I recently spent a weekend at a lovely haunted B&B. It is generally known this inn is haunted, but the owner prefers the fact isn’t advertised. In the past, she’s had issues with thrill seekers coming uninvited to her property and running amok, disrespecting the gentle spirits who live there (she calls them permanents), as well as her living guests. One particularly busy weekend, she reports, a paranormal team came into the hotel without permission and scattered like roaches. They knocked on guests’ doors and entered areas restricted to guests and the public. The innkeeper was forced to chase them all down and remove them from her property.

In another case, someone shared a Facebook status of a paranormal team bragging about how many times they’d been arrested or removed from private property with police intervention.

These are a few of the many stories I hear about paranormal thrill seekers thinking only of what they want and very little about the locations, spirits, and living people they violate with their antics. I can’t believe I even have to say this, but apparently I do. Things like this are not okay. Ever.

If you’re part of a team who respectfully requests permission to investigate haunted locations, stays away from places that don’t grant permission, and ensures members are on their best behavior whenever you investigate a property, you might be surprised to hear all the stories people have told me about just how disrespectful some paranormal thrill seekers can be. Heck – I even have my own story, in which I allowed a paranormal group to come investigate my house. While some of the members of the team were, indeed, very serious and careful investigators, others apparently had joined the team as a way of satisfying their craving for a paranormal thrill. When they left, many went to a nearby restaurant and talked about my house to the staff there. I live in a very small town where it doesn’t take long for word to get around, so the story came back to me quickly. Not only that, but when the team left, a Buddha statue I kept in my yard went missing. I never saw it again.

I understand the curiosity that drives many paranormal thrill seekers. I can even relate to the eagerness behind that curiosity. It can be exciting to interact with spirits, and haunted locations can be spooky fun. Here’s the problem I see with paranormal investigation as a form of thill seeking, however. This type of behavior may not just be annoying to the living (and sometimes flat-out illegal). It can also be harmful to the dead.

I am empathic. I feel the emotions of human souls (both living and dead) viscerally as if they are my own. I recently encountered the spirit of a very wounded woman who had been through some horrible things in her life at the hands of her fellow humans. Although she is long dead, her wounds remain fresh, raw, and emotionally painful. In her presence, all I wanted to do was hold myself, rock, and cry. Not just cry – but wail. As I described it to someone else, the only word that comes close to what the spirit was doing was keening (definition: intense, mournful wailing after a death – often at a funeral or wake). The extent of her grief and pain was overwhelming.

Now, imagine this poor, fragile soul in need of kindness, caring, and compassion (which she is getting from the current property owner, by the way) experiences a group of living thrill seekers, racing through uninvited. They aren’t thinking of her. It is likely they aren’t even aware of her presence, fragility, and angst. As they evade being captured for their trespass, the thrill seekers try to elicit quick reactions from spirits, probably knowing their time at the location is limited. They make threats, swear, and behave belligerently in order to provoke a quick response from any spirits who might be present.

To read the conclusion to Karen’s article, please visit: http://www.sspri.org/blog/unin.....ted-guests.

SPARC said

4) And playing off that last point a little is the seriousness of the investigators and participants themselves who wish to align themselves with this project. A completely free database open to anybody who desired access and who had no vested interest in its data integrity and intrinsic value to the community, could EASILY become polluted with care-free and erroneous data therefore destroying the entire viability of its intended purpose and diluting what could have conceivably been a very potent repository of usable data. We felt that there was too much at stake to allow the data to be subject to casual look-e-loos and vandals as well as unintentional non-ownership type practices. When someone pays into a project with time and money, they want to see it succeed.

But please, feel free to comment as we appreciate ALL feedback on this topic as well any other suggestions and critiques.
Cameron Ellis
SPARC Team

My question is even with this reasoning, how can you assure the validity of the data being presented to the database? As you mentioned in an earlier post, the field is awash with amny investigators who have no inkling how to gather proper, unbiased data for scientific study. It seems to me that in order for this to be a valid scientific database, all those participating would need to submit data gathered using a similar methodology for collection and understand what they are doing.

It is a catch-22; however, you have to begin somewhere.

