Lately, I’ve been a thinking about something Autumnforest touched on in “Are Ghost Hunting Shows Ruining Belief?” and Terri pondered in “Regulating the Paranormal Field” –the effects the (many) ghost hunting shows are having on people.
It started off good. It got people interested in and talking about the paranormal. But now…now it’s getting nuts.
“WE’RE BETTER THAN YOU”
In addition to the glut of shows flooding the marketplace, which seems to be increasing skepticism and apathy, I’ve been noticing something equally troubling: people (specifically ghost hunting groups) becoming more competitive.
I don’t belong to a paranormal investigation group myself. I prefer to Haunt Jaunt rather than ghost hunt. (Yes, there is a difference. But that’s a post for another day.)
However, in my conversations with people who do belong to such groups, increasingly I’m hearing more tales of teams “hoarding” evidence, not wanting to work with other teams, and don’t even get me started on the locking each other out of locations.
GHOST HUNTERS GONE WILD
For example:
- Autumnforest (Ghost Hunting Theories) and Bobby Garcia (When Ghosts Talk) addressed how ghost hunters gone wild in certain locations make proprietors leery of letting other teams investigate, if not full on bar access altogether.
- Grim brought up the appalling lack of cooperation he’s noticed in a comment on my post about SCARED! (Not in relation to them, though. The SCARED! team is among the good guys. They’re more than willing to cooperate with other teams and welcome the opportunity to do so.)
- The other day on Twitter I followed an interesting exchange between @ParanormalRG (a.k.a. Paranormal Research Groups) , @HauntedPlaces (a.k.a. Ghost Eyes) and @boicghost (a.k.a. Boise City Ghost Hunters). It was on 2/4/2010 to be exact. It was late at night and I just caught the tale end of it, so I’m not quite sure what the whole conversation was about, but I took the following snippet from @ParanormalRG‘s Tweets (the newer Tweets are on top so you’ll be reading the exchange in reverse):
@HauntedPlaces Yes, Lead by example!
@boicghost And this is not the example to follow > http://bit.ly/dfHWLv (this was a link to a news article bout a paranormal investigator who’d stolen a thermal cam)
@boicghost RE @hauntedplaces Those of us who are here to help those in need, need to make sure we keep doing the right thing & don’t stray.
@boicghost RE @hauntedplaces Until the TV shows disappear, I fear these individuals will run rampant and hurt the field we hold so dear.
@boicghost RE @hauntedplaces I agree. But there are those groups & individuals who are out for personal gain… they are an obstacle.
I kind of got the flavor what it was about. More troubles in ghost hunting paradise with wanna-be start-up ghost hunters acting inappropriately and giving the rest a bad name. (a.k.a. the “They play ghost hunters on TV, so we think we can play ghost hunters in real life” syndrome.)
MONKEY SEE, MONKEY DO
It’s not that ghost hunting shows are bad necessarily. Many were started with the best of intentions.
But the unforseen danger was that people have seen how hugely popular two Regular Joe plumbers from Rhode Island became. The green-eyed monster bred in their heads. After all, what are they doing that’s so spectacular? What are they doing that just about any schmo armed with an EMF detector and camera can’t do?
Not much.
Except they got a sweet TV deal, fame and fortune.
Suddenly it’s become less about finding evidence, and more about upstaging other teams using any means necessary.
In short, it’s sad.
I rarely see such bad behavior in the blogging world.
SPIRIT OF COOPERATION
Don’t get me wrong. I have stumbled upon some bloggers who might mention another blogs name in their posts, but they don’t necessarily link to specific posts or even the other blog’s home page.
I used to think this was done with mal-intent. I’ve since come to realize it has more to do with one of two things: (1) not understanding the value of hyperlinking, or (2) laziness.
In general, though, I’ve been absolutely astounded by the generosity, camaraderie, support, and exchanging of ideas I’ve found in the paranormal blogging community.
Not that it’s always a kumbaya kind of coming together. There are disagreements about certain theories and such.
But there’s always respect. It’s the rare blogger who throws flames just to throw them. (Because another thing I’ve seen when someone’s unjustly under attack is fierce retaliations. No one’s ever allowed to get too far out of line.)
