Thursday, December 22, 2011
A SIMPLE RANT
I do not even know how to start this rant. In this cut throat industry, there are many different types of groups and people. With ours like many others, we are in it to find out what is going on within the other side as well as help people understand what is going on to them. Yes there is thrill in. Much thrill. Nothing get you adrenalin pumping like something you cant see speaking to you from just a foot or two away. Or having something walk right through you. Your senses are at their peak during the investigation. There are some groups that are here just for the thrill ride. They claim not to be but that is fine. There are the groups that are in it for the fame and fortune that they might acquire. I know a couple and they are doing well. This is also something I do not have a problem with. There are a few others that are kind of hard to categorize. Still I have no issues with them. I use to have issues with everyone who did not see exactly eye to eye with me or what I believed in. No longer the case. I do not care anymore. All that counts to me is what our group does, so that is what I pay attention to. Our clients come first. The pay off for us is finding evidence or not and being able tell them one way or another, what is happening. I do not care about "paranormal unity", because this will never happen. There are too many groups going in too many directions. We share what we are able to put on our web site. We hate no one. We have a healthy respect for most. With all of this being said, some of the people in this industry just suck. We take crap from people all of the time. If it's not from a drunk, bible thumping hillbilly, it's from someone who is non-stop removing the ads that get placed on Craigslist. Or could be hearing third party about some half baked want to be wizard that we are nothing more than black shirts wandering around in the dark. Or from a members relative who is friends with another group who lets us know they are talking crap about us. Or knowing that a former team member is trying out of boredom to tarnish our reputation. It goes on and on and on. But I have said it before and I will say it again. In the long run, nothing that you do will stop us from doing what we do. Because we do what we do very well. You can't change the outcome of something we have already accomplished. It's too late. Hate us if you will. You are still watching us. Just do the right thing and leave us alone if you don't like us.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Dead Ends Of The Dead
We are often asked by our clients "Who is haunting us?". That is always a question that is asked during the investigation over and over. Every now and then you get the answer. We do what we can by way of research but are not always successful with the results. Unfortunately this is not an easy task. We start with the internet and most of the time that where we stop due to time restraints. The resources are usually out there. Most being at your own library or assessors office. We always suggest you do as much research as you can. Chances are you will come up with more information than we will. So then on to the investigation. We ask all of the questions we possibly can. Sometimes we get no answers that would tell you who this is. You have to keep in mind, even if the house has been there a long time and you have all of the information on every person who ever lived and died there, it still might not be any those people. You also have to remember that there could have been something else there before your house was there. People could have lived there and no records were kept. There is a ton of unwritten history. This is obviously information only the dead will know. After all, people have been dying ever since there have been people.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
My Thoughts on Shadow People
I had recently received an email from someone concerning "Shadow People". My personal belief on shadow people is that they are nothing more than a different form of ghost. Meaning that they are just taking on a different form than an apparition. I do not see them as being demonic or evil, just a different form of scary that lets you catch a little more than a glimpse of them sometimes. The sizes and shapes are not always the same. Our group members have seen many ranging from about 3 feet to 7 feet tall. Some with well defined human shape and some with more of a blob like shape. I have personally witnessed them peeking around corners at me. Standing in doorways and walking into a closet. We have seen so many of them. When children see them, it is also a little different. I have one story of two children seeing one at the same time. One child sees it as scary and the other sees it as pleasant of even funny. Like I said, I think they are nothing more than ghost in different form. You only see what they want you to see.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Investigation Aftermath
You don't really hear allot about what happens after the investigation with most groups. The aftermath of the investigation is different for everyone. When we are doing a residential case, we always tell the homeowner the same thing. Be prepared for an increase in activity that will usually last for a couple of days. Sometimes it happens and sometime it does not. But its good to let them know. Now for the investigators it's a completely different scenario. And these are things that the newbies do not understand until after it happens to them. In some cases it's pretty insignificant. Everyone walks away a little drained. Sometimes it's like you just had the life sucked out of you. Then you have the ones that for some reason or another, for the next week or so, you have nightmares or sleep like you have not slept at all. For some their entire attitude changes. Their home life take a turn for the worse. They are no longer caring about investigations and completely deny having any issues. There is also the possibility that something has followed you home. That one is a little on the scary side. Do not forget about the physical damage, Anything from scratches to back pain. Headaches to muscle cramps. There are so many different things that happen to the investigators that is hard to explain to outsiders what it's like. It becomes a mental roller coaster at times. A very recent investigation that we were on for only three hours, seemed like it lasted eight. And drained everyone. There are so many different things that happen to the investigators during an investigation that affect them.We have lost several due to aftermath issues. But at least now we have a little better understanding as to what is happening to our investigators. So if your a newbie or someone who has been doing this for a while and has not experienced it, you will. Everyone does. If they say they have not, then they have never been to a true haunted location. Now just picture what a home owner goes through. They live with it. I have lived it. We do what we do to help identify why this (haunting) is happening and try to figure out how to put the location and the residence at ease.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Do They Growl At You?
