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S1 E41 - Lynda Quirino - Paranormal Investigator
11 Plays6 days ago
In this week’s fun episode I am speaking to Lynda Quirino.
Lynda has spent over 44 years investigating and researching the paranormal.
From her experiences with Ghostly Mounties, to gaining the nickname of the ‘Ghost Lady’
Lynda experienced glass ashtrays being thrown in her direction and then realised it is also best to not investigate alone.
She was the Assistant Director of The Toronto Ghosts and Hauntings Research Society, before forming the Georgina Paranormal Society.
We spoke about Ghosts not keeping to schedules and arranging regular paranormal meetings in Funeral homes.
Our Finally discussion was Lynda appearing on the TV show Paranormal Survivor and Skin Walkers in Ontario
Recommended
Transcript
Intro
Origins of Paranormal Interest
00:00:12
Lee Hatfield
Hello, everybody, and welcome to the latest episode of Super Paranormal Chronicles. Today, I am delighted to have Linda Quirino, nearlyli said it who's been in the paranormal field for over 44 years, and we've got some cool stories.
00:00:28
Lee Hatfield
Linda, welcome.
00:00:29
Lynda Quirino
Well, thank you so much for having me here. i'm I'm delighted, actually. This is going to be fun.
00:00:35
Lee Hatfield
Don't call me Ashley, just Lee.
00:00:39
Lee Hatfield
Okay. so You've been in the field for 44 years. how did this all start?
00:00:48
Lynda Quirino
My goodness, I don't know if you've got a five hour show or not, but you know, I'll make it short. Do you know really how it all started was through a paranormal experience that I had when I was very, very young. And it intrigued me to find out a little bit more about all of this ghostly stuff. And that's really in a nutshell, how it all started.
00:01:10
Lee Hatfield
OK, so you mentioned this paranormal experience. You can't just keep us on tender hooks and not tell us. so So what happened?
00:01:18
Lynda Quirino
All right. Okay. Well, I was very young. I grew up in Montreal and my parents had summer cottage in the Laurentians in a little place called New Wago, which I mean, I don't even know if it exists anymore.
00:01:22
Lee Hatfield
Thank
00:01:34
Lynda Quirino
But it was near a place called Morin Heights where there's a lot of great skiing, a beautiful lake. But when I was very, very young, they used to put me to sleep.
00:01:41
Lee Hatfield
Thank you.
00:01:44
Lynda Quirino
in the ground floor bedroom of the cottage that we had. And I used to see all kinds of different images sort of coming in and out making faces at me, trying to get me to laugh is what I interpreted it as.
00:02:00
Lynda Quirino
But I was really young. I was about maybe four or five years old. So to me, it was it was funny and it was strange, but I didn't think anything of it because, you know, when you're little, what you see is what you get, right?
00:02:13
Lee Hatfield
Thank you.
00:02:13
Lynda Quirino
And so I mentioned it to my parents at the time and said, yeah, there's all these funny people that are making faces at me. They're talking to me. they're smiling at me and they have weird hats on.
00:02:27
Lynda Quirino
So my mom said, well, what kind of a hat? And I said, well, it's kind of a funny hat and it has a dent in the middle. So she didn't say anything. And a little while later, we were watching cartoons.
00:02:41
Lynda Quirino
And back then we watched a cartoon called Dudley Do-Right, the Canadian Mountie.
00:02:42
Lee Hatfield
Wow.
00:02:47
Lynda Quirino
And anybody in Canada would know what that cartoon was. And I pointed at the television and I said, that's the hat that they're wearing when they come in and out and they say hello to me in the bedroom.
00:03:01
Lynda Quirino
And my parents kind of looked at me and said, well, that's very interesting because your grandfather built the cottage over an old Mountie station.
00:03:10
Lynda Quirino
So that, yeah, that really intrigued me. And of course, as a child, you know, in kindergarten or whatever, people would ask you questions about, you know, what, what do you do?
00:03:11
Lee Hatfield
wow
00:03:14
Lee Hatfield
so
00:03:20
Lynda Quirino
And what are you interested in When I would talk about this experience, people in the playground would say, well, there's no such thing as ghosts. I mean, when you think they're ghosts, and I'd say, well, yeah, I really do. And they'd say, well, there's no such thing.
00:03:34
Lynda Quirino
And then, of course, when nobody was looking, they kind of take me to the side and say, well, I had an experience too. So you're really not crazy. Let me tell you about mine.
Teenage Fascination and Knowledge Sharing
00:03:44
Lynda Quirino
So that's really how it all started very innocently as a child.
00:03:50
Lee Hatfield
I love it how some people try and tell you that the paranormal doesn't exist. I had a friend last year when I told him was a paranormal investigator, he laughed and I went, so you've got evidence to prove this then, have you?
00:04:06
Lee Hatfield
so What do you mean? Well, if you think it's like garbage, you must have some evidence to prove that fact. And you could make a lot of money from that. oh Well, no, it's just my personal opinion.
00:04:18
Lee Hatfield
So it's like, well, let me tell you something.
00:04:21
Lynda Quirino
Right.
00:04:22
Lee Hatfield
Okay. Okay. So... These kind of things happened in your your early life. So when you became a teenager and started realising what the world was all about, how did that paranormal route take you then?
00:04:40
Lynda Quirino
Well, I've always been a bit of a voracious reader. So I really wanted to learn more about the paranormal field. And at the time, there were some great books out and some interesting television programs at the time, not kind of like what we have. We didn't have all the equipment and we didn't have, you know, ghost hunters and all of that. But I used to read a lot about the paranormal and order books from Scholastic about the the paranormal. And what was great was that I put two and two together and realized that I really wasn't the only one having
00:05:16
Lynda Quirino
any of these experiences, which was really, really paramount to me. This was a big deal for me because I, I really wanted other people to, to share their experiences with me and to know that they weren't alone.