The SPARC team has had some healthy debate on this very topic and tried to look at it from as many angles as we could. We looked at the pros and cons of public opinion, investigator utilization, the scientific communities’ perspective, moral obligations and also from a realistic lens as well. The reasons we eventually decided on setting a nominal fee (and we do mean nominal, like "babysitter salary" nominal) at some point in the undetermined future were these:

1) We viewed the database as a tool for the investigator, a constantly evolving, growing and "sharpening" tool utilized by those requiring reliable research data, field work support or test theory scrutiny and data to test those theories. This is not a service that a client or victim would rely on for relief or help... that would go against our mission statement and personal values. However, there was positive discussion of the database being a proxy referral service as we ARE building a network of linked investigation teams at the same time and THAT of course would be free to any client in need as long as we have participants in their area. But for the investigator this would be like any other tool that has been developed and maintained like our equipment, software, paranormal periodicals and books for example. While I believe some of the equip we use are questionable as to their viability in the field, most of them took hundreds of man hours for development, testing, promotion and production. It’s our choice whether to believe they work and spend the money for them... the end result being whether we feel they will ultimately help the client. And that’s all that matters. Software is the same, large $ for R&D and they have been INDISPENSABLE.

2) Sure there is the small cost of administration and maintenance to an ever-growing database (I know, it’s what I've done as a career for non-profit organizations for many years now... hence where the idea came from), as well as the funds needed to promote and keep this tool available for the masses. However, we did not want to charge such an exorbitant fee as to place it out of reach for just about ANYONE who has internet access. We want to be altruistic, fair AND reasonable with a philanthropic umbrella over EVERY aspect of our projects and unfortunately any good 501(c)(3) has to have a productive fiscal model to do that and stay alive. Sure, non-profits can get greedy and veer off path... and it doesn’t take long before those fiscally based initiatives becomes their downfall through lack of community support. SPARC wants to be able to improve upon the database as we go, give it more functionality and possibly offer other types of resources as well that may be equally important or useful to the investigator.

3) While our main goal is to help those in need by finding answers to a GIGANTIC field that is largely unknown and under-researched, those efforts cannot move forward without funding. It’s how our world turns and unfortunately is how serious attention is garnered for a shared problem. Now that might seem like we're lazily jumping on a band-wagon as a good excuse to stuff our coffers but the truth is that even cancer research requires MILLIONS (perhaps billions) of dollars annually to maintain the work and attention required to find better treatments or possibly even a cure. Just good faith and volunteer work would NEVER see that come to fruition. Substantial investment brings more serious and deliberate attention to a prolonged problem, and with more serious, deliberate attention comes more TALENT from an ever growing community who wants to offer their expertise and knowledge. I might even venture to say that a completely volunteer paranormal community MAY BE one of the largest inhibiting factors to parapsychology being relegated to largely enthusiasts and hobby "ghost" hunters and left virtually untouched by the professional scientific establishment.

4) And playing off that last point a little is the seriousness of the investigators and participants themselves who wish to align themselves with this project. A completely free database open to anybody who desired access and who had no vested interest in its data integrity and intrinsic value to the community, could EASILY become polluted with care-free and erroneous data therefore destroying the entire viability of its intended purpose and diluting what could have conceivably been a very potent repository of usable data. We felt that there was too much at stake to allow the data to be subject to casual look-e-loos and vandals as well as unintentional non-ownership type practices. When someone pays into a project with time and money, they want to see it succeed. Philanthropy alone doesn’t drive innovation unfortunately. I worked for Goodwill for years and there was always a certain section of the population that criticized them by saying, "Hey... you claim to want to help people (which is what Goodwill does..we helped those with disabilities)... why don’t you GIVE AWAY all those donations in your stores to people who need them instead of charging for them!?"I think most people see the ridiculous logic in that... no money, no stores, no payroll, no employees and no 91% of revenue used to help people with disabilities. They've been around for over a century doing what they do for a reason.

There were other lesser factors as well with many of the concerns focused around the perception of what we we are trying to do and the possibility of being misunderstood. There will always be nay-sayers and critics in ANY move you make but we felt in order to be a responsible steward of a potentially profound tool for the community, we needed to provide some safeguards and approach this as you would any other successful non-profit business model including the fiduciary responsibilities that come along with it. Trust me, for the few dollars a month we are talking about here, we aren’t running off to the Bahamas any time soon.

