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Interview by Janel Spiegel
For more than 30 years Eric Mintel is an acclaimed jazz musician with his group the Eric Mintel Quartet. By later at night Eric Mintel investigates the paranormal. Eric and spirit medium Dominic Sattele were recently featured on the cover of American Paranormal magazine (Jan/Feb) 2023. Eric has also had stories written up on his paranormal activities by numerous newspapers and has been featured on many radio stations and podcasts across the country and around the world.
Eric took time to talk with The Valley Ledger about his paranormal adventures and the upcoming Bucks County ParaCon! – 1st Annual Paranormal Conference.
Hi Eric, it’s great to talk to you. How is everything going? Please tell us how all of this manifested?
Eric-In 2016, I started Eric Mintel Investigates, and started doing some local inns, and bed and breakfast places, places that have great history, and haunted history. As a result of that, we have been doing events along with those videos, and on top of that we’ve been traveling all over the country because people are so excited about what we’re doing. Some of the stuff that we have caught on-camera is amazing. I go into a lot of these investigations on the skeptical side, but having said that, and having caught we have caught on-camera. I’m now a firm believer that there is thin veil. People are seeing something. I saw a lot of these Paranormal Conventions, and we don’t a lot of these in Bucks County. We decided on March 9th that we would have a Paranormal Convention in Bucks County. Tickets are flying off the shelf. We have some great key note speakers including: Nick Pope, Dominic Sattele, Bill Birnes, Tom Carey, Eric Spinner, and Jim Krug. Myself and Dominic Sattele will be speaking about our encounter with The Beast of Bray Road. It’s an upright canine dog-like creature that we encountered in 2021. We have quite a few keynote speakers coming from all over. We have vendors, crafters, food trucks. It’s going to be a great day.
I love it. I love that. I appreciate that you go in skeptical. I don’t like the term “Ghost Hunting.” We are not hunting anything or anyone. We are interacting and showing appreciation so, thank you for that.
Eric- Me neither, I don’t like that term. That’s the other thing, people think, oh, he’s a Ghost Hunter, and that’s not what I do. We are a paranormal tourist TV show. We show people where to go, what to do, and where to stay, and where to have these incredible experiences. I go into this skeptically because not every place we go into is haunted. Now with the BigFoot, U.F.O. situation or the dog man situation, we have had encounters with those. We couldn’t explain it, and you can hear it on the video. Then we saw eye-shine, and it’s about six to seven feet tall. I said, we need to get out of here. We did an investigation at the Pine Barrens in New Jersey. This has completely changed my perspective on what’s out there.
How long do your investigations take from start to finish? How do you start your process?
Eric- It’s a daunting process. Right now, we’re working on the VAMPA Museum.
I’ve been to VAMPA. It’s quite a place. I felt sick in the one room.
Eric- It’s a haunted Vampire Museum. Ed is the owner, and he has over 700 Vampire killing kits. We go into that with a lot of the history of the location, and we get a lot of the history about Ed. He’s been all over the world. I don’t tell my team anything. We go in and we have a cameraman. We don’t use a lot of the gimmicky stuff. They give you a false reading. People don’t account for camera equipment, and we go in as truth based as possible. I also want to emphasize that this is family friendly entertainment. We put some humor into it. Right now, at this vampire museum, we’ve never dealt with demonic haunted objects. So, and I’ll tell you, last Tuesday, we filmed some extra footage, which hasn’t been released yet. We heard a disembodied voice; it freaked us all out. You could see our reactions. It was me, Dominic, and Ed. It was absolutely freaky; it was the same sound we heard in the barn. I would say it’s Dominic. He’s like a magnet for these things. I’ve known Dominic my entire life, and I didn’t know he was a spirit medium. Having him on the investigations is great. We have done places like Hanoverville Roadhouse.
I want to ask you about VAMPA because I was so fascinated, and I have had so many paranormal experiences. The Exorcism chair, the doll room, and the barn made me so uncomfortable. I felt like someone was grabbing me, and wanted us all out. It’s stunning, and that tall doll. I don’t know what you can reveal. But, what do you think? I can connect, my mom is gifted also. I can see, and feel. It’s quite an experience.
Eric- Wow, you’re not kidding about the barn. Yes, that’s what we think. Dominic had an experience with that. I didn’t want to go down that road, and there is something in there. I don’t have those feelings but I feel like I need to get out there.
It gives off an angry energy.
Eric- Exactly. Your right on the money there. Ed knows, he was burning an object the other day because he thought it was demonically possessed and he didn’t want to put it in the museum. We recently picked up a doll that was connected to the Robert Bailey Thomas estate. He created the Farmers Almanac. This thing was so weird, it had nails in it, a skull behind it. It was sitting in a beautifully carved baby chair. It had a skull in its hand. We were like, what the hell is this? We have a new video we’re doing called, “Paranormal Pickers.” The idea is that these objects are haunted, and how do we handle it, and cleanse the objects. It’s been amazing. We have investigated quite a few incredible places. The VAMPA video will be released in June.
What advice or words of wisdom would you offer?
Eric- I’ve always been a self-starter. You have to have a belief in yourself. I have an outlet to do this. Thankfully my jazz audience has followed me over to the paranormal world. Create and be truthful about it.
What is next for you?
Eric- We just finished a tour, and we will be performing again. I have a tour coming up in April with my jazz quartet. I’m focusing on this convention.
Thank you so much, Eric. It was such an honor to talk to you. You are awesome.
Eric- Thank you.
Bucks County ParaCon!
Eric Mintel Yamaha Artist: https://www.yamaha.com/artists/ericmintel.html
Eric Mintel IMDB:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10693809/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/BucksPN1/
https://ericmintelquartet.com/
