EVP and Ouija Boards

Jun23
by on June 23, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Posted In: Author-Pattyhap1863, E.V.P., Paranormal Tools

~ Written By Pattyhap1863 ~

“Is there anybody here?” the voice whispered into the darkness, as the group sat huddled in a circle waiting for an answer from beyond. Nobody spoke.

How many times have we heard this question in séances? Certainly that question is the one that everyone uses while attempting communication with the after-life. The fact is that spirit communication has been attempted for a long time now. Séances were performed by mediums and people usually joined hands, forming a circle around a table. Other kinds of séances introduced letters around a light object or planchette in the center of the table which could be moved around pointing to different letters to spell out the answers. “Yes” and “No” were also included in the layout, in case the spirits didn’t know or want to spell. This form of communicating was the early precursor of the “Ouija Board”. In fact, the name ‘Ouija’ (oui-ja), literally means “yes” in French and German respectively. Nobody really remembers that the board itself was first created by William Fuld in the eighteen hundreds, who later sold his entire company to the Parker Brothers.

Then if you take a look at the Ouija Board in itself, a question comes to mind: What is it about this board that makes it so nefarious? Surely it’s not the Parkers Brothers (now a subsidiary of Hasbro) trademark at the bottom? When I hear all these stories of Ouija boards being dangerous, I think about where I bought it, on a shelf right next to Risk and Monopoly in a toy store and wonder if the people selling it as a toy truly know anything about the board itself?

Before you take the time to think about this (and a series of other questions I’m pondering about in this article), let me introduce you to another scenario. A person standing in the middle of a dark room or area, holding a digital or analog recorder in his hand. The room is very dark, and the only light comes from a video camera. “Is there anybody here?” he asks, peering into the darkness. Doesn’t this question ring a bell? Replace the board and planchette with a digital/analog recorder and you have the same scenario. And this scenario, simply put, is spirit communication.  We are doing the same thing using different tools. This is also true of automatic writing, as well.

So why is it that we aren’t seeing warning signs and words like evil when we capture an EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena/Phenomenon) on a digital recorder if we are basically doing the same thing as a Ouija board? Isn’t a Ouija board simply a tool used to communicate with spirits? What is it about Ouija boards that set alarm bells ringing? Don’t we basically ask the same questions when on an investigation using a digital recorder?

When I googled for “Ouija board”, I got some pretty interesting information that I’d like to share with you all. The first thing that caught my interest was the fact that most people were afraid to use it because of what they’ve read online. Let’s face it, there are some pretty scary stories out there! Ouija boards have also been used in literature as well. Pulitzer Prize winner James Merrill claims that “The Changing Light at Sandover” published in 1982 was written based on his communications with the dead by using a Ouija board.  ‘Paranormal celebrities’ such as psychic Sylvia Brown and paranormal researcher John Zaffis warn us to stay away from Ouija boards. Last but not least, there’s Hollywood, and all the horror movies where Ouija boards were featured as a communication tool used by the devil, elementals and vengeful spirits. No wonder people think the board is evil!

So where is the angry mob that screams evil when it comes to using digital/analog recorders to capture EVP then? Does all this mean that because we use an electronic gadget we are protected from the devil, elementals or evil spirits? Why is it that there aren’t any wide-spread stories about people in mental asylums who have gone crazy after using their recorders to capture EVP? What is the factor that instills fear here? I, for one, have no answers to all this.

The fact is that automatic writing, EVP captures and Ouija boards all fall into one category in my book, and that is SPIRIT COMMUNICATION. ALL these things are used to try to effectively communicate with spirits or the after-life and none of them are evil or bad for us. The thing that makes something bad is the way we use or abuse it. If we use these tools excessively and blindly, we are playing with fire. If we ignore common sense and develop a fixation for one of them, then we are in true danger. For the mind can play games on us and cause us to hear or see what is not there.

Ah, you say, but I have proof that Ouija boards are evil! Something bad happened to a friend of a friend who used it! Or maybe you’ve experienced something terrifying when using a Ouija board yourself? If so, I invite you to please send your Ouija board stories and experiences to us and we’ll publish them on both MY site, Ghostamongus AND here on The Beyond. Send your Ouija stories to BeyonderBill@yahoo.com along with your name (or alias if you’re paranoid), and the title of your story. This will be an ongoing online experiment to statistically record the number of positive, negative and neutral experiences from people who submit their stories to the email address previously mentioned. Then you can decide for yourself if the Ouija board is really an evil tool or not.

Anybody want to play a game of Risk?