But please, feel free to comment as we appreciate ALL feedback on this topic as well any other suggestions and critiques.
Cameron Ellis
SPARC Team

We actually had planned to do a database a few years ago, but it didn't get off the ground.

Can't wait to check it out!

Definitely post them here!

I'll take a look and also post a link to the contest on our Facebook page.

We plan on posting the top three winners on our home page and will post them here as well if its ok with Paranormal Underground, but we invite anyone to REALLY scrutinize and debunk them if they'd like using their favorite tech or apps! Go for it! We love a challenge.

And if you want to submit, please do as its easy and free. Plus we're giving away prizes. Dont not come back to Para Underground though as this is a FANTASTIC site with an incredibly helpful and fabulous community... http://www.sparc-oregon.com is only a side trip if you'd like.

We'll be closing it up at the end of february to annouce the most voted pic. We hope to include your opinion... its just one click!

Thanks Para Underground for the chance for all us enthusiasts to have one more good place to congregate and swap contributions!

http://www.sparc-oregon.com
Research, Collaborate, Unite...
-The SPARC Team

SPARC Collaborative Evidence Database

Who wouldn’t agree that the linking of thousands of law enforcement agency databases over the past decade has not sky-rocketed crime investigation efforts into the stratosphere? It’s amazing that up until recently we were able to solve as many crimes as we did without the sharing of facial recognition, DNA, incident, conviction and trend data between agencies, law enforcement, investigators and analysts. The coordination between the FBI, CIA, state and local law enforcement is still improving but has grown in leaps and bounds just in the past 10 years. The fact that so many crimes may go unsolved for many years (or forever!) due to the isolation of pertinent related data that stayed “protected” within individual agencies is nothing short of a tragedy and waste of law enforcement and judicial resources.

So why do the hundreds of paranormal investigation groups across the United States DO EXACTLY THAT EVERYDAY? To horde experiences and data within our individual groups is a total and complete waste of our time and valuable information. Since paranormal investigation is still informal, populated almost exclusively of enthusiasts, techie-geeks and “sensitives” and therefore truly still in its infancy, a territorial approach to our field has unfortunately segregated geographic resources, talent and most importantly information… UNTIL NOW.

I don’t think the comparative collection, analysis and evaluation of the thousands of recorded or observed paranormal events nationwide can be understated in its value to the paranormal investigative community as a whole. We literally all currently suffer a “can’t see the forest from the trees” problem unnecessarily, a problem that could VERY easily be rectified with the creation of a central online database allowing the cataloging and analysis of all of our shared data. And as the database grows, some very exciting trends may unexpectedly arise from collaboration between us all.

Imagine being able to chart trends in class A EVP recording by moon phase, time of day, or GPS coordinates. How about researching a correlation between UV apparition evidence and weather conditions? Or even the number of investigators and relative positive anomalies of any kind but sampled ACROSS THE NATION… the benefits of trend and positive condition analysis are limited only to the accuracy of the data collection and your imagination. In a field that has been fueled largely by speculation, individual trial and error and hypothetical shots in the dark, it’s astounding we have made any headway at all. The omission of this fundamental approach to what is an observable science has illegitimized our cause for too long.

The Society for Para-Analytics Research and Collaboration (SPARC) was created solely for what its name implies; to be a centrally accessible repository of paranormal data, experiences and observations made up of hundreds of investigation teams across the nation for the purpose of defining trends and conditional factors to better measure and potentially PREDICT and CAPTURE paranormal evidence.
To begin however, we need to populate a foundational database made up of a large cross section of the paranormal investigative community… that’s YOU! We will be launching a beta phase dedicated to data collection in the very near future but only to groups by special invite. The reason we will be doing this by invite is because we want a wide sample of geographical, ideological and unbiased participation. We will choose roughly 25 -30 groups across the nation to participate and will award them for their hard work with a lifetime membership and access to the SPARC database so long as community rules aren’t violated. After the beta phase is over and an official launch date has been announced, any investigative team or entity may pay for a nominal monthly membership allowing them access to add records, run queries/reports and export data through secure login.

Paranormal unity and scientific collaboration will lead the way in this field helping to bring it out of the shadows and into the light ... are you going to be involved ?

BTW we never did get another call back from this place so we never investigated it.

