While most people only think of ghost hunting and paranormal investigations around Halloween, there’s a Vancouver Island group that tackles the task full-time and they’re inviting the public along to see how they do it.

Dawn Kirkham is a clairvoyant medium who has spent 25 years investigating the paranormal, most of them in the United Kingdom. She heads up a team called “Beyond Belief Paranormal Events” that will research strange occurrences at your home or business.

The team investigates these locations at no charge to the property owner but has an innovate approach to raising funds for their specialized equipment and efforts. They hold “paranormal weekends” at haunted locations and charge a fee to the public to not only follow their activities but also participate in them.

“The investigations are not just a spectator sport, of course if somebody just wants to sit back and observe they absolutely can, but we encourage people to get involved to use the equipment, to really fully immerse themselves in an investigation,” Kirkham says. 

Over the first weekend in March the group and their visitors explored the dark corners of the Heriot Bay Inn on Quadra Island. Their two nights began at 10 p.m. and lasted until 3 a.m. because that’s when the inn was the quietest and when customers were not around.

While Kirkham says many of her business clients want their boo-business kept confidential, the Heriot Bay Inn is quite the opposite.

“They embrace the spirits that reside here and so are very open. They love the fact that they have active spirits here, they’re very kind to the spirits here and, you know, I think it’s just a very symbiotic relationship,” Kirkham says.

She says some of the public that join them on their investigations do so on a repeat basis. She also says most of the followers are female, in part because they tend to be more intuitive. 

“We tend to attract people who are having their own experiences and want to come to explore that a little more in a safe way with people who know and can understand what they’re going through,” Kirkham says. 

Information about upcoming investigations, as well as evidence collected from their previous adventures is posted on the group’s Facebook page: Beyond Belief Paranormal Events.