For the most part, I’ve met nothing except wonderful people either when I’m out haunt jaunting or that I’ve met online because of the blog. However, every now and then I come across the person I’ve come to consider a “Paranormal Poser.”
TYPES
There’s a couple of different types:
- The “expert” and
- The psychic wannabe
Both are harmless (usually) but annoying. At least, they annoy me. The “experts” because they’re know-it-alls, and the psychic wannabes because they’re just big pretenders who try to get you to pretend along with them.
FULL OF IT
I’ve never been in quite the right frame of my mind to tell someone to their face I think they’re full of shit, but I certainly have thought it. What kills me is when they push the boundaries. They’ll start talking about completely ludicrous stuff. (This applies mostly to the psychic wannabes, which include people who think they have all sorts of talents, whether it’s talking to dead people or predicting the future, but they can never prove them. Although, it also applies to “expert paranormal investigators” who charge for their services and make all kinds of wild claims about how they’ll rid a house of evil forever…or whatever their spiel may be.)
Maybe no one calls them out because it’s sort of scary. There’s a lot of wackos out there. (Of the dangerous variety.) If they’re really that delusional, who knows what they might do to get you to shut up so they can keep living in their dark fantasy world?
That’s one of the reasons why I keep mum. Much as I like ghosts, I’m not eager to become one anytime soon!
But another reason is I hate hurting people’s feelings. Plus, I feel sorry for them. Clearly, they’re self-esteem isn’t too good or they wouldn’t feel they had to pose as something else to be liked and accepted. Ironically, people see through people who are acting phony. If they just worked on being more themselves, rather than pretending to be something they’re not, they might have a better time of it.
THE B.S. DETECTOR
Basically, it’s fine to have an interest in the paranormal. You don’t have to be able to communicate with the dead, see people’s futures, or know everything there is to know about ghosts (which is nothing, because to date ghosts are still just a theory and have not been definitively proven to exist) to be a member of the paranormal community.
A quick way to get yourself excluded and ignored, however, is to be a Paranormal Poser. I’m maybe a little sensitive, but I’m no psychic. I don’t have any special talents really. But I do have one thing: a super fine-tuned B.S. detector. I think most people do.
THE FACILITATORS
Yet, there are the people who are even worse than the Paranormal Posers: the ones who pretend along with them.
When I see those kinds of people encouraging the PPs, I want to smack them! I just can’t understand them at all. What comes to mind is that song Sweet Dreams by the Eurythmics.
Sweet dreams are made of this / Who am I to disagree? / Travel the world and the seven seas / Everybody’s looking for something …
Everybody really is looking for something. Paranormal Posers are looking for attention, glory, acceptance, etc. I get that. Their facilitators? I have no idea what’s in it for them.
Whatever floats your boat, I guess. It takes all types to make this world go ’round. The only thing Paranormal Posers bring to my world is the appreciation for all the good and honest people who are devoted to finding truths, not playing make believe, in this sometimes hard to explain world we live in.
Because the good ones are out there. Even though the PPs sometimes mar that notion. (That’s probably why I dislike them most of all. They’re the ones who bring in the bad raps with their shady ways.)
Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.
Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.
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As they say, there’s a bad apple in every bushel.
Absolutely you are correct. Really everybody looking for something. Some persons looking for money. Some persons looking for good family, like that life is going on… I feel that, paranormal is totally different.
I certainly hear that. I actually had someone look at a response from one of these PP’s and their response was the same as mine… “There sure are a lot of dick’s and blowhards in your business aren’t there?”
I’ve been a researcher for more than a decade now and our team has been around since 2002 yet in all that time we have run into ‘team’ after team that has no clue what they are doing and is more than happy to tout themselves as experts. I know there are good teams out there, teams that are more than happy to chat and work together on investigations but far too often we encounter these PP’s that have entire communities convinced that they are legit. Kinda drives us a little bit insane.
I’m slightly psychic on some level… but I HATE talking about something I can’t prove and isn’t tangible to others. The paranormal field is an easy one to find a shoe to fit into. The idea that everyday people can become “known” in this field sparks delusions of a syndicated TV show in the hearts of those who just wish to be in the limelight. What saddens me is we have forgotten the subject – GHOSTS. This is about communication with spirits, not EMF readings, psychic fantasies, or physical evidence. We don’t understand paranormal phenomena, so none of us are experts. I’m in it for the communication and the wonder of it all. It’s also great fodder for my comic strip – which is about people, dead and alive. Ghosts are people. Ghost investigation is about people.
Tj – Entities-R-Us, Ghost Hunter Comic
You have an EXCELLENT comic, btw, Terri. Well…you already know that. Just had to say it. And I loved how you wrote “psychic fantasies”…YES! That stuff drives me crazy. Just wanted to say thx for the comment.
I can only imagine how frustrating that must be. I’m no investigator and not part of a team, but I’ve met some really neat teams who just dig I’m doing what I’m doing and don’t judge. Heck, they extend invites to investigate w/them whenever.
Then there are those who look down on me because I don’t investigate.
There’s room for all types in this paranormal world of ours. That’s why I appreciate people such as yourselves who just accept me as I am and support me and give me a chance to support you. Mutually beneficial rather than petty competition!
LOL! As usual. You just have that way about you….
THX for the comment!