Is there any hope for the paranormal research field anymore? I mean, every day I grow more and more distant from the entire community. My feeling for many of those claiming to be researchers is one of disgust. There are very few that I can look up to in this field as an adequate mentor or someone in which I can learn from or even respect. The field, it seems, has been overshadowed by ignorance and the ineptitude of so called paranormal researchers, which very few have remotely earned the title. The so-called “top paranormal researchers” have not produced anything of substantial value in either a very long time or ever at all. They are simply classified as ranking within the top simply due to media recognition and nothing more.   

Far too many paranormal groups are focused on media recognition rather than obtaining any sort of substantial data within paranormal research. It has become far too easy to succumb to the glamour and promise of media attention, and even more neglect any sort of critical thinking or common sense in the process of obtaining it. Watching shows like Ghost Hunters, Ghost Cops, Paranormal State, and any other “reality” based television show falls far from actual reality and into the realms of dramatically enhanced paranormal television. When have any of these media hungry organizations produced any kind of results or substantial research since they have aired? How many have provided any legitimate research prior to their airings?

While these television shows might have provided the field with new individuals with a high interest for the unexplained, very few of these individuals have done anything positive for the field, and the majorities have been focused solely on being the next big thing. There is no longer a desire by many to try and understand that which we currently do not, instead there is an insatiable desire by the field to be heard and seen, even when not a single one of them deserves it. Before the argument is made, I do not feel that I deserve it either.

I sincerely hope that one day the paranormal field can be recognized as a legitimate research field, but unfortunately, I do not see that day coming any time soon. Far too many groups, organizations, and researchers claim to know so much, yet none can provide anything substantial. Everyone wants to be the teacher and to claim they have the correct methods, yet nobody has a real answer. After 5 years of being in the paranormal field, I have learned one thing, and that is that I know absolutely nothing. It is that understanding of personal ignorance that drives me to want to know and understand more. How is it that so many people claim to know and understand, yet the more I learn, the more questions that arise that are seemingly unanswerable?

I fear that the field cannot provide itself with the answers, for it already believes it knows them. Every day a new paranormal group is erected with the mentality that it must help victims of paranormal activity. Helping others deal with something that is currently not understood, how is this even remotely possible? We can provide no real answers other than subjective beliefs and opinions that cannot be proven valid. Just how are these people really helping? The field does not seem to care about these questions, for they are set in their beliefs and their ways. Their warrior mentalities are taking over and they believe they are doing a service to the community, yet none of them can provide a legitimate answer as to how they are providing anything of substance to anyone. We have somehow surpassed the quest for knowledge and understanding and moved along into the realm of defending and attacking forces that we do not even know exist.