Wilson first met TAPS co-founder, Jason Hawes, after offering to redesign the website of the Rhode Island Paranormal Society (RIPS), a support group Hawes had formed for people who had paranormal experiences. Wilson subsequently admitted that the real reason he wanted to meet Hawes was that he had undergone an intense, recurring paranormal experience beginning at the age of fifteen. Hawes and Wilson went on to found TAPS together. According to his own account, Wilson's recurring experience involved seeing an unidentified entity in the Rhode Island woods on a regular basis.