So Pastor Baz, what made you interested in the Paranormal?
In our family, my grandfather was involved in the spiritualist Church and my own father was heavily involved in different parts of the occult - and not as a hobby, as his profession. My Dad was a Biochemist, but after an accident that injured his neck, he moved into acupuncture, hypnotherapy, then onto Tarot Cards, Palm Reading, Clairvoyance, psychic healing, remote viewing, astral projection, past life therapy and eventually Wicca. So I grew up with it 'the other side' being as real as someone's Dad going to a building site and on the other side of the family Grandad was going to the spiritualist Church and sometimes his work came home - a black entity came out of the wall and tried to strangle my grandmother when he was on his way there one night.
Even my mum had experiences with Ouija boards that 'went postal' and started throwing planchettes off the table.
For me personally - I saw my first ghost at around six years old in a house at Richmond, a Yowie at age ten at Bowen Mountain and was reading Tarot Cards and hypnotising my schoolfriends in primary school. So I have never needed to be convinced that the superatural realm exists or that Cryptids walked the earth.
The place I grew up in from 6-16 years old was called Bowen Mountain, in NSW Australia, and a heck of a lot of supernatural stuff happened up there, not so much to me but to my neighbours.
But having said that, I wanted no involvement in anything deeper than that, I hated horror movies and was scared of the dark. I was very attracted to Catholicism when I was young and told my Dad that he was going down the wrong path when he got involved in Wicca. But in my teens I basically stopped believing in God, especially after Dad died when I was on a sporting trip.
How did you become a Pastor?
I was the last person anyone ever thought would become a Pastor, I had a live fast die young materialistic mentality. I was still basically generous and compassionate to people but very selfishly driven overall. I became convinced about the existence of God in 1997 when I was checking the surf one day and heard a voice say "You know that I made everything in this universe" and I said back "God, if you are real, everything in my life has to change". So I blocked out Gods voice for the next two years.
Then in 1999, when our second child was about to be born, everything changed. Her vital signs plummeted. I prayed desperately that if God healed her I would become a Christian. She should have been stillborn and medical records show that the placenta spontaneously died - even the Doctor told me that it had been dead for 36 hours and she should have never made it - he actually showed me it in a private room away from my family.
Then I visited the Church I am now a Pastor at. There was this travelling musician, Doug McFarlane there. He stopped halfway through his session and said "There's someone here who asked God to do something for them and you promised to follow Him for the rest of your life. God has done His part, now you need to do yours. Come down the front so I can pray for you".
So that was the start of the journey and in 2007 I left a high income corporate position with a Pharmacy Chain to become a Pastor and later Sports Chaplain.
What radical paranormal stuff have you seen in ministry?
I've been yelled at in a room at Church by an unseen force - with a witness, had stuff thrown around my office by an invisiable force - again with witnesses, seen people manifest during exorcisms, seen angelic beings, seen demonic beings. Had the air sucked out of a room during an exorcism. Was strangled before a mission trip by something in a dark room. Had somethings try to come into my home, one sat next to my wife and said "You are a person of influence to the children in your Church - lead them to our master and we will give you anything you want" another scratched on the door like our dog and went she opened the door a shadow person walked in right in front of my wife and kids, she had to do an exorcism to get it out.
There are so many stories and I am sure many to come, too many to publish here so I'll send them to the blog.
But most of the time ministry is great fun.
Do you believe in conspiracy theories?
What I'll say on record and what I believe are often two different things. I've heard enough to make me realise that we are being mislead in a lot of area's and there are huge disinformation programs going on.. But that's about as detailed as I'll get publicly.
Tell us a bit about yourself
I'm just an average guy, a husband and father of four. I'm heavily involved in sports, I train kids to box and coach Rugby League, I surf, do weights, ride mountain bikes, go hunting, go spearfishing, play touch football and competed in sport as a teenager at a national level.
My faith is very strong, I believe Jesus Christ is Lord and has authority over the spiritual realm. The Church can drive me insane at times with its majoring in the minors and a lot of it's theologies do not reflect the teachings and actions of Jesus.
I like to relax on Thursday nights, watch Rugby League shows with my kids and share a six pack of beer with my wife. And eat chocolate and salt and vinegar chips.
I train hard but I'm a bit of a fat guts!!! :) That's just on Thursdays ok!!
I'm really interested in stories about animals that attack like 'The Ghost and the Darkness" "Twelve Days of Terror - the true story behind Jaws" "Old Mose: Colorado's last Killer Grizzly" all that kind of stuff. I like reading about Bullsharks and how they go thousands of miles upstream from the ocean - scary stuff. I own two Shark Shields!!
Who do you look up to in the industry?
Probably Pastor Robin Swope, the Paranormal Pastor and just really humble and open minded people like Eidolon Paranormal. They are just warm people.
And I love the stuff that Bryony Macri is doing to unify the Paranormal Community :)
Crypto-wise, you cant beat Cryptomundo.
I'm not really one of those 'Paranormal Investigator' people, I don't really watch all the shows or visit all the blogs. I didn't even know who Dustin Pari or any of the 'famous paranormal people" were until we became friends on Face Book. I think that's because in my role as Sports Chaplain I'm friends with a lot of of world class athletes, that kind of thing tends to mean you see people just as they are, warts and all - y'know the whole 'fame' thing never seems to get to me, I treat everyone exactly the same, from the poorest of the poor to the President of the USA. Plus, the Spirit of God lives in me, so is there anyone that you really aspire to meet after the creator of the universe :)
As a researcher I'm pretty lazy but at least you'll hear original stories as I tend to chase up the one's that find me. Yep, I'm a slacker unless I'm dragged into it, but they are usually the most interesting cases.
No comments:
Post a Comment