by Karen Frazier, Managing Editor
Paranormal Underground Magazine

Just the other day, one of our members posted an email sent to a new group from a member of a more established group about a charity event the new group was planning and advertising. The tone of the letter was shocking to say the least – equal parts condescending, threatening and downright rude.

In the email, the member from the more “established” group continuously said things like, “I wish you luck but…” and then proceeded to berate the newer group for all sorts of things – such as being out of their “territory,” holding an event at a site that had already been “cleansed” by other more experienced groups, and of course, daring to believe that anything they did would be nearly as important as “older, more established groups.”

The email went on to make threats, including threatening to call all event attendees and tell them to not go because of the inexperience and how unfair it was to other groups that this group was there.

Huh. To me, it seemed as if it should have gone on my very favorite website EVER – Emails from Crazy People.

Unfortunately, the tone of this letter, while extreme, does seem to echo some of what I’ve seen in the paranormal community. Not always – but a little here and there. Some groups seem to feel that they have domain over a certain territory, or that their experience makes them better or more important than other groups.

It’s sad, really. We’re all looking for the same thing. We all have the same goal. We want to find evidence of the afterlife – whether to satisfy personal curiosity – or for larger and broader reasons. So if we all want the same thing, why the territoriality?

I have been extremely lucky. I’ve come across two amazing groups who are representative of those groups that realize we’re all in it together. Both Ghost Hunters of WA and NWPIA believe in working collaboratively with other groups and sharing techniques and evidence. Just this past weekend while we were filming up at the site of the Wellington avalanche disaster, two men showed up who were part of a brand new group. They’d read about Wellington in the paper, and they wanted to check it out for themselves. Both Ghost Hunters of WA and NWPIA answered all of the questions that they had, showed them around the site, and invited them to participate in their investigations.

Both groups also often train new investigators and encourage them to break off into their own teams if they wish.

In order for paranormal research to progress, it seems to me that perhaps a collaborative effort would be more effective than a territorial one.

I’m not sure where this “paratoriality” comes from. Do paranormal groups have a territory? How can we come together instead of moving apart as a community? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Feel free to read the full email, which GhostBreakers kindly posted in our forum, and either comment in the forum or in the comments section of our blog.