6 Comments

The Not So Famous – Part 5

Jun16
by on June 16, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Posted In: Author-Pattyhap1863, Interviews, Paranormal Investigation

~ Written By Pattyhap1863 ~

On our quest for the truth of the paranormal, we interviewed five paranormal investigators to learn a bit about how hard they work in the field and how much they contribute to paranormal research. These men and women don’t have a TV show and are not paid for what they do. They are fueled by love and passion for the unexplained and a desire to find irrefutable evidence of the existence of the after-life.
Here, without further ado, is the long-awaited Part Five of the Not So Famous interviews.

Meet Jari Mikkola. Jari is the co-founder of ParaNexus, a paranormal site that is dedicated to the serious study and debunking of evidence of paranormal phenomena. Jari has also managed to publish a new paranormal ezine called “The Journal of Anomalous Sciences” which I encourage you to check out for yourself as it is a high quality online magazine of all things paranormal (check out the link at the end of this interview).

How many years have you been in the field?
I have to say that I’ve been involved with the paranormal since I was five. But as an active investigator of paranormal phenomena for about the last twenty-five years, during which the first twenty were pretty much as a ‘ghost hunter’ not an investigator. I define the difference as: A ghost hunter attempts to see, or capture on media, apparitions at locations that already known to be paranormally active. However, a paranormal investigator (and researcher) is a person who attempts to determine if paranormal phenomena is present at a site that is unexplored, yet purportedly haunted, and establish why it may be through research into the phenomena being reported and the site itself.

What are your accomplishments?
During the twenty five years, mostly personal satisfaction. However, most recently it would be the formation of ParaNexus with a friend and colleague Doug Kelley. We first met when I wanted to establish the difference between fact and fallacy regarding the paranormal with a team of newbies (my first official group called In the Shadows Paranormal Project). Thus I decided to train them by providing a knowledge transfer training course based on my many lessons and experiences in the field over the years, from all over the world. Where I travel globally with my work I’ve investigated many locations. I happened to stumble across Doug’s website, to find a course he had just published, that included the philosophy that I used, the importance of the ‘human condition’ in understanding the phenomena.

While discussing his course, we soon became fast friends. It wasn’t long before we realized how well we shared information and data about our cases, which was unusual in lieu of today’s successful popular television programming sprouting up paranormal groups all around the world. These groups are unwilling to share data, concepts, or information amongst other groups. Thus ParaNexus became a search to find others that felt strongly about it as a science. In ten months, we have an international following of over two hundred members that feel the same way, and have established standards and methods as guidelines, not mandates, to promote the science.

Which investigation do you remember the most and why?
It was one conducted several years ago after having been contacted by a friend in London about needing an empath with a lot of experience for an investigation in Ireland, and not one that feels demons and angels everywhere they go. I built my reputation on the fact that the truth is always the truth and the truth is in the evidence. However, the lack of evidence, does not qualify as truth.

I believe that an empath’s gift should only be used to help find out information when all other means have failed. But since it is quite subjective information, and in itself is not evidence, but a tool to locate the evidence. My success ratio for pointing research in the correct direction is about 50-60 percent. An investigation I did several years ago at Leap Castle in Northern Ireland, was one of the most memorable. Almost an hour and a half into the investigation everything that could go wrong did. We were assembled from all over Europe because when the castle was being renovated by the owners, the workers on the construction crews began to complain of weird things happening, and feeling a presence hanging over them that didn’t want them there. They later came to believe that an elemental was responsible for many of the mishaps occurring there.

Leap Castle has a tragic history surrounded by death as many people lost their lives being cast into a pit that was lined with wooden spikes, impaling them when they landed on them. It was in that pit, that also led to some inner chambers that we encountered after one of our team was thrown off a ladder as he descended into the pit. He began screaming when he said something picked him up and threw him back down. As soon as the ladder was repositioned, he quickly ran up to safety. A fast wind came from the bowels of the pit on this otherwise still night. We decided it was best to leave our equipment and call it a night. We did however; get some pretty good photographs on film that were quite compelling.

The worse part of investigating a location is:
I think it’s the weather in outside locations or buildings. Recently, a well known Dutch team called Haunted-Holland from Rotterdam and myself went on an investigation in the IJMuiden Castle Fortress just west of Amsterdam. It was an early fall night and already cold. When the team returned on Halloween Night for their annual ‘Ghost Tours’ to raise money for the team’s equipment and traveling expenses, it was quite bitter, cold and damp.

The best part of investigating a location is:
Is the comradery I have built up over the years and the enjoyment of learning new things. This includes the history of certain areas, buildings, and people, and also camera techniques for night photography, infra-red or low-light, photographic forensics in the analysis of potential frauds (and it happens all the time, some quite good), investigating, and meeting new people.

