Seeing spirits

Elmwood

Seven Oaks

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This article was published 25/10/2023 (764 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Victor Martin is not a ghost hunter — the self-described paranormal investigator doesn’t need to ‘hunt’ for spirits. Instead, he says, they come to him.

The Elmwood resident has been conducting paranormal investigations of all kinds — residential, business, and more, in several provinces, for 19 years. He’s the leader of a small non-profit team of investigators, all of them volunteers, and the owner of a highly-sought collection of technology for successful spiritual communication.

In May, Martin and his team — VIP Team Paranormal Investigation — were the stars of Ghost Kitchens, which aired exclusively on Bell MTS Fibe TV. But now he’s releasing 100 signed DVDs so fans and paranormal enthusiasts who missed it can watch it.

What separates Ghost Kitchens from other paranormal investigations, aside from the local connection, is the method in which it was conducted, Martin said. It’s not a scary experience, but rather a respectful one.

“The paranormal shows you see on TV (are all spooks),” he said. “We made it more of a relaxing thing, and (showed that) everybody’s human and normal … I can’t raise up the spirits of the dead or stuff like that.

“When we do an investigation, we don’t chase them. We don’t scare them,” Martin said. “We’re trying to find out why they have come to that house and how we can help. And if they can’t give us any information, then we start asking for clues as a puzzle, and then we start figuring it out for them,” Martin said.

Ghost Kitchens takes place at the Seven Oaks and Ross House Museum, and depicted Martin and his team trying to determine what the family there — a father, mother and children — was angry about.

”The spirit who I met there was the father. He was the only one that was allowing me to talk to him, and nobody else. If I tried to talk to one of his family members, he got really mad,” Martin said.

Asked about the book written on the death of the spirit and his family, Martin recalled the spirit angrily stating the information in it was wrong.

“I don’t know where (the author) got his information from,” he said. “I got mine from the (father). So I think I believe him more than I would believe the other guy.”

Martin said he isn’t scared of the spirits he interacts with, adding that spirits and ghosts are different things.

“A spirit wants to be seen, heard and (to be able to) ask for help,” he said. “It wants to continue its travels to the other side or to find its loved ones and relay a message.”

Interacting with these kinds of spirits is an everyday occurrence, Martin said, and he feels certain presences whether he’s investigating or not.

It’s not a gift he can usually talk to people about, he said, noting that the subject is frightening for a lot of people, but he said he’s glad he can use it to help — both the spirits and the people claiming to be affected by them.

“Talk to them as you talk to a normal person, get them to make some noises so you know they’re there. And be polite about it, because you nobody likes people to being rude to anybody. They’re dead people, but they have a mission,” he said, and they won’t leave until that mission is complete.

VIP Team Paranormal Investigation team shares many of its findings on its website, www.vipteam1.com, as well as YouTube, at www.youtube.com/@vipteam.

Martin said DVDs of Ghost Kitchens will be sold at upcoming events such as the Winnipeg Psychic & Crystal Fair.