Be Careful Not To Provoke!

Be careful when provoking!

I was recently invited to participate in an investigation conducted by another team.  I always enjoy watching other teams investigate because I learn something, and I always hope they can learn something from me.

During the team’s investigation, they had one rule they expressed many times, and that was their rule about never provoking the spirit.   If you’re not familiar with provoking, it is a technique where you try to anger the spirit to get a response.  Mainly, teams oppose provoking a spirit out of simple courtesy, but there are some legitimate safety concerns with using this method.

What I witnessed wasn’t yelling or cussing at the spirit, but their questions were rather demeaning and downright insulting.  It seemed more like an interrogation than a friendly EVP session.  Then I thought to myself, could they be unknowingly engaging in provoking the spirit?  

As I stated earlier, one of the main objections to using this technique is common courtesy.  If they are asking invasive questions and their demeanor during the spirit communication session is outright rude, would this not upset the spirit?  If it did, could this not also be a safety concern?

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.  The same should be true during spirit communication sessions.  Spirit communication sessions can be dangerous enough.  But the danger increases if you become intaganstic, especially when you’re unaware that you are being intaganstic.  I had a friend once tell me that a smile costs you nothing, but can mean everything to another person.  The same can be said about being polite.