00:05:31
Lynda Quirino
So really, it it kind of catapulted me into being the ghost lady, you know, at school. So when people were having strange experiences, they would sort of say, well, I know this person who might know a little bit about that kind of stuff. So you might want to talk to her about it. So That's really how it all began. And when I was at the ripe old age of 18, I decided that I was really interested in this.
00:05:58
Lynda Quirino
I had read a few books and I was really, really curious about, oh my gosh, Sheila Hervey, who wrote a book, Great Canadian Ghosts.
00:06:03
Lee Hatfield
Thank you.
00:06:08
Lynda Quirino
some Canadian ghosts, more Canadian ghosts, and a couple of other people. So I decided that I wanted to be an investigator. I wanted to talk to people who've had these experiences. and wanted to try and take a picture
Solo Investigations and Lessons Learned
00:06:21
Lynda Quirino
of a ghost.
00:06:22
Lynda Quirino
That would be really cool. But I really wanted to help people out and to understand why it was happening.
00:06:24
Lee Hatfield
Thank you.
00:06:27
Lynda Quirino
So I started my own little investigation. Well, I guess business, just me. And I realized quite quickly that that really wasn't the way to go. You should always go and do an investigation with somebody else, at least one other person. You shouldn't go alone. And I stick to this by, you know, stick to that but this day because boy, I had some really awful experiences just going by myself. Yeah.
00:06:56
Lee Hatfield
Yeah, i not I know that when you read all the books or you watch all the TV shows, one of the first things they say is Linda, they actually mention your name, Linda, don't go by yourself.
00:07:09
Lynda Quirino
Right.
00:07:11
Lee Hatfield
So, yeah, rule number one in the big black book. My big black book's here. don't know if you can see it. It goes on the side. I've never looked in it just like, oh, that's a cool book.
00:07:23
Lee Hatfield
It says, don't go by yourself. So,
00:07:25
Lynda Quirino
That's
00:07:27
Lee Hatfield
What happened for you to realise that Linda should not be going by herself?
00:07:34
Lynda Quirino
Well, really my my very first big investigation by myself was a real eye-opener because I had gone to see this wonderful elderly woman in Hudson, Quebec, beautiful location, gorgeous homes, really old, wonderful homes.
00:07:56
Lynda Quirino
And this is what this woman lived in, this beautiful old home. And she had been having some issues with things moving, with things being thrown. And she was perturbed by this and wanted to know what was going on.
00:08:10
Lynda Quirino
So I went over with my little trusty notebook and my my camera with the flash cubes and my tape recorder. You remember those, the lovely tape recorders? No, you wouldn't remember.
00:08:20
Lee Hatfield
No, I'm not old enough.
00:08:22
Lynda Quirino
No, that's true. You wouldn't remember. But anyway, my cassette recorder and I interviewed this the lovely lady in her home. And what happened was being a little bit of a skeptic.
00:08:36
Lynda Quirino
I talked to this lady, she was telling me about the things that were happening. And as I was speaking with her behind her was this beautiful fireplace and beautiful marble mantle on top of which was this very heavy crystal ashtray.
00:08:54
Lynda Quirino
And in my head, as I'm interviewing her, I'm saying,
00:08:56
Lee Hatfield
Thank you.
00:08:59
Lynda Quirino
yeah i don't I don't know. I don't know if I buy the fact that things are moving and things are being thrown. Is she is she lying to me? Is she being truthful? I i really don't know. I'm not feeling it.
00:09:11
Lynda Quirino
Well, Just as I was thinking this, and as I was jotting little notes down in my notebook, this huge crystal ashtray levitated and took off towards me, missing me by mere centimeters, and bashed the wall in back of me, made a nice big dent in the wall, and landed to the floor, which was a little, I think, frightening at the time.
00:09:22
Lee Hatfield
I can imagine.
00:09:39
Lee Hatfield
can imagine
00:09:39
Lynda Quirino
Yeah. And that's when I thought, all right, maybe i I shouldn't be here by myself. It would be really nice if somebody else could see this, not just this lady, but somebody else could see this and witness
Education and Evolving Resources in Paranormal Studies
00:09:49
Lynda Quirino
what was going on. So I realized that, you know, there is something called corroboration out there. It's not just...
00:09:58
Lynda Quirino
um'm having the I'm having this experience and this is an an amazing experience. It's okay. I'm having this experience, but did you see what I saw?
00:10:06
Lynda Quirino
So after that, I always made it a point to go with at least one other person. So.
00:10:06
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:10:13
Lee Hatfield
Yeah, and I can totally agree what you're saying because if three people see the same thing, it's not yeah you were tired, it's not that you were fatigued or whatever.
00:10:27
Lee Hatfield
If three people saw it, that's three independent witnesses.
00:10:32
Lynda Quirino
Exactly.
00:10:32
Lee Hatfield
So, yeah, comparing that to having one person to say, oh this hashtray levitated, and guess what? Yeah, and so that makes perfect sense to have three people. So with you doing this a relatively young age and some of the people you that you were dealing with, like this little old lady, was was there not any kind of like this kid doesn't know what they're talking about kind of thing?
00:11:01
Lynda Quirino
What was really interesting is that I found, being very young, that people, even though I was young, were quite fascinated that I knew a little bit about it, that I really wasn't afraid of it.
00:11:17
Lynda Quirino
And that I was willing to listen to them. And I think that was really important. Because even though I was young, they were willing to share their experiences with me.
00:11:25
Lee Hatfield
Thank
00:11:27
Lynda Quirino
And they realized that, you know, here's a kid who's, you know, quite well spoken, she's read quite a few things. I was very familiar with things like, you know, the Warrens, even back then, Lloyd Arbok really,
00:11:41
Lynda Quirino
you know, was a big influencer. I read a lot on Harry Price, you know, all
Community and Collaboration in Toronto
00:11:46
Lynda Quirino
of the greats. And I seemed to know what I was talking about. And in my head, i was interested. And I think they were willing to talk to me about all of this stuff. They didn't really poo-poo me, you know, and shove me aside and say, wow, this one's a weirdo, which I'm so grateful for to this very day.
00:12:07
Lee Hatfield
I was not going to call you a weirdo, I promise.
