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.

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.

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.

Like most equipment used by paranormal investigators, it wasn’t originally designed for ghost hunting. It was designed for a whole other purpose, and the paranormal community adopted it for use in investigations.

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 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.

The last story I heard was about human sacrifices allegedly occurring at the Seven Gates of Hell. There is evidence to suggest that this actually happened. On June 20, 1990, a Jane Doe was found near the Seven Gates of Hell. She was found in a farmer's field with her sexual organs removed, along with deep cuts in specific areas.