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Batty: "Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it?

 That's what it is to be a slave."

 - Blade Runner

ORGANIZATIONAL HAZARDS

1) Intragroup Conflict - This is number one on my list to watch out for. Yes, I and many others recommend that if you are new to this field, that you hook up with an organization in your area. But beware as not all are created alike, and many "open" groups do not screen their members carefully. See also Fruitcake Factor. SPI now requires background checks on all prospective members along with a probation period. The problems you typically may run into include cliques, gossip, snide remarks, verbal abuse, sexual harassment, etc. Basically, the same stuff you can find in any organization. But it could easily get a lot worse if you allow a sexual predator or molester into your midst.

I guess what gets me is that I have met individuals you were claim to be mediums/psychics and so forth that have all this sensitivity towards the dead and can usher them into the light blah blah blah, but ironically sometimes they can have an astonishing lack of maturity. 

There are cases too when there are no direct conflicts between members, but there's that special someone in the group that drives you nuts because of certain personality quirks. Some of it may be due to your own sensitivities, so learn to recognize where their insanity ends and yours begins. Use it as a springboard for personal growth to figure out why you want to strangle them and hide the body in a deep ditch. 

see also MUTINY! #8 BELOW

2) Intergroup Conflict - Many of the ghost groups out there have friendly people that are willing to talk to you and help you along. But sad to say, other groups have individuals with insecurities and ego problems and they hate to see anyone potentially outdo them. A few join these groups because they are sad and pathetic beings that desperately want attention. 

Remember the movie Twister with the rival storm chasers? I thought it was silly at the time, but my historical expert made a comment that stuck with me. Anytime you are dealing with people in a field that has scant opportunities for fame and money, they tend to get more petty and crude by direct proportion, as there is a perception of scarcity.  

One thing you may see is groups declaring themselves as the "exclusive" or "official" investigating group for a particular site. While in rare cases it may be that they are unusually well trusted by the property owner and the owner wants them to put this disclaimer up so as to discourage every other group from trying to tromp around in there, in general I find this to be egotistical snobbery and it is probably not going to keep YOUR group out if you ask nicely and act professional.

So don't be too surprised by seeing flames on message boards, groups getting badmouthed to potential clients and ideas/research getting stolen. While I am disappointed by such immaturity and dishonesty, I believe in not returning evil for evil as it is a waste of energy and spreads negativity. 

3) The Fruitcake Factor - You meet a lot of really good, interesting people in this field. But there is the occasional loon that always seems to come out of the woodwork if you make yourself too accessible. Social leeches that do nothing but talk and suck the life right out of you, fill your head full of crap or just amaze you with their bizarre behavior. Learn to make the sign of the cross with your hands and back away without making eye contact. 

4) Poor Leadership and / or Ineffective Members - There are few things more annoying than having bad leadership or members that won't act as a team. Poorly managed groups can waste time and resources, ultimately frustrating the members and causing unnecessary conflict. But no one is perfect and giving people a chance is the kind thing to do. Have a space where constructive feedback is welcome (not generally in front of the public) and be open to changes in policy if it helps the group as a whole. 

There are many hats to wear in running a group, and not any one person can do it all. Make a habit to delegate to those most qualified to do the job. But the biggest problem I have seen with members is a lack of initiative and consistency. This can also waste time and resources because you invest in a new person and then they may leave or have to be dismissed.

5) Looking Stupid - Usually, the public and media are pretty forgiving in this area, as they generally have the least amount of knowledge about the paranormal and want to be thrilled and excited by a live ghost hunter talking to them. But it can be easy to look dumb in front of other hunters with your latest "orb" photo (which may happen to be a dust particle) or by declaring a place haunted before you have done any thorough investigating or research.

But sometimes, the media may be out to make you look like a fool. There was an incident recounted in the Complexity of Crop Circles book on pp 47-48 wherein Dr. Haselhoff was interviewed by a news crew and asked about a crop circle. He gave a good honest reply, but they totally rearranged the questions OUT OF SEQUENCE and made it look like he said something that he didn't. He found out months later when the program he was on totally made a fool out of him. British TV is ruled by the BBC, but here in America, someone might be getting sued. At any rate, be careful of the statements you make in public.

For me, the one area in which I am really a stickler is in the area of Internet correspondence. Nothing sours my perception of someone faster than seeing an email, message board posting or website which has blatant misspellings and bad grammar. I realize that it is linguistic snobbery, and there are many people who are very intelligent but cannot spell worth a damn.  Hey, and everyone makes a typo here and thure.  

What I am talking about is rampant and reckless abuse of the English language. I have received emails that were near incomprehensible and seen websites which purported to be experts on the occult who had trouble spelling the word "phenomena". If you picked up a book on the paranormal and saw there was a language error in every other sentence, how much would you trust the author and what they had to say?

