Skeptical Analysis of the Paranormal Society

"Le doute n'est pas une condition agréable, mais la certitude est absurde."

—Voltaire

TAPS Revealed Forum

These opinions are from TAPS Revealed Forum ( http://p097.ezboard.com/btapsrevealed )and were used with permission.

I grew up in a two hundred year old, sixteen room, haunted farm house that was also part of the underground railroad. The house had burned down twice and was subsequently rebuilt both times....We moved into the house when I was nine years old. The various experiences that my family and I had in that house sparked my interest in the paranormal.

I read every book that I could possibly get my hands on. I was completely enthralled and hopelessly hooked on the paranormal. I loved to read/hear about other people's encounters and gobbled up every piece of information that I could get on ghost's, vampires, werewolves, witches, ufo's, bigfoot, etc. Horror movies were among my most favorite things to watch. I just couldn't get enough of watching them.

My fascination and interest in the paranormal stayed with me all through junior high, high school, college, and into adulthood. I made sure to keep reading everything that I could possibly get my hands on. I also joined several ghost hunting message boards in the hopes of gaining even more knowledge and also as a way to networking within the paranormal community. I even joined a paranormal group, in the hopes of quenching my thrist for knowledge and answers. Going on investigations was really a lot of fun, and I did learn some things here and there.

I thoroughly enjoyed trying to find logical answers to explain away strange events that were occuring within the various homes that we investigated. I loved debunking things! And about 90% of the time, I had absolutely no problem finding a rational, logical, feasible explaination for all of the activity that was reported to be occuring within people's homes.

Ghost hunting had its ups and downs (just like anything in life). I spent a lot of money (on equipment), a lot of time (and I mean a lot!), and I put forth a lot of effort to be a productive contributing member of the paranormal group that I belonged to. But there was way too much pettiness and drama going on within the group and in the end, going out on actual investigations became something that we did less and less of. It didn't help that we had very poor leadership and we all experienced very poor communication amongst members while in this group as well. It basically became a really big joke to belong to the group, and after awhile, it could barely be called a group at all.

Belonging to ghost hunting message boards also became a big joke as well, with the majority of people wanting only to flame and attack one another more than they wanted to discuss the paranormal. There seemed to be a lot of mentally unstable people on the message boards, claiming to have experienced extremely bizarre/whacked out stuff, that you just knew was complete b.s. So, I became extremely disenchanted with the paranormal, with ghost hunting, with ghost hunting message boards, and alleged ghost hunting televison shows like Most Haunted and TAPS.

I became disgusted with the way that people seemed to be more motivated by the almighty dollar than actually investigating the paranormal, or really helping people like they claimed to be doing. The paranormal has become quite a circus as of late, and a great way to make a HUGE profit. Everybody wants their piece of the paranormal pie (so to speak) and they are willing to do whatever they have to do in order to sell themselves. People are making a total mockery of the paranormal and have clearly lost sight of not only themselves, but also of the main goal to help people.

Anymore, all that I see are greedy, money driven, ratings motivated individuals that want to promote themselves as "stars" of a television show, as opposed to being honest, dedicated, sincere paranormal investigators that want only to help those that truly need it. I have pretty much lost interest in being involved in ghost hunting groups, and have seriously limited how much I visit/post on ghost hunting message boards as well.

I sincerely hate what has become of the paranormal community and I am very disappointed with the things that I have seen occuring within groups like TAPS, who I feel are essentially damaging the paranormal, not promoting or furthering it. They might have started out with their hearts in the right place and their intentions in the beginning were probably quite pure, but they have taken a detour from their original mission and only seem interested in making money for themselves through seemingly questionable means. Anymore, all I see are greedy, money driven, ratings motivated individuals that want to promote themselves as "stars" of a television show, as opposed to being honest, dedicated, sincere paranormal investigators that want only to help those that truly need it. I have pretty much lost interest in being involved in ghost hunting groups, and have seriously limited how much I visit/post on ghost hunting message boards as well.

Honestly, I have yet to see 100% proof either way when it comes to proving or disproving the paranormal, but I value my ability to use my critical thinking skills in any situation. It's important to look at things from ALL sides, and try to be as open as humanly possible. It is also important to use your logic and reasoning skills to question the things you see/hear. No-one should accept things on blind faith alone. It is normal and healthy to ask questions and look for reasonable and logical explaination to things. At this point, I think of myself as a skeptical believer.

-- CelticWarrior111

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