We almost always think of a growl as being something bad when we are in the field. We all get them from time to time. Some are more intense than others. Sometimes other things are happening at the same time. But I don't think that every time we hear them they are a bad thing. I think that sometimes they are just a form of communication. We have had a growl come across as something completely different when going back over the audio. This has been more than a couple of times. I think that sometimes it is their way of letting you know they are there if they can not do any thing else at the time. On the other hand there are those that are with out a doubt intended to scare or warn you. Most of us in our group are pretty stubborn when it comes down to the growling. They usually catch us off guard but our reaction back more of a stand your ground type of reaction just in case it is just communication. I had one experience where Adam and myself were in a small house and we separated. We each took a bedroom. We had multiple devices running. The claims here were nothing more than a boy died in the house and sometimes he lays on the bed. Not too scary. The first thing I heard was a loud growl. Then I smelled what I can only describe as a rotting flesh smell. Then it went away. Nothing else happened. The next morning I was at my computer with my shirt off and my daughter ask me what I had done to my arm. I had a few deep scratches. I never felt them when it happened. Going over the evidence there was nothing captured. What about the growl? What did it mean? Was it a warning? We do not know. We have had them much louder and much more sinister than that one and no one was scratched. We do find it a good time to ask questions. Sometimes they respond. I am sure we will encounter more and we will approach the situation the same way. Stand your ground and ask questions. They only hurt you if you let them.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
HELP ME ?
Some of the first EVP's I ever got were "HELP ME". Back then they really disturbed me. They still do to a certain degree. What should you do? I searched for the answers everywhere. Hit all the web sites asked others that had been investigating. It was a real mix of answers. Is someone trapped? Or is someone trying to bring you back to them again? I think that most of the time it's just trying to draw you back. It seem like now they know better. It seems like they know what we are doing right away. But still how do you evaluate the situation? What other EVP's did you get along with this? Are you in a place that has had other groups in and out over and over? Are you in a place that has never been investigated? Is it a location where the activity is not friendly? I guess how you handle it really comes down to your own personal preference.You just have to keep in mind that it is very easy to fall into a situation that you do not want to be in. They will trick you. I do not think we have been in a situation where we actually had one that was in need. Most of what we run into are those that just seem to want nothing more than to torment the living. That's a subject all on it's own. There are plenty of opinions and stories you can check out on the web. Search out you answers. Try and find what closest matches you own experience. And never assume that they really need or want help. We always ask and the answers are usually more along the lines of "Get Out".
Saturday, September 17, 2011
A DEBATE ABOUT ORBS I HAD TO SHARE
I enjoyed this debate so much on Face Book that I had to share it even more.
en.wikipedia.org
The term orb describes unexpected, typically circular artifacts that occur in flash photography — sometimes with trails indicating motion — especially common with modern compact and ultra-compact digital cameras.
- 4 people like this.
