Rising in the morning, you step off your bed to the shocking feeling of cold water on the floor.  You immediately go into “panic mode”.  Charging through your water-logged home you realize that a steady stream of water is spraying from the supply line on your toilet.  Clearly by the amount of water on the floor, you conclude it must have been leaking just minutes after you’d gone to bed.  You rush to the basement, wading through inches of water to get to the main supply where you shut off the water to the house.  Frantically calling your local plumber, you’re amazed at his quick response.  He’s at your door within ten minutes of your phonecall.  He tinkers in the bathroom for an hour or so, after stepping out and proclaiming “Alright!  It was just the fitting.”  He promptly lays a bill in front of you to the tune of $300.  You write the check and he’s on his way.  Pleased with this easy fix, you go down and return the water supply to the home.  To your bewilderment, the fitting at the toilet continues to spray.  Perplexed, you contact the plumber on his cellphone.  He states, “Read the fine print of your bill.  I didn’t fix your problem, I just identified it.  I already told you, the problem is the fitting.  To be honest with you, I’m not quite sure how to fix that fitting.  It’s all right there in the fine print.  Just read it.  There’s no warranty, there’s no guarantee.  We just show up and give you our best idea of what’s wrong.”  After a tirade of four-letter words you throw the phone down and realize that you have, indeed, been “had”. 

For your reading enjoyment, another hypothetical situation: 

Imagine, for just a moment, you step out onto your deck overlooking your property, coffee in-hand, enjoying the morning.  Suddenly you hear a rustling from the edge of your yard, glancing over you see something unimagineable.  Plain as day, digging through your garbage is what appears to be a seven foot beast of great musculature, covered in matted hair.  It has a human-like quality about it, but is clearly something other than a homeless vagabond with an addiction to Rogaine.  Your pulse quickens while your rush into the house to grab both your camera and your shotgun.  As you return to the porch, you realize the beastly anomally is no where to be found.  You check the soil around the garbage cans to find gigantic humanoid-like footprints pressed deeply into the ground.  You scratch your head and wonder, “what should I do?”.

Given the advent of the internet, you quickly browse google for “Bigfoot Hunters”, “Yeti-Investigators”, “Cryptozoology Specialists”.  Site after site pops up on the search engine.  After hours of digging through different sites, you finally muster up the courage to click the “contact us” button on your selected site.  Minutes later, you receive a phonecall from what appears to be a well-spoken individual more than willing to listen to your outrageous claim.  You explain your experience and if there is anything they can do.  They quickly respond, “Yes, we are specialists in the field of hunting Big-Foot.  We have three hundred investigations under our belt and a host of the latest equipment for hunting down and finding this elusive beast.  For the low, low price of $450.00, we will investigate your claim and see if we can’t get down to what is really going on.”  You ask how long such an investigation might take.  “Eight to ten hours, depending on what we find.”  Running the hourly rate through your head, you respond, “Thanks, I’m going to search around a bit though.”

Sound rediculous?  It happens.  Every day.

Not neccessarily in the realm of bigfoot-hunters, but in the realm of the paranormal as a whole.  People are charging painfully high prices for their “services rendered”.  My question is this:  In order for one to receive monetary gain for their services, shouldn’t their services be ”proven” and carry a warranty of some kind?  

My convictions alone charged me with wrestling the subject of charging for any services rendered in the field of the paranormal.  In all honesty I find such practices morally reprehensible.  I understand that there are claimed ”psychics”, “sensitives”, ”mediums” and the like…and I don’t discount them.  However, truth be told, their abilities at best, are anecdotal.  I understand that there are law enforcement agencies who have had good luck with these people.  However, if one does their homework, there have been numerous studies which have stated that psychics, statistically, provide no more “good” information than non-psychics.  Visit www.theparapsychologist.com  for some very interesting information relating to this. 

Am I stating that sensitives, psychics and mediums are hoaxers?  Not at all.  How could I?  I certainly don’t have these “abilities” and there is no question that I have very little understanding of this phenomenon.  What I do have a concrete understanding of, however, is the notion of predatory behavior and practices.  Take for example, Sylvia Browne, a self-proclaimed and famous psychic.  Want to know your future?  Want to know if Dad suffered in his final moments?  No problem.  That’ll be $750 per TWENTY MINUTES.  That’s not a typo.

Let’s consider for a moment, that psychics were a proven science, that their abilities had been scientifically authenticated.  For comparison’s sake, let’s examine the cost of the average MRI administered by many hospitals.  Ranging from twenty minutes to an hour, you can expect to pay (insurance not considered) $500 to $2000 for an MRI scan to find that silly little disc in your back that has been wreaking havoc on your body for the last month.  At its highest, you’re looking at an hourly rate of $2,000 an hour for a diagnosis which will lead to your ultimate recovery.  Sylvia Browne makes $2,250 an hour to answer the questions of the unknown.  Even if we were to have psychics’ abilities proven, this is an incredible paycheck for services rendered!

