MONEY AND PARANORMAL INVESTIGATING
by
Alison Oborn
“Look, they are making money…. They MUST be a sham group out to just rip people off!!” How many times have we stumbled on this sentence lately? I see it more and more and in fact now, on a daily basis. If a group makes money from ANY avenue, then the cry goes up, years of credibility are torn apart and the ‘witch hunt’ begins.
But lets take a closer look at the scenario of making money in the world of paranormal investigation. In this blog, I am going to look more at the ETHICAL as opposed to unethical, and why it is important that we shouldn't confuse the two.
I have been conducting paranormal research for many years now and everything that PFI do, we do for free, yes including the conducting of the Ghost Tours for the Old Adelaide Gaol. I am a firm believer that if you are helping a client, then it should be for free. After all these clients are helping further our research and without them, we would be sitting twiddling our thumbs with nowhere to investigate. So it is a win/win situation for both client and paranormal investigator to NOT charge anything for their time, but to give our best for free…. Helping a scared person be more comfortable with a situation, is a great reward just in itself... trust me!!! Besides, how can you charge for a service that has no proof or true 'credibility' behind it?
However, to keep a group going and to be able to help these people even if it is just to find a natural answer, then there are also costs involved. A decent website that people will enjoy, can cost at least a couple of hundred dollars a year to maintain along with the fees for your domain name. Listing in phone books can be just as expensive. Then there is the equipment to pay for, which doesn’t come cheap. Once we have the equipment to research properly we need to ensure that we are working with reliable equipment and in our case, brand new tapes each time (to dismiss leaching from past recordings), spare batteries, film and the list goes on. We have all, also felt the heat of the cost of petrol going up, which again can take quite a toll on an investigators work.
So, if a group or individual sells a DVD or a book as a way of raising this money, should we truly see this as meaning they are fake and in it for greed each and every time? Should we get the stake out and start stoking that fire around it because of this? Well… it depends on the DVD and book, I guess lol (and yes I think we all know some who SHOULD be burnt at the stake!!). However, if somebody who has a passion for the subject and who has managed to write a GOOD book or managed to put together an informative DVD…. Then I for one would buy it, and have done so many times. Do I ever feel like I have been fleeced???? …. Not really. Each book and video has had something to teach me… either things I can use, or things I would NEVER use or try. Besides, it is usually obvious as to which ones are worth getting and which ones are not. Bad writers or movie makers, who are out to make a quick buck and who aren’t writing with their passion, generally disappear very quickly and are just as quickly forgotten.
Writing a book or producing a DVD involves using a creative side and also takes a great deal of time, work and passion. Would we expect an artist who has created a masterpiece to just give his work away and not charge for it because we feel he would only be doing it for greed and self interest?? Would we expect the Chef NOT to write a book or produce a show because… well… there are lots of chefs out there and cooking food should be shared for free (sorry Jamie Oliver… you would be out of business!!)???? Do we expect the occasional gardener to not turn their hobby into a profession and then write books on it and have DVDs???? No, we don’t and it is a strange precedence that we put upon this field. Why should the time that an investigator puts into creative writing be any different to any other subject? Why should we make them feel uncomfortable because they have decided to share their passion with the world and maybe in the process fund further research???
“They are only being interviewed because they have a book to push!!” is another derogatory comment I hear bandied around. Erm… guys… so did J.K. Rowling when she wrote the Harry Potter books, but we didn’t complain about her being interviewed and having her face up there.
The human being by nature is a storyteller. However much we like to feel we are civilized and living in a modern world, our old instinctive roots are still there haunting us in the background. Once upon a time the unity and bonding of the tribe would come through story telling round the campfire. We still have that urge in us to not only tell a great story but also to listen to a great story, it is part of who we are. These days the methods of storytelling have changed… TV, YouTube, MySpace… and yes…. Books and DVDs too!!…. Have we ever asked ourselves why this media has been embraced so strongly??? These are all successful because of that need to tell our stories. It is why blogs are so popular too!!
