I have been musing and thinking the last few days, and was wondering the following question.
I am a big fan of watching Paranormal Activity "" Ghost Hunting "" - Youtube/Movies/TV shows, regardless if fake or the real deal. And my personal opinion is that only a small % is real/actual.
Nutshell background : I been practicing on and off for at least 19 years, but researching and reading almost on a daily basis on various paths and practices. And would class my self as a "Nature/Kitchen Witch with bit of mix of other paths".
The thing is, in these shows they investigate varies places houses, school ect. But when it comes to cemeteries I personally feels that it's disrespectful as it the resting place for many.
So my musing is when do you class it as disrespectful or not or does it just purely depends on the location and this history/story attach to it
Personally I feel it's disrespectful to provoke ghosts or spirits into interaction as many of the ghost hunting shows feature. It does not matter the location as ghosts or spirits are everywhere and no one place is more disrespectful to interact with them than any other. It is the way or manner one uses to communicate and the respect for the beings they wish to communicate with that matters. I find many of the beings featured on ghost haunting or hunting shows to be disrespected as the cast tries to get the spirits to react so they can catch it on film, audio, or inferred. Imagine if we approached flesh and blood beings in this manner, it's like taunting a prisoner in some cases or torturing someone in the afterlife. There is a reason for RIP and why many graveyards were once iron fenced and consecrated sections of land. I feel a lot of these shows and attractions can be highly disrespectful to the spirits that surround them. Not all but the majority of Hollywood seems to be greedy and they feed off whatever works.
Many Blessing to you with your spirit communication
My own thoughts waffle a bit on this, for a few reasons.
First, cemeteries are there to be places of mourning and memory, so it can be considered disrespectful to go tromping over and around Graves, memorials, and such calling out to and provoking entities. Basically, it's disturbing the peace. But to me it is mitigated if the focus is on more passive things like leaving trigger objects, filming setups, and the like.
It also has an opportunity to create awareness of a few problems. Graveyards, and particularly gravestones, get vandalized and defaced, broken, knocked over, and pelted/covered in old cans and bottles (which are often broken). Usually by young 'edgy' wannabes who are usually drunk. It is prety disgusting of an issue. Shows can use the opportunity to reveal the sorts of damages being caused on a regular basis and give it some much-needed exposure.
I also find that most often attachments, hauntings, and imprints center on either where/how the person died, or where they held a strong emotional connection such as a home, workplace, or the area of where they died. They are not likely to follow their body to an unrelated hole in the ground. It doesn't have much significance other than the presence of the body itself. A thing effectively left behind anyways, like a favorite shirt tossed out because it got worn and holey. You might miss it for a few days, but after a while... it's just a shirt. You've got other things to do. The likelihood of a graveyard being haunted is actually pretty low in my book, unless the site has some sort of significant history.
Hauntings in general are also a mixed bag of types. Most of the ones encountered are imprints; an event or routine with significance and emotional charge... Like say someone baked cookies every Sunday. So the even plays itself out as if the person was still there. An unconscious recording on loop. Or, if an area is just charged up with raw emotion, again there is no active presence. It is more just a detail of the environment. In this sort of scenario it is tough to say that ghost-hunting would be disrespectful to the entity/ghost as it isn't likely to be conscious.
If it is a conscious entity, there are even more angles to consider. Many noisy ghosts are looking for recognition, to be acknowledged in some way. They have something to communicate. Or a pain or message to express. Or even just to remind a loved one that they may be dead, but thy are still OK. Sometimes, such an opportunity gained from a ghost-hunter coming in is enough to even allow an entity closure so it can move on.
Or, maybe the entity is oppressive or antagonistic, maybe not even human. Then documenting information and events can be enough to bring in a blessing, cleansing, or outright banishment/exorcism to finally push away the malevolence. Heck, a more vibrant/self-aware entity might even find the interaction fun or challenging!
And, also bear in mind that the first task on most ghost-hunters list is to gather experiences and evidence. To test events and provide a body of influence/proof. There is a purpose to the "circus act" repetition. Natural phenomena don't happen on cue, and don't respond to stimulus. But an intelligent event will. Getting an entity to understand and respond to specific instructions is invaluable in demonstrating validity.
