Hey, Who's Elephant Is This?

I would imagine that, by now, everyone has seen the link to the post written by a fellow named Bill Stone – the one that lists all the steps to make a really bad ghost hunting group. John Zaffis posted it in a note, so if you haven’t read it, you can probably just go look on his page. It’s also been reposted a few times. Anyway…

I don’t even really know where to start with this one. I had been planning on writing a blog about defining motivation as a way to clear up some of the mud in the paranormal community, but then this started circulating and I realized, “Okay, now I KNOW I have to say something.”

Clearly, it’s time to call a spade a spade.

Here’s the deal. On the surface, we have what appears to be a very tongue-in-cheek look at what is believed to be the root problem of a lack of cohesiveness in the paranormal community. Groups of stupid people, with stupid websites, doing stupid things that make everyone look bad, right? Well, part of this may be true. In any area of interest, you are always going to have a bunch of @$$holes making things more difficult for the legitimate folks. Hell, I had the misfortune of having a project I was working on be completely cannibalized by another local group whom I had invited to participate. They were shady and disingenuous and they totally sabotaged the true intention of the project. Some of those fences have been mended, but others were burned beyond recognition or repair. The point is, yeah, some people lie and cheat and steal to gain a little bit of notoriety.

But that doesn’t mean that everyone with a website and an EMF detector is a fraud. A few of the points he makes include:

“Since the spawn of the television shows mentioned above, there have been a million new websites created, and just as many new ghost hunting teams have been born to emulate them.”

This is interesting considering that his website – thebeyond.info – has a copyright date a full year after Ghost Hunters went on the air. Is he being ironic and self-effacing? I am not sure. I found what I believe is a lot of contradiction between what he writes in this piece, and what is contained within his website.

Here’s another one:

“The truth is, people will see or hear anything that you tell them to. They do this because they’re morons. Don’t get me wrong. Morons are good. You need morons. Otherwise we’ll have people running around in the community with no direction at all, or even worse, thinking for themselves. No, it’s best to just tell them what you want them to believe, and watch them fall in line.”

Morons? All of them? Maybe they just need direction and guidance and proper instruction. I disagree with across-the-board name calling. If you are outspoken in the paranormal community, you need to be careful not to insult people that might have otherwise looked up to you. In other words, don’t sh!t where you eat.

This one makes a great segue into my next topic:

”This is an important aspect of the field that many of us forget to do. You have to connect yourself with those that have already made a name for themselves in the field, good or bad. It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. Tell people that your friends with members of TAPS, Lorraine Warren, or some other famous investigator. By association, you will immediately be respected, and seen as someone that is already in the ‘inner circle’ of paranormal experts. Everyone will KNOW that you possess knowledge that goes beyond this physical realm, and far into the beyond. You’ve finally made it.”

You mean like writing an inflammatory albeit marginally humorous article and sending it to a very well known member of the paranormal community, hoping to curry favor and approval, and then feeling very pleased with yourself when the very people you set out to insult leave comment after comment about how funny and right you are? Well played.

I do think it’s interesting and appropriate to refer to an “inner circle” of paranormal researchers (I refuse to call anyone an expert). Let’s get out our spades now…

Here’s what I want to know. Why doesn’t anyone ever talk about the Good Ol’ Boy Network? We all know it’s there, and we all know who they are, but nobody wants to say, “Hey, how come YOU GUYS get to make all the rules?” Everyone loves to sh!t all over an orb photo, all the while cramming terms like “demonology” and “angelology” down our throats. I can show you a picture of an orb, but can you show me your degree in demonology? Don’t piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining. Why doesn’t anyone ever refer to The Rhine Research Center or Loyd Auerbach or Charles Tart? These are people that have actually done true, scientific paranormal research. Not the stuff that is fun to watch on TV or the dubious ghostly tales that translate into big moneymaking film ventures, but real research.