That being said, it makes it all that much more laughable (and dispicable) that people are being charged such exorbitant prices for a service which at it’s best is unreliable. 

I mean no disrepect or belittlement of the psychic community as a whole with this rant of mine.  After all, I investigate the paranormal myself.  It is an intruiging issue which has been left by the wayside by the scientific community as a whole.  However, I will say with due-dilligence and personal conviction that charging the vulnerable, emotionally-unstable for an unproven and anecdotal “reading” is, in my opinion, both unethical and morally unjust. 

I seem to have placed psychics, mediums and sensitives in the crosshairs here…make no mistake, I feel that this ideaology applies to paranormal investigators (ghost-hunters) as well. 

If you’re looking for answers to that which hides behind the thick veil of uncertainty, look to someone who will help you out of the goodness of their heart…not the size of their bank account.  Remember, there really is a fine line between conning and legitimacy.

‘Til next time…

If you feel that you are experiencing paranormal activity and would like help, please contact BHAPS at:  Help@BHAPS.com or feel free to call us toll-free at: 1-866-510-6130, or visit our website at:  www.BHAPS.com.

My offer of fair-warning to readers…this is a controversial subject which is bound to initiate emotionally-charged responses.  Please take the following as an “investigative task”…in other words, consider this blog an exercise in opinion and interpretation…

 

Paranormal investigations are full of enough controversy and arguments to fill the pages of book after book…add the element of religion and that number exponentially increases.  Let’s be frank here:  Does the Bible’s teachings and the idealogy that earthbound spirits exist contradict one another?  Is ghost hunting a sin?

Well, first off, I’m aware of the fact that “sin” really doesn’t exist unless one is a believer in the Bible or some other form of “moral code”.  I personally am a believer in the Bible.  Do my paranormal-investigative practices go against that which the Bible teaches?  I’m not so sure.  Others have very strong opinions on this subject.  Take, for example, the website www.bible-truth.org.  They state that “ghost hunting”, without a doubt, is a sinful activity.  Here, for example, is a snippet of the information on their website: 

Is Ghost hunting a sin?    Yes,  very much so. Most “ghosts” abreactions are the result of demonic activity.  Of course some of the stuff on TV and what people are doing is simply fake, but in some cases they are real. Ghosts are not the spirits of dead people, but rather the work of demons who mimic deceased people. Demons do inhabit the air in the spirit world and they witness what people do.  This allows them to possess and speak through “medians.”   However, when a man dies his soul goes to heaven to be with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:1f) or if the person has rejected the Lord Jesus as their Savior they go to Hades, which is the temporary abode of the unsaved.(Luke 16:22-23)   The lost or unsaved will at the end of the world be resurrected unto judgment and cast into the eternal Lake of Fire. The demons will also be cast in the Lake of Fire. (Luke 25:41)  

If this is the case and paranormal investigators are simply meddling with demons, I certainly can see where that would be construed as “sinful” in every sense of the biblical word.  Adding to this is a verse in the Bible which states that indeed, not all spirits are benevolent in nature. 2Cor 11:14-15:  For Satan Himself masquerades as an angel of light.  It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness.”  However, if they’re all demonic as stated on bibletruth.org, consider this verse in the Bible: 

1 John 4:1 “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

If you ask me, I’d say this is indicative that there are earthbound spirits which do not fall into the malevolent category.  And what is meant by “trying” the spirits?  Let’s examine this a little further:

Here’s another website which outlines some of the words of the Bible which don’t seem so clear regarding life after death (taken from http://www.jba.gr/Articles/nkjv_jbafebmar98a.htm):

II Corinthians 5:6-8
“Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”

For many people what the phrase “to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord”, means is that when one dies (they are) immediately with the Lord. However, a careful reading shows that this is not what the passage says. Really, what it says is that “WE ARE WILLING to be absent from the body, AND PRESENT WITH THE LORD”. The phrase “we are willing” shows that the passage states a will, a wish, which is not a wish to die but a wish “to be absent from the body and present with Lord”. Though a full and clear picture of what this phrase means will be possible only after the examination of its context, we can from the outset preclude that it could ever mean that when one dies he is immediately with the Lord for in a case like this, there would be a stark contradiction with I Thessalonians 4:15-17 that says:

I Thessalonians 4:15-17
“For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those which are asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God: and the dead in Christ will rise first: Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: AND THUS [i.e. by this way, the resurrection of the dead Christians and the changing of the body of the alive ones] we SHALL always be with the Lord.”

 If in II Corinthians 5:6-8 God said that when one dies he is immediately with the Lord, then how could in I Thessalonians 4:17 the same God say that “AND THUS (i.e. by the resurrection, and the changing of the bodies) we SHALL always be with the Lord?” Obviously either the Word is wrong, which is impossible, or the interpretation that is usually given to II Corinthians 5:6-8 is wrong. As we will see by studying the context the later is the case. Thus starting from II Corinthians 4:13 - about fifteen verses earlier - we read:

II Corinthians 4:13-14
“We having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, I believed, and therefore I spoke; we also believe, and therefore speak; Knowing that he who raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.”

