After years of taking ghost tours and late night runs to check out the latest claims from Weird NJ (c), the team of Mark and John Bylancik decide to get serious, get gear, and get going and they formed:

Garden State Paranormal Research (GSPR) - a paranormal investigative unit based in Verona, NJ. 

GSPR has one unique characteristic which sets it apart from nearly every other Paranormal Investigation team in existence:  One if it’s founders is a HS Sophomore.  Mark, 15, has been fascinated with the paranormal nearly his entire life, and was the driving force behind the team’s focus on the use of technology.  GSPR works at approximating scientific methodologies as much as possible rather than merely the gathering of “observations, sensations, and personal experiences which cannot be documented.  

“People may disagree that, say, the figure in a photograph is truly a ghost, for example” says Mark when explaining his position, “but at least there is some evidence to discuss.  With an undocumented experience, no one else can look at it and see if it can be explained or debunked by some other explanation.  I want GSPR to be outfitted with enough recorders and cameras to make sure that we capture anything that is going to happen.  I even want to have video cameras on the hand held EMF and IR Temperature meters we use so if we observe something happening, we have it recorded, too”.

As a 20-year veteran of technology development and innovative applications, including a 12-year stint working with leading-edge Wall Street tech firms, John has the right background to acquire and deploy the different audio and video evidence gathering technologies the team will use in its investigations.  John’s lifelong interests in history and “unexplainable events” makes paranormal investigating an ideal pursuit. 

“To be able to have the kind of access to historical locations you get during an investigation is almost reward enough.  Add that to the whole experience of running an investigation with my son, and capturing evidence on digital audio video files, and it’s about perfect.  I share Mark’s focus on evidence gathering - if we ever are going to learn more about what happens after death, we need more than stories.  But thankfully we have the stories that have been preserved and handed down over the generations, because these form the perfect starting point for investigations.

As GSPR, the team will seek participate in a number of investigations and cemetery hunts sponsored by the NJ Ghost Hunters Society with the goal of obtaining Paranormal Investigator Certifications from the NJGHS within the next several months. 

Once certified, the team will make itself available for investigations as needed, as well as begin to establish a program for other teenagers to be able to join GSPR and become trained members of the team.   “I’d like to see GSPR become a group that can get other kids into Paranormal Investigations” says Mark “There are a lot of groups out there, but you need to be 21 to join.  We don’t want to get into bars - unless they’re haunted - and then we’ll probably be in the dark parts of the basement.”