Why do you do this?
I consider myself a skeptical believer. This means that first of all I totally believe that there is something to the paranormal that I would like answers for. But I am skeptical at the claims many people make. About 95% of the time nothing happens, or fraud is attempted by the client (to which I quickly leave and call an end to the investigation). BUT it’s that 5%, when it happens, that can make it ALL WORTH WHILE! To have water faucets come on or off while you’re watching, lights turn on by themselves, toys move by themselves, books fly across the room…oh yeah! That’s worth waiting for.

What is your favorite tool when investigating and why?
Will I have lots of toys adding up to thousands of dollars…much of it quite high-tech. But if I could take just three things into the field it would be:
No. 1 – My digital audio recorders with external microphones. They’re compact w/USB ports for easy downloading, stereo tracks, and can record up to 120 hours each. In my opinion, the EVP is the most convincing form of evidence and is the most difficult to ‘debunk.’ Especially when I am there!
No. 2 – My digital ambient thermometer…it gives quick readings of the air temperature and humidity, which can be helpful when you encounter a dramatic temperature change, often attributed to a paranormal event. Once you remove the obvious reasons, like air conditioning, drafts, etc…it can be logged as information leading to an encounter.
No. 3 – My Canon EOS DSLR camera. With this I can take time exposures, flash, timed, night shot, etc…and get great pictures in both RAW formats and JPG, in 12.5 megapixel resolution allowing me to magnify deep into the detail of a suspected photograph. But with such wonderful digital editing tool software available today that is not only affordable, but easy to use; it is too easy to alter photographs. Therefore, any serious photographer should not trust photographs alone. And NEVER an orb! When in doubt, I throw it out!

When did you first encounter something paranormal in your life?
I was five years old…and my grandmother caught me talking to an empty chair on her porch. When she asked me who I was speaking to, I gave her the name of a neighbor that recently died. One I had never met, because we were visiting from another state. I gave her a message he had for his wife that led her to a milk can buried in the back yard containing over five thousand dollars. Do I remember the conversation…no. I believed my grandmother, because that kind of stuff still happens to me…but mostly when I least expect it to. It’s not something I can do on demand.

Have you ever had an unpleasant encounter with either an inhuman entity or evil spirit? If so, what was it?
Honestly no. The dead can’t hurt you, it’s the living you need to worry about. I would love to be able to have a knock down, drag-em out confrontation with one to see just how bad-ass they can be. I’ve sensed inhuman presence, but it’s been always benign. We’ve all had that little voice tell us of people to be leery of, and I listen to that inner voice…and usually they know when they’ve been busted, and stay clear for some reason.

What advice would you give newcomers in the field?
First don’t go out spending thousands of dollars on equipment only to later find out it’s not what you thought it was. If you have the three basic tools I mentioned above, you can have a great experience. Also learn all you can about the subject from reputable people…don’t fall for the week-end ghost hunter, who believes in demons and angels in every corner. Learn the proper terminologies and trust your instinct…if it sounds like crap, smells like crap, guess what? It is!

What would you improve in the paranormal field and why?
.
I am currently active with an organization a friend and paranormal colleague started called ParaNexus, concentrating on the ParaNexus Research Foundation. ParaNexus promotes the history and legends behind the world of the paranormal and sets a precedent for the process of accurate and methodic documentation of the findings. It is fast becoming a group of international professionals in an association comprised of progressive paranormal investigators and researchers, parapsychologists, cryptozoologists, ufologists, psychically gifted individuals, and enthusiasts focused on understanding the human condition through the scientific study of anomalous and psychical phenomena, its reality, its reach, and its impact on humanity. It was formed to get people that are serious about the science to share and contribute information to learn from collectively. Everyone holds a puzzle piece to the mystery of the paranormal world. By putting those pieces together, maybe we can begin to make sense of what life has dealt us when it’s time for us to cross over and discover it firsthand.

What do you do in your spare time?
I feel like answering this one as my grandson does… Duh! The paranormal is no longer a hobby, it has become a passion and way of life for me. BUT a word of warning…Don’t bore your friends with it! I draw the line there, if they have questions, I’ll answer them, but I’m not like the missionary that knocks on your door every month to try to proselytize you into the cult! Besides, it adds a little mystery about myself!

Visit ParaNexus:
http://www.paranexus.org/forum/

Visit The Journal of Anomalous Sciences: http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/013d3167#/013d3167/1

To read the first four interviews, please check our Articles section by clicking on the following link:
http://www.ghostsamongus.net/v2/Content/cid=12.html

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The Mysterious Skinwalker Ranch

Jun12
by on June 12, 2009 at 1:16 am
Posted In: Author-Pattyhap1863, Cryptozoology, Ufology

~ Written By Pattyhap 1863 ~

As a paranormal researcher, my hunt for the unexplained and bizarre is constant. The only thing that motivates me to carry on is finally obtaining irrefutable proof of the truth in the paranormal world. Even though GhostsAmongUs primarily deals with obtaining evidence to prove the existence of ghosts, the site also deals with other aspects of the paranormal as well.

