GM: Thank you both for joining me. We have a lot to talk about, but first, can you both introduce yourselves and give us a little background into your paranormal journey? 

JR: I am John Ruggiero the founder of New Jersey Paranormal. I started researching the paranormal because of my fear of death, to be honest. I did not have that wonderful experience that a lot of people have in this field; I did not live in a haunted house; I was not visited by any spirits. I did believe in spirits and ghosts, but I was not sure about heaven, the afterlife or what happens when you die. So, it was not until I was in my early 20’s that I went to Gettysburg for the first time with Chris. We went into one of those stores where it was geared toward “Ghost Tours,” and they had all these visitor submitted photos of orbs (they were a thing then), apparitions and unexplainable phenomena hanging on the wall.  Someone in the store was telling us how we could go to the Gettysburg Battlefield, and we could possibly see and hear ghosts. They recommended for us to go buy a recorder and go out there and see what we find. We did and went to the battlefield that night; She went one way, I went in another direction and as far away from each other as we could. I asked three questions, and I got 3 answers. I was hooked and started researching everything I could. Listening to whoever I could that was in a group. I know I will never know with any kind of certainty what happens after death, but I am looking to build upon everything I have learned and try to make myself and others feel better that there is something beyond life and this physical plane. With that, I eventually created New Jersey Paranormal which Chris became a member of at some point after.

CT: I am Chris Therrien, and I am the co-founder of New Jersey Paranormal. I come from a place where I grew up with a dark haunting. It was something that tormented me from the time I was born, until I was much older. It was so bad that even my mother was terrified of coming into any room that I was in at night and my three sisters would not share a room with me. So, I was always very isolated with dealing with all this stuff. It was so bad that at one point, I was suicidal when I was younger. So, when John and I went to Gettysburg, and we investigated, I did it for John because John had never experienced it. I had no curiosity, I just preferred to keep it away from me because of everything that I had gone through. Everybody called me the chicken, but that was not the case. Despite the struggles, at a certain point I came to the realization that because of my experiences I could help people who were going through a terrifying haunting; Even if I were someone to just talk to and give suggestions to help them because these occurrences leave trauma, and it stays with you. I was working with John and New Jersey Paranormal at a street fair and a mother and her young teenage daughter walked up to us. The mother immediately said, “I do not believe in any of this, it is nonsense, but my daughter says she’s got something odd going on and I think it is just her imagination.” Later, that woman’s daughter came back to me, and we privately talked. She told me that she was having paranormal experiences and she just needed someone to believe her. She needed to talk to somebody that understood what she was going through and to not think she was “crazy.” You see, this little girl was going through the same things I did; She had become terribly angry, distant, and isolated. Well, a year later, we were at the same street fair, and the same woman came up to me and said, “I do not know what you said to my daughter and what you did but, I got my daughter back. It is like we got our daughter back and she is enjoying life again.” It was at that moment that I realized that I needed to try to help people with this stuff.

GM: Wow! To turn such a negative thing into a positive by helping people, makes you strong and utterly amazing. 

JR: Yes, we help people privately, but then we also help a lot of historic locations with fundraisers where we raise up to $30,000 every year for the past 10 years now.

GM: That brings me to my next question. New Jersey Paranormal runs one of the biggest paracons every year. How did that come to fruition?

JR: I was touring this big, beautiful brick building in Paterson, New Jersey, an old factory from the 1800’s that was reportedly haunted, and they wanted us to come in and investigate. As we walked around, I was admiring how much space this place had; Big lofts, and a big open floor plan. At that moment, it just hit me. I asked the owner, “What do you think about me trying to organize a paranormal convention here? I will gather as many people as possible from New Jersey; Authors, paranormal groups, vendors, and we will make it affordable and see if anybody shows up.” So, we put it together and that was the first year. It was fun but not a lot of people showed up, 150 to 200, but the people that ran the place did not want to continue with it. I thought, since I am friends with the Mayor of Woodbridge, maybe he would be open to this idea. I approached him and I suggested the idea of bringing the event to Woodbridge, New Jersey. I explained that we could raise money and all the proceeds would (does) go to a charity fund. Everything aligned and year two happened and it was a little more successful than the year before. From then, we just built and built and built, and here we are with year number 9. We raise a decent amount of money for the charity fund, but this is a non-profit convention. The goal has, and always will be, to give people an affordable event and to give them the opportunity to meet all their favorite TV celebrities without breaking their bank accounts.