Haunting

Not all paranormal societies, organizations, or teams use psychically gifted people during their investigations. In fact, the majority don’t use psychic mediums, shamans, intuitive/sensitives, clairvoyants, etc… (We will just refer to all these gifted individuals as psychics for this articles sake.) There are different reasons why of course.

One of the main reasons are those paranormal groups only want to deal with solid facts, where as they feel like a medium may not be credible or reliable in certain cases. Another reason is the psychic may offer up either bad information or disturbing visions which may do more harm than good.

Yet another reason are some groups feel they can’t find individuals who they feel are legitimately gifted or established enough to work with, so they choose instead to focus solely on the science & history aspects, without putting out the word that they are interested in working with intuitively gifted individuals as well. Therefore all those group types stay away from metaphysical/spiritual approaches all together.

There is nothing wrong with those philosophies, as the reasons seem to justify the approaches those groups choose to use. However, psychics can be utilized without compromising the investigation. How? It depends on the protocols used. Consider this…

We (The Northern Wisconsin Paranormal Society Ltd.) primarily use our psychics during the physical preliminary investigation, & right away. But its more than that. This is what we tell them; The one thing you/we must never do is make things worse for the family. When you do your walk, keep your impressions to yourself instead of sharing them at the moment you pick information up. Document them by writing things down, video recording, or talking into a digital recorder when no one is listening while you do your walk. This will also document the psychics personal validity.

We do not tell the homeowner what they have picked up until we can talk about as a group at the next weekly meeting as well as verify any psychic leads with historical documentation or verbal verification. Otherwise we are possibly offering up bad information. Verification can be done by further interviews, a trip to the library, & the Register of Deeds, on-line searches, etc…

Its important for the integrity of the investigation to be as responsible as possible. We find being balanced is important for that. This is the best way to keep the investigation overall as balanced as possible, because we look at the case from several different angles & perspectives, & only one of which is metaphysical. Our psychic investigators understand this. They use their abilities like a tool to find leads which could offer new information. Any psychic present who is looking for personal attention instead of being a team player is most likely there for the wrong reasons, & will consequently upset the balance of the overall investigation. The families well being must always come first over anything else.

Back to the preliminary, as a good psychic will prefer as little information as possible, they do their walk right off the bat as the rest of the investigators sit down with the client(s) & start to gather information during the interview process. Usually it doesn’t take all long for the psychics to do their walk, at which time they return to the main group. We don’t look at “hot spots” until after the psychics have done their walk. During the preliminary we take readings, do base line e.m.f. sweeps, & make observations in case debunking is in order along with everything else mentioned.

As for the night investigation & any follow ups, anyone in our group who has abilities may get additional information at various times during the investigations while they are in investigator mode. But as long as they are responsible with the information as they are during the preliminary process, it doesn’t pose a problem or upset the balance & turn it into a speculation fest in front of the client(s), if they are present. There is enough time for that at the group meetings when different possibilities are discussed. If disturbing information garnered from psychics is verified, the group can decide how they should best approach the client with that information.

Imagine going to the doctor & instead of him/her telling you what you may have based on the test results, he/she instead told you every single disease & sickness in the book which produces those same symptoms? That would be irresponsible because he would only be increasing the fear factor for the patient & add stress, which would not good for the mental health or the blood pressure.

In closing, using psychically gifted people as investigators depends on which rules of engagement are established between the psychic/sensitive & the home owner. As long as they understand that openly suggesting or speculating things with out some kind of verification or proof can make things worse if they aren’t careful. So using this protocol & discussing the information with the group first is a good way to avoid that pitfall completely without dancing around it.