#1: Paranormal Ethics
#2: Information for the public
#3: Unreliable/unethical equipment and techniques.
The Massillon Ghost Hunters Society believes very strongly in positive ethics use in the paranormal.
Below is a list of what we feel are unacceptable acts in the paranormal field. If you own, or are in a paranormal group, look at your group’s actions and ask yourself: by our actions, in the paranormal are we helping to advance the research of the paranormal and proving to scientists that spirits are real, or are we causing more damage by our actions and giving scientists reasons not to take this field seriously? We need to show that this field is not a pseudo-science. Remember, if we don’t start taking what we do seriously, science never will.
Paranormal Investigation Team or Tour Company:
If your group offers “ghost tours” and are charging money for them, it just gives the impression that the only reason you are into the paranormal is to profit from it’s popularity.
Faulty Equipment:
Look at your equipment. Are they susceptible to man-made signals that might give you a false positives? Any piece of equipment that can receive a man-made signals will not be taken seriously by the scientific community, because the “evidence” you acquire with it can be contaminated by the man-made signals. So what equipment is likely not to be taking seriously:
Frank Box
Uses radio signals, so how can you prove that it’s not just a radio transmission?
Ovilus puck or PX
The creator of this devise, when asked on his website said, “These devices are for Entertainment Purposes only”. That is all we can say, until someone has absolute proof one way or the other.” “A Joke? Absolutely!”
K-II or K2
The K-II/K2 Meter is highly unreliable, often giving false readings for any number of reasons including radio interference. (Note how many times on TV shows, the "responses" come when K2 is near a walkie-talkie.) Text messaging and in-coming calls from cell phones also will cause the K-2 meter to give false-positives. If your cell phone is on “silent mode“, you will not know that the false-positive is coming from your phone.
Ghost busting/removal:
Claims of being able to remove spirits from a given location, or charging fees/donations for removing a spirits, is basically unethical and is a claim that cannot be guaranteed. A group in Columbus charges $1500.00 for spirit removal, and according to the interview by their local news channel and newspaper, they have clients that will pay for their service. How do you think the scientific community views these acts? No one can guarantee a successful removal (also see taunting spirits below).
Claiming to be a non-profit group:
Saying that your group is a Not-For-Profit group is fine. It simply means you do paranormal research/investigations at no cost to the client. A Non-Profit 501(c) group has been registered by the IRS and the organization is able to be found on the IRS website.
Go to the IRS website click on the Charities and non-profit tab. On the left hand side, click the wording that says “Search for Charities”. In the search field, enter the name of the group and set the State to your home state.
Trespassing:
You would not just walk into someone’s house and start looking around when no one is home, or go into a store and start stealing items would you? Hopefully your answer is no. So then, why trespass into an abandoned building or enter into an area that is off limits? The act of trespassing is against the law! Think about how you would feel if you owned a building or a property and people were sneaking in?
Trespassing at a location sets a bad image for the paranormal. It shows that you have disregard for other’s personal property. When you go into an area that is off limits, you are setting a bad example to every new paranormal group, and it gives the impression that “hey, it’s ok to sneak in and investigate.”
It is better to seek permission and to legally enter buildings or be in a cemetery after dark (get permission in writing). This way, if you do find evidence and decide to talk about it, or share it (owner permitting), you can do it, without the risk of the owner or the law local enforcement giving you a call about your trespassing, and the possibility of charges being filed.
A breach of client privacy:
People are private, they don’t want the outside world to know their business. When a person contacts you because they feel they might have paranormal activity, there is a good chance they don’t want their neighbors or the public to know. They could be worried that if word gets out that their house/business/property is in fact haunted, that they might have problems selling the building (stigmatized property) or have trespassers trying to catch a glimpse.
With this said, unless you get the clients permission, you do not post a picture of the front of the house/business, as you might as well have posted their address (because someone, somewhere, knows that house/business, and will start spreading the word). If you take inside photos, blur out the family’s photos hanging on the walls or anything that might make the area identified to the public.
Put yourself in the client’s shoes. How would you feel if you could not sell your house because it was labeled as haunted, or people stopped coming to your business because it’s haunted by ghosts?
Taunting Spirits:
This has been made popular by TV: cursing, poking fun of, challenging spirits to do their worst. By this, you are hoping to get a reaction from the spirit to produce evidence. This is very risky. No one really knows how a spirit is able to move objects, with this said if, a ghost was angry enough, who knows what it is capable of doing. Worst case scenario: a spirit, that you have been cursing at and challenging, might decide that it is going to follow you home to finish this argument by pushing you down a flight of stairs or even throwing something at you. If you taunted a spirit at a client’s house/business, you have possibility made the client situation worse. Now, not only is their house/business haunted;, they now they have a very unpleasant, unseen house guest that is now more active than before the taunting started.
