The Conjuring House Unpacked: Jason Hawes Answers Your Biggest Questions Live
“I'd rather walk away from a location with zero evidence and a clear conscience than manufacture something that gets a million views — that's always been the TAPS standard, and it always will be.”
— Jason Hawes
Few locations carry as much weight in the paranormal world as the Conjuring House — the real-life Rhode Island farmhouse that inspired one of the most iconic horror franchises in movie history. When I sat down for a live Q&A to talk about this infamous property and more, the questions came fast, passionate, and from every corner of the paranormal community. Whether you're a die-hard TAPS fan or someone who just watched the film and started Googling at midnight, I want to give you the honest, grounded perspective that I always lead with.
I've been doing this work for a long time — long enough to know that a location's reputation can work against a good investigation just as easily as it can fuel one. The Conjuring House, officially known as the Perron family farmhouse in Harrisville, Rhode Island, is a perfect example of that. By the time most investigators walk through that door, their heads are already full of movie imagery, dramatic re-enactments, and decades of built-up legend. My job — and really the job of anyone who takes this work seriously — is to walk in and strip all of that away. What can we actually document? What has a rational explanation? And only after we've exhausted every other possibility do we start entertaining the idea that something genuinely unexplained is happening.
During the live stream, a lot of the questions I got centered around the history of the house itself and how it compares to what was depicted in the film. I want to be straight with you: Hollywood is in the business of entertainment, not documentation. That doesn't mean the Perron family didn't have real experiences — by all accounts, they did, and I have a great deal of respect for what that family went through. But there's a significant gap between a family's lived experience and a two-hour movie with a dramatic score and jump scares. When TAPS approaches a location like this, we're not trying to recreate the movie. We're trying to understand what's actually happening in that building, with real people, using repeatable methodology. That means checking for drafts, structural anomalies, EMF spikes from faulty wiring, infrasound from nearby sources — the unglamorous stuff that explains a surprising amount of what people report as paranormal activity.
One of the things I love about doing a live Q&A format is that it cuts through the noise. People ask real questions, and I give real answers — even when those answers aren't the dramatic confirmation they were hoping for. Several folks wanted to know whether I believe the Conjuring House is genuinely haunted. My honest answer is that it's one of the most complex and historically layered locations I've encountered. There is a weight to that property that's hard to articulate without sounding like the very thing I try to avoid — someone who lets atmosphere do the heavy lifting. What I can say is that not everything reported there has an easy explanation, and that keeps it on my radar as a location worth continued, serious study. That's different from calling it haunted. That's me saying the case isn't closed.
We also got into broader topics during the stream — questions about investigation methodology, how TAPS trains new investigators, the state of the paranormal field today, and what I think about some of the newer approaches showing up on television and social media. My position hasn't changed much over the years: the field is only as credible as the people in it are honest. If you're faking evidence, you're not just embarrassing yourself — you're undermining the legitimate work being done by investigators who actually care about the truth. I'd rather walk away from a location with zero evidence and a clear conscience than manufacture something that gets a million views. That's always been the TAPS standard, and it always will be.
The Conjuring House is a location that deserves serious, disciplined investigation — not hype, not theatrics, and not conclusions drawn before the first piece of equipment is even unplugged. My verdict remains what it always is until the evidence says otherwise: keep investigating, keep questioning, and never let the legend do the work for you. If you missed the live stream, stay tuned — this conversation is far from over.