A Ghost Tracker Is A Ghost Tracker Is A Ghost Tracker

Not all ghost trackers are alike. To those of you reading this....did you hear me? Not all ghost trackers are alike. I am surprised at the amount of people who consider themselves a ghost tracker. Am I flattered? No. Those that I am speaking of are the amount of people who signed up for groups on meet-ups. What is a meet-up? A meet-up is a place where people with the same likes can "meet up" and sit down and talk. Like minds thinking alike. This is great BUT, meet-up has groups that are metaphysical, occult, knitting...you name it. Their ghost hunters are called ghost trackers. This creates problems for us. The REAL Ghost Trackers.

I'm not saying we are better than these groups but it creates problems for us. Case in point. We had a commitment with a local newspaper and its' reporter to investigate a building and take them with us so he could write an article. A larger newspaper ran an article on the same place with a different group who called themselves ghost trackers (really a meet-up group), and unfortunately, looked really unprofessional and silly. The newspaper we were going to go with took offense and practically yelled at us for leaving them for the other paper stating we probably needed more publicity than they could give us.

When we let the smaller newspaper know that was NOT us and it was NEVER our intent to do anything to ruin our rapport with them, the newspaper realized they had made a mistake and apologized profusely. No need for apologies. We get caught in this type of trap all the time. We have people stating they are indeed ghost trackers WHO ARE NOT US. Yet, we get caught in the middle. They do things wrong. They trespass. I caught up with some meet-ups who are talking on their board about trespassing at a local place that "everyone wants to investigate". This makes us look bad. We get caught in the middle.

Those that know our group know we are professional, scientific, methodical. We work very hard to have a good rapport with everyone we work with. We make sure that we cover all bases to be sure that the clients are well taken care of and that they know exactly what we're doing when we do and invite the client along to see for themselves.

I can't wait for the hub-bub about being a ghost hunter dies down or switches to another trend like vampirism or crop circles. It's a long time coming already.

The Great Orb Controversy Rages On...and on....and on....and

I received an email yesterday. No big deal. I receive quite a few emails daily and do my best to answer them promptly. I answered this one. It was from a gentleman asking if I had seen a certain website page with an orb that was "amazing" because the orb had "a face". Okay, another orb question. So, I went to the website, opened the page, saw the information on the home page indicating how professional, efficient, and credible they are and that they worked with their local law enforcement authorities. Okay. I don't know that I believed it but who am I to question this because I don't know them. I went down the page and there, in fact, was the amazing picture with an orb for a face. NOT!!! It was a picture taken outside (maybe a cemetery) with many other "orb" friends floating around. The "face" was the enlarged picture of the amazing orb that had its' pixels blown up and out and when you look at it, there are many different things that it could be besides a face. Face in the cloud effect.


So I wrote back to this person and explained my take on what I saw. His answer to me was very interesting. He said that the ghost hunters page that had the orb picture and was advertising it, said the same thing I said about it not being real. BUT, remember that they were advertising their amazing picture orb with a face. What a contradiction. That burns me up.


On top of this, the guy said, "What is amazing to me is the types of responses I got from other investigators i e-mailed some seemed excited others literally attacked the credibility and investigative techniques of the investigators themselves for even suggesting the possibility of an orb being paranormal." I felt sorry for this guy for himself being attacked for just asking a question and then I began to think....who were these people who, 1) thought they knew it all and, 2) had to literally make themselves feel better by attacking the people who put this up on their website. Of course, those who know me understand just how angry that makes me. I have been a paranormal researcher (yes, I have earned this title) for almost 20 years and yet, there are people who think they know it all. I don't even know it all. I wish I did. I'd give my right arm to know it all. I knew it all when I was 16. Some comparison to those who know it all.

Let's get this straight. There are NO experts in the paranormal field. I don't care who they are. There are some pioneers who have led the way through this tangle of stuff to be able to incur even the possibility of expert, i.e., Hans Holzer, Friedrich Jurgenson. That's about it that I can think of. Even those of us who have been researching and investigating for years and years can't be titled among those above. I am no expert.

The big orb controversy has raged on for many years that I'm aware of. There are those who don't believe orbs are a label of paranormal activity. There are those who think everything is an orb. There are those who are willing to try to find the manmade or natural reason there would be orbs. Those of us in the field for a long time have developed a criteria by which we attempt to make determinations of orbs that are in pictures or on video. This is a very difficult thing to do because the criteria is strictly followed and we have to make sure that we do not deviate from this criteria.

