Dr. Mark Farley's Personal Blog

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.

Also, this approach of tearing down and trash-talking turns the concept of paranormal unity into a farce. If we can’t unite as a community, we will never be able to establish standard practices and procedures or sanction ourselves for wrongdoing.

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?

With social media and the chance to monetize, everyone wants to be an influencer, and the chance of becoming famous is a hell of a temptation. Today, it seems the main motivation for people to become paranormal investigators is to gain fame and appear on television. As a community, we need to rise above these temptations.

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

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.

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.

I am rather strict during the investigation because the last thing I want is a team full of thrill seekers. I want professionals; I want standards; and I want quality. If our field is going to be accepted as a legitimate field of study. These are the three traits I feel every team must strive for.

I also think investigating cemeteries is extremely beneficial for new investigators. Until you get established, investigations are hard to come by, and if you rent out haunted locations, it can be rather expensive. Cemeteries are free, open year-round, and a great opportunity for investigators to gain experience.