In the first photo, I see water on the floor and an electric floor dryer. Is this a school building? The "ghost" appears to be in human form and has maybe wearing a school graduation gown, cap with tassel. The ghost is small compared to the size of the floor dryer.

Second photo, water on floor and maybe the same ghost on the left side. I see facial features and appears to be wearing a gown. Note the big sleeve of the gown. Size of ghost is comparable to size in #1 picture.

Third photo, water on the floor and the ghost is much smaller than in #1 and #2 photos. I can make out facial features, clothing features like collars and a plaid type of design. The much smaller size could be a child.

I have seen many online pictures of ghosts, most of which I feel were faked. I wish people would stop posting those faked photos and videos. Researching the paranormal is serious stuff and there is a lot of garbage posted on the internet. I especially hate the Youtube videos when jokers post ghost videos only to have something jump out at you to scare you and spill coffee all over the place.

Could these three photos be fake or are the images due to high humidity or reflections? I have no idea without having more information that the person taking the photos could provide. I have seen photos of mists in a forest and some could resemble a human spirit.

More about photos here: http://www.etherealthoughts.co.....age46.html

MysticalKnight said

What does everyone think?

Check out the EVP here: http://bit.ly/daAnmv

I listened to the whisper and I could agree to what others have said. Does a sound graph or sound analyzer exist of this recording? I have listened to it several times. If the person had to take a bathroom break, he could have whispered to himself "I don't want to go" or "I don't know" as if kind of frustrated with the EVP recording session. I know when I starting recording with my micro-cassette recorder, I caught myself whispering to myself. The only whisper that I could not explain was when I left my house to run errands and came back to see that the counter had advanced. I heard the whisper "Now you know" along with a few "bangs" that I dismiss as the voice activated feature. I will be using my micro-cassette recorder in many ways this winter. Yesterday, I sat in my living room and asked the spirits a series of questions and waited about 10 seconds for a response. I used the continuous recording feature but got nada, nothing. I will keep on trying. I have been reading up on EVPs to get a better idea about them and listening to many online EVP recordings, most of which I have dismissed.

Good EVP information can be found here: http://www.etherealthoughts.co.....age30.html

http://www.etherealthoughts.com/

I found this link about a tennis shoe that is very similar to my boot being thrown incident.
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/.....d94240/pg1
"Last night while sleeping, I was awoken by a "crash" in my Living Room..........When I woke up I found that my (1) tennis shoe was 30 feet from where I always keep them, in a different room!"

Some good paranormal reading can be found here: http://www.abovetopsecret.com/.....1/srtpages

MysticalKnight said
Hi Nightwatcher! (I wanted to let you know, that you can quote someone's post by clicking on the "quote" button on the upper righthand side of any post. Just a helpful hint in case you want to make use of that feature.)

You have some great questions. I was treating the old sewing machine as an end table with my alarm clock sitting on it. The machine was not plugged in, just the alarm clock. Chad later took some EFM readings and there was a crazy amount of EMF around the alarm clock. I am not sure. Can high EMF make things vibrate? It was almost like an energy building up and then bursting out and rattling the blinds in a sweeping motion.

The sewing machine was not touching the blinds. It was at least a good foot away, possibly farther, from the blinds.

That sewing machine is now in storage so haven't seen that happen after those times I mentioned above. I did buy the sewing machine at an estate sale next door to where I had lived at the time, after my neighbor had passed away.

I have no idea what caused it. There could be an explanation for it, but it did seem paranormal, at least in the sense that "nothing" visible or even explainable seemed to be causing the activity.

And, wow, the boot on the other side of the room? The only question I have on that one ... did you have pets???

Hello MysticalKnight, I was aware of the quote feature and I have used it in the past here on PUG. I do post comments on other web sites also and I have some old habits of quoting people. I will use the PUG quoting feature and will "cut" some information from the original quote to focus more in on what it is that I am replying to. I know that running a web site costs money and I certainly am no expert about web sites. I didn't want to use up too much "bandwidth" of the PUG web site.

I have had cats off and on throughout my life. I did have a cat at the time of the boot incident. If I had a dog, then I could have dismissed the paranormal idea that my boot was thrown. A dog could have drug my boot across the floor and the loud boom could have been due to the house. Houses make noise throughout the season. Materials expand and shrink during the seasons. Think earthquakes. The Earth's crust is always in motion and makes no noise or tremors. Then all of a sudden, the forces free themselves and one feels and hears the tremors and quakes. Does that make sense? I try to keep my comments brief and the readers can use the internet to find out more information.