I first knew of Skinwalker Ranch when I read an article written by George Knapp, who happens to be an investigative journalist who has something that other journalists do not have: an obsessive interest in the paranormal, particularly UFOs. The fact that he has also published a book on Skinwalker Ranch called “Hunt for the Skinwalker” piqued my curiosity as to what Mr. Knapp had experienced there. The co-author of the book, Colm Kelleher, is a scientist. This excited me because we all know how skeptical scientists usually are about the paranormal in general. When I started to read bits and pieces of what people had experienced, and put it all together, Skinwalker Ranch suddenly became an obsession of sorts for me as well.

Skinwalker Ranch lies in the Uintah Basin in the state of Utah, about two and a half hours from Salt Lake City. The area in itself is relatively famous as it is considered a UFO hot spot. Ufologists insist that the whole basin is reputed to be high in UFO sightings and cattle mutilations. The Ranch itself had been abandoned for many years when Tom Gorman and his wife (not their true names) purchased it in 1994. Their intent was to turn the ranch into a place to breed and raise cattle. They invested a lot of money on prize cattle and purebreds in order to ensure success in their project. Tom Gorman was an expert in animal husbandry and artificial insemination, and he and his family looked forward to nothing but success on the ranch. They didn’t know that from the first day on, their lives would be immersed in a series of paranormal anomalies that slowly wore them down and took away their hopes and dreams.

The first day they moved in, they all were on the porch looking at the whole area and especially proud of their collection of cattle in the corral not far from the house. Then, an enormous wolf appeared to them and walked towards them. The wolf went up to where they were sitting on the porch and allowed itself to be petted by some of them. Then it walked up to the corral and suddenly took a calf by its snout, trying to pull it through the bars. The family tried to scare the wolf off and even resorted to hitting it, but it would not let go of the calf. Finally they took some guns out and started shooting at it. To their amazement, even after being shot at close range, the wolf did not show signs of being afraid or letting go. What was most shocking is that it did not seem to be hurt nor bleed, not even after one of the shots tore into its skin and a piece of its flesh dropped onto the ground beneath it. After that, the wolf calmly let go of the calf and stared at the family quietly, before slowly turning away and walking out of the ranch. Tom and his son went after it for several miles along the creek in that area. The wolf always seemed to wait up for them, but would always keep its distance as well. Then, it disappeared. No tracks. Nothing. No blood from gunshot wounds either. The only thing that remained from their encounter with this huge animal was the wounded calf, and the piece of flesh that had fallen off the wolf. When they examined it, they said it looked and smelled like rotten meat.

A couple of weeks later, Mrs. Gorman was coming home from doing the shopping when she met another one (maybe even the same one) of the huge wolves. It was so large that she said its back was parallel to her car window. It was accompanied by a large dark dog-like animal, much smaller than the wolf. After looking at her for a while, it left and then both animals disappeared from the premises completely.

Along with the huge wolves in the area, a number of other things happened at the same time. There were a series of strange lights reported. The lights that the Gormans would see would be blue floating orbs. There were also orange lights reported. Other times the lights would be red, those were generally observed when the cattle was harmed. The cattle mutilations were growing in numbers and the family was terrified of what was happening. The other things that were happening to them were of a poltergeist nature. Objects disappeared in the house, only to reappear in other places where they had previously looked. All this phenomena was random and unusual. Nothing would happen following the same pattern and the Gormans were unsure of what the next attack would be like and when it would happen. Their two children, who had been A students at high school suffered as well, as their grades plummeted.

The phenomena continued. Nights went by when their whole ranch was lit up like a football stadium. They also thought they saw shafts of light emanating from the ground. They heard what they described sounded like heavy machinery under the ground at night and saw nine-foot beasts walking about from time to time. They also heard voices. They also saw colorful birds that appeared and disappeared afterward that seemed to be tropical in nature. They would run to investigate after seeing and experiencing things, but would never find anything that could explain what was happening to them.

As the purpose of this article is not to explain to you in detail the hundreds and even thousands of anomalous things that the Gormans were experiencing, I suggest you click on the links below to a series of podcasts in video format, hosted on You Tube of the interview carried out between Coast to Coast and Colm Kelleher in the first hour, and Coast to Coast AM and George Knapp during the second hour (with Colm Kelleher joining in later) to thoroughly explain in detail the kind of experiences that the Gormans were going through and the kind of activity that was experienced on the ranch later on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPl4FS7WlPw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kublMHP4dRs&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkD7Urltiwk&feature=related

The fact remains that by 1996, the Gormans had had enough and along came Robert Bigelow, renowned hotel entrepreneur and billionaire to boot, and bought the ranch from the Gormans at $200,000, setting up the NIDS in the premises.

