Call me a.....
(Its ok, I've been called worse)

This is more of an Editorial, but I hope it opens some eyes.

Call me a skeptic, call me a debunker, call me the shatterer of hopes, dreams and wishful thinking, but I want answers. That’s all I'm looking for.

Not touts of false claims, not chicanery, not charlatanism, not salesmanship, not trying to convince oneself of their own prowess...I want answers...real answers to the real questions.

Thanks to the Internet, over-dramatized T.V. shows and the movies, paranormal studies have been thrown back to the stone-age. Just when we're making some progress, suddenly dust is a sign of spirit energy, there are ghostly faces in everything, and every little thing that shows up in a photo is a ghost. Anyone with a tad of HTML skill is suddenly a ghost hunter with 100's of photos and products to sell. Be it intentional deception on behalf of making a name for oneself or simple misunderstanding by the novice, the plain and simple fact is, no one will encounter anything everywhere they go and capture 50 pictures in a one hour long sitting. It’s okay to say, "I struck out, I didn't get anything on this trip.", but most just want to save face and will put up anything to "prove" they were successful.

I've been to 100's of various locations, businesses, homes, sites, etc. in my 20+ years in the field, and only have a handful of photos that show a sign of out-of-the-ordinary. I also have boxes upon boxes of "junk photos" (accidental glitch photos with natural explanations). I would have a "Large Gallery" also had I decided to post them as "evidence" on our website...but they aren't "evidence" of paranormal activity, only evidence of true study and understanding of basic physical sciences and properties of photography. This is what I'm trying to pass along, not bogus information based on my own personal beliefs and wanting something in a photo to be a ghost.

People will believe anything they want to and no amount of actual proof to the contrary will convince them otherwise. If they want to think they've captured a spirit, that’s that and that’s where it stops. They're "ghost hunters" now, they form groups, put up websites, and pass themselves off as "experts". What they don't know, they'll make up as they go and believe their own B.S.. The misinformation snowballs from there, and a million others see this, and follow the lead.

The term "Research" is practically non-existent in the field of Paranormal Studies anymore.  The field is polluted with nothing more than who can out-do who, a popularity contest, and a whole lot of home-based business commercialism. Whatever happened to research?...Whatever happened to looking for answers?.. Whatever happened to yelling "EUREKA!!" when making a legitimate discovery?

Most are claiming to be "scientific" in their endeavors solely based on the gadgetry they've purchased from a "ghost store". All I can think of is from the movie "Napoleon Dynamite" when "Uncle Rico" bought a time machine from the Internet. He was duped into thinking it would transport him back to 1982, so he could "Take State". This is the same thing...

He was under the impression it would work when he read about it, but he found out too late. I've proven the gimmicks and gadgets DO NOT work in actual testing and experimentation, not just assuming they would be based on a good sales pitch. I'm proud to say that I've gotten some positive feedback on that, but I've also gotten some pretty ugly e-mails from people saying I've ruined their businesses. Oh well, bummer for them...I try to discourage people from "ghost" websites that have "PayPal" on them. That alone should tell you the legitimacy of their operation. On an up note, I'm seeing more and more of these gadgets on EBay from people trying to get some of their money back after they found out the truth behind them.

Science is based on fact, not assumption.

"Oooo, the needle twitched. Yep we have a ghost here."...

Well, what else could have made the needle twitch? Either they do not know or have the capacity of knowing, or they're really afraid of the truth.

Science is having the ideas to work with, the knowledge to apply those ideas, and the ability to make a conclusion that can be backed up by others if they tried the same experiments. Everything I've done, I've given the details on how it was done and examples of the results.

Thomas Edison, on the light bulb, said:

"I've tried this a thousand times, and found 999 ways it didn't work."

Hard work, frustration, perseverance, and sacrifice is the only way to find answers. There is no easy way to anything in the area of actual research.

Another one of my favorite quotes from my hero Richard Feynman:

"I disregard what others are doing, so I can get something accomplished."

I almost busted a nut when I read that, because that’s the way I think. I'll admit it, for a short time (very short time), I walked the beaten path also, but then it dawned on me that nothing jived up with experimentation. So I went my own way and have made discoveries that go in the completely opposite direction, and are closer to the truth and closer to finding answers than what the "experts" are trying to pass off. But, no one wants to hear it. They'd rather just stroke their own egos with "We have evidence". Well, prove it...

If this makes me sound like a skeptic, I'm sorry, but in this field you have to be a bit skeptical about certain things. There aren't demons and spirits lurking behind every corner. There aren't any "experts" on ghosts (including myself). Even after all this time I've been doing it, everyday is still a new learning experience...that is, IF you're willing to learn, be it by your own mistakes or the mistakes of others.

The paranormal field can be a legitimate field of study if we'd only get out of the assumption rut and move forward. We need to weed out what isn't before saying what is, and what doesn't work before finding what will work.

If medical science hadn't moved forward, we'd still be using leeches for a cure-all. If aviation science hadn't moved forward, we'd still be only dreaming of reaching the moon.

Assumption and Conjecture is what’s killing the field, and making us a laughing stock to the rest of the world. It isn't because Mainstream Science doesn't believe, it’s because explanations to the "evidence" on the net are elementary.

So, I'm not a skeptic or debunker...I'm a realist.

Ass-umption...Con-jecture...See the connection now? If we're going to use the Internet as our major medium, then how about some truth and proof to some claims then?

Is that too much to ask for? We're here to try to prove the existence of the afterlife...not dust, breath, and camera straps.

"Veer off the beaten path, and leave a trail behind you."

 ~~~copyright 2005 Dr. Ken

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