I have no explanation for the boot incident. The boot was heavy and my cat at the time would not have the strength to pull it a few inches let alone several feet. I don't have an explanation about the sewing machine at this time.

I am kind of new to the paranormal investigation groups, devices and their methods. EMF to me means "electromagnetic fields" and there are also "electromagnetic forces" that could explain some paranormal events. You young people are so lucky to have the internet at your finger tips. I will do a lot of reading about electromagnetic fields and electromagnetic forces and share what I find out here on PUG.

Are those EMF detectors expensive? Could a cheaper model be bought so that I can investigate my own home? I do know that there are entities in my home who are friendly but with some rare exceptions. I recently bought some new micro-cassettes for my analog voice activated micro-cassette recorder. I will turn it on when I leave the house and will move it to the living room when I go to sleep to see what I can capture. It does have a time lag so it will not capture a sharp noise or single word. I read that the digital voice recorders also have a time lag. As time permits, I will also be taking random photos of everything in my house both day and night with a digital camera. Since film is not used in a digital camera, I will be able to take a couple hundred photos each week to see if the camera captured some questionable things. I will dismiss all orbs as dust in the air. If something shows up, I will share here on PUG. I welcome all suggestions about paranormal investigative devices (cheap) and methods. I do have an infrared thermometer (with laser pointer) that I used during my working years checking the temperatures of steam and condensate pipes and machine bearings. Currently I use it for my home heating experiments , radiant barriers and home cooking. Would this infrared thermometer be useful as a paranormal investigation device? It isn't a camera but shows temps in numbers.

Nightwatcher said

"Something that happened in our bedroom was this … laying in bed, as I was falling asleep, the sewing machine, which is an oldstyle machine that collapses down under the tabletop started shaking violently. I sit up and look at it, and it continued to shake very hard for at least a minute, with the contents on top (alarm clock, pictures, crystal candle holders, etc.) shake as well........OK, so fast-forward to Chad in the bedroom alone. He had the same exact occurrence, except the blinds didn't move. Then some time after that, Chad and I were talking in our bedroom, lying on the bed. Same thing happened again, except for the blinds moving." (posted by MysticalKnight).

Was the sewing machine electric and was the cord plugged into the socket? If electric, could the sewing machine turned itself on and the movement caused the sewing cabinet to shake or vibrate? Was the sewing cabinet touching the blinds or if the sewing machine electric motor's fan (cooling the motor) cause air movement to the blinds? Not saying that your sewing machine shaking violently was not a paranormal event but trying to find a science explanation. Do you still have that sewing machine and has it shook since you posted this?

I came home one night and put my boots next to my closet in my bedroom. Later while sleeping or trying to sleep, I heard a big BOOM like something fell in my bedroom. I got up and turned on the lights to see what fell. One of my boots was missing and I found it against the opposite wall. It appears that something threw that boot across the room and into that wall. That was the cause of the big boom. I could find no science to explain that boot being on the opposite side of the room. It wasn't powered by electricity or compressed air.

Hi Nightwatcher! (I wanted to let you know, that you can quote someone's post by clicking on the "quote" button on the upper righthand side of any post. Just a helpful hint in case you want to make use of that feature.)

You have some great questions. I was treating the old sewing machine as an end table with my alarm clock sitting on it. The machine was not plugged in, just the alarm clock. Chad later took some EFM readings and there was a crazy amount of EMF around the alarm clock. I am not sure. Can high EMF make things vibrate? It was almost like an energy building up and then bursting out and rattling the blinds in a sweeping motion.

The sewing machine was not touching the blinds. It was at least a good foot away, possibly farther, from the blinds.

That sewing machine is now in storage so haven't seen that happen after those times I mentioned above. I did buy the sewing machine at an estate sale next door to where I had lived at the time, after my neighbor had passed away.

I have no idea what caused it. There could be an explanation for it, but it did seem paranormal, at least in the sense that "nothing" visible or even explainable seemed to be causing the activity.

And, wow, the boot on the other side of the room? The only question I have on that one ... did you have pets???