What you see on TV…
By Dave Juliano (davejuliano@theshadowlands.net)
There seems to be a sudden panic in the paranormal community and among
the public who watch paranormal TV shows. While most of
these shows are fine and have no ill effect on the perception of what
ghost researchers actually do, others do damage to that reputation and
are now putting people at risk. There are no experts in
this field and I do not believe I know everything by any means.
These are my views based on my 20 years of experience in researching
hauntings and 37 years experience of living in haunted locations. First
I’d like to make two statements that should be obvious to everyone but
it seems as if they are not.
1. The shows that feature reenactments of events are embellishing
a bit by adding the special effects, background music, etc that build
up to an edge of the seat view experience. This is
Hollywood stuff folks, if they did shows based on a typical haunting
with no embellishments then no one would watch because it would be very
boring.
2. Cases with difficult hauntings do not take 60 minutes to
fix. Everything you see has been condensed down to fit in a
30 or 60 minute show so there are lots of things that are left out.
There are many good shows out there that are entertaining the public
and not scaring them. Ghost Hunters is one of the
good ones. I know that some researchers do not like the way
that they do things and the protocols they follow. I have
my own set of protocols that I follow that many of you would disagree
with. We all follow the basics but we also have our
own theories on what is best and since this is not an exact science
this is how it should remain. What the TAPS show has done
is to make a huge amount of the public aware that there are normal
people that go out and investigate hauntings and help people. I
get about 3 or more cases a month from people being referred from the
show. That is a good thing for
everyone. Even the series on Discovery Channel “A
Haunting” is ok with me although they seem to go the
Hollywood route with the show and just deal with negative cases, it is
all reenactments so those cases are already finished and history.
Now there is a new TV show that has caused a stir like I have never
seen before. Just over the last 2 weeks my group (South Jersey
Ghost Research) has handled 8 cases of people living with normal
hauntings that were so terrified after watching this show that some
were living in motels and one was sleeping in her
car. Since the show aired the Ghosthunter Store has
been selling out of religious based items because people are buying,
for example, 6 holy water bottles, 8 crosses, 20 St Michael prayer
cards, etc all in one order. Many of these are people
living in homes that have some spirit activity and are now
terrified. Some are groups that are suddenly stocking up on these
items. I imagine many of those groups don’t usually deal
with negative hauntings and they are trying to prepare for something
that you can’t really prepare for. A word of warning for
any group deciding to deal with a case that could be a negative one,
once you’ve become involved and opened the door to that side, it will
remain open the rest of your life. We deal with many
negative cases but only a small group of members in my group are
involved because they have had experience dealing with this type of
case. I also consult on almost every one of these
cases with people that have been doing this longer and have more
experience than I do. Quite often they will tag along to
assist us with the case. So please if you don’t have
experience in dealing with negative hauntings, please do not go rushing
into a private house to “help” because you could do more damage than
good.
The show features students who are dealing with hauntings in a manner
that could be making any negative spirits in the places they visit
stronger by focusing all this extra energy on them. A rule
of thumb in dealing with negative hauntings is you do not want to
interact with the spirit, acknowledge it, etc. By filming these
cases and them broadcasting to millions of homes they are amping up the
amount of energy and attention the negative spirits are getting. This
is irresponsible. The procedures being used are not
being explained thoroughly either. A woman called our
emergency phone number today saying she had a demon in her home and she
wanted us out to smudge her house with sage because that’s what she
heard on this TV show. Now my group will do
smudging in certain circumstances so that isn’t the issue.
The fact that the show instilled the belief that sage smudging will get
rid of evil spirits is very misleading. Sage does
create a more positive energy in the location but it does
dissipate. Then the negative spirit can
return. Long term solutions that often will have to
be continued for a lifetime are what successfully work in these
cases. There is no easy quick fix for negative
hauntings. I could go on and on but I believe that I have
made my point. I am appealing to the network and the people
involved to take a moment and think about the fact they could be
putting many people in dangerous situations. I also appeal
to all the viewers to take what you see any where on TV with a grain of
salt and realize that most of these shows are in the entertainment
business. I realize that many people down play this kind of
haunting or don’t believe in demonic entities at all.
They are entitled to their beliefs and I don’t debate the topic with
them. We each have our own paths to follow and mine has
opened that door and I have to deal with that. For
people who would like to read and get more valuable information on the
topic that includes cases studies as well as great advice you can get
these books (Some of these are required reading for members of SJGR):
Shadows
of the Dark by John Zaffis and Brian McIntyre
The
Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career of Ed and Lorraine Warren by Gerald Brittle
And for more advice and assistance:
Relax,
It's Only a Ghost by Echo Bodine
Way
of Psychic Protection by Judy Hall
Armor
of God by Dave Juliano