The NIDS (National Institute for Discovery Science) was founded by Bob Bigelow and studied paranormal phenomena. Here was a chance for them to begin an ongoing project where the paranormal was practically an everyday occurrence. Mr. Bigelow had founded NIDS and was said to have a keen interest in the paranormal. The kind of equipment that was being used was top of the line and the public waited for the evidence to be presented.

Thanks to George Knapp, we know what took place in the ranch after the NIDS established its headquarters there. We know that they had numerous paranormal events occurring there with alarming frequency and Mr. Knapp has been kind enough to make this known to the public to some degree. He had been invited to the ranch on a couple of occasions and managed to witness a lot of the phenomena that took place there. The one activity that has stuck in my mind, which I find fascinating is when NIDS scientists witnessed what seemed to be a round ‘portal’ of yellow light widening to form a yellow three dimensional tunnel above the ground, and a dark tall human-like being emerge from it. Upon running to the area to investigate further, the light had disappeared, and the being or entity was nowhere to be found.

After years of exhaustive studies on the ranch, the NIDS was disbanded. The public that had waited so patiently for evidence of their project was in some cases dumbfounded and in others a bit upset that it had ended so suddenly without going ‘public’. It was during this time that George Knapp and Colm Kelleher got together to write and publish “Hunt for the Skinwalker”. The book is very well written and includes a lot of information of the data collected over the years. However, I find it hard to believe that there is not one single shred of PHYSICAL evidence in the form of pictures, video or audio recordings to substantiate what is described on its pages. The book is mainly anecdotal and the only known picture that has been released to the media so far is the one of a mysterious animal track, which can be seen below. Many people arrived to the conclusion that the track in this photograph looks very much like a rabbit’s.

Why did NIDS close down completely and disband? Here is an open letter to the public that I found on Rense.com. It was written by the elusive and mysterious Robert Bigelow himself:
We at the National Institute for Discovery Science have come to a time in which a decision must be made as to the direction of the Institute. We have labored long and hard, coming to the conclusion to place NIDS in an inactive status. The reasons for this decision are as follows:
1. We have not had the need to do any major investigative work for well over 2 and a half years.
2. In view of that fact we decided to reduce our staff.
3. Our administrator, Colm Kelleher, has taken a position outside of Nevada to do cancer research. Colm’s ambition has always been to do cancer research and was employed in this field prior to his employment with NIDS. We are sorry to see him leave.
It is unfortunate that there isn’t more activity, as there was in the past, that warrants investigation. However, we will still retain our Secretary/Receptionist who will remain at NIDS to answer your calls. Her name is Mary Allman and can be reached at (702) 798-1700. She will be talking daily to Mr. Bigelow’s assistants Janice and Donna.
Should substantial activity occur with a need for investigation then NIDS will be reactivated with new personnel.
Robert T. Bigelow http://www.NIDSci.org/ (Source: http://www.rense.com/general58/bigelow.htm )

Don’t bother looking up the http address to the NIDS site, it is currently down and unavailable.

So here are a number of questions I’m asking about the NIDS and Skinwalker Ranch and I sure hope someone reads this article and decides to give me some answers. Firstly why did the NIDS simply shut down if there had been times of inactivity in the past before and they had continued on the ranch? Why did they keep everything from the public? Why is it that there is nothing to show the public after so many years of studying this place where the paranormal was said to be a commonplace occurrence? I took the liberty of calling the number mentioned in the above letter and I got no Mary Allman. I got another person and a totally different property answering so we can assume that it is now in the hands of a private person or persons unknown. Why is this? And why is it that nobody is doing anything about it? Why is it that nobody is interested in the area any longer? All the articles I’ve read on the internet that tell us about Skinwalker Ranch are dated up to 2004. The only other article I’ve found that is more recent is one from HPI in 2008 which I include in a link below. They really didn’t have anything remarkable to say of their visit there either.

So what is the Skinwalker Ranch today? Just private property, not a hotbed of paranormal activity. Certainly not one that makes the news.

Who will come forward to finally clear this up?

