Accountability, Paranormal Responsibility - and Franks Box on Paranormal State

The subject keeps hitting me like a ton of bricks - responsibility and accountability, responsibility and accountability.

We are paranormal investigators and we need to be responsible and accountable.
Responsible and accountable for what you might ask. Responsible and accountable to whom? hmmmm

How about each other, how about our clients. How about to ourselves? How about what we think and say about our fellow investigators as well as our competition. How about in how we portray ourselves and our evidence to the general public. How about keeping each other safe and out of the lines of danger.

What is he talking about? Danger? Yes, Danger. He's back on his "Paranormal Investigating can be dangerous to your health" kick....

Danger 1
public ghost hunting groups..
As of recent, probably due to the fact that TV has made what we do look fun and entertaining to the masses, a large group of amature ghost hunters have surfaced, each looking for his or her own answers. Many of these newbies join groups like the recent plethora of Meetup.com groups. Many of the groups get together on the weekends and head out to hunt, Many of them are taking newcomers to high level locations and these newcomers are finding themselves in trouble when something has followed them home. The majority of these newcomers are not trained in spiritual protection or told what to do if this happens. Most don't event know the signs that something has followed them home until it is too late. Many of these same people are forming a wave of new clients for other well established groups. These are usually not just your happy go lucky ghost in their living room, most are attachments and bad ones at that. There computers are frying, there animals are dying, they are finding every part of their life turned upside down and have no clue what happened. We have started training these new groups on spiritual protection methods as well as offering to babysit these groups when they foolishly decide that a visit to a high level location sounds great for a first ghost hunt. Babysitting has actually helped decrease the number of new cases we have had. Many were from these new public ghost hunting groups. Funny thing about these groups is that the organizers of these groups seem to be just as vunerable to getting in trouble almost as much as the newbies. Not all, but some....

So how can the rest of the paranormal community help prevent this from getting worse? Most groups feel this isn't even our job, it is not our group, not our client, not our responsibility, it's none of our business and a waste of our time. Most paranormal groups are closed to the public for these reasons alone. Public hunts can be a disaster. So do we have a responsibility to try and prevent others from walking (or running) into danger? Or should we just consider that they should learn the hard way? Should we warn any organizers who are putting their members in danger? Or should we ignore something that is destroying lives?

Danger 2
Dangerous methods or dangerous evidence. This is one I have gone back and forth on for a while. Let's say that I record an evp of an inhuman or demonic entity. Let's say I play it for someone and they get negatively affected after hearing it. Let us just say that anyone who hears this is affected in a negative way. Am I responsible if they want to hear it and I play it? If I have a piece of evidence that can be considered dangerous, do I have the right to place it online so that everyone can hear it? Should I use a disclaimer or warning people or should I just say nothing and leave it online?

This actually happened to me. I recorded something that every person who heard it had really bad things happen to them for awhile. I was looking for help. Others were affected. That is why I feel so personal about this, Do we have a responsibility to protect others from evidence that may be harmful?

How about methods. If we use a powerful banishing ritual that actually lets in more bad stuff after we leave, let's say I'm a novice using a brand new pagan ritual and, once we're out the door, it backfires and leaves the client worse off, should someone speak up and try to prevent this from happening again? Or should we say nothing and hope it all goes away? Where is our responsibility when we feel someone is putting someone else at risk? Should their be an accountability in these situations? Once again, where is our responsibility in this situation?

I pushed away someone when I refused to let him bring what I considered newbies to a high level, demonic case. I wanted to protect the other members. The case affected all of us who did go in a pretty harsh fashion. I don't regret that decision one bit. We need to protect our own and sometimes that means telling someone they aren't ready to go investigate a certain location. That is hard for many to swallow, but it makes sense.

I feel it is like this. If we know that someone is possibly going to get hurt, whether by ignorance, stupidity or naivety, whether because they weren't trained or they were just trained wrong, if we know or feel that someone is going to get hurt or affected in a negative fashion, we have the obligation to say something or try to prevent this from happening. This is taking care of our own. We have tried to stop the flow of new ghost hunters getting hurt by inexperience or lack of proper leadership or training.

We have walked into situations where bad practices by inexperienced investigators left clients worse off that they were in the first place. (IE- Christian and Pagan and Catholic and Wiccan ritual were all merged in dislexic rituals that went against the clients faith and left clients in a really bad place. I guess it confised the spirit world as well. Other groups failed to return and assist the clients. ) We are still looking at these problems getting worse in our community.

We need to do something. I don't want to start a huge war of one groups attacking the other groups over small differences in protocols. But we need to be aware and address these issues or things will keep progressing into what is already occurring. I keep asking myself what more can we do. Posting this blog is part of that. "We" is us, the paranormal community. We need to take care of these issues. Ignoring it has made it worse.

Danger 3
Franks Box - Spirit Boxes = real time spirit communication devices.