Okay, so what does this all mean?  If one were to follow the Bible wholeheartedly and take each word as the truth, it would mean that there is some “down-time” between being dead and being in the presence of God, right?  That’s what I’m gathering at least. What do these souls do with their “down-time”?  I think it’s safe to say there’s probably only two options here:  They either:  a) do nothing (lie dormant), or b) roam the earth in spirit form.  

Naturally, none of these ideas hold any water with those who don’t adhere to that which the Bible says.  I have no problem with that.  The problem I do have, however, is those telling me that partaking in paranormal research equates to necromancy and the “work of the devil”.  The Bible does state:  “There shall not be found among you any…consulter with familiar spirits…or a necromancer” (Deuteronomy 18:11)  Is this verse a show-stopper for the Bible-believing ghost hunter?  Let us look at the definiton of “Necromancer” (Wikepedia.org):  Necromancy [nek-ruh-man-see](Greek νεκρομαντία, nekromantía) is a form of divination in which the practitioner seeks to summon “operative spirits” or “spirits of divination”, for multiple reasons, from spiritual protection to wisdom. 

I personally believe it is the motive of the paranormal investigator which determines whether or not their actions are sinful by biblical standards.  Like so many things regarding the subject of religious belief, there is much left to personal interpretation.

I would encourage those that state that peoples’ investigative curiosities in these matters are sinful deviants conjuring demons and hellfire take a step back and a hard look at what the Bible really says about the afterlife…or at best, realize that much of it is open to interpretation.  I encourage the readers to share their ideas and theories regarding this subject…Lord knows I haven’t got all the answers! 

It’s really all a mystery, isn’t it?*

 

*I apologize for the font discrepancies in this article, there were some technical difficulties while writing this.

‘Til next time…

If you feel that you are experiencing paranormal activity and would like help, please contact BHAPS at:  Help@BHAPS.com or feel free to call us toll-free at: 1-866-510-6130, or visit our website at:  www.BHAPS.com.

…or something. 

Hey, it makes for a good title.

Recently on our latest investigation, I experienced for the first time, the sensation of being touched by an unseen force.  Through the course of the investigation, we were amazed at the apparent interaction with the spirit at the location.  We were treated to an array of answered requests and visual anomalies, none of which we’d seen the like of previously. 

While packing up our equipment and getting ready to leave the building at the close of our investigation, I was clearly touched, from behind, on my back.  It felt as though a “C” was “drawn” on my back by a disembodied finger in a firm, but gentle manner.  None of the other investigators were close enough to me to have pulled a trick (nor would I expect this kind of behavior from them).  There was nothing to snag on or rub against to have elicited such a sensation.  The most likely cause I could find was the camera strap around my neck, which could not have possibly reached so low on my back and caused the feeling; nor could it have applied such pressure as was felt.  It truly was an experience my vocabulary can’t explain.

One of the resulting responses to this newfound experience was a case of the goosebumps which failed to retreat for half an hour.  I can’t remember having goosebumps for more than a few seconds in the past!  There was very little genuine fear…just a sense of bewilderment and wonder.  I felt as though I had just experienced exactly what it is that we have so diligently been persuing…in an uncomfortably personal manner. 

I have always been a skeptic…a skeptic who believes…but believes very selectively.  There have been times I have doubted all of it altogether.  I’ve considered the idea that we’ve created these situations in our minds, or have outwardly affected our environment through the power of our minds.  I’ve gone so far as to say that the many EVP’s we’ve captured were simply radio waves, psychological imprinting or someone’s cellphone.  I have dedicated my organization in the name of “debunking”.  Debunking, but believing…even if that belief is drowning in a sea of questions and uncertainties.  Long story short, I don’t immediately subscribe to any claims of paranormal activity.  I take it all in with a thick, healthy dose of skepticism.

That being said, there’s nothing like being touched by something unseen that’ll strip away any doubts one may have.  Like I told one of my cohorts, “I’ve been living in this body for thirty years.  I know when I’ve been touched.  I got touched.”  I’ll stand by that statement.  Unfortunately, as seems to be the norm with most things paranormal, my claim is just a story.  My story holds water no better than Hansel And Gretel.  I know this…which makes stories a difficult thing to share.  It opens the storyteller up to much criticism and supposition.  I know this and wouldn’t expect anything different.  What makes this particular “story” special is that it’s mine.  That’s all that matters to me. 

It truly was a personally profound experience; an experience which has validated much to me in my pursuit of the paranormal.  Whoever or whatever touched me that night, I can only say “Thanks”. 

‘Til next time…

If you feel that you are experiencing paranormal activity and would like help, please contact BHAPS at:  Help@BHAPS.com or feel free to call us toll-free at: 1-866-510-6130, or visit our website at:  www.BHAPS.com.