Patricia Scott Pattyhap1863@aol.com www.ghostsamongus.net
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skinwalker_Ranch
http://www.klas-tv.com/global/story.asp?s=4275629
http://www.aliendave.com/Article_PathoftheSkinwalker_p1.html
http://www.aliendave.com/Article_PathoftheSkinwalker_p2.html
http://www.aliendave.com/UUFOH_TheRanch4.html
http://www.alienseekernews.com/articles/facing-death-skinwalker-ranch.html

Hunt for the Skinwalker by George Knapp and Colm Kelleher:
http://www.amazon.com/Hunt-Skinwalker-Science-Confronts-Unexplained/dp/1416505210

12 Comments

Intentional and Unintentional Manufacturing of Evidence in Paranormal Investigations

May31
by on May 31, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Posted In: Author-Bobby Elgee, Paranormal Investigation

~ Written By Bobby Elgee ~

Paranormal investigators may encounter instances of manufactured “evidence.” Please note that I use the term evidence loosely,–there is no such thing as scientific evidence of ghosts.

I have not specifically encountered anything that I have been able to identify as a hoax in an attempt to fool our group, however, I frequently run across photographs–as well as audio and video–posted on various Web sites that I feel have been misidentified as paranormal phenomena. I should note that we encourage our consultants to submit hoaxed photographs to us–anonymously–in an attempt to sharpen our groups’ debunking skills.

On Web sites such as Youtube, while there are clearly hoaxed videos, there are more that are simply misidentified…nothing malicious or tricky involved. It’s usually some simple phenomena that is easily debunked, but due to inexperience or ‘want of belief’, is purported to be paranormal and– even more of a jump–identified as a spirit or ghost.

So, why does this occur? I believe this usually arises from some combination of the two simple reasons I’ve listed below.

1.  Inexperience with investigating and equipment

2.  Wanting to believe in ghosts

Instances of faked or misrepresented “evidence” on the Web abound. I’m not talking about ‘plasma’ or ‘light’ anomalies identified as possibly paranormal by investigators. Without a great degree of expertise in photographic analysis and competent investigating–and even when these two factors are present–often you can’t say for sure if something is paranormal. To skeptics, everything is a reflection, and to some paranormal investigators, everything is a ghost.  Often there may be no obvious answer and one can never say for sure, so who’s right?

Regardless of my personal beliefs, I feel that I have an obligation to be a skeptic. Others more readily apply the paranormal label to something that’s not easily explained. In my five years as an investigator, I have captured only one or two pieces of evidence that I can call paranormal with any amount of certainty.

Competent paranormal investigators attempt to rule out all rational causes for an anomaly–a process often termed ‘debunking.’ What’s left may just be unexplainable, which is to say, paranormal. The best that we can do is find something we can’t explain. To take a step further, calling legitimate paranormal phenomena a ghost is a very big leap of faith. Some individuals don’t seem to be able to comprehend this–or don’t care. To them, if it’s paranormal, it must be a spirit or ghost.

With adequate skill and research, we may be able to label something paranormal Skeptics will still discount it, but, to simply call something a ghost because you can’t explain it leaves you wide open to skeptics. You may be able to determine that something is paranormal, but you’ll never be able to determine that something is a ghost.

Many groups and individuals fall in the inexperienced and want of belief categories, and examples of such groups are just a few mouse clicks away. However, there is another type of behavior, a behavior I consider more misleading, and may even amount to outright self-promotion using misidentified or manufactured evidence.

1. Specific manufacturing/altering of evidence in order to gain recognition, monetary, and/or in an attempt to become famous.

Say, for example, you owned a hotel and wanted to drum up business. Manufacturing your own first-hand accounts and evidence makes perfect sense. Why not?

Gain a reputation as a haunted hotel and I would hazard that your business will probably increase. The few customers that would stay away from such locations are probably outnumbered by the ones that would come in droves. And, you could market your inn to ghost hunters.

During the slow months, you could contact ghost hunters from across the country and encourage them to come and stay in your “haunted” hotel. You could also host ghost hunter conferences. Though a bit duplicitous, this can be considered a good marketing strategy. No one knows if ghosts exist or not, so its not exactly false advertising.

But, if you claimed to be a paranormal investigator and owned a haunted hotel, and fabricated evidence, well, that makes you pretty low in my eyes. It becomes a conflict of interest at this point. You would have a vested interest in fabricating evidence for monetary gain. And simultaneously being a purported paranormal investigator, you would be doing the field a disservice.

Now we come to the relative few–ghost hunters who manufacture or alter evidence for their own recognition. This may be unintentional, but also may be clearly intentional. Exhibiting a picture of an easily debunked reflection or camera anomaly, and saying “We weren’t able to find an explanation for this phenomena so it might be a ghost. We’ll leave it up to you to decide,” is very misleading. Other open ended questions such as “What do you think caused that? or “Do you think something was trying to make contact?” also fall into this category.

The group didn’t try very hard to debunk whatever phenomena supposedly occured, and even if they did, they are still implying that perhaps a ghost is responsible.