00:12:11
Lynda Quirino
but Oh, thank goodness.
00:12:12
Lee Hatfield
but But it's it's funny that you mention about doing a lot of reading because when I first started getting involved with this over in Canada, I decided that I wanted do wanted to do as many courses as possible.
00:12:26
Lee Hatfield
So I joined or signed on with a company that live out of Halifax and I was doing poltergeist courses and ghosts and hauntings just to get as much information as I can because I'm not a big reader.
00:12:41
Lynda Quirino
Right.
00:12:42
Lee Hatfield
Like, yeah, this big book here, I flicked through it when I bought it, and it's been there ever since. yeah I'm not one for just sat there to, like, read page after page after page.
00:12:52
Lynda Quirino
Right. Right.
00:12:53
Lee Hatfield
Even when I go on vacation, I like to be doing active things.
00:12:58
Lee Hatfield
So for me to get all this information and doing online courses, I feel that my knowledge base is a lot stronger now. Because the books that people read yeah when you and I were a kid and everything was in black and white,
00:13:15
Lee Hatfield
yeah did not have the same kind of mentality or professionalism or structure as what as as what they have now because loads more people have experienced it.
00:13:29
Lee Hatfield
So there's a lot more evidence out there that people can refer to.
00:13:33
Lynda Quirino
True. That's really true. Yeah. But I loved reading anything I could get my hands on. And even to this day, you know, people will say, what should I do if I'm really interested in the paranormal?
00:13:42
Lee Hatfield
Thank you.
00:13:45
Lynda Quirino
What should I do? What should I be doing? And I always tell them, you know, educate yourself, read anything you can, the good, the bad and the ugly, you know, watch anything that you can to any of the shows on TV, the good, the bad and the ugly, they'll teach you what not to do as well as what to do And I really stand by that. I think it's important that you're sort of well rounded, you know, you're that You're that person who kind of knows a little bit about this and that and can then choose a path that works for them. Right. Right.
00:14:20
Lee Hatfield
Yeah, and I've told people exactly the same so many times. Like, there's so many different TV shows out there, and even on YouTube nowadays, there's so many different groups getting YouTube channels and stuff like that.
00:14:34
Lee Hatfield
but you have to take some of it with a pinch of salt. Oh, that door moved, but they don't show you what's behind the door. Oh, this toy rolled from off screen.
00:14:45
Lee Hatfield
Okay, did somebody throw it? So you've got to take them with a pinch of salt. And with all the investigations that we do, we make sure that everything is black and white, so to speak, and we can prove and confirm everything.
00:15:02
Lee Hatfield
And if we have something that we're not sure about, then we will try to replicate it to see if we can debunk it. And if we can't debunk it, then it goes on the unexplained pile.
00:15:15
Lynda Quirino
Perfect. We did the same thing. Absolutely.
00:15:17
Lee Hatfield
Yeah. So talking of we, the royal we, what happened next?
00:15:24
Lynda Quirino
Oh my goodness. Well, What I did initially was just kind tackle all of these little cases that came my way. And and back then, of course, everything was word of mouth.
00:15:37
Lynda Quirino
We didn't have the internet, you know, we didn't have social media, nothing like that. So everything came to me through other people, which even to this day is a really good thing, because so many people don't like to share their experiences with other people.
00:15:53
Lynda Quirino
for fear of ridicule or, you know, other things. But so that happened until I got married and moved to Ontario from Quebec.
00:16:06
Lee Hatfield
Thank you.
00:16:09
Lynda Quirino
And of course, you know, i'm I'm thankful because my husband is a real skeptic, but puts up with all of this. I mean, when he met me, he knew that I was a paranormal investigator and all of this. And and honestly, when I moved to the to Toronto area, I immediately started to continue doing what I was doing, investigating by word of mouth, connecting with people.
00:16:35
Lee Hatfield
Thank you.
00:16:35
Lynda Quirino
But then, of course, the internet came. And In 1997, I managed to hook up with the Toronto Ghosts and Hauntings Research Society. I lived by then north of Toronto, and they needed someone to handle cases and questions north of Toronto. But they also needed an assistant director. So when the director at the time, who was Matthew Didier,
00:17:12
Lee Hatfield
Thank you.
00:17:12
Lynda Quirino
We got to go to really great places and host some very interesting gatherings at which a very important person in publishing would guest speak.
00:17:26
Lynda Quirino
And this was John Robert Colombo. So I was able to sit with John Robert Colombo, who has written a whole bunch of books about haunted Canada, haunted Toronto, haunted Ontario.
00:17:39
Lee Hatfield
so
00:17:39
Lynda Quirino
And we could share all kinds of information. And that's, I think, the key to understanding a little bit of about the paranormal, because, you know, there are those common denominators of experience that I find so incredibly fascinating. So it kind of, you know, organically grew from, you know, 18 years of age to blah, blah, blah where I am now.
Founding the Georgina Paranormal Society
00:18:03
Lynda Quirino
So.
00:18:03
Lee Hatfield
yeah
00:18:04
Lee Hatfield
One thing that I want to just want to jump back to for a quick second, I can just imagine in my head you meeting in your husband's parents for the first time. Oh, so, Linda, what do you do for hobbies?
00:18:18
Lee Hatfield
And, like, your husband's going, no, don't please don't tell them. Please don't tell them.
00:18:24
Lynda Quirino
A thousand percent. A thousand percent.
00:18:26
Lee Hatfield
yeah
00:18:27
Lynda Quirino
but i
00:18:28
Lee Hatfield
Yeah. So I like what you say about having different levels of experience because, There's no such thing in this in this environment as an expert because it's all because it's all a pseudoscience.
00:18:44
Lee Hatfield
yeah If we could put a ghost into a laboratory and do do some tests and they could prove its existence all good and well, and then all those investigators would have to find something else to do like knitting or cross-stitch.
00:19:01
Lee Hatfield
because yeah because our objective would have been, okay, it's been sorted now. yeah We need to go and do something else.
00:19:07
Lynda Quirino
True.
