Dr. Mark Farley's Personal Blog

I was reading a Facebook post on another paranormal page that talked about the problems in our community. I do admit that our community does have its problems

One of the biggest misconceptions that new investigators have is that a house is haunted; it’s haunted twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. They can walk in at any time and witness paranormal activity. For years, I have heard members of the paranormal community say, “If a house is haunted, you should witness paranormal activity both day and night.” From my experience, this is absolutely wrong.

So you capture a photograph of what you think is paranormal. If you’re like me, you’ll spend hours staring at it. Then you post it on social media to share what you captured and, hopefully, receive a little validation.

Also, I credit Urban Exploration for the reason why I have so many paranormal experiences. Every day I had off in my twenties and thirties, I was exploring something abandoned. I always took the time while I was exploring an abandoned building to sit still and quietly observe what was going on around me.

I believe if you’re truly trying to “help” the client. You should be focusing on explaining the events they are witnessing. In these situations, proof doesn’t help anyone but you; explanations help the client. Deep down, the practice of debunking only helps the investigator. Because deep down, through this facade of skewed skepticism, they really want to capture the “Holy Grail” of paranormal evidence. Investigations are for explaining; research is for proving.

So, what should you do in the beginning? First, don’t go out and buy a lot of equipment. I know veteran investigators are against using cell phones, but really, they are the best tool to have. They already have a quality camera, and you can download a voice recorder app for EVP’s.

Over the years, I have posted several hundred ghost photos on social media. Every time I do, there always seems to be a self-proclaimed professional photographer commenting that the photo is fake and here’s why, and then other “debunkers or paranormal experts” chime in, agreeing with them. So, in response to this, I don’t post as many ghost photos.

The most commonly accepted definition of a residual haunting is one that recurs repeatedly, like a video playing on a perpetual loop. In my experience, if a haunting truly repeats itself, it should be predictable.

So, I allow team members to carry their cell phones during investigations. There are just too many advantages to having them.

There is also another side of an investigation that cannot be solved with the Scientific Method: the research side. The site's history and the reasons why it’s haunted. The side of the investigation that answers the who, what, when, and why questions of a haunting. Waving equipment around may help answer some of these questions (in the form of responses), but never entirely.