Founder of PRISMTEAM International

The International Director of PRISMTEAM is Mr. Laurie Pearce. He grew up in Adelaide and very early in life developed an interest in the paranormal. One of his earliest experiences in this area was being told by his parents that the house they lived in was haunted. When he was about fourteen years of age a friend mentioned seeing a strange light in the sky, which he described as being a UFO. That was to trigger a life-long interest in the study of reports of UFO's. 

Mr. Pearce has an excellent background for membership of PRISMTEAM in being a Licensed Private Investigator and Security Agent. A former member of the St. John Ambulance Brigade, he has also been extensively involved with the State Emergency Services and the Country Fire Service. In 1977, a Mr. Arthur Holden had established an Association that primarily investigated UFO phenomena and was called UFOM (Unidentified Flying Objects Monitors) Communications. This led to Mr. Pearce and a Mr. Pas Cutri joining the Association. All three formed the foundations of the group and led it in a direction of prosperity. 

By 1982 these three original members of UFOM noted an increasing number of newspaper reports concerning matters of a paranormal nature. These included several reports regarding local haunted houses, and, as a result the group decided to widen their areas of interest to include these and other areas of the paranormal. With the wider range of investigations being undertaken it was considered appropriate to change the name of the group to one that better reflected the widening interests and activities of the group. As a result in 1982 the name of the group was changed to PRISM. 

PRISM was involved with several early investigations. One of the most interesting was at Willunga House, located south of Adelaide, a property dating from the late 19th century, which had originally been owned by a ship's Captain. It was claimed that strange sounds could be heard throughout the house at night. There were reports of the sounds of someone walking around the house at night, and that doors would swing open without any apparent cause. At the time, John Riddell, a Television Reporter with Channel 9, Adelaide, was covering the story, and PRISM were invited along to assist in the investigation. 

PRISM spent a night in the old house, and while Investigators were able to report witnessing a number of doors opening, it was their opinion that this phenomenon was caused by a combination of the frequent sea breezes, and warped doorframes. It appeared that over the years many of the doorframes had become warped. As a result some of the doors were not positioned perfectly upright, and so had a tendency to swing open. PRISM used an audio tape-recorder during the time its Investigators were there, and interestingly, although they did not hear anything while at the house, when the tape was played afterwards several sounds that had not been evident at the house were recorded. One of these appeared to be the sound of cards being shuffled, while the other sounded like a small ship's whistle being blown. 

PRISM reserved its judgment on the house, concluding that while there were certainly some strange phenomena at the house, most of the fantastic claims were being made with an ulterior motive. At the time the house was being promoted as a tourist attraction, and it seemed that many of the various claims were simply an attempt to promote tourist interest in the house. 

The original objectives of the group have persisted to this day. PRISMTEAM International continues to extend its services to the general community, forming affiliations with a number of interstate and overseas groups and establishing its own branch offices in other states and overseas.

Laurie Pearce is also the Director of Moonlight Haunted Tours serving Port Adelaide, Kapunda & the city of Adelaide South Australia.

The Myrtles Plantation
Francisville, Louisiana
Photo: Anney Horn