00:19:08
Lee Hatfield
But yeah there's different levels of experience. You can come into this environment and you think that the person you're talking to in your eyes is an expert, but they're not.
00:19:25
Lee Hatfield
They've just got plenty of experience in doing what they've been doing.
00:19:31
Lynda Quirino
Yes, that's so true.
00:19:33
Lee Hatfield
Yeah. And I think, know, I say it comes from different angles because if you go if you Google the world the word paranormal, a lot of people just think it's ghosts and spirits, but it's not.
00:19:45
Lee Hatfield
You've got cryptids, you've got UFOs, you've got magic, you've got fairies, and there's loads, loads, loads of other subcategories. So it's not just a I'm an expert in ghosts and spirits.
00:19:56
Lee Hatfield
yeah You're experienced in the paranormal. Yeah.
00:20:00
Lynda Quirino
Right.
00:20:01
Lee Hatfield
That's important. So being this assistant director, what kind of locations did that get you into?
00:20:13
Lynda Quirino
Well, we did some residential investigations in Toronto and beyond, which I really love. I love residentials. But we also did manage to get into places like one of the famous lighthouses here in Toronto.
00:20:29
Lynda Quirino
We did walk around the University of Toronto, which is very haunted. As well as so we left the Toronto area and did go to, well, Fort York, though, in Toronto was another one that we we investigated.
00:20:45
Lynda Quirino
But we did go beyond and we went to Fort George Fort Erie, things like that, sort of outside, more sort of famous locations that were purported to be haunted. But we were very curious to try and get some evidence of some kind. And we did get some evidence. But at the time, of course, we didn't have...
00:21:08
Lynda Quirino
things like spirit boxes and and all of that. We still were operating with our tape recorders and our our cameras, and but we were learning going along the way, right?
00:21:20
Lynda Quirino
So we were learning a little bit about what this business of the paranormal was and and how things reacted with light and how things reacted with with sound and frequencies.
00:21:23
Lee Hatfield
Thank
00:21:31
Lynda Quirino
And so it was a learning experience for us, which I think was so important because now with all of this incredible equipment. You know, the progression, it's so interesting to see the progression of, you know, where we were to where we are now.
00:21:47
Lynda Quirino
So that was so important. I mean, that's what makes, I think, an investigator like me, who's been in this field for so long, even more interested in learning more.
00:21:59
Lynda Quirino
There's always more to learn. but mean, you you can't ever be an expert, right?
00:22:02
Lynda Quirino
Yeah.
00:22:03
Lee Hatfield
100%. Exactly. And I do think it's important to note that it's all good and well spending thousands and thousands of dollars on all these flashy, noisy gadgets.
00:22:17
Lee Hatfield
that can be affected by cell phones or by radios. And people think that they're getting positive hits.
00:22:26
Lynda Quirino
Exactly.
00:22:27
Lee Hatfield
and yeah And even if you've got a basic video camera, learn how to use it. Like, remember that you have an extra button to switch your microphone on.
00:22:42
Lee Hatfield
Been there, done it. Oh, and I'm recording something. Oh, and the lens cap's still on. Learn how to use your yeah the basics before you go into the flashy, because the flashy, more often than not, can give false positives.
00:22:56
Lynda Quirino
Absolutely. thousand percent.
00:22:59
Lee Hatfield
yeah So quick question, do you have any flashy gadgets now, or do you still have your notebook, your ice cube camera, and your video?
Unique Meeting Venues and Skepticism
00:23:09
Lee Hatfield
so
00:23:10
Lynda Quirino
Well, we do have some flashy things because we do some public investigations and people love the flashy. I mean, they really do.
00:23:20
Lynda Quirino
We also have the flashy because when we do an investigation, for example, if we do a residential investigation and people are doubtful as to whether they're experiencing things, they like to see what's going on. They like to to have some kind of validation.
00:23:38
Lynda Quirino
So really, the flashy is for the validation, that kind of thing. But I mean, when you've been doing this for so long, you do develop almost a sixth sense, I guess, when you go into a location that is active, you can feel yeah you can you can sense the change in in energy, the change in vibration, you really can.
00:23:44
Lee Hatfield
yeah
00:24:00
Lee Hatfield
Yeah. And it's interesting that you say that because i was at an investigation last Saturday night. And before I turned up, some of the other guys had a walk around the building. And they went, oh, Lee, go up to this one room. Because when we went in there, we felt a heavy, heavy sensation.
00:24:20
Lee Hatfield
So I went, OK. Go up the stairs, walked in, walked around, came out. Did you feel anything? anything Nope. But yeah does that does not mean that whatever was there when they were there was still there when I was.
00:24:34
Lee Hatfield
It could have moved on. Because, yeah. yeah if spirits and ghosts do exist, they're not just going to sit and go, right, okay, guys, 7 p.m. on Saturday, we've got a team coming.
00:24:45
Lee Hatfield
So, Joe, I want you to make sure that you're ready. Dave, I want you to go and bang that table. that's it yeah and That's not quite how it how it works, but it'd be so'd be so cool if it did. Sort of like, yeah, can we book you for 7 o'clock? We've got this public investigation.
00:25:04
Lee Hatfield
But we are we are so cautious about using they the shiny, flashy gadgets because, like I say, you can get so many false positives and you've got to concentrate on your basics before you even think about buying anything else. Because as soon as you buy something and it's got the word ghost or spirit in front of it, whoever's selling you it is going to put put more dollars in front of it.
00:25:34
Lee Hatfield
it's like, what?
00:25:34
Lynda Quirino
That's so true. Oh my gosh.
00:25:36
Lynda Quirino
That's so true. yeah It's funny because I like to tell people the great example of, the ghost the box or the spirit box, because way back when, and we're talking, oh my gosh, 1981, I remember, taking an old transistor radio and,
00:25:36
Lee Hatfield
Intent.
00:25:56
Lynda Quirino
kind of thinking to myself at the time, well, if ghosts can communicate through different frequencies, and a radio is a different frequency thing, then why can't I use this transistor radio?
