With Halloween just around the corner, Quinnipiac University hosted a guest familiar with ghosts this past Saturday night.

John Zaffis, an expert on the paranormal, delivered a haunting presentation to the large group of wide-eyed students and a few interested security officers. He has worked in his field for over 35 years and appeared on popular television shows such as “Unsolved Mysteries” and “Haunted in Connecticut”.

“You’ve got to have a wicked sense of humor in this field,” Zaffis said.

Zaffis makes a living by making a great number of haunted house calls. People often call the well-known ghost expert into their private homes, businesses or public areas in hopes of him being able to rid their own and others’ lives of pesky spirit intruders. He shared some of his astonishing stories with the audience including a particularly nerve-wracking tale of an undisclosed haunted University in upstate New York.

Zaffis also does a lot of research on his own accord. The unknown is his passion, so he makes a hobby of touring historical buildings, battle grounds and medieval castles searching for paranormal activity.

“I’m one of those people who hangs at the back of tours and sneaks off to rooms and areas I’m not supposed to go,” Zaffis said. “I usually end up getting kicked out.”

Though his experiences may be unbelievable to some, he makes no attempt at talking those in disbelief into the truth behind his stories.

“I cannot say anything to make a skeptic believe in the paranormal,” Zaffis said. “A disbeliever must experience the paranormal first-hand if they are ever to trust its existence,” Zaffis says.

Zaffis projected numerous “physic photographs” in Alumni hall. These pictures displayed seemingly normal shots of houses, rooms or people, but there was a white or black orb or cloudy shape present in each of the photos. Though many could argue that the “spiritual presence” in the pictures could very possibly be camera glitches, Zaffis said that he showed many of his photo findings to Kodak-who had no mechanical or scientific explanation as to why the shapes were present.

Following the presentation of pictures, voices of those possessed and stories of personal encounters with ghosts, poltergeists and spirits was a question and answer session met with great enthusiasm by the audience.

Zaffis then took the audience on a ghost hunt on the Quinnipiac grounds. He led the group of nervous and excited students into the CLA woods in search of some kind of spiritual energy. He instructed everyone to attempt to take physic photographs whenever he thought he could feel some sort of presence. Surprisingly, in the midst of the towering trees many students walk by each day, more and more hunters approached Zaffis with their digital cameras and cell phones which had snapped pictures of white orbs and cloudy objects.

A nervous student asked Zaffis if he believed there were actually ghosts on the Quinnipiac campus.

“Ghosts? No,” Zaffis said. “What I believe I’m feeling and you all are capturing is simply natural spiritual energy. The kind of mellow spirit present in all natural environments.”

But, of course, he does remind students that he had only set foot in Alumni Hall and in that particular wooded part of campus. Who knows? Believe it or not, Quinnipiac University could possibly be haunted.