Remember that you are representing yourself as someone with a specific area of expertise, but by presenting things in this fashion, you are leading people to a conclusion upon which there is no basis. What sounds like a logical line of reasoning is not. You are leading people down a path for your own benefit. You aren’t really leaving it up to the person to decide on their own. To top it all off, you’re not taking a stand either, which implies you are either incompetent, simply unsure, and/or unwilling to expose yourself to potential criticism.

Presentations of pieces of evidence like this–and the misleading open-ended conclusions or insinuations–may mislead the public to mis-identifying easily identifiable phenomena as paranormal.

Finally, there are those people who alter or outright manufacture evidence for their own gain. Without being specific, I have encountered this behavior first-hand. The investigators added something to the purported evidence. It was probably in good faith–an attempt to determine how the phenomena was created. The problem was when the subsequent evidence was presented as a whole. It was labeled a paranormal phenomena, and even worse, it was clearly stated that the phenomena was created by a ghost!

Now how could anyone know that with any degree of certainty, and why would they present falsified evidence and proclaim it was created by a ghost?  Simple, for recognition, and due to an overzealous “want of belief,” as well as due to inexperience with paranormal investigations and the rigors of handling and documenting evidence.

So, here we have a piece of evidence which may or may not have been created by a paranormal phenomena that was altered by the addition of further stimuli created by the investigators. In my eyes, this potential piece of evidence was ruined by the investigators. In addition, the subsequent presentation of the evidence without mention of the portions of the data that were altered by the investigator leads me to one conclusion: this is an inexperienced and overzealous investigator at the least.  At the worst, this is an individual that has no problem manufacturing evidence in an attempt to gain recognition. Either way, I have to disregard all future evidence that is presented, assuming everything that is presented has possibly been tampered with. If a scientist conducted research in this way, they would be discredited and their reputation would be ruined.

This is something beyond just enlarging a picture or amplifying an audio file. It’s a clear and conscious manufacturing and misrepresentation of potential evidence, and then shaping it in such a way for personal gain.

There are a lot of mistakes to be made in the investigation of the paranormal, one of which is to exhibit behavior that is damaging to the field at large. You have to keep a close eye out for these types of behaviors, and I firmly believe that–when recognized–people should be called on it. Unfortunately, in my experience, the exact people who are likely to exhibit this behavior, are the ones least likely to engage in any type of constructive dialogue.

Please visit Bobby Elgee’s website:

http://www.nhghosts.com/

 Comment 

Questions & Feedback: WTF?

May28
by on May 28, 2009 at 2:03 am
Posted In: Author-BeyonderBill, Editorials, Questions & Feedback

These comments were submitted by Ricky L. Johansen, Jr. from Lacey, Washington.

This first comment was submitted as a comment on the paranormal based story called “Strange Happenings“. The story is filed in the WTF? Category.

“KGhost Internet Radio showed me your site off of it’s web page.  Pretty interesting stuff you have there…but I would do away with the WTF designation as it violates FCC Regulations on the use of profanity in printed media (I think?).  Besides, we are all intelligent adults and we do not want to discount any of the information presented by utilizing letters that denote use of profanity; kind of illustrates the ignorance of those who seem to think this falls under Free Speech provisions.  Fact is, it actually shows the public just how ignorant and senseless the writer is in needing to use the letters WTF to derive a point that could otherwise be said by some other verbiage.  Know what I mean?  Besides the age of some readers are under 18 years of age and causes them to ask what those letters mean..not intended for minors to be educated on.  Correct?  Let’s be professional in your dealings — what do you think?”

This second comment was submitted to the site via our Questions & Feedback form.

“I think the letters WTF? should be deleted and something else used, i.e., OMG? for “Oh My God!” to designate something out of the ordinary happening…know what I mean?  Young viewers and readers do not understand, especially grade school age.  Be mindful of your audience please.”

 

About my audience, according to many of the sites on the web that record demographics, MOST of my readers are college educated women between the ages of 25 and 50. Oh, you KNOW I’m mindful. Wink wink, nudge nudge. Say no more.

Giggity.

First off, I want to make it absolutely clear that I appreciate KGhost radio for the link. No doubt about it. I LOVE to have good relations with others in the field, and I DO appreciate that you found your way to me via their site.

Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, I aim to take issue with pretty much everything you’ve written, both in the comment to the story “Strange Happenings“, and in your Questions & Feedback submission.

I don’t believe in burning books, I don’t believe in Internet censorship. I don’t believe in politically correctness, and I don’t live in a communist country. Because of these VERY important things, I REFUSE to allow anyone to tell me what to think or say.

Nice try.