00:26:10
Lynda Quirino
And I was very successful in the early nineteen eighty s doing investigations with my little transistor radio, and it was tuned between stations and And I would get voices coming through.
00:26:26
Lynda Quirino
And when, of course, a spirit box was all the big rage and everybody wanted one and everybody was using one. I thought back to, boy, that must have, that was a stroke of genius on my part to take this little transistor radio with me.
00:26:42
Lynda Quirino
And people thought it was crazy at the time, but that's essentially what a spirit box is.
00:26:48
Lee Hatfield
So you could have made yourself a fortune.
00:26:50
Lynda Quirino
What the heck, right?
00:26:51
Lee Hatfield
I know, right? And one thing that i that i I find really funny, but I do love, that people that deal with spirit boxes is when they get a word,
00:26:52
Lynda Quirino
Jeez.
00:27:05
Lee Hatfield
a lot of people, yeah and you see it on TV all the time, they will fit that word into the investigation rather than if that word does not fit that investigation, you can kind of put it to one side.
00:27:20
Lee Hatfield
And the expression that I always use is, yeah, if you ask what day it is and it comes out with a Wednesday, it's relevant to the investigation. If you ask what day it is and it comes out with beefcake,
00:27:34
Lynda Quirino
Right.
00:27:35
Lee Hatfield
Don't try and put beefcake into the what day of the week it is. Oh, on Wednesdays, I have beefcake for dinner. No, that's not how it works.
00:27:43
Lynda Quirino
No. Well,
00:27:46
Lee Hatfield
OK, so the next big thing in your life was the Georgina Paranormal Society. How did that come about?
00:27:56
Lynda Quirino
well it's very interesting that after having done what I did with the Toronto ghosts and hauntings research society, I felt that I needed a little bit of, of a break because I had small children at the time.
00:28:13
Lynda Quirino
And I thought, well, you know, I'll just take a break and continue to freelance.
00:28:15
Lee Hatfield
Wow.
00:28:17
Lynda Quirino
If people need me, I'll just drag people along with me as my, my ears and my eyes. But then the library, the local library asked if I would do a presentation on ghosts and hauntings because they had heard that I was the local ghost lady.
00:28:33
Lynda Quirino
And I thought, okay, sure. So in my mind, I thought, well, maybe 10 people might come. Well, there were well more than 100. And I thought that was brilliant.
00:28:43
Lynda Quirino
I was so thrilled that so many people locally were interested in the subject.
00:28:49
Lee Hatfield
Thank you.
00:28:49
Lynda Quirino
So app the at the talk, I asked if I were to perhaps start a local team, would anybody be interested in joining?
00:29:00
Lynda Quirino
And so many people came forward. And at the end of it all, there were seven people that started the society with me.
00:29:11
Lynda Quirino
And I have five now on my team. So people have come in and gone over the years. And we've been 13 years now because I started it in 2012. But but You know, that's kind of sort of how that all came about.
00:29:26
Lynda Quirino
But I was thrilled that so many people were interested in the subject. And when I started Paranormal Society, one of my big things was that I really wanted to be out in the community. I wanted it to be a community group.
00:29:41
Lynda Quirino
And I wanted to have public meetings. and have people come who are interested in the subject matter, have people come who are local, maybe have a guest speaker, maybe a local psychic medium or something to talk about, you know, their take on the paranormal.
00:30:02
Lynda Quirino
And it just kind of escalated from there. I mean, we had maybe 20 people at our first meeting and now we have, well, Oh, gosh, last time it was probably about 200 people that came to our meeting.
00:30:14
Lee Hatfield
Wow.
00:30:15
Lynda Quirino
Well, it's great because we we found a place to have the meetings for free. We have them at our local, one of our local funeral parlors.
00:30:26
Lee Hatfield
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I got a minute. I got a minute.
00:30:32
Lynda Quirino
Yes.
00:30:34
Lee Hatfield
That's cheating because you can't have a meeting at a funeral home where potentially there's going to be an overload of spirits.
00:30:36
Lynda Quirino
I'm cheating.
00:30:45
Lee Hatfield
that No, but no, that I'm not having that. I'm not having that at all.
00:30:50
Lynda Quirino
That's funny. Well, interestingly enough, when we were looking for a place to hold the meetings, we because we don't obviously charge for what we do, we don't have any cash on hand to pay for the rental of a location.
00:31:07
Lynda Quirino
I used to be a church secretary, so I knew the local funeral home people. And one of the local funeral homes, I know you're loving this.
00:31:19
Lynda Quirino
I know I can see it on your face.
00:31:21
Lee Hatfield
I'm just writing notes.
00:31:22
Lynda Quirino
I just love it. So one of one of the funeral directors offered the use of his space. He had a beautiful reception room, which held about, you know, 75 people on a good day.
00:31:35
Lynda Quirino
So he said, listen, it's it's not being used a lot. It's only being used for funerals. if you want to come and, you know, do your meetings here, I won't charge you for that. It's great. No worries. So we started off at the Funeral home in a local town close by named Sutton.
00:31:55
Lynda Quirino
And so we started off there and it got so crowdedly that we like we had to move to another funeral home that meets three hundred
00:32:05
Lee Hatfield
I was about to say, did you move to a bigger funeral home?
00:32:08
Lynda Quirino
We did. We moved to another funeral home. And I know the funeral director there as well. And she offered the location there. And that it sits more than 300 people. And last time we were almost
Media Appearances and Validation in Paranormal Research
00:32:19
Lynda Quirino
full house.
00:32:20
Lynda Quirino
I mean, it was ridiculous. How many people are interested in this? I mean, ridiculous, yes, but great ridiculous because it's so good to see that people are open to discussing things.
00:32:29
Lee Hatfield
Yeah. Yeah.
00:32:33
Lynda Quirino
the paranormal and so many people have had experiences and it's a safe place to share experiences and to kind of put people together who've had them and when you're a paranormal investigator such as us it's also a really good venue to meet people who are interested in
00:32:39
Lee Hatfield
yeah
00:32:55
Lynda Quirino
talking to you, and if it's a haunted location that they believe that they are living in or working in it gets you that in so that you can investigate, you can educate, you can do all of those wonderful things.
