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.