteen and saw a transparent apparition at the foot of his bed shaking its head back and forth. When he told his mother of the incident, Zaffis learned that his grandfather, when he was alive, always shook his head when he was upset about something. In the next few days, Zaffis' grandmother, who lived with him, died. This incident piqued his interest in the paranormal and set him about talking to authorities on the subject and reading about the paranormal. Zaffis spent his first years studying under his uncle and aunt Ed and Lorraine Warren,Our Haunted Lives: True Life Ghost Encounters, Jeff Belanger, page 186 both demonologists. What he learned from his aunt and uncle exceeded his original interests in ghosts and haunted houses.Providence Journal, "Paranormal expert to appear in Portsmouth", by Bryan Rourke, October 31, 2002 Zaffis became interested in

demonology Demonology is the study of demons within religious belief and myth. Depending on context, it can refer to studies within theology, religious doctrine, or occultism. In many faiths, it concerns the study of a hierarchy of demons. Demons may be n ...

at a young age, which led into his involvement with cases of

spirit possession Spirit Possession is an altered state of consciousness and associated behaviors which are purportedly caused by the control of a human body and its functions by Supernatural#Spirit, spirits, ghosts, demons, angels, or Deity, gods. The concept ...

and

exorcism Exorcism () is the religious or spiritual practice of evicting demons, jinns, or other malevolent spiritual entities from a person, or an area, that is believed to be possessed. Depending on the spiritual beliefs of the exorcist, this may be do ...

and working with prominent

exorcist In some religions, an exorcist (from the Greek „ἐξορκιστής“) is a person who is believed to be able to cast out the devil or performs the ridding of demons or other supernatural beings who are alleged to have possessed a person ...

s in that field. He has studied the work of

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

priests, monks, Buddhists, rabbis, and

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

ministers.Paranormal Research Society of New England
/ref> Zaffis has also taken part in and assisted with the work of well-known exorcists like Bishop Robert McKenna, Malachi Martin, and Reverend Jun. According to fellow paranormal investigator Jason Hawes, co-star of the reality television series '' Ghost Hunters'', Zaffis counseled him after he began seeing apparitions at the age of twenty. Hawes credits Zaffis with his subsequent career as a ghost hunter.

References

External links

*
John Zaffis Museum of the Paranormal official websiteThe Paranormal Research Society of New England
(archived at

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