Don't get me wrong. There was a time in my paranormal career where I used to jump and down and shout from the rooftops thinking I had something terrific in my pictures. Were it not for Jim (our incredibly thorough forensic photographer) bringing my feet back down to earth, I would still be in the stratosphere floating around or have my big head getting bigger and bigger when I really had nothing.

It is really asking a lot for people who want to be ghost hunters or paranormal investigators to learn the trade. They think that because they go to a site for an investigation that they know what they are doing and how to do it. Amazingly, the poor people who are caught up in their sneakiness don't know what the real truth is. While it's not difficult to learn a bit about ghost hunting - it takes nothing to learn - they feel that they already know how and end up failing at what they're doing. People are pretty smart. If they sense or hear something that doesn't make sense then they question it. One of my favorite Judge Judy-ism's is, if it doesn't make sense, it's not real. She's got a great head on her shoulders and I agree with that.

I think there should be more awareness, education, skills that come with ghost hunting but because we are dealing with something that is a hobby ~ slash ~ job (for some of us), we take it with very seriously and continue to learn....even now.

So that is my suggestion. Learn everything you can. Never stop learning. The changes that are taking place are coming quickly and to be on top of your game - keep up with the big dogs!!

Okay, it's 2008 - What now??

So here we are, the second day into 2008, what now??? Normally I might write my list of resolutions but since no one (including me) abides by them (I can barely keep up with what I gave up for Lent), I won't bother with them. I have decided to give my take on what's going on in the paranormal world. All of these are my opinions, of which I have many, but they hit very close to home for many.

What was bad about 2007:

1. A paranormal program on SciFi had mainly reruns.
2. A paranormal program on SciFi has been picked up for another year.
3. A paranormal program on SciFi has also got a new spin-off.
4. A paranormal program on A&E that's even sillier than the one on the SciFi channel just started. Good grief!!!
5. Too many paranormal meet-up groups, so little time.
6. Too many .com paranormal groups, all wanting to be the same and going to the same places.
7. Too much in-fighting among paranormal groups.
8. Too much in-fighting among paranormal groups all to be the bigger, better dog.
9. Too much in-fighting among paranormal groups all for the almighty pen or camera, i.e., newspaper column or TV stint.
10. Way too many groups trying to put on a conference without any knowledge of how.
11. Way too many groups with no knowledge of what they're doing.
12. Way too many groups that still have the "me" syndrome.
13. Way too many groups that still have the "mine" syndrome.
14. There was unbearable cold for too long in California this year.

What was good about 2007:

1. People figured out the K-2 meter was no different than any other EMF meter.
2. People figured out that meet-ups were not that fun after all.
3. People figured out that in a meet-up, there still has to be a core group that doesn't include them.
4. People figured out the real truth about all those paranormal TV shows.
5. People are understanding more and more about paranormal activity every day.
6. Finally, scientists are willing to admit that there may be a parallel universe.

I'm sure there are many, many more things that I can't recall but these are the main points. It's about time we all took a look at which direction we want research to go. I'm willing to look at the good and bad points and make amends to make our group better. We have been fortunate to have lasting power (we have been a group since 1992) but it takes A LOT of work, time, effort, sweat. I have found out that you can't keep a group intact without all those points.

So here's my hopes for 2008:

1. I hope for less in-fighting between groups for any reason.
2. I hope for more standards, protocols and information if a group decides to continue (something I've been fighting for, for about 5 years).
3. I hope for more cohesiveness and cooperation between groups. There are more than enough ghosts to go around.
4. I hope for more scientific theories and methodologies to be tested, experimented and researched. Let's give the "real" scientific community a run for their money!!
5. Let's all work together on "real" equipment and its' uses.
6. I hope for every person's curiosity not to get the better of them and follow the rules and the law when ghost hunting. There are still people sneaking into places and putting themselves in the position of getting caught - making it bad for all of us.
7. I hope for less paranormal programs on the TV unless it's fun...think Scooby Doo.
8. I hope for less "stealing" of investigations when someone places the investigation site on their website for doing it in the future.
9. I hope for less backstabbing (what an ugly word, but it happens) among group leaders. Trust and loyalty is a much better way to be.

So, that's it!! Some things may work, some may not. Let's see what happens.

Happy, healthy, HAUNTING 2008!!