00:33:11
Lee Hatfield
Yeah. I just had the vision of the scene in the Patrick Swayze movie Ghost where when everyone was told to get out, people just stood up and then walked through the walls.
00:33:22
Lee Hatfield
I don't know why I got that in my head, but it's just like, yeah, there's 300 people. Okay, but how many of them are living?
00:33:28
Lynda Quirino
I love it.
00:33:30
Lee Hatfield
but but that's that that's That's one of the best things I've heard today so far. That's fabulous. I'm going to have to go down to the local churchyard and see if we can borrow their haul.
00:33:40
Lynda Quirino
Right?
00:33:41
Lee Hatfield
But it's right about the the enthusiasm, though, because because of all the shows that have been on TV. It's becoming more into the everyday life now.
00:33:53
Lee Hatfield
People are not so afraid to talk about their experiences, especially if they know that someone's not going to ridicule them. I have a work colleague who has wrote a couple of books, and he was wrote it was writing one on demonology.
00:34:12
Lee Hatfield
And as soon as he found out I was a paranormal investigator, he wanted me to come and visit his house because he was experiencing noises in his basement. But it only kind of happened when he was writing his book on demonology.
00:34:25
Lynda Quirino
That's simple.
00:34:25
Lee Hatfield
So, yeah, so we had to go and investigate.
00:34:28
Lee Hatfield
And we we have to go back this year, hopefully. But yeah being busy and such like. But yeah it's really, yeah, and it's the fact that when we go to, we're actually doing Ottawa Comic Con in September, and the amount of people that come up to us and just love to talk about it, and, you know, oh, I had this experience when I was 12, and then I had this experience, and it's it's it's amazing how people are excused upon, but coming out the woodwork,
00:35:03
Lynda Quirino
It's true.
00:35:04
Lee Hatfield
to talk to talk to you about it. And that makes our our environment like much more closer and people can openly talk about it.
00:35:17
Lee Hatfield
And you hear some really, really cool stories.
00:35:21
Lynda Quirino
Yeah, and people show you some incredible videos and really incredible photographs.
00:35:24
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:35:28
Lynda Quirino
But they're also really interested to learn more about how to deal with it as well, which I find fantastic. And there's so many people out there that that love to share their experiences. And they know that when they come to our meetings, that nobody there is going to say, oh, wow, that's a weirdo, or that person's lost it.
00:35:50
Lynda Quirino
but They know that nobody's going to do that.
00:35:52
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:35:53
Lynda Quirino
However, having said that, I can say that some people who do go to these meetings, believe themselves to be, I think, a little more knowledgeable perhaps than they truly are.
00:36:08
Lynda Quirino
And also believe themselves to have captured things that they really haven't. And they don't like it when someone from you know my team or me says something like, well, actually, that's not really an orb.
00:36:24
Lynda Quirino
That is moisture on camera.
00:36:27
Lee Hatfield
don't don't don't get Don't get me started. Don't get me started.
00:36:31
Lynda Quirino
Right? Right.
00:36:32
Lee Hatfield
Yeah, yeah.
00:36:33
Lynda Quirino
Right.
00:36:33
Lee Hatfield
And that's it. yeah But a lot of this is ignorance as well because people poll don't know the difference.
00:36:38
Lynda Quirino
Yeah.
00:36:42
Lee Hatfield
And for us to go up and to educate them in a nice way, then they kind of realize.
00:36:47
Lynda Quirino
Yes.
00:36:50
Lee Hatfield
But there are some orbs that you cannot explain. we had what We had one a few weeks ago that we've had three or four different people look at it, and nobody can explain what it is.
00:36:55
Lynda Quirino
Oh, gosh.
00:37:04
Lee Hatfield
They give us suggestions, and we've gone, no, we check for that, we check for this, we check for this. And we can't explain it. So yeah there are still parts of the unknown out there. So yeah not every orb is a ghost, but some orbs we just can't explain.
00:37:22
Lynda Quirino
True.
00:37:22
Lee Hatfield
which that makes it more interesting.
00:37:24
Lynda Quirino
Yes.
00:37:25
Lee Hatfield
So moving along, you've been on TV as well.
00:37:30
Lynda Quirino
I have been on TV three seasons of Paranormal Survivor, where not only did I meet some really interesting people, but where they called us all paranormal experts, which all of us, it was so funny when when between tapings, we would sit and talk.
00:37:52
Lynda Quirino
And I mean, I met some wonderful people. Michelle DeRoche is wonderful.
00:37:55
Lee Hatfield
Thank you.
00:37:57
Lynda Quirino
Katie Turner is wonderful. but we would all look at each other and say, oh, yeah, paranormal expert. Oh, I don't like that. But I did love the experience because doing Paranormal Survivor, we were asked to read different cases and they were all over all over the world, really. Mostly, of course, North America, but They were fascinating.
00:38:22
Lynda Quirino
They dealt with all kinds of different topics, but they were actual cases from other paranormal groups.
00:38:26
Lee Hatfield
so
00:38:31
Lynda Quirino
And we were asked to comment on them throughout the episodes. which was a great thing. I got to meet some great people and I got to learn a lot. Again, we're talking about those common denominators, right?
00:38:44
Lynda Quirino
Of experience. It was a great experience for me. And just the, i don't know, just, just the idea of knowing that somewhere in BC there's someone who's having almost the exact same experience as a person in Halifax, Nova Scotia, or Ottawa, or Montreal is is great because, you know, there are experiences that, as you know, are so similar. i mean, it's just, you could write a textbook.
00:39:16
Lee Hatfield
For sure, for sure. Did you actually go on and but and any investigations with Paranormal Survivor, or was it just kind of like a review board?
00:39:25
Lynda Quirino
It was like a review board. We each were given different statements I guess, cases to to comment on.
