Groups can help

ghosthunter73

Hello,
I had an email from a gentleman requesting help with what he thought could be a paranormal event in his home.
we have all heard of people smelling things during investigations or clients claiming to smell flowers or cigar smoke, you get the idea.
After I got more information from this person which to be honest sounded sinple enough to me but goes to show you how a simple problem can turn crazy very easily.
I explained to the person that I would not have a problem coming over to have a look and see what I thought but before I do i asked him to simply check all his sinks, toliets and tubs. Fill them with water and see if any are draining slowly.
Hey presto he had a partially blocked drain that was causing a putrid smell in the house. This just goes to show that a group can help people when they think their house is haunted.
This is not the only case of this nature we have found faulty wiring and loose pipes which once fixed by a qualified person suddenly the "paramormal" activity stops.
Just as a small note not every group runs into a house stating "yup your house is haunted"

I agree groups can help. But at the same time groups can do serious damage. I do know of one irish group who started doing house investigations after 2 months !! Not only that but one member of the group had a fascination with Demons. He then suggested that they had a Demon in their house , not even a ghost !!

I think the problem lies in the fact there are no regulations. I doubt there will ever be any regulations. All you need to do is set up a website get a logo and stick it on your shirt, hey presto your a paranormal group.

maccored

Ive given up giving a toss about groups of pretend investigators/researchers.

Same time, you get it everywhere ... the number of pretend web developers does my head in.

Whispered

I enjoy watching Ghosthunters, mainly because 9 times out of ten they come up with logical reasons for what is happening and it does seem to help the people involved. I work overnight in an old building in Dublin and I spend half the night scared out of my wits. Watching it has helped slightly, I just keep telling myself that there is a logical explaination while I run across the hallway

However through watching it, you can see how quickly one person can change the group, one jumpy, screamy "OHMYGODWHATSTHAT" type person can change the whole investigation. I would imagine there is a huge difference between what would be found on an investigation, depending on who is on the team.

screamer

Good on you ghosthunter. Whispered, I agree, it's called hysteria, and I even saw an investigator get sucked in completely recently. I think that the problem with paranormal things is that they are open to interpretation, and sometimes, you get people who are so desperate to believe/ experience it, they leave their logic and common sense at the door, and that is dangerous. I agree that there is no regulation, but how can you regulate in this area?

Lima Alpha One

Whispered wrote: »

IHowever through watching it, you can see how quickly one person can change the group, one jumpy, screamy "OHMYGODWHATSTHAT" type person can change the whole investigation. I would imagine there is a huge difference between what would be found on an investigation, depending on who is on the team.

Bit like watching an episode of Most haunted and then wondering why you even bothered when all the screaming starts.

Important to have the right mix of people on any paranormal team. One of the most important qualities has to be honesty, as lets face it, anyone can make stuff up just to 'prove' they got a result.

ghosthunter73

Deleted User wrote: »

I agree groups can help. But at the same time groups can do serious damage. I do know of one irish group who started doing house investigations after 2 months !! Not only that but one member of the group had a fascination with Demons. He then suggested that they had a Demon in their house , not even a ghost !!

I think the problem lies in the fact there are no regulations. I doubt there will ever be any regulations. All you need to do is set up a website get a logo and stick it on your shirt, hey presto your a paranormal group.

I agree with you 100% there are so many groups out there doing more damage than good. Groups should take their time setting up and training their members. We have even helped new groups get started and we would always lend advice to newer groups when asked.

ghosthunter73

Lima Alpha One wrote: »

Bit like watching an episode of Most haunted and then wondering why you even bothered when all the screaming starts.

Important to have the right mix of people on any paranormal team. One of the most important qualities has to be honesty, as lets face it, anyone can make stuff up just to 'prove' they got a result.

and we have all heard of these groups!:cool:

sambuka41

screamer wrote: »

Good on you ghosthunter. Whispered, I agree, it's called hysteria, and I even saw an investigator get sucked in completely recently. I think that the problem with paranormal things is that they are open to interpretation, and sometimes, you get people who are so desperate to believe/ experience it, they leave their logic and common sense at the door, and that is dangerous.

This is very true. I rented a holiday home years ago for a group of friends, I decided to play a prank on two of my friends who were coming down after the rest of us; we recorded (to tape) the local radio station then flicked through stations then recorded silence, repeated this a few times. Later that night I pressed play on the tape and went down stairs about 10 mins later when the radio part started I asked the others if they could hear it!!! It was really tense we were walking slowly up the stairs listening to the radio, at first they were trying to find a reason, 'maybe its a CD' but no the radio was changing stations, so it got really tense, then one of the girls screamed, before you knew it we all screamed.

I was screaming like a child even though I made the tape, I knew exactly what was going on but I got so caught up in the tension and fear that I freaked out temporarily!!! So I can see easily how people get sucked into it, especially if they are inclined to believe in the paranormal.

Lima Alpha One

screamer wrote: »

Good on you ghosthunter. Whispered, I agree, it's called hysteria, and I even saw an investigator get sucked in completely recently. I think that the problem with paranormal things is that they are open to interpretation, and sometimes, you get people who are so desperate to believe/ experience it, they leave their logic and common sense at the door, and that is dangerous. I agree that there is no regulation, but how can you regulate in this area?