If we really want to move towards a cohesive community, this is the bullsh!t that needs to stop. If everyone works with integrity and truthfulness, the wheat will separate from the chaff. If you think a group or an individual is a big fat liar, stop talking about them, stop talking TO them, and they will just go away. If it brings someone joy to have a flashy website with skulls and music, what is the harm?

I’m just sayin’ is all…just keepin’ it real.

Are Any of Us REALLY "Experts?"

I got a message last night from another author who told me "you have to read this," and copied me on a different message posted on someone's Facebook page (or similar)...a someone who shall remain nameless, but by all accounts has become marginally famous in the glamorous world of paranormal research by doing absolutely nothing but running off at the mouth. I won't even quote the message directly, but it was exactly the kind of magnanimous, self-congratulatory bullsh*t that makes me want to punch myself in the face.

Evidently this person wrote a book. Yeah, get in line, sister...I'm on book four.

Also evidently, this person touts herself as an "expert" in numerous areas of paranormal research. Really? Well, I suppose it's easy to be an expert in a field that science still hasn't been able to specifically pinpoint...that way you can make up the rules that suit you as you go along.

It just so happens that this is a fairly gigantic pet peeve of mine...people claiming to be "experts" when it comes to ghost hunting. Unless you have Dr. in front of your name, or an entire alphabet of credentials behind it, you are NOT an expert. I can make a grilled cheese sandwich, but that certainly doesn't make me a chef.

Truthfully, the only thing you can claim expertise on is your own experience. Anyone can absorb and regurgitate information that they have read or heard elsewhere, but that doesn't make the information YOURS. It's what you do WITH that information to try and move the conversation forward that matters. That's where you begin to build your own credibility. You can't just make stuff up, slap a cool name on it, and call it legitimate research. While it may entertain, it does not inform.

So, while I am wholeheartedly willing to drink the "drama-free paranormal" koolaid, I stand pat on the need to vet out the people that bring nothing BUT drama to the table.

Am I just pissing in the wind on this one, or can I get a witness to testify?

~Katie

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The Art of Posturing...

Admit it. Every ghost hunting group in the world wants to be BADASS. More specifically, we want to LOOK badass, based - of course - on what each of our individual definitions of badassery entail. Some groups that lean towards psychics and mediums and crystals and sage-smudging might want to appear earthy, flowy, approachable, and all about the love. Some groups with all the fancy gadgets that beep and flash may want to pose in their combat gear in front of their paranormal unimog, just to make sure everyone knows to be scared.

Some of us are happy if we appear to have only a single chin and not shaped roughly like the Tasmanian Devil.

This is all part of posturing. This is what everyone will see and know and remember from the very first glance. It's important. So, since we here at Wailing Bansidhe have an unusually high concentration of "newbies," we have been bemoaning and vascillating about the impending "group photo." You've all seen the one that's posted now. I look like I just climbed out of the back of a dumptruck, Paige looks like she has gigantism, and the rest of us look somewhere in between. Well, except for Clint (or "Cling" if you are typing too fast) who always looks fierce and mighty.

Given the dilemma, I did what any good leader would do, I opened the topic for dialogue on exactly where and how we should be photographed. I instantly regretted it.

"Hey, we should do COSTUMES!!! I used to have a Gorilla suit in my car, until it was ejected onto the highway when I rolled down the embankment."

"Yes, yes...PARANORMAL MASQUERADE!!! We could be pirates! ARGH!"

"No, no...seriously, though...any ideas?"

"POWDERED WIGS!!!"

"We aren't wearing powdered wigs."

"It's my turn to wear the mango capris!"

Before the brainstorming session (completely SOBER, I might add) was over, we had entertained such ideas as velcro jumpsuits, homemade re-purposed t-shirts, a large multi-armed stick onto which we would place our instrumentation, all while simultaneously carrying a sign as we parade past the Tombstone webcam.

Somehow, I feel we will need to revisit this topic again. For now, I have to slip into my sequined tube top, yarmulke, and drywall stilts for this round of photos.

It's really all about choosing your battles.