I don't diagram sentences, but what I am asking is please don't sound like you are uneducated. In ceremonial magic, names are everything, and mispronouncing one redirects the energy in an unintended direction. Don't make this mistake in your message. Computers come with spell check - use it. 

6) Group Inactivity (or the perception of) - I saved this one for near last because this can result from many of the above reasons. It's a common enough problem. People start off being excited about joining a real live ghost group and have all sorts of hopes and visions of what it will be like. But then they start running into problems: Group conflict, equipment expense, difficulty in consistently finding places to hunt,  time demands, boredom, etc. 

Before you know it, it's been months since you've been on an investigation, the website gets stale and everyone starts to drift off. Sad, but true in many cases, and I'm not going to tell you that it's entirely preventable. Not everyone is cut out to be a ghost hunter, and in many cases even if you are, you won't always have the time and money to do it. 

7) Computer Issues & Security Breaches - This is yet another topic that could span several volumes, and there are other resources that discuss this subject in more detail and expertise than I could, but I feel it is worth a brief mention. While ghost hunter sites are not typically the number one target for hackers, they can certainly draw the attention of rival groups seeking to discredit or just plain hassle you and your group. External attack is somewhat rare - you are more likely to have a problem with opening an email virus or having personnel problems from within.

But do not underrate the danger this presents. One pissed off member with passwords to your site can easily demolish or hijack a webpage that took years to build. (I've seen this happen TWICE to two different groups) Also, many free hosting sites like Tripod or Yahoo can delete all of your data without warning or recourse which is why I insist on either running my own server, or paying a professional hosting service. If you are lucky, you can go to the Internet Archive and pull up an old copy of your site, though often many links won't work.

Regardless of what you do, back up your data regularly and keep your domain name ownership firmly within your control. For those of you who have a Members Only section, I recommend that you hide the link and don't even mention the area so it won't encourage script kiddies to run up your bandwidth and compromise your security with a brute force password cracker.

8) MUTINY! Hijacking and other Revolutions - Speaking as a Dictator, er.. Director, I never like to see this one, but it happens pretty often. It usually results from multiple issues as outlined above, but here is the most common scenario I see:

A group of friends get together and decide to form a ghost club. In the beginning, things are great. Everyone is excited and learning, the first few investigations go well, and so on. But eventually they attract attention to where other people want to join. Eventually they meet someone with a strong personality who claims to have all kinds of magical powers, and a hidden agenda to run the group. Within a few meetings or investigations they begun using their charisma to begin commandeering the club, telling people what to do, setting policy, and most importantly, getting access to the group website.

Eventually factions and cliques are formed, people get upset and then a showdown occurs. Depending on the makeup of the group one of two things happen. If it is isolated to a single individual, then they are usually forced to leave, but they typically try to do as much damage as possible on the way out. As described above, if they happen to be the webmaster then you can probably kiss the site and domain name goodbye. This is known as hijacking and it is not good, as a website is one of the most important links that a group has to the public.

In other cases, if several individuals decide to leave, they will probably form their own group or hijack the original one and oust the resistance. More than one president of a club has been forced to leave the very group they started. The other problem besides emotional damage is the data and pictures gathered on investigations. If the other faction has it, then again you can probably say hasta la vista.

If you make sure that members/friends are added slowly over time, with membership status and access to important data carefully managed, then that will minimize the damage from ejecting members and they are less likely to have support from other like minded individuals. Remember, they often travel in packs. And be careful of your legal liability, though I doubt most rejects from a ghost club are able to mount an effective lawsuit of any kind. Be more cautious about this if the officers or the club is doing well financially. Keep careful written documentation, known as a paper trail.

But the very best form of cure is prevention and restricting membership. This is where nice people get hurt because in theory more members is a good thing, but I can tell you it usually isn't so. I would much rather have two very high quality members than 20 goobers tromping around in a cemetery. You owe it to yourself and the rest of your group to screen these folks and not give them the keys to the kingdom. What do you look for? Someone who has issues with insecurity, personality disorders or poor coping / life management skills.

Now this next part is going to be a bit charged and controversial, but I feel compelled to say it. In my experience, it seems that psuedo psychics and false sensitives have more than the normal share of power issues as compared to the rest of the population. I'm not saying that all of them have serious problems - there are healthy and effective psychics out there. But I am advising those that are planning to utilize psychics that they need to use more than the average caution in membership policy.

I have heard of this type of hijacking several times and in each instance it was one or more "psychics" behind the coup.

I will have more on this in a future article.

