Sometime before 1990 a man named Jason Hawes had what he calls a “paranormal” experience.  In 1990 he founded a group called the Rhode Island Paranormal Society, or RIPS.  A group of people that would meet at a local diner to discuss the paranormal and investigate claims of paranormal activity, ghosts, hauntings, and such.  Once they started investigating cases outside of the county and in other states, the name was changed to The Atlantic Paranormal Society, orTAPS.  In 2004 the group became the subject of a television series that followed their investigations.  What we know today as the very successful show Ghost Hunters.