by Karen Frazier, Managing Editor
Paranormal Underground

In a recent blog, I mentioned that I have been having some rather strange experiences that could be the latent family insanity finally coming home to roost. If it is, Jim’s not surprised. He’s been watching and waiting for years.

I described my experience with what may or may not be a three-year-old boy spirit who has been coming to visit me since I came to visit him. Recently, I told someone else the story – fully expecting guffaws, looks of horror or a quick commitment to a facility. Instead, this is what that person told me.

“You need to help that little boy go to the light. Next time you see him, tell him to go to the light.”

As I have stated many, many times – I am not a psychic. I am not a spiritual wunderkind. I am a person who is curious about the paranormal and hoping to have a definitive experience that will leave me either saying, “Yep, ghosts are real,” or “Nope – no such thing as ghosts.”

But this stopped me in my tracks. As one who does go out and occasionally seeks out evidence of a haunting – what is my job and my responsibility when it comes to any of the spirits that I might come across? In seeking to assuage my own curiosity, do I also then adopt some form of responsibility to assist any wandering spirits? And if I do have that responsibility, then how do I assist them? What if I do it wrong? What if I tell them to go to the light and they wind up trapped in someone’s bug zapper for all eternity?

Paranormal investigation is fun. It is fascinating. Sometimes it is downright spooky. But, in spite of all of those things, I want to be responsible in what I do and how I do it, and I’m not sure that I have the slightest idea what that responsibility entails or the methods by which I should behave responsibly.

I get it from the side of the living. While I can’t make any of the living “comfortable” with the idea of disembodied spirits, I can at least share with them some of the things that I have learned that might give them a level of understanding of what is happening.

But what of the dead – those pieces of pure consciousness that may be trapped here? What is my responsibility to them, and how can I best help them?

If I go about investigations merely cataloging information and seeking to scientifically prove (or disprove) the existence of ghosts, can I really be that callous with a prime directive type attitude where I don’t interfere, and only observe?

Look at it this way. Suppose that you have a condition where you believe your skin is falling off of your body. One of your family members comes to me (a scientist) and tells me of your condition. They are terribly worried about you! I have a curiosity about such conditions, and so I assemble a team and we come to help your family by taking a look at the situation.

I come to you with my scientific instruments. I take a look at your skin. I take measurements. I talk about you to my friends, all the while not hearing you say, “Please help me. My skin is falling off of my body,” so intent am I on meeting my own scientific curiosity. Finally, my friends and I conclude that your skin looks just fine. My scientific curiosity has been satisfied. I go out and assure your family that, indeed, your skin is exactly where it should be. What a relief!

How about you? Has your need to be heard or to be helped been met? And, as one who investigates whether skin actually falls off of a person or not, have I helped you in any way?

Yep. It’s a dumb analogy, but it is the best I can come up with in the absence of caffeine. It does have a point though. Maybe some of us are so busy trying to serve the living that we forget that, if ghosts do indeed exist, they are appearing to us for a reason. Maybe what it is they need is to be heard and to be helped.

Yeah – this is all hypothetical. There is no scientific evidence that ghosts exist. I could be arguing a moot point. At the same time, what if they do exist? Not only that, but if they do exist, and they are appearing to me, certainly there is a reason for that. As a person of compassion, I would hate to know that I am missing genuine cries for help in my attempt to satisfy my own curiosity.

There are excellent paranormal researchers and investigators doing good work in the field. There are just as many who are out chasing a good time. Or doing what they saw on television because it seemed kinda creepy. Some are out for science. Some are out for proof. Many are curious. Many others are pursing some other unnamed personal agenda. Whatever the reason, it may serve us all to stop and think. Why am I here? Am I here to help? Who am I here to help?

Whether ghosts are real or not, it never hurts to inject a little compassion into our pursuit. Because we don’t know. And in not knowing, it’s just possible that we are ignoring the cries of souls in need.