So you might be wondering “So how do you get a positive reaction from a spirit?” Try doing research at the local library on the house/business or property’s history. Find out names, dates or any information. If you can determine who might be haunting an area, use the history of the person or property in question.
“Mr. /Mrs. John Doe I see you liked trains?”
“Mr. /Mrs. John Doe I see you had a son/daughter named………is that true?”
“Mr. /Mrs. John Doe I see you was married to your husband/wife on……..is this true?”
“Mr. /Mrs. John Doe I see you worked at………. for………… years, is this right”
"Mr. /Mrs. John Doe I see you enjoyed this hobby?”
By using facts from the person’s life, that spirit might be thinking “How do they know that information about me? I want to speak with them about this.”
This is especially true if the person in question has been dead for 50+ years. No one has mentioned their name for such long time that they wonder… “How do they know that information about me? I want to speak with them about me.”
Removing spirits:
Trying to remove a spirit, regardless of your best intentions, might provoke a spirit to act out. After you leave the property, the client might have to put up with a spirit that is angered because some strangers came in and tried to remove them from the place that they might still consider to be their home.
Lastly:
Remember that your actions could affect your group and how the public sees you and how science sees the paranormal community as a whole. Ask yourself, how strongly you believe in positive ethics use in the paranormal and how do you portray it?
#2 Information for the public
This section is for the general public. So you think your house, business or property might be haunted. You search the web for a paranormal group to investigate to determine if there is a spirit there. The list below shows some things you might consider when choosing a paranormal group:
*Look at the group’s website, Facebook, Twitter or MySpace. How do they portray themselves?
*How seriously does the group take themselves and what they do?
*Is the group dress attire respectable, such as wearing team shirts or is the group attire sloppy?
*Review their evidence to see how the quality is.
*How do well do they keep prior client’s privacy?
*How active is the group, do they only become active around October and the Halloween season or are they active all year round. This can be learned by their website, Facebook, Twitter and/or MySpace accounts.
Remember you are the client, and you have the right to:
*Control what the group posts on their website, Facebook, Twitter and/or MySpace accounts. Do their photos show if they are trespassing or breaching a client’s privacy?
*If you don’t want any photos of the inside of your house posted on social medias or the group’s website, ask them not to post and get it in writing. Never let them post pictures of the front of your house or business.
*If the group asks you to leave your house for the duration of their investigation, you have the right to refuse. Would you leave your house if you called a plumber, TV repair person, cable person and so on? The group should respect your wishes, if not, there are many other groups that will not ask you to leave. Simply find another group.
*No money should ever be paid to any paranormal team for the services of a home investigation. If you wish to have copies of any evidence the investigators may ask for the cost incurred. Cost should not exceed the amount for the tapes, picture developing etc.
*There is no proven way to remove a spirit from any given location. Trying to remove a spirit regardless of the group’s best intentions might provoke a spirit to act out. After the group leaves the client might have to put up with a spirit that is angered that some “strangers” came in to try to remove them from what they might still consider their home, and now the spirit is more active than before the paranormal group came in. If you do wish a group to try to get the spirit to leave, the paranormal group should NEVER ask for payment or donations. If they insist for payment or donation, decline to have it done, and call your local church for a house blessing, they do not charge.
*If the group claims to be a legit non-profit group (501(c) registered), check the IRS website. Click on the Charities and non-profit tab. On the left hand side, click the wording that says “Search for Charities”. In the search field, enter the group’s name and choose your State. A true Non-Profit 501(c) group has been registered by the IRS and the organization is able to be found on the IRS website. If a group states that they are “Not-For-Profit” that is fine, it simply means that they do paranormal research/investigations at no cost to the client.
Before you donate to any non-profit check the IRS website to make sure they are registered as a non-profit with the IRS.
Ouija Boards:
Also known as a spirit board or talking board. While this board is nothing but paper and cardboard, it is the intention behind it that poses the real risk. When people place their fingertips on the planchette (pl?n-sh?t') their intentions are to contact spirits. The user cannot control what comes through and sometimes doorways or portals can be opened that allow other spirits through.
We do NOT condone the use of this item for anyone or used anywhere. We do not use this item; it is not a scientific method of proving the existence of spirits.
