by Patrick H.T. Doyle
Haunted Hoax
© Haunted Hoax, October 31, 2009 – Reprinted with permission

This has been a week of reflection – reflection about this field we’re in. I named my radio show Outlier because I’m stepping outside our universe and looking back in. I’m standing on the edge of the paranormal crater and surveying all that is happening and not happening. And for an hour every two weeks I’m sharing my observations with you. I believe that everyone should take on the role of an Outlier from time-to-time and ask yourself – Why? Why am I doing this? And why are others doing what their doing?

The main problem I’m seeing out there from my vantage on the edge is that this paranormal thing we have going on now is open to anyone and everyone. This isn’t a “field,” it’s a hobby. A recreation. It’s something cool to post to your friends online. It’s an amusement park open to the public and all the rides are free. There’s no order, no guidelines, no standards, and NO experts. It is the definition of chaos and it has been swelling for years now. Teams from one town are attacking other teams. Believers of one theory are bad mouthing to no end the names of another with a different opinion. There are no conversations. Just battles being waged behind the walls of computer screens and user names. Amateurs are learning their ways from television and the pursuit of fame and fortune has replaced the need and desire to find answers and uncover the unexplained mysteries of this world we live in.

Right now, with where we are in paranormal research, everything can be dated BGH and AGH: Before Ghost Hunters and After Ghost Hunters. BGH is when I used to study the paranormal during my free time because of my own personal curiosities. AGH is Haunted Hoax – where I have to help hold together something that I love. I am glue, duct tape, reenforced concrete because more and more people are jumping this run away train. And once it becomes overloaded with passengers it’s going to go flying off the tracks.

To be chonest, there are days in every week when I feel like dropping out of the scene. Then I can just sit back and wait for the titlewave of popularity to retreat back into the ocean. It would make my life so much easier and I’m sure there are more than a few people that would welcome my absence, but I’m too vested in this now. I’ve created something I believe needs to be out there for people to see.

I was watching the movie Hellboy the other night and in it the characters work for the governments, “Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense.” Now that’s something I would be all in for. An organized, national group who are bound by rules, properly trained, and working as a tight knit group dedicated to a job. But oh to dream. We are what we have created in more ways than one and a big part of me hopes the ceiling drops out of this thing sooner than later. That the entertainment value of ghosts and hauntings will die and the stars will fall from peoples eyes.

Lets return to what we were – researchers, not reality show stars and special guests. No more heroes and gods. Lets lose the glamour so that the want-to-be’s will be disillusioned and lose interest. Go. Run. Return to your normal lives. There’s nothing to see here. Move along and let only those of us who truly, deeply and passionately love the paranormal remain to do what we first set out to do. Maybe then we will find the answers to the questions we are all looking for.

We can call this event the paranormal rapture and it will be glorious.

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