James Hunter Ever had a spirit come up and shake your hand? Orbs will always be debated with never a positive answer either way. Science does not and cannot explain everything away in the universe because science is created by man and there are some things that man has absolutely no understanding of.23 hours ago · · 2 people
Dodie Albertson Clelland Great article! I would like to share this on my page,,,, although I do not believe that all "orbs" can be scientifically written off,,,it is good to know every different possible cause to look at when going over evidence. Orbs are hard, and anytime we are faced with science vs. faith, just belief,,, there is bound to be differences in opinions.23 hours ago · · 1 person
PARANOID PARANORMAL The entire point is that is is not a way to take a picture and call an orb paranormal. And if they do not introduce themselves and identify themselves as the orb you are taking a picture of, then you picture is nothing except what you believe it to be. So if you post a pic of an orb, expect to have it called nothing paranormal.21 hours ago ·- PARANOID PARANORMAL I can say that, and I did. Prove otherwise and did you not read the link. Why would you even argue the point. Do you base a haunting on pictures of orbs? When is the last time you saw an orb turn into a full bodied apparition and got pictures or film of that happening? Me neither. And have never seen that. Dust, bugs, rain and other crap floating through the air. Not Paranormal.20 hours ago ·
- James Hunter I have read tons of stuff on orbs. Did you read my earlier post on this thread? Have you ever held an orb in your hand and positively identified it as a bug or dust, etc? No, I have never seen an orb turn into a full-bodied apparition. I have taken photos in barns with a ton of stuff floating through the air and none of it has appeared as orbs in my photos, except for one orb in one photo. I will never say that orbs are definitely proof of the paranormal. But my point is that it might just be possible, in my opinion, that 1% out of 100 just might be something that we can not explain. We will never understand the paranormal, so I do not believe that we can say anything about it as a definite. We just do not know. Of course everyone can have an opinion about it but I do not believe that a person should get in anyone's face about it and say no, you don't have anything. No one is an expert on anything in this field and it is folly to think so.18 hours ago ·
- PARANOID PARANORMAL You cant explain how an orb is paranormal. I gave you a link on how they clearly are not. All you have is opinion. And pictures of dust.16 hours ago ·
- James Hunter The very first sentence states that orbs occur in FLASH photography, or a very close light source. How then do you explain orbs showing up in photographs taken during the daytime with no flash being used? You are delving into the paranormal yet you have such a closed mind to the slim POSSIBILITY that an orb might be something other than what the scientists say. You do not even know who wrote that article yet you are taking it's word for it that orbs are nothing.9 hours ago ·
- James Hunter All you have is opinion as well. When you hold an orb in your hand to do physical scientific experiments on it then come talk with me.9 hours ago ·
- PARANOID PARANORMAL Digital photography has made leaps and bounds when it comes down to quality. When using a high end camera your chances are slim at catching anything unless you you change the settings into the negative. Other cameras pick up all kinds of dust and junk. Your argument is flawed. I am a firm believer in the paranormal. What I am saying to you is that you can call a photo of an orb anything you want, but expect people to call it dust. When YOU hold an orb in your hand and prove it to be paranormal, then give me a call. Have you checked out any of the orb shots I put in the Paranoid Paranormal photo album? I put them there so people can see how very common it is to get the orb shot. Not one of those pictures of orbs can be called paranormal. You know why? Because you can not PROVE it. http://photos.paranoidpara
normal.com/GalleryThumbnai ls.aspx?gallery=209347#4 Start with page 4 
6 hours ago · · - James Hunter I hope we are having a good debate here. I understand what you are saying without a doubt. I am just open to the slim possibility that one orb out of a hundred, maybe more, might be something interesting. Like I said earlier, I do not ever look at an orb and say it is proof of the paranormal. I am looking for something more. The thing about this debate about orbs is that it will never be positively proven either way. Just for us to be dealing with the paranormal is to be dealing with the mysterious and unknown. Just like our scientists might try to explain UFO's and their alien technology with only our earth-based. human knowledge which doesn't work either because we have no knowledge or understanding of something so totally alien to us.5 hours ago ·
- James Hunter Thank you for this good debate, my friend. I wish you luck in your paranormal journey!5 hours ago · · 1 person
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Paranormal Unity...Really????
I have read many post and blogs about "Paranormal Unity". These groups calling for this are the same groups chasing orbs and gallivanting through the graveyards. Asking for this so called paranormal unity is the same thing as asking for world peace. Never gonna happen. I see nothing wrong with collaboration every now and then and that is still hard to do. There are too many people disagreeing about too many things. Too many groups claiming territory. Too many people with power issues. No one will ever get together about ORB's. And the separation of science and religion. There are too many opinions and too many options. I am a firm believer in separation. We share all of the time. We post evidence.
Live people get in the way.
