Dr. Mark Farley's Personal Blog

I was recently asked during a tour, “Can a place become haunted without anyone dying there?” I thought about this question for a while before I answered, and my answer was “Yes.” A place can definitely become haunted without anyone dying there.

However, I do think investigators unknowingly skew their evidence. For example, only showing photographs that depict phenomena proving a site is haunted. An investigator takes a hundred photos, and only one has something remarkable, and that’s the only evidence the investigator submits in their post-investigation report.

One of the reasons why this woman was so scared is that we are programmed from birth to fear anything paranormal.

When you visit a city and want to take a ghost tour, always look for a local tour company. You’ll get an authentic experience and help the local economy. The tour guides from local tour agencies work in, live in, and investigate the areas they tour. The stories they share are their own, not intellectual property owned by a large corporation.

You can tell a professional paranormal team from a thrill-seeking team by the amount of preparation they do before the investigation. The actual investigation is only the tip of the spear. Researching the site and interviewing witnesses is the basic foundation of any paranormal investigation. Because without research, how does your team know what they are investigating?

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.

In my opinion, there are many different ways an investigator could engage in provoking. A good gauge during a spirit communication is to think about how you would like to be treated. In your normal day-to-day interactions with people, you want to be treated with courtesy and respect.

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.