Any field of research is held back from lack of funding. The paranormal field is no different. If we were all funded just imagine how far we could have taken this research by now!!! But instead the dedicated among us struggle and fund out of our own pockets which, in this time of economic crisis CAN be hard on some families and very inhibitive on what we could be achieving in this field.
So before picking up those first stones to throw, ask yourself these questions first…. how many of us, before we stepped into the world of investigation, LOVED to read as many books on it as we could get our hands on. When the world of DVD and TV came along, how many of us couldn’t get enough of these either?? There are still many people out there who hunger for books and DVDs…. Those who want to experience the world of investigating and the paranormal but who also don’t want to touch it personally. They get a lot of enjoyment out of these books and DVDs just like we did… and that is an important point we must not forget and why we shouldn’t condemn an investigator or group for producing a QUALITY DVD or for writing a GOOD book. As long as the book or DVD has been created with pride and with the right intention… and is being enjoyed by the person who paid for it, then it is again surely, a win/win situation. Notice the emphasis on the word GOOD though, as yes, I am more then aware there are unethical people out there who ARE fleecing the public, but this is not what this blog is about. There are already enough out there pointing this out. This blog hopefully will be viewed in the way it was meant to be written…with optimism.
We also have to ask ourselves before we start pointing and screaming ‘A witch, a witch… burn her!!’… where is this condemnation truly coming from? Is it a real intent on protecting the ‘public’ .. who at the end of the day are big people and can probably protect themselves, or is it coming from some deep seated jealousy that we ourselves haven’t taken this avenue already and so are not getting the recognition we feel we deserve for our hard work?
So I for one, will say… if you have something GOOD to bring to us in the form of DVD or book, and it will help raise money to further the research in the field of paranormal… you have my full support, especially if it is done ethically and helps keep the cost of dealing with clients free of charge. If people wish to purchase and enjoy these books, lectures and DVDs… who are we to say it is wrong?
In Australia we believe in giving people ‘A Fair Go’ and I for one will follow that thinking.
PART 2
Sorry guys, I thought I would ramble over my cup of coffee just a little bit more and bring up another thought on this issue.... I will shut up eventually... honest!!!
Being a volunteer at the Old Adelaide Gaol, in respect that I help to conduct the 'Torchlight' Tours there (which I do for free)... I am also more then aware of the waves of discontent out there, on how these buildings are "only out to make money, therefore have a motive and can't be haunted!" This couldn't be further from the truth in a lot of cases.
After having spent many years in the Gaol investigating, a fondness for the 'Old Girl' naturally develops and for anything that may still reside within her walls. Walls I might add that are crumbling and suffering from salt damp, erosion etc. Walls that have seen much in its 150 plus year history, have over time been neglected from lack of funding over the years. The Gaol is not the only historic building around the world that has suffered from this fate. These buildings take a LOT of money to run and restore to ensure that future generations can also enjoy them and future investigators can still enjoy looking for their evidence.With the Old Adelaide Gaol especially, it should be noted that the government department that owns it (The DEH) originally didn't want 'Ghost Tours' and actually pulled them for quite a while. But demand out there is great, and after constant phone calls from the general public requesting that they were reinstated, they were finally brought back and have been very popular since.
So can we truly say that this is 'cashing in' or can we say that these institutes are merely providing an opportunity for the lovers of paranormal to be able to hear and experience what has been going on there, at the same time as being able to keep history alive. Again we investigators take the world of paranormal for granted... but for the general public, who love this topic but really don't want to go out there and investigate, this is an experience and opportunity that they relish. I know many that go home VERY happy and even return regularly. Again, why would we take this away from them and who are we to say we should. They get a night of enjoyment and the old buildings get much needed funding to be able to repair the walls that are crumbling. Surely this is a win/win situation once again for all.
Again just my thoughts and ramble lol. Hope all this made sense... sighs!!
NOTE: These are the opinions expressed by Alison Oborn and are not necessarily reflective of P.F.I. as a whole.... (as I didn't ask the rest of my team what they thought of my rambling... lol)
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