By Brian D. Parsons
Founder, Director, Ohio Paranormal Investigation Network
In my first part of “The Science of Ghost Hunting and Paranormal Investigation” I provided a well thought out brief history of our field as well as how we do not use our tools scientifically in the field (merely just using tools of science). I also gave an outline as to the scientific approach and how we should be approaching it if we take what we do seriously. Now, I provide less history and comparison and basically let my emotions fly about what I am seeing in our field.
I have been in this field (off and on) for just over eleven years. Since then I have seen dozens of groups come and go for various reasons, but typically Ohio has never had more than 15 groups at most (on the internet). There are now more than 30 groups within Ohio and at least two groups that have formed “families” or an umbrella group that controls multiple groups either within the State or across multiple states.
Historically there have always been about ten active groups in Ohio, typically five or so “good” groups and the rest either mere ghost hunters or new groups that were not taken too seriously by myself or other groups (and probably not by clients). Groups typically last about two years or less with the rare exceptions (OGHS, MAJDA, O.P.I.N., and MOONSPENDERS in Ohio have been in operation for more than five years). Now I can do a search and uncover no less than thirty groups, most of which have been around between a year and two years. There is also the umbrella groups which have individual groups either join them or create new ones under their name which stake out areas in a State or region (makes it harder for individual groups to operate). The field has become so saturated with groups that is probably more people involved in the field than there are clients who need help in Ohio. The sad thing is that the groups that conduct these cases will probably not be around in a year or so (though surely replaced with someone else) and the evidence they gather at their individual cases will probably be lost in the process. The evidence gathered by these thirty plus groups will be so dispersed that it will add up to nothing and the field will not prosper from them conducting these investigations (not to mention the clients who must endure an ever-restarting learning curve by new groups).
I have tried to contact some of the groups in an attempt to share knowledge and information, but this plea has been met with resistance and mostly deaf ears. The idea of fame and fortune outweighs the hope of building this field into a legitimate science. The ignorance of amateur groups is overwhelming, everybody wants to be in control, everyone wants to be the leader, everybody wants to have groups within their legion or be like other famous groups and expand their own “family” of groups. Where is the exchange of knowledge?
The knowledge never changes, new groups pop up and discover the same things that other groups spent a couple of years figuring out before leaving the field, unfortunately it is the same useless hand me down information that is spawned from armchair theorem and high school logic that has advanced this field very little in the last 15 years of the new amateur movement. I’ve spent the last eleven years visiting message boards and unfortunately they are no longer a source of sharing and building knowledge. There used to be two or three major companies that had message boards (I.e. ezboard) that you could hop to various boards with the same login, now groups have their own individual boards that are not linked into a network and do not seem to communicate with other message boards.
Are these groups that are getting these cases analyzing their work as case studies? Are they looking at their individual cases and looking for theories that can help explain various behavior of ghosts and the living? My guess is probably not. Are these groups using the living to figure out the connection with the ghost or are they merely concerned about “proving” ghosts exist (which is impossible by voyeur tactics)? Probably the latter since it’s what they see on television and read on the internet.
I see all the banter on websites, but where is the data to back up these claims? A good example is the space and atmospheric data. Who came up with the notion that full moons cause more ghost activity? Has anyone bothered to test this theory or are you just going along with it since everyone else is? If it’s true I want to see the data for not just a month, but for twelve months, and not just from one group but ten groups. Where is this type of work being done in our field? It’s not. Urban legends and old wives tales have evolved into what we believe in this field. The biggest problem with amateur groups is that they don’t think for themselves no matter how many groups they spawn of their own. The best groups seem to disappear out of the same frustrations I am displaying here, they tire of paving the way just for other groups to blindly accept what they are doing. Many of the best groups have come out with ideas so other groups could TEST these ideas not just take them and cut and paste them to their website so they would appear to know more than their neighbor.
No one is doing science in this field, everyone has all of these high tech tools, toting fancy equipment , taking pictures in the dark and following beeps and clicks and watching temperature rises and falls which all mean absolutely nothing. They have convinced themselves that they do mean something because that’s what they’ve been told or that’s what they’ve read or seen on television. There’s no science behind it, it’s all guesswork and these groups assume that they are gathering data when they truly have no idea what they are seeing on their screens. These are the same groups that brag about how many members they have, how many groups are in their “family” all the while they are nothing but followers.
The Ohio Paranormal Investigation Network was formed to network with other groups, “Hey, we tried this, why don’t you and see what you can come up with, prove us right or wrong and lets compare data..”. I grew tired of playing politician with new groups, trying to get them to communicate with me what was going on with their group. Over a dozen groups have popped up in the last year, none of them ever bother to e-mail me other than to ask me to join their “family” or to put their link on my site. How can they expect to learn from others? Oh, that’s right, they don’t have to since they can find everything they need to know on the internet and the Sci-Fi channel.
I have gone from being frustrated to upset to feeling pure embarrassment to be associated with this field that covets such ignorance toward science and towards others with shared interest in the field. There used to be a dark division between ghost hunters (those who merely searched for ghosts) and paranormal investigators (those who helped the living through their connection with ghosts) which has now become grey across the board. I had hoped that the line would continue to get thicker and it would create two distinct camps of approach, but now both sides have become one and the true venerable paranormal investigator is nearly extinct. The popularity of the term (and television show) ghost hunter has incorporated its crude concepts of approach of investigation and ignorance of the living connection that the field has regressed in my eyes back to that of when there were only a couple dozen groups at the amateur level across the U.S.
Every groups claims to be “different” than all of the others, but in reality they are the same thing cut and pasted from those who came before them. Strip away the fancy black shirts, the websites and the equipment and all of these groups are the same. They all have the same beliefs, all have the same knowledge, all read the same websites and seen the same television shows. (By the way, how many groups are card carrying Journal reading members of the ASPR?) Instead of building on what has come before them they are merely settling for the information they have read elsewhere do dictate how they should think and how they should do things. Even if there are groups out there that are making advancements why are they not sharing these ideas and advancements for all to see? This is how science works kids, you have to share your theories and findings so others can build on them or unravel them, your word alone is meaningless unless someone else out there can utilize your work.
It’s all about popularity, not science. No one cares about advancing the field, they only care about how many newspaper articles they can be in, how many groups they have below them, how many radio shows they can be on, if they can get their own t.v. show, or how much money they make for tours (the newest trend). We used to worry about groups that were obsessed with hit counts, number of members in their message board and how many web awards they had, now the obsession with power has spilled out into the streets and it will eventually be the living clients who will pay the price. How can these groups who have made their website and their popularity by regurgitating popular opinion expect to help a person who needs someone to unravel what is happening in their home by working through the problem on their own?
I have never had any desire to become popular from being in this field (thank goodness since it has become such a mockery of science) by being in newspapers or television, but I think it’s time I voiced my opinion on how I feel about this field. I am tired of being in the shadows watching the ignorance being passed around, I am not going to be a follower in this field like an overwhelming majority of groups. Maybe it wouldn’t be so upsetting if I saw these groups with a real individual approach instead of groups pretending to be what they see on television. I hope I hurt some feelings with this and I hope I have opened some eyes. There are many groups that feel the same way I do and have let these groups dictate their path within this field. I am going to fight against this ignorance and attempt to help bring these groups together (or force them off of the map)like I started out doing over a decade ago.
© 1996-2007, Ohio Paranormal Investigation Network.