A séance is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word came to be used specifically for a meeting of people who are gathered to receive messages from spirits or to listen to a spirit medium’s discourse with or relay messages from spirits. Like the Ouija Board this works on the principle that the group’s intentions are to contact spirits. The users cannot control what comes through and sometimes doorways or portals can be opened that allow other spirits through.
We do NOT condone the practice of séance for anyone or use anywhere. We do not use this communication, as it is not a scientific method of proof of the existence of spirits.
Also known as “Table Turning “is another type of séance, in which participants sit around a table, place their hands on it, and wait for the table to levitate or wobble back and forth. The table was a means of communicating with the spirits; or to show that a spirit is present in the room.
We do not perform or condone this; it is not a scientific method of proving the existence of spirits.
In regards to the Frank box, the idea to invent new means to contact spirits is good, but the frank box in our opinion has a fatal flaw. It uses man made radio signals. Skeptics (magazines & websites) claim that all EVP’s are stray radio or TV signals. A recorder does NOT have the technology built in to receive these broadcasts, and because of this, when you get an EVP it is not a man made signal, but a sprit trying to communicate. You can prove this to a skeptic that your EVP’s are authentic.
When you use a frank box and you hear a voice, is it a spirit, or a DJ, song or ad from the radio station? Can you REALLY say that it’s a voice of a spirit or a radio broadcast, and how do you prove it? Using pieces of equipment that are known to be susceptible to interference from manmade signals, and then trying to pass its results off as paranormal evidence makes non-believers laugh at the paranormal community. (Skeptics groups/magazines LOVE to call out paranormal groups on this one. Let’s stop making it easy for them!)
We built our own frank box, and then made 100 index cards with colors, shapes, pictures of animals & objects. We would hold up a card and ask the Frank box “what is on this card.” All we wanted to hear was a one word answer of what was on the card. In all the hours of research and out of 100 cards it failed 100%. We never heard any answers and we gave it 3-5 minutes per card. We passed it off to other members over time to do their own research and experiments and log the results. No correct answers were ever given to any members at any location (house or cemetery).
It was once said “For the frank box to work there must be a signal from an AM or FM” why, they record on a recorder without man made transmissions just fine.
I feel that the frank box is just a random form of audio matrixing and you open yourselves up to false positives.
In the end you cannot prove that your recording from the frank box is not just a radio brodcast. Like I said skeptics groups/magazines LOVE to call out paranormal groups on this one. Let’s stop making it easy for them!
The Ovilus is marketed as an entertainment device only. The manufacturer does not claim that the device allows communication with the dead. Reviews have been mixed. Due to the random nature of the answers, there is too much left to random chance. This is more like a random word generator.
According to the manufactures' website, the odds of actually getting a response that is connected to the as followed:
If you ask a single word question and the device gives you a single word answer that is contextually correct, the odds are 1 in 2000 using the Puck.
Using the Ovilus I in dictionary mode, the odds are 1 in 511.
In phonetic mode, the odds change to 1 in 71.
The PX in dictionary mode, the odds is 1 in 2047.
In phonetic mode, the odds change to 1 in 71.
In the end you will have a hard time proving that your recording from the Ovilus/PX Meter is not just a random word. If you ask the same question long enough you'll get the word you are looking for. Like I said skeptics groups/magazines LOVE to call out paranormal groups on their evidence. Let’s stop making it easy for them!
The K2 Meter is unlike the traditional analog or digital display meters utilizing a set of lights in varying colors from green to yellow to red. The higher the lights move up the color scale, the stronger the field.
Many groups are using this meter currently. Paranormal groups first became aware of the meter on an older Ghost Hunters (TAPS) episode when they investigated the Sharon Tate murder scene. The meter seemed to allow a way to communicate with an intelligent entity and they had great success.
There are some who claim the meter is inaccurate and refuse to use it. Others seem to rely on it solely as their EMF detector.
The K2 Meter is highly unreliable often giving false readings for any number of reasons including radio interference. (Note how many times on TV shows the "responses" come when K2 is near a walkie-talkie.) Text messaging and in-coming calls from cell phones also causes the K-2 meter to give false-positives
Some of the interference that will set this meter off is as followed:
Keying up a walkie-talkie
Incoming texts/calls from a cell phone (if you follow protocol you or others will have your cell on silent or vibrate and you might mistake the false positive as something paranormal)
Old wiring (sleeved in a cloth) that is "bleeding" energy will make this meter flicker. When you power up this meter it should only have the first green light lit up, if there are any other lights lit up there is a manmade power close by. Even if there is a spirit close by it will be unable to hold that level of energy to keep the other lights lit up for long.
