Phenomena Encountered: The Magazine Issue 5 | Page 3

The state of Connecticut is the home of a unique paranormal investigation and research team, Arrowhead Paranormal Investigations. At the first glance the main difference between them and other paranormal teams is that most of the team is made up Native Americans of different tribes. The team is active and proud of their lineage however that is only a small factor in this well oiled paranormal machine. Chad Saunders, the Team Director, sat down with me and shares some in sight how he runs a tight ship with his team, their techniques, experiences, and the people they have helped along the way.

Chad was born in Minnesota and belongs to the Red Lake Band of Chippewa and his team consists of Eastern Woodland Tribal members. The team’s Medium is not a Native at all. The team was formed in 2011; before that Chad worked in the film industry filming and producing horror movies. According to Chad most people assume that since they are Natives that they are more in tuned with the land and spirit world than others. That may very well be true but this team is very tech driven. Chad is pretty relaxed when it comes to bring in their beliefs into their investigations. The do smudge with sage and if someone wants to they saying a Christian prayer for starting an investigation. They don’t really use any Native American aspects in their research that much.

The Arrowhead investigation teams are professionals in the paranormal field as well as in this physical world. For example, the technical direction Mike worked for Apple for some time. His skills helped a terrified woman who came to the team for help. This woman’s son and grandson were in a fatal car crash; leaving behind his wife and the boy’s twin. A picture was taken not long after the car accident of the surviving twin and his mother. Chad described to distorted picture to a scene in The Ring where there girl is twisting about. Very creepy looking stuff. This poor woman was told by other teams that it was a sign that they were in danger. Before making any declarations to the meaning of the photo Chad and Mike asked the woman to send them the original picture file. When she sent it to them Mike broke the photo down pixel by pixel. His findings were incredible. The camera used to take the photo was cheap and of poor quality. When Chad called the client back to assure her that her family was safe and the only thing she needs to do is invest in a better camera. After much reassurance from Chad the client was left with much gratitude and relief. To this day this woman is a big supporter of Arrowhead and speaks very highly them and their work on social media. It is a case like this that anyone wanting to get into the paranormal field needs to keep in mind. That all other possibilities needs to be ruled out first before looking into the realm of the paranormal. To anyone who is new to the paranormal field keep this story in mind. Try to find a logical and practical explanation to this you capture first. If there is none that is when you know you have something of the supernatural world. Paranormal research is not all what Hollywood makes it out to be. A team can go to a location that is reported to be very haunted location and capture nothing. Chad and his team thought they had one of those nights a few years ago. Chad and his investigators when out to Leffingwell Inn; where he currently resides on the Board of Directors as Security Director. When they went on location to investigate, everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Not only what it a freezing cold night, but the President of the house had fallen and busted his head open and had to be rushed to the hospital. Luckily investigator Jim is a fully qualified EMT. Then the batteries in the equipment were draining. Pictures had fallen off the wall. When the Chad and Mike went back to look and see what they captured they found an amazing video footage of

Chad Saunders of Arrowhead Paranormal