This may be the weirdest thing to say as a paranormal investigator. But, not all places need to be investigated. Some places are sacred and should just stay that way.
During my interview with Vanessa Hogle for The Spooky Stuff podcast, talking about her newest book Ghosts Abroad Ireland, she made several excellent points. A few of those points inspired this week’s blog. Vanessa and I were talking about traveling around the world and getting outside of our own box. We also discussed when it’s time to investigate, and when to step aside.
Know When to Investigate, Know When to Remember
I know this idea could be applied to every haunted location. It seems the older a place is, the more “okay” it is to investigate. Even in the United States, we have locations that paranormal investigators avoid. For example, the Freedom Tower in New York City and the location of the Twin Towers. Same deal for the location of the Oklahoma City Bombing. The list goes on. Given that these events happened in the past 30 years, it’s still fresh in the hearts and minds of most of us.
And yet, it seems time may eventually make investigating these locations okay. Or, if the event wasn’t something that affected us personally or something we didn’t experience, then it’s fair game.
Not every haunted location warrants an investigation. Vanessa made a strong statement about this with the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, Ireland. This was a place that needed to be remembered, not investigated. If you don’t know the history of this place, you can check out an article here with the backstory.
Think about it, in most traditional paranormal investigations, we say something to the effect of, “Prove to us that you’re here by knocking on the wall.” This isn’t the place for that. We know these children existed. We know they lost their lives. It’s disrespectful of us to even challenge their existence. Some places should just be acknowledged and remembered for what they were. If it doesn’t feel right investigating a location, then it probably isn’t right and should be avoided. Also, consider how someone closely connected to that event may feel if you investigated that location.
Expanding Our Horizons
I think we all know by now that there are no two hauntings that are identical. So why do we approach paranormal investigations the same way no matter where we go? It seems that we tend to look at historical locations and think the same thing; they’re must be ghosts. Not only that, but it seems we put these ghosts in a box and we expect them to act and respond in a certain way.
Do these spirits respond as expected? Sure. But we can take it even further. We can expand our horizons and focus more on the individuality of each spirit. Take into account where the spirit is from culturally, and hone in on their context.
Regionally Different Hauntings
Vanessa mentioned that hauntings are different around the world. No two countries will have the exact same type of circumstances. Of course, every country has had its share of war, famine, trauma, etc. But each country’s context is going to be different. Paranormal activity is regional. The way spirits act in Ireland will be completely different than how a spirit acts in England.
This makes sense because, well, let’s just look at the living. We all act differently around the world and that’s heavily influenced by our culture. A person from Ireland will act completely different from someone who is from France. Of course, we all have awareness of these differences in the living and we’ll make adjustments from there. It’s the same for spirits.
Spirits will act differently not only based on where they’re from but also based on their time period. This is why I appreciate and highly recommend John Sabol’s Ghost Excavation method. He takes this concept and goes even further with it by completely diving into the context of spirit.
Understanding Their Circumstances
I truly believe (and recommend) that every paranormal investigator takes a class on cross-cultural anthropology. Not only will this help us better understand the people around us, but it will help with historical context. We don’t want to look at other people’s cultures only through our own eyes. Instead, we want to see their culture through their eyes. There’s a major difference between being a spectator and being a participant.
Finally, empathy comes into play here. I don’t think a paranormal investigator is truly a successful paranormal investigator unless they are empathetic. Having the ability to share and understand the feelings of someone else is an invaluable skill to have. You can still be balanced as an investigator, even if you’re more scientifically minded. Empathy could be the key to truly unlocking the mysteries of the supernatural.
This was very personal to me,as an investigator. It’s an issue I as an investigator had to deal with directly. I was asked by a family member to conduct an investigation at the Flight 93 memorial in Shanksville Pa.l. I weighed the pros and cons about doing so and finally decided I could do it. My methods usually involve myself, a second investigator, and the client so we arranged a time suitable to all of us. This is a public site so we attempted to pick a low traffic time since it was not possible to get a private period. I had portable amplification, sensing, and audio recording equipment in a back pack. My associate was doing video using portable equipment. The client was present the entire time and took part in the sessions.
I was rather surprised at how well we did the investigation without being obvious or disruptive to the solemn mood of the location. If you were there unless you were very close us you would not have known the investigation was in progress. The videographer was running two cameras, one handheld, the other a wide field remote camera on a tripod located unobtrusively. covering a large area. I was set up to allow the client to attempt communication using both audio and EM Field dispersal We did this for about 4 hours. The client used a portable microphone tied into my equipment and attempted to speak with her relative. The client had complete control over what they said; I simply provided the means of transmission. There was no walking around with blinking lights and gadgets beeping; all was very subdued.
The results of all this were negative; we did not achieve any communication. However in a way it was very successful. The client was relieved that their loved one had passed on and was not trapped or otherwise held at the point of their death. So in that regard we considered this investigation accomplished its goal. I feel it justifies that any location may be investigated provided it is done in a respectful manner and NOT for show.