The G.H.O.S.H. Magazine recently had the privilege to interview the man who helped to make the G.H.O. what it is today. Whether Troy knows it or not founder Beau Woods didn’t know that it was a possibility to be in the field when he first found Troy’s book “The Ghost Hunters Guidebook”. Troy Taylor has been an inspiration to many young ghost investigators. He has written numerous books on the subject of ghosts and hauntings, including books on how to start out in the field and tips on how to investigate. We were giddy like little school girls when he gave us the opportunity.

GHO - How does it feel to be responsible for helping spawn so many infant groups across the globe with your books on how to conduct a paranormal investigation?

 Troy -  You may be giving me too much credit there but I have been amazed to realize that it’s been 10 years since the first edition of my “Ghost Hunter’s Guidebook” came out and people started thinking of me as an authority about all of this stuff. Sometimes that can be a real curse when you are always expected to “do the right thing” when it comes to investigations and research, believe me! However, I have to say that if I have inspired someone out there to get involved in the field, then I’m happy with what I’ve done.

GHO - Do you feel these young groups help or hurt the field of paranormal investigation?

Troy - There’s no way that new groups can “hurt” the field. The more people who come to the field, the better, I believe. The problem becomes when those new groups want to be like “what we see on TV” and start to think this is all a game or that ghosts pop up on every investigation that you do. Those looking for a shortcut become lazy and that’s when they hurt the field.

GHO - What are your most memorable investigation and paranormal experiences?

 Troy -  to this day, my most memorable investigation was one where I “proved” a house was haunted. I was asked to investigate a house where a woman claimed that she was seeing a ghost on a regular basis and described him to me. I researched the history of the house and found that the original owner had committed suicide in 1925. I found a photo of him in old newspaper archives and copied it, then clipped a number of other photos of men from the same time period. I returned to the house and asked the woman if she recognized any of the men as her ghost. She picked out the original owner from his photo --- having no knowledge of the house’s history! To make me even more convinced of the authenticity of the place, no less than 3 previous owners also picked out the same man as their ghost.

My most memorable paranormal experience remains my sighting of a ghost at the Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Kentucky. I have written about that so many times that I won’t bore you with it (again) here but suffice it to say, if I had experienced any doubts about the reality of ghosts, that would have convinced me!