PERSONAL HAZARDS

1) Ostracism by Family/Friends - A lot of people come from a religious background which frowns on investigating the paranormal. From the other end of the spectrum, the business/science world doesn't always look so favorably on it either. Should you casually mention to your boss or elderly aunt that you hang out in cemeteries late at night? Think carefully, because once the cat is out of the bag, that's it. Ditto for going on TV and appearing in the media. 

2) Extramarital Affairs - You may be shocked by this one, but in my experience it's one of the most overlooked risks in hunting. When I was the member of a large group, I had more married women hit on me than ever before in my life. I talked to Troy Taylor about this and he confirmed my suspicions - that it is a common issue.

 Why? Are ghost hunters just so incredibly sexy?

Well, yes. And many people who join a group tend to be married and want to get out of the house. (and/or away from the spouse) There can be an artificial intimacy created by the sense of danger and teamwork. Of course for some people, this issue may not be seen as a disadvantage, though I think mixing infidelity and the paranormal is bad mojo.

3) Obsessiveness with the Dead - It is very easy to get caught up in ghost hunting to such an extent that you spend a lot of time, money and energy involved in this field. But then important responsibilities and relationships can get ignored and sacrificed unknowingly. Many people use ghost hunting as an escape, which is fine up to a point, but it can be an excuse not to deal with certain issues. Don't get blindsided by this one. Take a break and spend time with living people in the sunlight.

4) Ego Inflation - Yeah, it's real cool that you can run around in cemeteries alone with that steely gaze of yours reflecting in the moonlight, but be careful about having Mulder / Buffy delusions. I know everyone has their gifts and superpowers, but know your limitations and back off when you get close to the edge. Even if you don't put yourself in danger, the "paranormal badass" attitude can be a real turnoff to other mere mortals and they will treat you accordingly. 

5) Fear - This was so obvious I'm surprised that I didn't mention it sooner. Fear is detrimental for a lot of reasons: it causes stress, poor judgment, interferes with an investigation and it can be downright dangerous. Getting hurt by a ghost virtually never happens, but many people hurt themselves by running away from what they perceive to be supernatural. And there are certainly incidents where intense fear can trigger a panic or heart attack.

If you even remotely suspect you might have a tendency for this sort of issue or have a very nervous temperament, you should seriously consider either not being an investigator in the field, or be very selective where and when you investigate. A lot of psychics I know have very defined limits for the sorts of places they will go into, and some will not work alone. Please be considerate of the people you are working with. If you push yourself into situations you can't handle, it can be a burden to the rest when they have to carry your unconscious ass out of the cemetery.  

I know I sound a little intolerant here - for more background on this, please see #11 Property Owners saying no under Field Hazards on page 1. Some of my irritation comes from watching a lot of people join an investigation for what seems to be the sole purpose of putting on a little drama show for the rest of us. Please. Spare us the dramatics and get a grip on yourself.

6) Money Drain - Ghost hunting can get expensive as hell, and if you are like a lot of people, you may be under or unemployed and just trying to scrape by. Justifying a drive of 40 miles out to a cemetery to burn up Digital 8 tapes when you need to get up in the morning and earn money for food can be tough to do and I'm not saying you should. Watch your money and don't go hog wild on equipment until you prove that you can and will use it. 

7) Administrative Overload & Burnout - As alluded to before in organizational hazards, running a group can be very demanding. Adding members and doing more investigations often begins to increase the workload exponentially, as you find yourself mired in a sea of documentation, emails and people to call. If you don't get responsibilities and expectations clear, you will find yourself doing everything that is administrative and very little of the enjoyable or rewarding work that paranormal research can offer.

Be realistic about what you are able to do and take on. No one group can investigate everything or admit everyone as a member unless they are lucky, wealthy, or have all the time in the world. If you don't set definable limits, you will find yourself burned out within a few years and may leave the field entirely.

8) Borrowing Equipment & Gear - It's nice to share and even nicer to return things. I recommend a sign out sheet for any and all lent gear - not because I don't trust people to have good intentions, but because I forget where the stuff goes to.

Well, I hope I haven't completely killed off everyone's interest in the paranormal. Of course, I'm sure some of you out there are like: "I can be possessed and have extramarital affairs? Sign me up!"

Sigh...

I just wanted to give a head's up so you don't get blindsided. My best wishes to all of you, and as the Sergeant used to say on Hill Street Blues,

"Hey. Be careful out there."

Rene Belloq: "You and I are very much alike.

Archeology is our religion, yet we have both fallen from the pure faith.

Our methods have not differed as much as you pretend.

 I am but a shadowy reflection of you. It would take only a nudge to make you like me.

To push you out of the light."

Indiana Jones: "Now you're getting nasty..."

- Raiders of the Lost Ark