“Strange Happenings”
That story was written by one of our newest writers, Victoria Rife, and it’s REALLY a shame that instead of commenting on her story, and telling her that she did a good job, you took it as an opportunity to attack what I’ve done on the site. She has absolutely NOTHING to do with me putting her story in a category that you deem unfit for public consumption. Frankly she deserves a HELL of a lot more respect than that. To hell with how you feel about me, you owe her an apology.

WTF? & Being Professional
The issues with the use of the letters ‘WTF’ and the lack of ‘professionalism’ are very simple to me. Anyone who’s taken the time to visit, and read over all of the pages, some of the pages, or even a FEW of our pages knows that this site is not, and was never meant to be professional. It was meant to be an open, honest, and most importantly FUN look into the paranormal, and the unexplained. When people visit this site, they expect a good dose of smarm. They expect the smart-assed jokes, and silliness mixed in with their thought provoking spooky stuff.

From day one it was decided that I would do everything here as if it were rated PG-13. I’d never had any interest nor inspiration to make a family friendly website. When I do something, I put my heart and soul into it. This site is ME through and through. You’re telling me to change my voice. You’re telling me to change the way I interface with people. Be someone else? It’s Never gonna happen. I receive emails from people who love what I’ve done. I’ve met the most wonderful people because they saw something here that they could relate to, think about, and smile. The reason for that is because I show my true colors in every aspect of the site. I would have never met some of the most wonderful people in my life if I had a stick up my ass.

The use of WTF was a decision I made a few years ago because I couldn’t think of what I could call the stories that didn’t fit into any particular category, or simply defied all explanation. WTF seemed perfect for that description given my sense of humor.

My guess is you take issue with the F.

Dude, it’s just a letter. As a matter of fact, I think the FCC use it as their first initial. You’ve made it a point to bring up that I may have violated their laws by using the letter F in this context. Ya MIGHT want to look into that a little bit. Last time I checked, this was the WORLD Wide Web. I didn’t know FEDERAL communications Commission had any jurisdiction beyond the United States.
Letter F is not evil
Even if it did… It’s just a letter F, man! They use it on Sesame Street! They TEACH it on Sesame street! Eventually kids are gonna learn it. And you call me ignorant and senseless.

And, what does that F mean in the WTF context? What word popped into your virgin mind?

You know this is a site for paranormal geeks, investigators and ghost hunters? Are you familiar with ghost hunters? Ever see the Sci Fi channel show? If you have, or anyone reading this has, the words, ‘What the Fedge?’ might ring a bell. That’s a WTF, isn’t it? This being a ghost hunter based site, would it be logical that WTF COULD mean ‘What The Fedge?’ You have it in your head what you want that F to stand for.

You gotta get your mind out of the gutter.

You suggest that I use ‘OMG’, to stand for ‘Oh My God’. Um… I don’t know how to tell you this, but that’s taking the man’s name in vain, and breaking one of the big 10. That goes against my spiritual beliefs. Sorry, but I’d MUCH rather offend you than the man upstairs. He’s a lot more real to me, and so far seems to like what I’m doing for people.

Finally about WTF… I’m not saying that I had intended for it to mean “What The Fedge”. Anyone who knows me knows that I would never stoop so low as to steal a catch phrase from a television show, and use it as an important part of the site.  So, I’ll say this.

The F stands for WTF you all you readers want it to stand for.

Was that professional enough?

A Final Thought For My Readers
Hey guys, I have to apologize for that rant. When fascism comes callin’, I get a bit ornery. Now, a lot of you know me, and have a pretty good idea on how I think. If this were a comment on the logistics of a paranormal theory, or even something remotely involving a thought, I would have sat back, and seriously considered what was being said to me. If someone sends me an email, or comment on something that we can sink our teeth into, it could lead to some really enjoyable, and enlightening conversations, as well as intellectually challenging thoughts and ideas that we can all learn, and benefit from.

Instead, I get hate mail about the frickin’ letter F.

You guys see my frustration?

In conclusion, if you take anything from this editorial/rant/bitchfest, I would want it to be a message involving the removal of your proverbial stick. This is for all of you. Paranormal studies don’t have to be somber, and serious all the time. This is damned fun work, and I have fun doing it. I have a LOT of fun writing here on the site. When I’m in the field, and on an investigation, I make sure I handle myself with supreme respect for the client, location, and the work that needs done. With that in mind, there is always a smile on my face. This work should be fun.

Lets remove the sticks from our asses.

We’re grown men and women sitting in the middle of a cemetery in the middle of the night looking for ghosts. How can you not have a sense of humor about this?

For those of you out there reading this… If you have any paranormal, or spooky related questions, or even comments, you’re welcome to ask away. Please send them to Beyonderbill@yahoo.com or click the image below to go to our “Questions & Feedback” Page!

Questions & Feedback

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