Being a Paranormal Investigator you run into all kinds of people. Everyone wants to tell you about their paranormal experiences. All the stories are great. But when you are on an investigation, it seems they all want to be part of it. This is a difficult situation sometimes. Every now and then you have people that will not let you do what you are there for. As a general rule our group keeps religion, psychics/sensitives and magic of any kind out of our investigations. As usual, after we set up and have the DVR running, the home owners are on every little speck of dust flying through the air. Most of the time you can explain and move on. But when they are not buying your explanation it becomes a problem. So you try and carry on, doing what they have called you in to do. Investigate. Then you start hearing the talk about being able to see everything and feeling everything no one else can. This is when you know it is going to be a problem. We all know the importance of being quiet when the investigation is going on. But in some cases, the home owner does not care. You ask nicely the first three or four times. When we got to this point, we still didn't feel all was lost, yet. It was only a matter of time before we were upstairs doing a little EVP work when the owner came up with a candle and another person and went into another room. So trying to explain, we are there to do more of a scientific approach did no good. She was determined to run the investigation her way. So here it is an hour and a half into an investigation that we drove an hour and a half to get to. What do we do? Let her go. Yep, that's what we did. We actually did have activity in the beginning before she flipped on us. That is where in my opinion, we made a big mistake by staying and trying to still investigate at all. It got late and was time to finish up. We did all that we could do. We tried to thank her for having us out but she was more angry at us for not being on the same page as her. I have tried to call her a few hundred times but no response. Needless to say it was a disappointing yet humorous investigation. Yes we do run into some interesting people. But in a case where they are taking over your investigation, you really need to figure out what to do fast. We will not let this happen again. As paranormal investigators, we are here to do the task we were called in to do. Our way. It's alright to let whoever get involved but you really need to limit their role. If you do not, then you are just there for their amusement. You have no shot at collecting any kind of credible evidence. You have no shot at actually helping them understand what is going on. Unless of course your group consists of candle magic orb chasing dowsing rod using sage burning sensitive physics, then you should feel right at home with this type of situation.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Two things you should already know.
Two little things to rant a bit about. You ORB CHASING SISSY. Look, there have been enough people on Facebook and on television and on web sites telling everyone their opinion about ORBS. If it doesn't shake your hand or speak to you, don't call it paranormal. You know this. I am not going to define optical orbs because you should already know this. So stop posting pictures and videos of them. Everyone gets excited to see photos and videos of paranormal stuff and then gets let down right after they click on it and see nothing but dust bunnies traveling across the screen and splotchy photos. So stop it!!
My second issue. I watched a video of a group doing some sort of K-II session and they were also trying to get something to move or spin a top. Well they had two K-IIs on. Then I noticed what they had the top on. It was an I-Pad or something similar. They also had a ghost detector application running on this. The excitement factor was there but they had no clue. I have also seen something like this happen in person during an investigation. Someone had a cell phone with the same application going and it was sitting next to the K-II. She claimed to have been investigating for 7+ years. I can only say, this is one of those things that the newest of newbie in the game should know. What is a K-II Meter? It is an EMF Detector. EMF = Electric- Magnetic- Field , Detector. So if you are on an investigation and you have your cell phone of any other device that gives off a pulse or receives a signal when you are walking around trying to get something to spike your EMF meters, think again before getting excited. Someone else I know that runs PTF (Greg} brought up a good point in another post. You can also hear the electronic signal on your audio when you play it back. It doesn't always happen on the video sound. That is one way to know if you actually have true hits. Our group has a good habit of leaving our cell phones at base and some of us turn them off. But when ever any of us gets any kind of spike, all of us ask the same thing right away, Who has their cell phone? If you do this very simple thing, people won't make fun of you and give you thumbs down on your video's.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Whats with the name?
It's kind of funny how our name is taken out of context. St. Louis Ghost Hunters Society. It is only a name. We do not hunt ghost. We also do not represent a society of ghost hunters. It is only a name. We started with a different name and well, it's politics. It's a long story and someday I might tell it but not now. We do not hunt ghost. We are paranormal investigators. Now there are some groups that there name does in fact reflect their mentality. Have you ever tried to chase a ghost or run after a shadow. Good luck with that. I haven't ever tried to cast a ghost net, but I hear people do that. Well look up a paranormal directory and just read the names and then their stories. I am sure there are some very good groups that actually spend time and investigate and go over ALL of the evidence. Just not very many. Most are too focused on how to make their catchy group name into a cool looking logo. But no matter what we would call ourselves, people would still slam us for our web site content. Evidence.
DON'T TALK TO THEM!!