00:39:31
Lee Hatfield
you
00:39:32
Lynda Quirino
But how I got involved initially was season one, the producers were reaching out to paranormal groups throughout North America. So I got an email, just a blanket email to say, listen, we're looking for cases for this TV show.
00:39:48
Lynda Quirino
And in this show, we want to share different, different cases, different experiences people have had. So if you have any, it would be great if you could possibly send them along. So there were a few.
00:40:02
Lynda Quirino
i sent along some cases, spoke to the people involved. Some of them didn't want to be involved and said no, but there were a few that did want to be involved. So that's how it all started. I sent some cases over and they took them on.
00:40:17
Lynda Quirino
The reenactments were crazy. I don't know television, it's all for good TV, Lee, as you know. but
00:40:23
Lee Hatfield
Yeah, for sure.
00:40:25
Lynda Quirino
However, they were they were actual cases and that was fabulous.
00:40:26
Lee Hatfield
so
00:40:30
Lee Hatfield
And that's that's the weird thing. If you have to reenact something that somebody's experienced, if somebody's watching that for the first time, they're going to go there's no way is that real.
00:40:44
Lee Hatfield
Like, you know, your ashtray flying past your head.
00:40:47
Lynda Quirino
Right.
00:40:47
Lee Hatfield
Yeah. Well, that yeah if you reenact that, people are going to go that's fake. But you were there when it happened.
00:40:55
Lynda Quirino
Right.
00:40:56
Lee Hatfield
So, yeah, I know that, unfortunately, there are yeah fakery out there, which is really sad in this day and age, and people do try and do it to make money.
00:41:08
Lee Hatfield
But when you've got that genuine case or that genuine story and you get a wow factor, It's like it makes things like you're just speechless at the time. And it's like, that is so cool.
00:41:26
Lynda Quirino
Yes, true.
00:41:27
Lee Hatfield
And you must have had numerous times on on Paranormal Survivor when you thought,
00:41:34
Lynda Quirino
Absolutely.
Exploration of Diverse Paranormal Phenomena
00:41:35
Lynda Quirino
Oh, yeah. I remember reading the cases when they came to me and thinking, again, oh my gosh, imagine if I'd been that person, what would I have done?
00:41:46
Lynda Quirino
And then again, saying, well, as an investigator, and well, you know yourself, when people tell you about the experiences that they've had, and there's five or six of them in the room that have had the same experience, and they're telling you this firsthand.
00:42:02
Lynda Quirino
Yeah, it the wow factor is incredible.
00:42:05
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:42:05
Lynda Quirino
Yeah, yeah, it was amazing.
00:42:06
Lee Hatfield
yeah but and And that's it. It's like I said earlier about multiple people expect experiencing the same thing.
00:42:14
Lynda Quirino
Yes.
00:42:14
Lee Hatfield
They may not have experienced it at the same time, but if they're in one particular room of a location and they've experienced something and they all come out and say, well, I experienced something similar.
00:42:27
Lee Hatfield
There's got to be something there, right? is it it yeah It's not massive, delusional, whatever. Something is happening that we cannot explain.
00:42:37
Lynda Quirino
Absolutely.
00:42:38
Lynda Quirino
And the fear. I mean, when people tell you about what's happening, I worked a case a while ago and this entire family, they were sleeping on mattresses in their living room.
00:42:39
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:42:50
Lynda Quirino
because they did not want to sleep in their bedrooms, things were being thrown at them, they felt pushed. They just felt that there was something there that didn't want them to be there.
00:43:02
Lynda Quirino
And it was the most incredible experience because the fear that they were feeling. I mean, when you see an entire family sleeping in their living room, they don't go to the bathroom by themselves.
00:43:14
Lynda Quirino
They don't go to the kitchen by themselves. It just, it's it's debilitating. That's when you know, okay, something's happening here. And you know It's a big responsibility as an investigator to find out what's going on.
00:43:29
Lynda Quirino
But you know as an investigator too, you have this thirst for knowledge you want to know and you want to help these people.
00:43:30
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:43:37
Lee Hatfield
Exactly.
00:43:37
Lynda Quirino
Yeah.
00:43:38
Lee Hatfield
Exactly. So through all the things that you've done, you've been on podcast, radio, local TV, done lectures,
00:43:48
Lee Hatfield
Would you say that your favorite is Ghosts and Spirits, or do you like other parts of the paranormal genre as well?
00:43:59
Lynda Quirino
Well, you know, i I really like other parts as well. I mean, we are having here in my part of the world, in Georgina, some fascinating things happening.
00:44:12
Lynda Quirino
A lot of people within the past eight to 10 years have been reporting what they believe to be skinwalkers that they've seen and the way that they're describing them It's kind of like the rake. i don't know if you've Googled the rake.
00:44:30
Lynda Quirino
So it's that sort of this this man type figure that's completely naked, walking around on all fours, larger head, larger eyes, you know, hairless, completely hairless.
00:44:43
Lynda Quirino
And it's sort of, oh, I don't know, it leaps. It walks on all fours. People have been saying that they've been seeing this particular thing.
00:44:54
Lynda Quirino
and they're calling it a skin walker because it looks like it's all skin. But here in this area, we also have reports of actual skin walkers or people talking about skin walkers, because here we have a large indigenous population.
00:45:13
Lynda Quirino
So they talk about skin walkers and how they can transform, you know, from one thing to another, a wolf you know, into a man, into another kind of creature, how they show up when something is about to happen to a family or to a community.
00:45:30
Lynda Quirino
So it's fascinating to me to be able to kind of branch out into this cryptid area. We also have a a local lake monster. We have somebody called Igo Pogo in Lake Simcoe.
00:45:44
Lynda Quirino
And many people have seen it. Many people have experienced it. And even us as a paranormal group, we had gone to a location and we're taking pictures of the lake.
00:45:54
Lynda Quirino
And inadvertently, one of our members took a picture of what the local lake monster organization believes to be our lake monster.
