What people say does not always match what people do.

I spent the last year putting together my own research organization after leaving the group PRS. One of the reasons I left was to pursue more research based studies and to avoid people wanting their homes to be haunted and investigated by teams run purely on ego. Interestingly enough, of the thousands of people I have talked to at events and conferences, they also wanted something more substantial and research based and less focused on media. They were excited when I mentioned that I was building my own organization dedicated to scientific paranormal research, and many wanted to be a part of it in some way shape or form. I have come to expect that what people say and what people do are entirely different scenarios.

I knew that a number of people would back out when presented with the actual opportunity to partake in the efforts I have put together. I did all of the ground and framework for the organization and I am ok with that. It is my organization and I take pride in my work ethic and what I have accomplished. I offered for others to take part in building the organization as well as the case studies, but once again, people did not fail to disappoint. You see, people would rather take credit for something as long as they did not have to do the work. The paranormal field and society in general are lazy. I have heard many responses saying that what I do is simply "too much work". These are the same people that blog and argue about changing the paranormal field for the better. These are the same people that want a change in the field, yet when presented with the opportunity simply find it to be too much work.

Change does not come about by doing the same thing over and over. To me this seems like common sense, yet this concept is continually ignored time and time again. People want the change to happen as long as they don't have to make it happen. I cannot even put into words the frustration that this amounts to inside me.

Last month I held a membership recruitment meeting for individuals looking to join a paranormal research group. I made no effort to disguise what PSIRO is about nor the goals and plans that I have for it. In fact, I encouraged people to read up on the site and learn why PSIRO is different than most groups. Over 25 people responded saying that they were excited about the organization and that they wanted to join a more scientific based group. Only a small percentage actually showed up to the meeting. Zero became members. Why? Because what I want to do is just "too much work". This came about after assigning a research paper to be completed by potential members. It was not a hard research paper, but it was a research paper nonetheless. Being a research based organization, it is not a far fetched idea that research and research papers tend to go hand in hand. Once again, what people say did not amount to what people do.

I have found it very difficult to find people that are both serious and dedicated about researching the paranormal claims that are made by millions of people. Perhaps media is to blame. Perhaps there is a sense of disillusion about what paranormal research should be about. I don't know. What I do know is that very few people are actually serious about research or even capable of understanding the difference between actual research and running around chasing the perception of ghosts.

Thus I have reached my conundrum. Do I continue working on research and case studies until I can finally build a team of reputable people with actual intelligence and a passion for the paranormal, or do I attempt to bring in people through the guise of what is portrayed via the media and mold the members to become better researchers and investigators through training classes? I see pros and cons in both, yet the decision to change the very premise of what the organization seeks by disguising the reality with fantasy and media hype is very difficult for me to do, however, most people seem to be disillusioned and most likely need to be educated on the reality of what takes place. Perhaps there is a third and much better alternative...or not.

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