There are Benefits to Trespassing

Trespassing allows you to gain valuable experience.

The paranormal community has a strict stance on trespassing: never do it.  My views on trespassing are considerably more liberal.  I got my start in the paranormal through Urban Exploration.  For many years, exploring abandoned buildings was my passion and, in many ways, still is.

In previous blogs, I stated my preferred method of investigation is observation.  This is my preferred method because of past UrbEx days.   When I was investigating an abandoned building, everything had to be kept on my person.  If I ever had to bug-out of a location, I wouldn’t have time to go around and pick up equipment.  I had to travel light and carry only the bare essentials.  Anything I did bring, I would have to be willing to lose or leave behind.  I never carried brand new cameras, camcorders, or voice recorders.  Everything I carried was bought secondhand from Goodwill or resale shops.  If I couldn’t leave it behind, I didn’t want it with me.   Also, I never carried anything that made noise, beeped, or lit up, such as a Frank’s Box or a K-2 Meter.  

I watched investigators pay a hundred dollars to investigate an old school with fifty other people.  They would spend the entire evening dodging and ducking, trying to find a spot where a herd of other investigators wouldn’t trample through.  For me, the City of St. Louis had over forty abandoned schools, and any given day, I had my choice of which one I wanted to investigate.  

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.   This served two purposes.  The first was ghost hunting.  I wanted to see if I could experience anything.  The second was safety.  I would often know if someone else was in the building before they were ever aware of my presence.  This allowed me to quietly slip away before anyone knew I was there, which is why I couldn’t set up equipment and used second-hand equipment.  Because in those situations, you don’t have time to go around and find all your stuff.

Trespassing is illegal, and exploring abandoned buildings is dangerous.  But it does allow an investigator to gain valuable experience and see some pretty amazing phenomina that most members of the paranormal community will never have the opportunity to witness.