2003 was a quiet and subdued year in most aspects for us... which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I do, however, feel bad for those new investigators/researchers with us who didn't get much chance to really cut their teeth, but in traditional weird GHRS luck, it looks like 2004 is going to be very, very, different.

We must be doing something right as we have been contacted (not us contacting them!) by three historical sites who invited us to come and do something at their museums/sites this year. Honestly, for us in Ontario, this is a first!

Also, our gig on Mind/Shift (the radio program on Toronto's CFRB with Errol Bruce-Knapp) has been very successful (the show is number one with a bullet in it's timeslot!) and a whole lot of fun. Errol is by far, one of the best media experiences we've had overall (and, as most of you know, our media experience has been mostly bad...) We're pleased that this will be continuing through 2004 and beyond!

As for "on-site" investigations in 2003, it was a bad year... Other than possible small outings by some of the team I may not have write-ups for, we only accomplished about three full ones over the past year... very slow. Granted, many personal issues cramped our style which probably played a big role in this. Aside from this, the three on-sites I was involved with cannot (so far) be shared online due to non-disclosure agreements! Well... that and not much to tell about them. While we were at all three, we didn't even get one "strange" recording or photograph let alone anything else to report... but as I always say, sometimes saying "Nothing Happened" is as important as saying "All Kinds of Stuff Happened!" It just doesn't make for exciting reading, I 'spose.

Science and academia took a larger role within the group and with the work we do. Some saw this as an "abandonment" of our "spiritual" centre and made us a wee bit more "unfriendly". I think it took us down a path of more asking "why" and more looking into things with a keen eye rather than jumping to an acceptance of things "as is." We've always been a bit "hardline" on psychical work and a little (genuinely) sceptical (not "sceptdebunker-al"(?) of many things and tried to separate the wheat from the chaff in our own data collection.

Still, the site thrived big time in 2003 with more visitors than 2002 and many more than 2001. We're still, according to Yahoo!, one of the most "revisited" sites for people in Canada (user "loyalty" rating).

The most important new work in 2003 was the re-vamped and PRINTABLE (something people asked for like crazy!) free online course which was copy-edited by our own consultant, John Robert Colombo who also paid a big compliment to myself and Jennifer this year... Click here to read more about that.

This years anniversary at Spadina House was a great success, but it represented the last "big anniversary" or gathering for another two years. We've decided to "scale down" these events and try to "fund raise" to put on a really big tenth anniversary conference. We're bouncing ideas around for this event already!

This year, we finally said "absolutely no" to orb, mist, and vortex photo submissions... which, of course, the day it went up, prompted dozens of orb, mist, and vortex photo submissions. *sigh*. For information there, click here.

The funniest, back-handed compliment of 2003 was at the tag end, some folks put together a "spoof site" based on us prompting many to send "Congratulations!" to myself for finally having "made it" by warranting such effort by the disgruntled! I would concur!

Over the whole GHRS sites, this year represented the Virginia GHRS joining an elite group being attacked and slammed by Joe Nickell of CSICOP. That means only your's truly and Bobbie and Rick have had run-ins with the Scion of CSICOP! Actually, all that aside, Virginiaghosts is easily the hardest working group within the GHRS family. Bobbie, Rick, and their crew are seemingly constant in their efforts and have done some work that is really extraordinary in scope!

That's not to take away from the other active GHRSs... BC GHRS with Heather is in overhaul mode and they are doing more and more work, Jonathon in Quebec has been up to some interesting research and reports, John in Manitoba has a site to be reckoned with and he and the team there look like their poised to really do some amazing work over the next few months, Wendy and crew in New Brunswick are newbies to the fold but already have some interesting things happening... not the least of which is a bilingual site, Gary in Salt Lake City... well... I dunno... Gary's been awfully quiet but is checking his mail (hint, hint - an update soon, Gary?), Pete in Western New York may be moving to a new state... or not... either way, Pete is by far one of our best directors and no matter where he lays his hat, I expect amazing things... and even if he does move on from Western New York (not a given), the GHRS there will stay alive with a new director, Our group in England has lost a director... sort-of... as Neal, the current director, wants to step down into a researcher/investigator role to spend more time looking after other business... so we're searching for someone to fill the gap in what should be one of the most active GHRSs out there, and finally Janice in Nevada and California... what can I say? If you do a websearch, Janice seems to be everywhere! Definitely a hard working ghost investigator/researcher who's speaking itinerary alone is quite impressive!

So, after all that, what does '04 have in store??? For Toronto/Ontario, it's hard to say... We have three big investigations planned already (those three sites that contacted us) and loads of smaller things too. We're going to be working on several experiments in "physical mediumship" as well as continuing our work with electro-magnetic theories and electronic voice phenomena.

We also have about four on-site investigations happening (as I type, more or less) outside Toronto by our crew of investigators and researchers that will yield interesting things, I'm sure.

Will '04 be as subdued? Somehow, I don't think so... Which should lead to some interesting content here on the ol' site.

Big thanks to all our supporters and friends for a great 2003 and all the best to everyone who's helped us get through our sixth year and starting what looks like an interesting "year seven".

Hey, isn't "Seven" a lucky number???

Matthew Didier