Interview: Mark Larocque & Trevor Bishop from OGPS

(pictured: Mark & Trevor)

January 5, 2016

OGPS Filming & Investigations was founded in early 2010 and is Ontario’s first openly gay paranormal society. They’re breaking down the walls within the paranormal world & the LGBT community. They’ve been filming since 2013 in southwestern and northern Ontario, investigating paranormal claims (Bigfoot, UFOs, spirits, elementals, and more) in businesses, homes, and historic buildings.

Mark kindly answered our questions about himself and acted as a spokesperson for Trevor.

vp: What was your first experience encountering the paranormal?

Mark: At the age of 6, I had my first encounter with the paranormal world. My bedroom was across from my parents’ room in a bungalow; their bedroom door was always closed in the night. I woke up and saw two spirits coming from the middle of the floor and between the two bedroom doors. When I saw this I pinched myself to see if it was all real and also to see if I was awake. When the spirits went in front of the door, I could see what they where wearing: a blue jean jacket, one had blond hair, and the other had dark hair. Both had bike helmets in their hand, and they were talking to each other, but I could not make out what they were saying. They floated to the ceiling and were gone.

Growing up, I learned that my great-great-grandmother was a spiritual doctor and she is one of my spirit guides. This must of been a message from her to welcome me to the spirit world. Later in life I also have had family members that have passed away come to me.

Trevor’s first experience with the paranormal was around the age of 25 when he was living in a town called Baden. He had been renting an apartment on the main street and always felt there was something in the apartment and could feel the energy from time to time. Over time, the energy grew, until one day, after arriving home from work, he walked to the front door of the apartment (which was about three steps up from the ground to the door). Opening the door, he could sense a strong energy directly in front of him, staring him down. Suddenly, the energy rushed him and shoved him back down the steps. Luckily, he only stumbled from the force of the energy. He could sense the spirit shove him, fly past, and rush up into the air and dissipate. There was nothing there he could see, but the sensation was definitely there, and he could sense the spirit from the moment he opened the door until it flew past. That moment was groundbreaking for Trevor and really drew him into the paranormal.

vp: Recall a powerful moment the occurred on a recent investigation.

Mark: During an investigation we did for veryparanormal, we investigated two historic locations in Niagara Falls, ON, and under official city tourism authorization, we we’re granted permission to investigate at the Chippewa Battle Field and the Battle Ground Hotel. At the Chippewa Battlefield, a rare and powerful event happened. When we marched onto the black Battle Field we began by placing what we call a trigger-object. This was a sound effect of a battle being fought. After playing this a few times to the spirits, we heard not just one word over the spirit box but a couple phrases. Anyone in the field knows this is rare! What was unusual about this is that the phrases were actually in question format and in French. So, we think that a French soldier was trying to ask us something, but actually repeated the question several times. This was amazing to us. Which is quite often why we use trigger-objects to ensure responses.

vp: Have you ever come across any spirits that seemed to have a sense of humour?

Mark: There is one location that we use to go to before we started filming back in 2013 that contains a cemetery and haunted road. Along the road there is said to be a spirit of a Wendigo with a Skin Walker that is near the area where we use to live. (A Wendigo is a Native spirit, half-beast creature appearing in the legends of the Algonquian peoples along the Atlantic Coast and Great Lakes Region of both the United States and Canada. A Skin-Walker is a person with the natural ability to turn into any animal they desire. To be able to transform, legend sometimes requires that the skin-walker wears a pelt of the animal. In most cases, this pelt is not used in modern times because it is an obvious sign of them being skin-walkers.) At this location there’s a cemetery that we have investigated frequently and can always get great EVPs and evidence. When we conducted EVP sessions with the old Radio Shack Frank Box, we would attempt any type of communication, including jokes with them, and we’d find we’d receive jokes back from the spirits acknowledging the ones we made. It was an interesting way of communication and good to find that spirits can have a sense of humor.

vp: What is your favourite investigation technique?

Mark: When I do a location for investigating, what I prefer to do is mediumship: going into the area and feeling the ground that we are at and opening myself to the energy that is around. I am also a trance-channeler; with this I let myself open more to the spirits, and I go into a deep trance. This is used primarily in physical mediumship and allows the spirits to come in and use my voice box for them to be able to speak, but I am still in power.

Trevor’s favourite means of investigating is with an array of paranormal tools. His specialty is with EVP and using the Spirit Box, and his ability with a background in Radio Broadcasting helps him analyze EVP voices with a precise ear from being trained in audio at school. He’s able to distinguish wording down to the syllable better than the average investigator and gets resulting amazing class-A EVPs.

vp: Is there a particular experience you’re seeking or something you hope will happen on a future investigation?

Mark: As we are doing right now, and plan to continue in the future, we are a pioneer team by breaking down walls that are out there both in the paranormal community and within the LGBTTQS community. We are hoping we can broaden people’s minds about things that are different and have them be more open-minded in both areas, and to become less skeptical in both areas. For future investigations, we hope to continue to bring out some of our great Canadian history and investigate some locations that no one has done yet locally, and we hope to gain the chance to investigate locations abroad such as the UK that are on every investigator’s list!

Our thanks to both Mark and Trevor for sharing their paranormal encounters with us.

OGPS investigations coming soon.

-Hecate