Hi everyone! A long overdue opinion piece. I was bored, waiting for something else, so why not.
We've been pretty quiet over here, and that's largely due to my having retired from the para-field and no one really grabbing the reins. I'm still around for advisory purposes, but will hunt if an excellent hunt comes up, or somebody really needs help, but otherwise nah, the field has become too weird to associate too closely with.
Allow me to explain. This might make some angry, be it by subject matter or a perceived "haughtiness" or whatever, and I really don't give a flying fork.
My first likely paranormal experience that I remember was in 1965, the next few in the intervening years, my biggest for sure experience was in 1977, my first ghost hunt was in June of 1979, the first hunt I organized was in 1989 (or 90), my first actual ghost sighting was 1996, 1997, face to face..
I see a lot of questions on facebook fan pages like "Are there too many ghost TV shows?" or "Is TV the reason you're in the paranormal field." I understand, they are making their fan pages and fan bases interactive, and that's cool.
But to the first question I have to say yes, there are too many. Why? How many ghost shows come and go every year? Some have had great promise, others not so much, and many don't make it due to over saturation.
Now follow along. I have some experience with this, having worked with people to a) bring shows to market, and b) bring locations and stories to TV shows, and I have never taken a dime for it.
TAPS is the grand-daddy, they made the paranormal normal. Those other guys (Is that yooooou making all those shows?) had a flying brick, and sans that would not be on the map. Was the magic brick legit? Yes, I believe it was. Was it cause for a TV show, maybe not, but they have succeeded where so many have not. What made the difference? Timing, uniqueness, commitment, and core.
Question 2, and this is the one that disturbs me most, "Is TV the reason you're in the paranormal field."
I have known people who's sole reason for being in the field was the pursuit of a television show. They have harmed others, defamed others, stolen from others, and lied their asses off to try and land a ghost TV show.
I had one group of people I worked with who had watched a TV show and knew all about the field, in equal measure (or greater) to/than the information I had amassed since the 1970's! These folks sole goal? Yup, the lure of being a TV personality, and they would cause harm to anyone who refused to help them, be it by slander or whatever other means.
Too many TV shows? Yes, and I think we'll have a season or two more of fly-by-night TV shows that will pop up and disappear, and after that I think it will become stale, old hat.
People getting into the field for the prospect of stardom? Huge problem, and a problem which has not advanced the field what-so-ever. In fact one might argue that it has actually set the field back years, maybe decades.
You see, when I got in this field there were giants, some of whom are still around today. The average intellectual acumen was incredibly high, and those are the type of folks I enjoy talking to, the smart ones, because something always rubs off. The "I want to be a big somebody" crowd are generally brain dead. They tend to be "street smart", (which is another way of saying "shifty,") but really develop nothing on their own, no theories (except for what's shown on the boob tube) , no new techniques, no new equipment, no new nothing. The pioneers thought outside the box, and could give you solid reasoning for why they did what they did the the way that they did it. These kids? "It was on TV." Even the history of a place might as well not exists to these folks, whereas to the serious investigator of yore, that was a HUGE piece of the puzzle.
Other offshoot of the "WOW, TV" factor is the profiteering. I can see if you write a book on the field or whatever, but places charging, conferences, conventions and the like, which, while they began in earnest to allow people to meet their TAP's caliber of stars, they have become something of a freak show, where a celebrity, (which at its root means "one who is celebrated for their achievement") can be someone who walks past a camera on a "lock down." Personally I would sooner celebrate the local dog catcher who actually gives back to the community, or the soldier who gives his service or even life in the name of freedom, or the college athlete who does what he or she does for the love of it with a remote chance of making it to the major leagues, all while having to carry a full load academically, and be passing those courses.
So when I say I retired from the field, what I'm really saying is that my priorities are different, and in my opinion anyway, more altruistic than that of the opportunists. I'm really saying is that the field is damaged, it is ill. I'm saying that it will, on its present course, become just as disreputable as it did in Houdini's day, and for much the same reasons. I can't change that, one person, and I refuse to go down with those who are sinking it. This field came into existence to try and communicate with the departed, to prove it was possible, to help the living deal with their grief, or to help the living deal with an unsavory haunting. It was never intended to be a circus.
If you don't understand that, or the Harry Houdini reference, then it might be time to turn off the tube and crack a book.
Just saying.
