Paranormal Field Investigators

“Do you guys ONLY do the Adelaide Gaol?”

I hear this question asked time and time again…. The answer???

“No... we don’t!”

But we DO keep most of our locations Secret though… do you? Maybe you should!!

In reality P.F.I. do many different places but only a handful will ever make it to the public attention and this is by design. It may appear that we talk about the same old places continuously, but this is because these places are well known already or they are protected by security… and I guess the word security is probably giving you a hint of where this is leading once again. Yes I know… I have put up a similar one before.. but this is an important point and should be addressed once more as the situation around the world is getting worse, especially with such limelight on the paranormal at the moment with shows airing weekly.

“They are just trying to cover up where they go so others can’t go there!!” I hear people accusing us. Erm… yes… ok… we do admit, that one is actually true, but not for the reasons some think we do. This is NOT about keeping places to ourselves, we would love to put all our work out there. It is definitely NOT about our lack of sharing, as the urge is strong in us all to share our experiences and tell our stories, especially if it is a good one!! The human race is a species of storytellers which dates back to our bonding rituals around the tribal campfires… in fact we still do it today, only the campfires have been replaced by Facebook, MySpace and other blogging sites. Nope… the reason we mostly don’t divulge where we have been is quite simple… it is to protect these locations.

So what has prompted me to bring this up again?

Remember that little quiet cemetery that you discovered down the road… you know the one… the one you love investigating. Well… put it out there on the internet with it’s name and location… and before long everybody else will too. Not only that, urban myth soon grows around it and before long you have a never ending parade of so called ‘ghost hunters’ who are in reality nothing more then thrill seekers, tromping through with their bottles of beer and making themselves look brave to their mates and maybe even trying to impress them by vandalizing a few headstones along the way.

20 years ago when I first entered this field, there was naturally always a small element of this. But I have seen a heartbreaking upsurge in vandalism and stupidity. It appeared to arrive with the advent of the internet and it is growing steadily as the topic also grows in popularity. Don’t get me wrong… I love the internet… and probably spend way too much time on it. It has been a great place to exercise our storytelling urges and put work out there that we are proud of. We are now able to reach millions of people around the world and thousands more in our hometowns because of it. And therein lies the problem and why we need to be more cautious. For every level headed interested person out there that reads your entry, you can bet there is another two that will also use it for the wrong reasons! And the time has come when we have to be more aware of this and should help guard these places from it.

Hopefully you read my previous article on “Is Urban Myth Harmless” so you will already see one case as an example. But there are many others. One more heartbreaking place was an original old homestead. It was historically very important to the area but Urban Myth grew up about this too, and very soon these people started trespassing, vandalizing and even tried to burn the place down several times. When I commented on a YouTube video showing just this and congratulating them on destroying such wonderful history… the answer was… “F@%# History!!!”

Ask yourself this… if you put up your EVP, your research, your experiences and some history of the place but was to totally omit the location, would this really make a difference to the enjoyment people would get from reading it? I for one would certainly still enjoy reading your material without knowing where it was taken. The photos of your cemetery or ruin could be one of hundreds of cemeteries in the area but just as interesting nonetheless.

The other repercussion from directing the way to this vandalism is that the owners of possible locations are now becoming more aware and more nervous of what can happen so are becoming more and more reluctant to involve teams, even if they are credible and serious about research. So this does affect us all.

At the end of the day, I appeal to all websites, forums, pages, blogs etc, if you are in any way serious about the paranormal and the research side, then lets help protect these wonderful historic places. Each one of them is special and we as investigators have a care of duty to ensure we keep them that way and leave them in the condition we found them. Remember vandals often only find these places because we point the way and at the end of the day, that almost makes us as guilty as the people who do the damage.

By all means enjoy these places, discuss your experiences, maybe even share their locations privately but please, help preserve them for future generations to enjoy also.