While not regulation as such, any paranormal group that's a TAPS family member would lead you to believe that the group operates with a certain level of competency and ethics in their investigations. Not sure of any other acreditations for paranormal groups, but I'm sure that there probably are.

ghosthunter73

Lima Alpha One wrote: »

While not regulation as such, any paranormal group that's a TAPS family member would lead you to believe that the group operates with a certain level of competency and ethics in their investigations. Not sure of any other acreditations for paranormal groups, but I'm sure that there probably are.

Well there are affiliations like IPI and TAPS Family members but at the end of the day I don't think there will ever be regulation on this either. We used to be in TAPS but went our seperate ways. I wouldn't put any of these down same as IPI sometimes there just isn't enough time to look after your team and contribute to another orginisation as well. I still keep up with a few friends from both and we have exchanged great info and advise over the years so there is value.
At the end of the day these groups will fail and the more clients are educated on what type of team to invite into their homes the better off we all are.

Lima Alpha One

ghosthunter73 wrote: »

Well there are affiliations like IPI and TAPS Family members but at the end of the day I don't think there will ever be regulation on this either. We used to be in TAPS but went our seperate ways. I wouldn't put any of these down same as IPI sometimes there just isn't enough time to look after your team and contribute to another orginisation as well. I still keep up with a few friends from both and we have exchanged great info and advise over the years so there is value.
At the end of the day these groups will fail and the more clients are educated on what type of team to invite into their homes the better off we all are.

So true. Truth will always win out in the end.

ghosthunter73

Sure you can see it in the past year or two which groups have actually fallen apart or disbanded

DANNY22XX

Sadly this is why i through my hat at the the field to many superheros popping up out of no were pretending they have experience with dealing with the public and they look good in a new jacket with a team logo and a fancy website ,,when all they are is someone who did one investigation or got booted from a team for being an ass or a huge fan of a TV show ,,sadly the likes of these people have ruined the field for me personally ,,go in to a location once and get tones of so called evidence and spam it out there when you can clearly see its explainable ,sadly a person looking for advice will go to these people because they think they can help and when they are done its still the same crap but further more the client is worse off than they were before because they now believe the crap that they were told in the first place and will be living on their nerves

maccored

kill them all!

Oh sorry - wrong forum :pac: ...

Ruth KPS

Firstly Ghosthunter ~ I fully agree!!

I also agree with Dre, we had to meet with a family in Dublin last week, who were absolutely at their wits end and terrified in their home.

According to the family, another paranormal team had gone in previously and told them that their house was haunted by a demon and several spirits who were only there to cause them trouble.

Very quickly once we visited the house we found out that the loud banging noises in the house were not in actual fact 'demons' or 'spirits trying to cause trouble' it was in fact the pipes in the house making the noise.

And now they are perfectly calm again.

Teams cannot enter a home, all guns blazing claiming that this, that or the other is going on. Especially when it's something as simple as above.

I have great respect for each and every team that start up and our team has helped and offered advise to several of them but some really do more harm then good.

ghosthunter73

DANNY22XX wrote: »

Sadly this is why i through my hat at the the field to many superheros popping up out of no were pretending they have experience with dealing with the public and they look good in a new jacket with a team logo and a fancy website ,,when all they are is someone who did one investigation or got booted from a team for being an ass or a huge fan of a TV show ,,sadly the likes of these people have ruined the field for me personally ,,go in to a location once and get tones of so called evidence and spam it out there when you can clearly see its explainable ,sadly a person looking for advice will go to these people because they think they can help and when they are done its still the same crap but further more the client is worse off than they were before because they now believe the crap that they were told in the first place and will be living on their nerves

So true Danny that's the worst part people not knowing who to turn to

ghosthunter73

Ruth KPS wrote: »

Firstly Ghosthunter ~ I fully agree!!

I also agree with Dre, we had to meet with a family in Dublin last week, who were absolutely at their wits end and terrified in their home.

According to the family, another paranormal team had gone in previously and told them that their house was haunted by a demon and several spirits who were only there to cause them trouble.

Very quickly once we visited the house we found out that the loud banging noises in the house were not in actual fact 'demons' or 'spirits trying to cause trouble' it was in fact the pipes in the house making the noise.

And now they are perfectly calm again.

Teams cannot enter a home, all guns blazing claiming that this, that or the other is going on. Especially when it's something as simple as above.

I have great respect for each and every team that start up and our team has helped and offered advise to several of them but some really do more harm then good.

Exactly Ruth that's the problem these cowboys running around making wild explinations. The problem is there is no way for anyone to say "These are approved Team" as there can be no guidlines to go by. It's a shame we all know that respected teams follow their own protocals during investigations as they should weather they are "logical" or "spiritual" or a mixture of both.

Ziycon

Its not only a case that all these teams faded out because they were just jumping on the hype/bandwagon but a case that some genuine teams gave it all up due to the amount of talking behind other groups backs, accusing others of things that were completely false just to better themselves etc.