Finally, in correlation with warning and protecting each other, I have to say something concerning new methods of communicating with the spirit word. I realize that I will get flack from the pure science groups as well as others. But here is goes. I've said this outside the public spotlight but recent events have led me to make it public. Yes, this is my opinion as well as the opinion of others I respect. No one else is mentioned though, so blame me alone. This is an area of controversy as the scientist will want to continue research in these fields. Amatures will want to experiment in these fields and I cringe at what we feel will eventually happen.

In doing our own research with real time spirit communication devices (Franks box, Spirit boxes, etc), me and a few others have concluded that they open up a portal when turned on. Things come through portals. This can be very bad. Even playing back a recording of a device previously being used will often open up a portal. Every time you play back the audio, the portal re-opens. We have seen people affected in a negative fashion by these devices. They are like a ouiji board on crack. Only low level vibrational beings come through, These are also known as inhuman or demonic entities. In researching and realizing that the signal of these devices opened the big bad portal to evil and malicious creatures, we cringed at the possibility of a device being played on the radio or on national TV. Last year I joked that if it was played on 20/20 and ten million people tuned in, ten million portals would be opened. Each portal would let bad things possibly come through. This could be the end of our comfort zones. Ironically, the following week, I was contacted by someone affiliate with 20/20 who wanted to do a piece on the device. I refused knowing the possibility of allowing danger to access the general public was not worth the risk or promoting science. Others backed me up in this decision.

Since then, the debate over these spirit communication devices are all over the internet, Some scream "evil", some scream " for science". Some say intent is important. Others say anything can come through. Now, a radio shack hack gives anyone the device. Hours after the plans for this device were made public on the internet, death threats were received by the websites owner. What? Yeah, death threats.......

At conventions, demonstrations of the device sent people flying home when they heard their relatives were in danger..... hmmm. Other weird accusations have surfaced about the device. I was just glad that the device had not been shown on national television. I have in my possession, a video from last year where, during a private box session, we watched someone give over full control to an entity while touching and using the box. This was like using a ouiji board, only worse. At the same time this happened, a team member of our was hit and assaulted by an unseen entity. The person who gave up full control, (he got possessed for those of you who don't get it, what we feek was demonic possession from a box, right in front of our eyes) went on a two week tirade of threats, stalking, accusations and manipulations. He was never the same. I swore to never be around the box again. Everyone there that night was affected. Another box session at the Glen Tavern coincided with a night where all hell broke loose, literally. Those paranormal groups who attended know what I'm talking about. Other box sessions have been marked with bad things happening to good people. It is not just my perspective. This is why, on the internet, you can read why other people feel the box is evil. This is not just my own delusion. Others share it as well. We all have one thing in common - the box...

Badumpum!

This week, Paranormal State will feature "Franks box" with Chris Moon. Paranormal State already has featured the B name a demonic entity that you can now google. Many others have googled it, found out who this is and what he does. Potentially giving power to this entity. Now Paranormal State will feature the Franks Box device that opens up portals whenever it is plugged in, the device that lets you hear the voices from the spirit world that either tell you good stuff or bad stuff while letting thoughts get manipulated. There is a responsibility and accountability that needs to be present here.

Even though PS and A&E know the debate on the box, I guess the producers feel that this is ratings worthy. I feel that, if they play the box during the episode, they are potentially putting people at risk. What if 10 million portals open up in ten million homes? What if? I've seen it happen and I hope I'm wrong. I hope the show doesn't play the box, just shows the dangers of the box. But the risk it there. I am not blaming Frank Sumption, creator of the box, nor Chris Moon, I am not blaming PS. But if they do know this danger exists and they decided to show it to the millions of viewers, they are responsible in the event that just one person has a portal open up and has their life destroyed when something crawls through. If this happens, they need to be held accountable as well. Demonic cases are on the rise. Cases of possession is on the rise. Groups are getting ripped apart. Maybe we are creating it and allowing what is going to happen...... I personally feel our curiosities will be our downfall. We need to be accountable and responsible to ourselves first. I have tried to speak out to others on the dangers of the box. We have heard it say, "20 million portals opening....." and to me that correlates into 20 million viewers watching a recording of the box. I've tried to warn those in positions of influence to no avail. So I'm posting this while thinking "curiosity killed the cat." I hope I'm wrong, but I have to be accountable for my own experiences with the Box. If this is a danger, I have to let you know what I feel. We will all know soon enough.

Everyone please think about what accountability and responsibility mean to you. These are my own comments and perceptions. Not my wifes, not our groups, not our members, mine. I know several of you will respond with "How can you scientifically prove that these devices open up a portal? Where is your proof? Can I see your video?" I will not answer these responses.Some of you may put others in danger for the pursuit of science. Talk to any sensitive, psychic, medium, clairvoyant around a spirit box. Get their perspective about when the box turns bad. Heck, watch them all move as far away from the box as they can, while everyone else in the room slowly gets closer and closer to the box......Watch how people change after being around a box session. The box was meant to be good, that doesn't change the fact it can be very bad. If there is that risk.... why do we need to put ourselves in danger?