By Gerry Warner, http://www.bordoorlands.com/

I wanted to share a rant of personal observations and unsolicited advice having spent considerable time researching the proliferation of “paranormal” groups and “investigators.” This does not include those who are in the paranormal entertainment business for which it appears many are without being aware of it.

- If you want to be taken seriously when posting photos of Team Members, please have some hygiene standards and avoid displaying photos if your members look like they just rolled out of bed or walked off the set of a Jerry Springer quagmire. Also, don’t include images of driving in your car, taking a photo of yourself in the mirror, etc….put a little thought and effort into more complimentary images of yourself. It is actually possible to have class and style while running in the company of interdimensional beings.

- The whole black T-shirt, hat, and motif festooned with skulls, blood, demons, cemeteries, not to mention the muscle-head/tough guy mentality, etc. as if you are some sort of bad-ass that would intimidate ghosts or similar other-worldy entities is rather comical. Do you honestly think these beings you seek to engage with are threatened by such props and theatrics? Please stop, just stop….its simply awful.

-If you are lacking in the virtues of respect, humility, and gratitude, when sharing space with intelligences from unknown origins, you are begging for trouble.

- The paranormal community is in dire need of a standardized framework of qualifications by peer-reviewed professional investigators with credentials and track records that one must be measured against before one can assert themselves as a Lead Investigator, Investigator in Training, EVP Technician, Demonologist etc. And I am at a complete loss for what qualifies someone as a Sensitive, Dream Symbolist, Orb Specialist, Empath, Psychic, etc.

- I summarily dismiss out of hand any paranormal investigation group or individual that uses a cartoon of a ghost, demon, etc. as their organization’s icon.

- If you bill yourself out to be a professional paranormal investigator with a proven track record, it would be nice to offer some actual hard evidence of your findings and not simply elegant pictures you have taken of haunted houses, cemeteries, or your team members perpetually looking into a video camera or holding EVP equipment while producing no tangible results.

-If you claim to take a “scientific” approach in your investigative techniques, then have someone on your team who actually has bon-a-fide scientific credentials, or at least a nominal scientific background.

- Attending paranormal conventions, buying expensive equipment, and watching every episode of Ghost Hunters does not make you one….and are you really certain who is hunting whom?

- It is the height of ignorance and arrogance to presume you are in a position to counsel those who are honestly experiencing or perhaps suffering from paranormal activity without possessing counseling credentials, psychology degrees, etc. before treading on such sensitive territory. And as far as the “cleansing” and “banishment” rituals are concerned, don’t even get me started….i.e. who the hell are you?!

- Please refrain from using a nauseating acronym based on the T.A.P.S. formula to signify your group or organization,….have a little originality and nuance. And dispense with ridiculous fonts on your promotional media and material that look as if they are lifted from a B-rated horror movie poster or infer handwriting from Freddy Kruger.

- Finally, it may be a good idea to possess a grasp or at least an interest of how elements of the paranormal are connected within the context of larger cosmic and spiritual truths of existence. If you are in it simply for the thrill and kicks of an apparition, EVP, etc., you have missed the point and probably robbed yourself of much more expansive personal enlightenment.

…hope you get a laugh or two

Gerry Warner