One of my favorite series has always been Ghost Adventures. There are some episodes that are kinda hokey, some where you can tell the network wanted them to react a little more than necessary, to keep people watching. There would be places with very little ... or even no activity and they would be struggling to keep interest. But there are also moments. Some very significant moments. Ones that grab your attention and become memorable.
For example one moment had Zach with several emf beeper set up outside a mining town. And he would point to one and ask for it to be lit up. It would beep. Then he'd point to another, and it'd beep. Then it turned into a responsive interaction that lasted for several minutes. Another had the crew capture a jailhouse band giving them a stage performance before bowing out.
I guess, what matters to me is the purpose, and the methods. Some groups are better than others. Some are deliberately offensive and provoking because all they care about is getting 'the response'. Others care only about capturing and disproving under the idea "If we can't debunk it, then it's genuine." And others are there to find the experiences, and to see what they can learn. Some adapt to the nature of the haunting, bouncing between observation, gratitude, interaction, and provocation. Others will always only observe, or always try to provoke.
In the end I don't think there's any one thing, good or bad, that I could lump all ghost-hunting into. There isn't a universally answer to this, only an individual case-by-case one.
What I've always wondered is if any ghost hunters ever asked a spirit or entity they've managed to contact how they do things and gotten a precise answer. For example, the spirit that makes things move slightly. How is that being done without a body? Normally it takes quite a bit of energy to move something. Electrostatics can cause things to levitate or move, but those have to be very specific circumstances and assumes entities can manipulate static electricity in the first place. It would be really interesting if someone found a ghost that knew Morse code in their former life and could communicate that way using a machine.
I agree, and I don't even think I could fathom what that conversation would look like. Let alone the reactions it would draw out. There would definitely be a very thorough public attempt to debunk the event... and likely discourse would split into extremes of it being either fake/effects or genuine... perhaps a religion or two might try to weigh in even.
But if it was genuine, and repeatable, and recognized (eventually) as such, it would definitely breathe new life into existential thought for the average person!
What-would- someone even talk about with an entity that has been potentially dead for a hundred or so years anyways? That would be a lot of 'office cooler gossip' to catch them up on. ...*laughs* it would be hilarious if the first being successfully talked to was utterly ordinary like, it turns out this house haunting was from an 1850's barber named Frank, who was entirely too fascinated with penny-novels and hearsay about the newest 'tech' advances in autocarriage smokeless steam engines- which he'll never own as that's for the high falootin' sort. He's happy with his new advances in moustache wax thank-you very much!
I have a paranormal team and we have a channel on youtube. We don't upload everything we do and a lot stay private. We always ask if a spirit would like to talk, say we don't mean harm or disrespect. We some tools, sometime we don't need tools. After recording we always ask if they would like help moving on and if so, we will help them. Again this isn't recorded. I myself have spirits in my home. The negative ones are sealed in a warded room (Tbh they aren't evil) Positive spirits have full reign of the house and have their own ways telling my they want communication. They all have preferred ways of answering and communicating from K2 meters, flashing balls, rempods to pendulums and even touch. I have spent a lot of time and work with them. Some have vessels and are happy here, other that have come wish to be released or helped to move on. We can go places and experience nothing or just a little. we have started doing live streams where we have had huge responses, especially when an offering is made and alcohol being one. I have streamed over night when we sleep and i have a camera on 24/7. These spirits are part of my family and very attached to each other. I am protective over them.
That is actually really cool! And intriguing. I didn't spy your YouTube channel in your profile ...I'm sure that if you linked it you'd get a few more viewers from these parts!
Thank you. I didn't think anyone would be interested to be honest but I can add it in my profile. Im working on a new vessel at the moment. Given time to settle in and going to try a communication session. I can be given things and told they are haunted and they had things happen, but turns out it isn't true or isn't that item. I have some video clips from the haunted room where there is flashes, lots of them during the night but there is no light in there, not even a bulb because new bulbs don't last long before they blow. Through watching myself or anyone else through footage shadows flash like that if we move.