Something I should point out is that some of these bloggers also happen to be ghost hunters. Not ones who just decided to pop on the scene in the last few years either. They might have decided to start blogging in the last few years, but they’ve been around before that.
They’re not in it for the glory. They’re in it for answers. They understand the value of working with others. They understand what Helen Keller meant by “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”
Newbie ghost hunters would be wise to follow in their footsteps.
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.
Loading ...
I have to agree, there is a few more stories on our forum. One was when a group went to a haunted Inn and got contacted by another about “getting close to their territory” and another more recent about a group upset over a name being used.
You hit it on the head I think, greed. Now everyone thinks there can ghost hunt and become famous. I doesn’t work that way and it is becoming detrimental.
If a group is really interested in finding good evidence and more importantly helping families then it only makes since to work together.
Yup, you hit in perfectly! The field has gotten inundated. Here’s an example. Remember “The Dating Game”? (you may be too young). Cute and adorable girls and gals (some of them hopeful actors and actresses) asking questions, picking a date. It was the ultimate beginning of dating reality shows. Flash forward 40 years and you have stinky, nasty, overacting, obnoxious, and grotesque young people desperate for attention doing anything to be on tv for a few minutes. This is kind of where ghost hunting shows are going–people have to have a little step up on the others by being more obnoxious, disrespectful, loud, and aggressive. From an investigator’s point of view, I have to say that I grew up in a haunted house and the way it was handled not only helped me to understand the crazy phenomenon, but to appreciate it. If I can do that for other people and get rid of the old-world superstitious attitudes about hauntings–that’s all I want. I wouldn’t do a show unless I had absolute control over the methods and techniques and no production company would put up with that–they couldn’t guarantee personalities and “events.” Fantastic post! Extremely insightful and well thought out.
What a great post…..kudos! I can not believe how many celeb wannabes are doing reality shows these days. You can go channel surfing and find one on practically every channel. It’s like that with ghost hunting shows too.
I’ve seen more than my share of what you’re talking about here. When I do, I click out and usually never go back. There is a lot of jealousy in the realm of the paranormal and ghost hunting teams do not share info.
If you want a real taste of what you’re talking about, listen to some of the paranormal blog talk shows some day.
Your title: Rodney King – what do I win lol kidding
I was there during the riots after the police were acquitted on the Rodney King case. That was a very scary week for us.
Steve: That’s NUTS! That is EXACTLY the kind of thing I’m so, so, so shocked to hear happening, To me that just seems insane. For what? I just can’t see acting that way. Guess I was just raised better than I realize!
Autumnforest: Okay, between you and the waiter who carded me at Olive Garden the other day the dating game…what are you kidding me? I don’t know if you meant to flatter me…but BINGO! You did! Of course I’m old enough to remember the Dating Game. GREAT analogy. And I like your mission about helping to dispel “old world superstitions.” Amazig how many persist to this day!
Julie: THANKS! Oh and those celeb reality shows…don’t even get me started! Of course I can’t remember now who I saw the other day was going to have one, but I truly almost barfed. Enough already!
ATrue: The jealousy thing turns me off faster than anything. I’m gone in a flash if I see it. I haven’t listened to too many of the blog talk radio shows, but it’s funny you mention them: I’m going to write a post today about one.
And YOU ARE THE WINNER! I was wondering if anyone would get that reference! I’m stunned you were there though during all that. That was some crazy scary stuff –and I was just watching on TV! Man, do you have the good stories to tell!
Good article! I should start following your lead on writing articles, you pick good topics to write about! 😉
As others have stated, you hit it on the head. The field is flooded with too many greedy people hoping to make a buck, while not too many years back, people were who were already originally interested in the paranormal worked together for the collective good of forwarding the field. The funniest part (from my perspective) is how some of these groups are pining for a spot in a TV show and do not realize the TV paranormal craze is dying. They are going to be left out in the cold sooner than later.
WOW! What a compliment! THANKS GARY! You just made my day!
And you know, Gary, those people back in the day expected NOTHING! They did it for the sheer love/passion. The people thinking they’ll get famous, rich, or what have you? Boggles my mind. (But people do that for everything I guess. They see a craze and jump on it. Not too long ago flipping houses was the thing. Look how that turned out!!)