I have loved everything to do with the paranormal world for as long as I can remember. I write about ghosts, hauntings, aliens, angels, demons, ESP, premonitions, past lives, reincarnation - you name it - for quite some time as well. One place where I write regularly is http://www.examiner.com/x-35811-Hamilton-Paranormal-Examiner.

I have also written a number of books including Glimpses: True Stories of the Paranormal, Glimpses 2: (it could happen to you!) and Totally Scared: The Complete Book On Haunted Houses with Dawn Colclasure. The last one is being update with even more information than the first edition.

As well, I have had quite a number of personal paranormal occurrences during my life including seeing spirits, having a vision, hearing the angels sing, a near death experience and more. These I have also written about on various blogs and columns, as well as in my books.

I am so happy to report that people are now beginning to take claims of the paranormal much more seriously than in the past. I just wrote a story about The Afterlife Files, which aims to prove that what people are experiencing is real. That story can be found in my Examiner column. The fellow behind it wants to create a made-for-TV documentary showing this proof for all to see.

Todd Moster is a lawyer, so he should certainly know what constitutes solid evidence. He says that such a documentary could potentially change the way we view our world.

He is particularly interested in EVP (electronic voice phenomena), which ghost hunters acquire through various means including the regular digital voice recorder, to Frank's boxes and more up-to-date spirit boxes.

Asked how he developed such a strong interest in EVP in an interview on January 21, 2015, he replied, “I’ve been interested in the subject of EVP since the late ‘70s when I read the book Breakthrough: An Amazing Experiment in Electronic Communication with the Dead by Konstantin Raudive, which documented his experiments in that area. Although I later put the topic aside for many years as I concentrated on my career as a trial attorney and executive recruiter, I looked into the area again in the early 2000’s and was intrigued by all of the new research in the field. The new information inspired me to produce a mini documentary about EVP called Breaking the Barrier in 2008.”

To fund his project, Moster has begun a Kickstarter campaign called The Afterlife Files with a goal of raising $500,000 so electronic voice phenomena (EVP), which has become a mainstay of proof for paranormal investigators on the reality of life after death, can be studied and analyzed from a scientific standpoint.

That sounds like a lot of money to get within the short time allowed by Kickstarter, but he is determined.

“As has been the experience of many a producer before and after me, I found that the needed funds were not forthcoming,” he said. “The advent of the crowd-funding phenomenon in the last few years, however, has given a new platform for producers to take their ideas directly to the public for support. And in keeping with the innovative spirit of the crowd-funding platform, we’ve chosen Kickstarter.com. We’ve reinvented the format from the more conventional documentary vehicle we pursued in 2008 to a cutting-edge scientific exploration of EVP, combined with a documentary-style series intended for TV or Internet distribution, which will follow both the experimental process and the diverse group of paranormal investigators, die-hardskeptics, mainstream scientists and other participants who carry it out.”

He called his project “the most ambitious and decisive scientific exploration of whether the human personality lives on after physical death.” The proposed series would begin with a pilot similar to Breaking the Barrier but would focus more on “introducing viewers to the subject of EVP, as well as to the mission, design crew and key investigators who will conduct the hard core scientific study that is at the heart of The Afterlife Files.”

Then the 12 remaining episodes would involve actually garnering proof in the field that EVP does or does not represent the voices of the deceased.

Moster said the total of $500,000 that he hopes would be donated through the campaign would ensure that he meets his financial requirements. However, he admitted that it might be optimistic given that Kickstarter projects must meet their goal within a specified amount of time. He said the site allows a campaign to run “from 1 to a maximum of 60 days.” He chose 40 days beginning on January 28, 2015.”

But would that be enough time to raise such a large amount of money?

“At first glance, $500,000 seems like a crazy amount of money,” he said, “but it’s the absolute minimum we need to obtain the high profile scientists, lab facilities and cutting-edge equipment to do this right. Kickstarter advises us that the average contribution comes in around $75 although many people, of course, contribute more and some pledge less. If that average holds true for us, we’ll need about 7,000 backers for our project.”

He realizes that hoping to raise enough interest from that many people might seem like quite a stretch but he believes it is “really a tiny percentage of the millions of people worldwide who are fascinated by the paranormal, or just wonder from time to time (as do most of us) what happens to us when we die.”

He plans to place a video trailer at the top of his Kickstarter page. You can see that trailer HERE. If he can get the trailer to go viral he said, “we’ll have a good chance of crossing the finish line.”

As well, he said there are quite a number of rewards being offered as part of the campaign for those who donate, “ranging from music and signed movie posters at the lower levels to producer credits, private progress reports, and exclusive tickets to our premiere screening at the higher levels – to make it a fun experience for our supporters.”

The success of his campaign will ultimately depend on how people feel about his proposed project and their willingness to help see it to fruition.

“We’re depending on everyone who finds this project intriguing and worthwhile, even if they already have an opinion one way or the other on the subject, to spread the word to their friends, family and coworkers. That is really the only way we will succeed and be in a position to start putting our team together in April.”

If successful, Moster plans to film the pilot and a 12-episode series for television that will be more of a scientific expedition designed to determine if EVP claims are based on reality or just wishful thinking. He plans to collaborate with EVP researchers, people who want to make contact with those who have passed over, scientists and of course, skeptics of the phenomena.

In the past, Moster has written for a History Channel series and other shows. The co-producer for The Afterlife Files will be Nancy Williams of Nancy Williams Productions, who is an Emmy winning journalist and was a syndicated TV news reporter/producer for Time Warner. Her production company based in Los Angeles, CA, produces material for video, web and television.

But that's not all...

Another 'afterlife' documentary is also in the works call The Scientific Establishment of Parapsychology. Created by Don & Steve Mera of the U.K. it is destined to become a TV series. Unfortunately, I am not at liberty to say any more about it at this point but any project that aims to add credibility to the paranormal field is certainly good news - at least to me.

I have written literally hundreds of story based on information from people around the world about their personal experiences with spirits of the dead (which is really a misnomer since they are still very much alive - in spirit). I have also written about people's real experiences living in haunted houses, having predictive dreams, near death experiences, premonitions and so much more.

As well, I recently wrote a book review on The Science of Spirit Possession by Terence Palmer in which he uses a critical scientific mind to determine that possession is a real phenomenon. 

To know that there are folks out there who want to prove these types of events based on science, is a wonderful thing. Surely, they will help open the minds and eyes of those folks who have never had such experiences and others who seem to live just to debunk anything having to do with the paranormal. Hopefully, even the staunchest critics will give the subject another more serious look.