Michael Worden is a paranormal investigator and a sergeant at the Port Jervis Police Department. He has published two books, “Ghost Detective” and “The Murder of Mr. Jennings: The True Story of New York’s First Murder for Hire.” He uses skills and techniques he learned as a police officer, detective, and now a sergeant to conduct his paranormal investigations much as he would at a crime scene, and is dedicated to bringing credibility and professionalism to the field of ghost hunting. He works closely with Linda Zimmermann, a fellow paranormal investigator and prolific author, and Barbara Roth, a psychic, in his investigations.
Epoch Times: What made you interested in the paranormal?
Michael Worden: It was a natural curiosity and also driven by the experiences I was having as a child in a family home that was having unexplained paranormal activity going on.
Epoch Times: What do you hope will come of all your investigations?
Mr. Worden: Partly to satisfy my curiosity but also to contribute towards answering the question: ‘Are hauntings or paranormal activity something that we can provide credible evidence of, to show that there is something going on?’ This isn’t something that people are imagining or misinterpreting. There are legitimate cases where there is paranormal activity that can’t be explained in our current base of knowledge or science.
Epoch Times: Do you feel there is enough evidence out there to prove the existence of the paranormal?
Mr. Worden: I think there is a lot of evidence that goes back thousands of years. People have been reporting various ghostly phenomena. There’s a lot of anecdotal evidence and there’s a lot of personal experience over the centuries that people have reported. There are a lot of good investigators out there trying to draw a correlation between haunting activity and some way of scientifically measuring it or measuring the effect of those activities.
Epoch Times: Do you think more people are recognizing paranormal phenomena as paranormal as it becomes more socially acceptable to believe in it?
Mr. Worden: I think more people are more open to sharing their experiences. I don’t know if it is a case of more people experiencing versus more people who are experiencing it being willing to come forward and share that experience without the fear of being ridiculed.
Epoch Times: Is there one paranormal investigation that is the most memorable?
Mr. Worden: My grandparent’s home in Port Jervis really started a lot of my curiosity. In an investigation, my partner Linda Zimmermann and I both had a very powerful emotional reaction where we are both very upset. We were experiencing what I would describe as intense sadness and grief simultaneously in a dark room. I described it as the grief that could only come from a parent losing a child, and I felt that whatever I was feeling was a life-altering sadness.