I can not tell you how many times we hear people saying things like "I tell them to stay in the basement" or "I don't care what you do as long as your not touching me". Or they give them names and pretend they are pets. Our opinion on this.....This is why you are calling us. It is only a matter of time before your "friend or friends" become something you are afraid of. It always starts out small. A little bump here or there. Then a door opening or a picture turning around. Then the whispers and shadows. Ect., ect. The moment you acknowledge their presence, they have won. I use to think that most of the time, this was just their way of asking for a little attention. We have seen this too many times. They will trick you into thinking they are a relative of yours. They are smart. Why they mess with the living? If we had the answer to that question, chances are, we would not be doing what we do. The best thing to do if you have a haunting is to tell it/them to get out. If that doesn't work, call us. DO NOT INVESTIGATE YOUR OWN HOUSE. For some reason, whenever some investigates their own place, things get bad. Not always right away. But it will happen. So we tell all of our clients the same thing. Don't talk to them.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Most over used phrase in the industry. "WE CAN HELP"
We use it. We can help. What does it mean? It doesn't mean we can come in and cleanse you place. At least not to us. For us we can give avenues of recourse to help you with your situation. I know for allot of other groups it means we can rid your house of spirits, ghosts and demons. New groups really over use this. Allot of them do more harm than anything. You say you can help and go investigate to only be able to say you investigated. Do you actually go over the evidence? Did you come back to the client with pictures of dust telling them their house was the most haunted they have ever been in? The EVP's you play for them are nothing more than the refrigerator in defrost mode. At this point you have scared the client. Yep, I have heard the stories, seen the pics and heard the "EVP's". You know why they called you? Because you claim to be able to help. There are allot of situations that we can not help with. The best we can do is tell them what we have found. I will say this over and over, There are no experts in this field. We all have to start somewhere. The thing is, you really need to evaluate why you are doing this. Is it to help? Just because you have investigated the Lemp does not mean you have to start a group. Just because you start a group does not mean you have to go all in. The reason this blog is on here is not to bash everyone. It's to discuss the paranormal. But we have gotten enough hate posts and emails in the past few months for us to want to hit some of these subjects. Come to find out, most are from new groups. We wont name anyone yet. But if they keep it up...it's on.
Friday, September 2, 2011
What we use to watch was alright.
So we use to watch Ghost Hunters back when they first came out. The show was cool. Then Paranormal State was a nice change of pace. Ghost Adventures was for sure a show that had to be watched. These shows seemed to be real with a hint of drama. Now, well now I can't waste time watching any of them unless they are first and second season. Now it's all drama and no investigating. Overkill on the past of locations makes me ill. Yelling at the top of your lungs to anything does no good. Can you imagine going over the audio for that crap. And the audio is most of the time crap. We come out with some questionable EVP's but some of the crap I see and hear on these shows is ridiculous. I would like to know how in the hell you can investigate with a camera crew around. You know there are generators running and people of all kinds in the background doing things. And now a dog. It takes us forever to go over the evidence. How do these people do it in a day or two? Demons and evil spirits. Whatever. And then commanding in the name of the Lord. Wow. There are also way too many flamboyant psychics running around. The equipment has also gotten out of hand. Some of it is pretty cool but some is way over the top. Don't get me wrong. I have a healthy respect for all of the groups on television. After all, they are making big money on all kinds of stuff. And I guess doing what they love doing. I think they should all tone it down and look back at what they were first doing in the early seasons.
This is not what you see on television. So quit acting like your paid.
I will start this out with a quick rant. I know I am not alone by saying "knock it off" to all the new "Paranormal Groups" in the area. You people need to get a clue. You claim to have been doing this for so long and claim to know so much. KNOCK IT OFF. You get no points. Our group has not been doing it that long but at least we can say that. We have however been doing it long enough to know the difference between an investigation and a daytime walk through. I can also say for the most part we know what we are doing. We learn something new during every investigation. If you get offended because we do not believe orbs are evidence or that not every cold spot means something or every noise is paranormal, oh well. Post the evidence. None of us give a shit if you have been to every landmark and tourist attraction on earth. We are not getting paid. We investigate to help others and ourselves understand what we have all gone through and what others going through. We go to occasional large location for fun if it has not been investigated by 20 other groups. We do events. Those are fun. But the reality is, this is not what you see on TV. The set up might be the same but the outcome is not. Once you actually encounter a real haunting, you will understand. So it's fine if you want to slam us every opportunity you get. We will still post evidence. We will still investigate. You will keep hating us but you will keep watching our every move. No orbs. No Wicca. No psychics. No dowsing rods. Straight investigations.
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