00:46:05
Lynda Quirino
So that's kind of interesting to me. a love the fact that this field has so much going on. I mean, it's not just ghosts and hauntings, it's cryptids, it's UFOs, extraterrestrials, all of this. And there seems to be sort of an interconnectedness to it all, which I find absolutely fascinating.
00:46:25
Lee Hatfield
Yeah, and I couldn't agree more because, yeah, anything to do with the paranormal, let's break the word paranormal down, sort like, know, not normal, anything that's not of the normal sort of like everyday life.
00:46:42
Lee Hatfield
But let's go back to your skinwalkers for a second. Have you actually done any, I hate to say, that any digging into potential culprits or potential creatures? Have you actually looked into it to see what it could be? Because yeah if you mention a creature that's hairless or falls, potentially it could be an animal that's got, is it mange or mage or whatever, youre yeah where all the skin fall or the hair falls off. so
00:47:17
Lee Hatfield
to investigate it and to to say that it's a skinwalker, yeah have you done any investigation to to kind of clear things up for yourself?
00:47:30
Lynda Quirino
Well, yes, when we have any kind of sighting of a skinwalker, we always contact the town, try and find out whether or not anyone's reported, for example, a bear sighting in the area or a coyote, perhaps with mange, anything like that.
00:47:45
Lee Hatfield
Thank you.
00:47:51
Lynda Quirino
So we will contact the local wildlife people to find out. if there's anything that people have seen, if there's an animal in trouble, we do have, a panther, apparently a local panther that people have seen throughout the years.
00:48:06
Lynda Quirino
And we keep thinking, well, maybe this could have been a panther sighting. We don't know. So we're not quick to kind of immediately say, okay, yeah, it's a skinwalker. It's something paranormal, to do so would be, you know, a horrible thing in the field. But, you know, as you know, most people, the field these days, um, days,
00:48:24
Lynda Quirino
They tend to love the sensationalistic aspect of it all. And they'll go to that. We don't go to that. We we think it's interesting and we think it's fun to maybe go there for five minutes and think, wow, that could be paranormal.
00:48:31
Lee Hatfield
Yeah, yeah. Thanks.
00:48:39
Lynda Quirino
But we all know that you know, you can't skip to that. You just you can't. You have to at least cover your bases. And in this area where there's a lot of wooded regions, a lot of, you know, a lot of places where animals could be hiding out because they're sick or they're injured.
00:48:56
Lynda Quirino
You can't just go right there. You've got to do your research and kind of ask questions.
00:49:02
Lee Hatfield
That's it. And before science science became paramount, yeah people didn't know what albinoism was.
00:49:12
Lynda Quirino
no
00:49:12
Lee Hatfield
So to see an animal that's albino, you might think that that's a cryptid, that's a creature. But in this day and age, we know that this kind of thing exists. So you've got to be extremely careful.
00:49:26
Lee Hatfield
with pointing that proverbial finger to say, OK, I've ticked that box. I've seen a skinwalker. I can move on next. What's next? Oh, UFOs. OK. Oh, there's something in the sky there.
00:49:37
Lee Hatfield
yeah You've got to be very careful about yeah depictions. And until we get categorically evidence, yeah if one gets caught or killed or whatever, they're going to do DNA on it. And if they go, we don't know what this is.
00:49:56
Lee Hatfield
And that's going to kind of open up that proverbial can of worms.
00:50:01
Lynda Quirino
That's exactly true. I mean, I remember, gosh, years and years ago, telling somebody, you know, okay, we're never going to know anything about all of this. And until a dead guy, you know, taps me on the shoulder and says, hey, I'm a dead guy. Let me tell you about the nature of
Future Plans and Continued Engagement
00:50:18
Lynda Quirino
reality. I mean, we're never going to know.
00:50:21
Lynda Quirino
It's our best guess. But it's a fascinating guess, I really think. Yeah.
00:50:28
Lee Hatfield
Yeah, i I know when I was a paramedic, I did get a guy come up to me and says, I'm a dead man walking. But then he it kind of started to abuse us and we got him arrested. But I don't think he was dead. I'm pretty sure. But the police took him away. so
00:50:43
Lee Hatfield
So, OK, Linda, we are coming towards the end, unfortunately. Talk to you all day. What's next on the agenda for Linda?
00:50:52
Lynda Quirino
Well, I'm hoping that I'll be able to get something put together. i have so many experiences written down. I'd love to put them all in some sort of compendium out there so that people can read them. And again, because my my big thing has always been to join people together and learn about this collectively, share experiences I'd love to get those experiences out there in some way and some written word.
00:51:22
Lynda Quirino
So I think that's my next s thing. I think that might be my next thing.
00:51:27
Lee Hatfield
this This sounds like it could be a bit of a big project.
00:51:31
Lynda Quirino
I think so. little bit.
00:51:32
Lee Hatfield
Yeah. Any more TV appearances coming up in the near future?
00:51:37
Lynda Quirino
Well, not really paranormally related. i do do a local lifestyle show on our local TV station.
00:51:45
Lee Hatfield
go.
00:51:47
Lynda Quirino
that's weekly. I've been doing that for eight years. I love doing that, but I'm not paranormally unless somebody reaches out, but that's always a lot fun too.
00:51:51
Lee Hatfield
No.
00:51:56
Lee Hatfield
I was going to say, Crimewatch doesn't count.
00:52:00
Lynda Quirino
No crime watch. No.
00:52:04
Lee Hatfield
Linda, it's been an absolute pleasure talking to you.
00:52:06
Lynda Quirino
Oh, cute.
00:52:08
Lee Hatfield
We've had some absolute blast stories. I'm going to be talking about these all day now, especially the skinwalker ones. I'm going to have to come down and see if I find myself a skinwalker.
00:52:19
Lee Hatfield
Over here in Ottawa, we have stories about wendigos, but out in out in the sticks, not not walking down the 417, because that would be a little a bit weird. But again, thank you for your time. It's been an absolute pleasure and hopefully we can do this again.
00:52:35
Lee Hatfield
Thanks very much.
00:52:36
Lynda Quirino
Thank you.
00:52:37
Lee Hatfield
Take care. Bye-bye.