Investigative Culture in a Reality TV World by Chad Stambaugh

I hear many people say that these "novice" groups are giving serious paranormal investigators a bad name. This may be true, but remember that we all started out this way. The difference is, today's investigators unfortunately watch the shows and learn from the so-called "experts" whom I see as mainly hype and formulated for mass appeal. They create a false sense of how a paranormal investigation should be run. Those of you who were doing this before the T.V. shows know how it really is. Yes I started after the biggest one of them all started, but my wife and I already had the interest in the paranormal from when we were younger. So we feel that we didn't get influenced in the bad way of wanting to get into this field. All the show did was to give us more of a reason and excitement to finally do it ourselves. No matter when or how we all got started, we all had to learn from our mistakes in the school of paranormal hard knocks. Let's face it; I am not getting paid in any way (except for my books) to do this, so why else would I be doing it? It is simply my passion for the paranormal world and always searching for the truth.

The reality is that investigations are not really fun. It is hard work. It can be costly as well as emotionally and physically exhaustive. In fact, it can sometimes be downright dangerous. On that note; many people who call for help are also caught up in the paranormal activity bug. So many of the clients I get have watched a movie then got scared to death and are now calling us. Expecting us to come in and do this song and dance like they've seen in the movie or the numerous shows and expect immediate success. It is up to us to debunk claims and calm people down. We've always operated this way. But now, investigations to me has become just a numbers game. What I mean by this is, because of these movies and shows, so many are contacting us because they got scared by the movie or show, and thinking in their mind that now they are hearing and seeing ghosts! Were even getting to the point of prank calls. People calling and pretending that they want help. When we try to get a name or phone number or even an address, they hang up. So in that sense, we now have our work really cut out for us as far as legitimate claims of hauntings.

Over the years, I have been on many "true" haunted cases. I also have been on cases where fortunately, they were easily explained by more natural causes. On a good note to these phenomena however, is that people who are truly being haunted are not so afraid to come forward now and are asking for help these days. Like I said, ninety-nine percent of the time we will find a logical explanation for their experiences. In my opinion though, this is the best thing to happen out of this public paranormal fascination. These clients are allowing us to come into their homes for "us" to find evidence. For serious investigators, this is why we are doing this in the first place. For me, and for my team, it is absolutely imperative for us to provide the most unbiased, thorough and well-documented investigation we can possibly conduct. This also includes doing extensive research on that case. For the true paranormal investigator, it is all about the evidence and helping people. I feel that all paranormal investigators should have a mission statement and in it should be the prior statement. If you’re not giving your best on every case, then you shouldn't be doing it.