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During the time we’ve been operating, The Pa Paranormal Society has had a number of cases where we had to question the motivation of the clients we were serving. Our experiences may help you as you approach investigations as a new team or as a potential client. Most people contact us looking to solve problems or answer questions on noises or occurrences. Other times we are brought in to ‘prove’ that paranormal activities are happening.

Those are the ones that make us wonder. Who needs proof and why do they need it? Generally someone who just wants to ‘set the record straight’ isn’t looking for publicity. There aren’t stories on their websites or blogs giving details of actual unexplained events. Sometimes these could be totally legitimate, but other times it’s just a warning flag.

Investigating teams need to go into any situation with a skeptical nature. If everyone on the team (or anyone on the team for that matter) is looking for proof and evidence of the paranormal and the unknown, chances are, you are going to find it. But will what you find stand up to someone who is looking to pick things apart? That’s the rub. But it’s a good rub really.

Stand Back.

In the old hit movie Ghostbusters, the team ultimately got shut down for their usage of unlicensed nuclear devices. In a perfect world, we wouldn’t need to license nuclear devices because people would police themselves and be responsible. In our world, there is a definite need to track nuclear devices of all sorts. We wouldn’t want people inappropriately trapping innocent ectoplasm, now would we?

Seriously though, the subject of having some sort of certificate has come up in some paranormal circles and well it should, but what would that mean and really, how could you set standards and implement it? After a lifetime of interest and a few years of conducting investigations, I have come to the conclusion that there can be no real standards for what we do, unless they are ethical standards.

A skeptic, a medium and a psychic walk into a supposedly haunted house. The psychic says, “This place has a lot of energy.” The medium says, “I can hear the voices from the past.” The skeptic keys his walkie talkie and says, “Turn off the microwave antennae and the radio and lets get down to business.”

I mean seriously, there are probably as many approaches to doing investigations as there are teams doing them. We met with a local writer, well known chap with a newspaper column and all that, and we got along famously. He nodded as we explained our equipment and our code of conduct and praised our professionalism. “But”, he said, “at the end of the day, you really just need to put all that stuff away and trust your gut feelings.” That doesn’t get you any displayable proof.

We’ve all had the investigations where various members of the group say things like the hair on their neck stood up in a certain area, or they felt a coldness pass over them, but unless the measurements are captured somehow what do you have? Some teams are satisfied with reporting their personal experiences at a property and some home and business owners are content with that, but others want ‘proof.’

Pa Paranormal tries to take both routes with their investigations. We use most of the latest scientific gadgetry and hand-held cameras to try to capture evidence, and we also go with our gut feelings, but in the end, it’s just our methodology, not a paranormal manifesto. We have a checklist that we take new team members through, so they get some training before they are on investigations, and we never send inexperienced people out on their own. When it all gets down to it, I think that’s all we can do. A certificate or a license might be great, as a concept, but in reality it is reputation that stands the real test of time.

There has been some discussion regarding the use of psychics, mediums, “sensitives” or any other sort of non-technical scientific type of ‘equipment.’ (Pardon the term, all you psychics, but if you are really psychic, you already know I mean it in the kindest way.)

First off, what do these terms really mean? Are they well defined or are they as varied as the people who wear them? A psychic is a person who can glean information through extrasensory perception (commonly referred to as ESP.) This information can be as specific as names, dates, times, places and that sort of thing. If the person doesn’t get specifics, then generally speaking that person would be known as a “sensitive.” Sensitives are folks who get feelings or intuitions rather than the specific information already mentioned.

To give an example, a psychic might perceive that a spirit visiting an area is named Mary and she died during a great sickness or a plague whereas a sensitive might go into an area and get a deep feeling of pain or suffering, but not names or specific information about what’s causing it. A sensitive might just have the hair raise on the back of their necks or queasiness in their stomachs when they sense something.

On the other extreme is the medium, who not only can get specific information, they can also communicate to some degree. Our team has had a medium who communicated with spirits and helped them to “pass to the other side.” We don’t generally bring someone like that along on investigations, but we have an option if the client requests that sort of thing. Since we would really like to capture evidence of spirits, having someone ‘pass’ them is sort of counter-intuitive to the process, but can give a grieving loved one relief.

So there are the three types. One is like a temperature gage, one is like a radio receiver and one is like a two-way radio. That’s oversimplification, and the most reliable mediums seem to be hit or miss.

In our experience we prefer not having anyone doing any sort of spirit communication, whether as a psychic or a medium. They take away from our advertised services, which consist of scientific-based investigations. The other disadvantage to using someone with ESP is they tend to lead an investigation, intentionally or not, and you may miss things that they didn’t pick up on. Which brings up the final point.

Is their ability legitimate? Without someone to confirm known names or situations, there is no way to determine that. If the psychic says a person’s name is Tony, who can dispute it? If they say concentrate on that room and no unusual EMF levels come up and no EVP’s are heard, what do you have? A team who was influenced by someone who may or may not have any abilities.

We all have some minor ‘psychic’ abilities, whether you call it intuition or being sensitive, and we should use our instincts to guide us. Trust your inner feelings and follow the course of action that feels right to you.

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