John Zaffis

John Zaffis has over forty three years of experience studying and investigating the paranormal. He has had the opportunity to work for and with his aunt and uncle, Ed and Lorraine Warren. This sent John beyond looking for ghosts and hauntings and into studying demonology under the Warrens. This led into John's involvement with cases of possession and exorcism, which gave him the opportunity to work with prominent exorcists in this field, including Roman Catholic priests, monks, Buddhists, rabbis and ministers. John has assisted and worked with well-known exorcists Bishop Robert McKenna, Father Malachi Martin, and the Reverend Jun.

His research has taken him throughout the United States, Canada, England and Scotland covering several thousands of cases. Through hands on investigating with other investigators and clergy, he has obtained a great deal of knowledge and understanding of the paranormal and is considered one of the foremost authorities in the field today.

John has a lot of first-hand paranormal experience, including experience with ghosts, poltergeists, and demonic and diabolical entities. He has also worked extensively with both spiritualists and psychics concerning how their knowledge is used for channeling, reincarnation (past-life regression), calling of the spirits for information, and how they use meditation to acquire the information which they are seeking. Because of his personal experiences with hauntings, ESP, near death experiences and other paranormal activities, he is firm in his conviction that such phenomena exist.

John has been featured in the SyFy television series Haunted Collector., Discovery Channel's documentaries A Haunting in Connecticut and Little Lost Souls. John has also appeared on Unsolved Mysteries, Piers Morgan, and many other print and news media events. John also appears in Graveyards and In A Dark Place, both books written by Ed and Lorraine Warren. John's first book, Shadows of the Dark, co-written with Brian McIntyre, was released in September, 2004. John has also appeared on Ghost Hunters and Ghost Adventures. John is working on multiple follow-up books currently, and is lecturing all over the United States at colleges and universities.

Over the years, John has collected many hundreds of possessed items either given to or sent to him by people wishing to be rid of them. The John Zaffis Paranormal Museum opened in 2004 in order to display these items, and continues to be open today. John wrote and starred in the documentary film Museum of the Paranormal, released in 2010, which gives the viewer a tour of his museum and the stories behind some of the objects. John was the starring role in the television series Haunted Collector which ran on SyFy from 2011 through 2013.

What Lurks Within

What Lurks Within chronicles true case files from John Zaffis, noted demonologist and paranormal researcher, and Reverend Larry Elward, independent priest and exorcist and his wife Debbie Elward, paranormal researcher and psychic. This book delves into the more intense cases that the three have been involved in over their thirty-some years of working together in the paranormal field. John and Larry met while both were involved in a case for the famous ghost hunters, Ed and Lorraine Warren. Debbie would later meet up with John and her future husband while also on a case for the Warrens. A few short years later, the three would team up to work on their own cases separate from the Warrens. The three have continued working together and have put their combined knowledge together in co-authoring this book.Before you begin this book, you may wonder why we began doing what we do in the first place...it’s not easy to explain.Each one of us has our own reasons why we would want to expose ourselves to possible retaliation from an unseen foe. John grew up in a family that was already in the work of eradicating spirits from people's lives. Although he was in his late teens early twenties when he started actually going on his first case and helping people, he still showed an early interest in the subject matter. Larry became interested in the subject of exorcism after watching the movie The Exorcist. He began studying about the subject and eventually went on his first paranormal case and witnessed a possessed man being sprayed with Holy Water. When the water hit the man’s arms, it caused the skin to burst open as if he were slashed with a knife. Debbie chose to do this work as a psychic, being able to see spirits her whole life. She often wondered what she could do to use her God given gifts. She now believes that these gifts were given to her to help people. By chance or sheer luck, the three came together with a common goal to help people who are being beleaguered by these spirits. In What Lurks Within, we have highlighted only a few of our many cases that we have dealt with over our many years as a team. Still today, we continue helping people deal with their spiritual conflicts.