04/05/2010

How to spot a fraud.

I used to work with a newer, local paranormal "research" group, aptly named, P.r.i.n.t. What I would like to do with this writing is, by example, give newer people to the field a 'what to look out for' when getting involved in a paranormal group. Not all of them are innocent and very few are honest.

Like many paranormal groups today, Print learned about the field by watching TV. Paranormal TV has, slowly, since 2004, created a void in terms of what is respectful and who is respected in the field of paranormal research. With sports, you have your professionals. With music, you have popular bands/musicians. With paranormal research, well, you have nothing. So, the popularity of paranormal TV has created this vacuum where the paranormal celebrities are the ones who are looked up to, though, none of these people are truly worthy of any praise. This has created the vacuum of which I speak, where many new people to the field feel as if fame is how you go about getting recognition in the paranormal field. This is obviously not the case, however, it still continues. While these people often claim to be scientists, they aren't. Take off the lab coat and you will rarely, if ever, find scientists wearing matching t-shirts with a spooky typeset.

Now back to my experience with Print: It took about a month or so for my first 'alert' to come. The groups' leader, Chad Miller, changed his typical 'what got me interested' story from one of simply seeing spook lights in a cemetery to some outlandish tale of a spooky hall ghost with a vacuum cleaner. This change came after I explained that spook lights aren't necessarily paranormal, they are simply an unexplained, naturally occurring phenomena. My experience in life has been that when someone starts changing their tales, they are lying.

So I watched for a few months. Nothing out of the ordinary; the novices, in typical fashion, tried to pass everything off as an instance of EVP. Most were simple mistakes, which are normal for newer teams/investigators(speaking accidentally under the breath, mistaking distant echoes as ghosts, etc.). The voices always said something mundane such as, 'I'm going over here, now', that sort of thing. No problem, I can work with that because they are innocent mistakes most of the time.

Things seemed pretty normal, for awhile. One night on a cemetery jaunt I saw something out of the corner of my eye so I turned on my camera and snapped a photo. Before the flash could even charge, Mr. Miller dashes out into the grass subsequently hitting the ground. Okay. He knew better by that point than to blame it on a ghost. Shortly after, my suspicions were heightened as Miller and his partner, Shahnez Ragosino, went off by themselves. I found this odd because they had never done this before. As I am sure you can imagine, moments later the two came back all excited about an alleged "shadow man" they had seen. Ultimately, they lured the entire party over to one end of the cemetery. Once everyone spread out looking for this elusive entity, from behind I noticed Ms. Ragosino looking around sheepishly. She then proceeded to put one foot behind the other, extend her right arm out behind her, bend her knee's until she reached her center of gravity, and then drop. A trick pulled off right from the 'Trickster's Handbook'. I probably would have said something but I was busy picking my jaw up off the ground. I had witnessed fraud right before my own eyes. I waited quietly, to see if she would ever come clean, she hasn't to this day.

At this point, I was on fraud alert full time with this group. I also noticed other things, or realized them; This group really knows nothing above the basic Ghost Hunting 101 type of material. They didn't seem too keen on further learning, either. I also realized that this team's leaders were media mongers. Obviously, caught in the vacuum that paranormal TV has created. Outside of excessive cries for media attention and deepening lies, things remained somewhat normal. I would write off an EVP that was sent to me for analysis and it would be splattered all over the internet a day or two later as "compelling evidence'. Right.

The group had been contacted by a woman in Denison, Tx who claimed to have a ghost and an EVP of her own. After reading over her questionnaire, it was obvious to me that this woman simply wanted to be haunted. She had already paid a psychic (Marveena Meek) to come in. I warned that the investigation would be a waste of time, yet, Mr. Miller insisted on doing the investigation because he had known the woman in school. So, we did the investigation anyway and as I assumed, it was a waste of time. Nothing wrong with that but the following could have been avoided. A couple of weeks later, at a group meeting, co-founder of the group, Ms. Ragosino, bragged about stealing a trinket from the woman's home. Her justification for the deed was that the woman was lying about being haunted. I believe I had said that from the beginning. Anyway, as far as I know, the woman doesn't know the item was taken, or hasn't said anything. This instance of stealing from a client is the most low-down and trashy thing I have ever heard of in this field. You do not go into someone's home, under the guise of helping them, then steal from them. That is low and, it's also a crime. Are these the types of people you want in your home or on your property?

I was on the downhill slope with these people after this. Everything became a desperate cry for media attention with them. I couldn't even count the lies that have appeared in the media, not even on both hands. Slowly, Mr. Miller went from having three years experience(It's well documented in his book that he started in 2007) to having close to seven. Time is immaterial in the field of paranormal research. I have known people in the field for 25 years that don't have a lick of sense. So, time in the field is not important, though it helps, it's not about time as much as it's about what is learned and what advancements are made.

I knew I had to get away from these people before I inadvertently wound up ruining my own reputation. The final blow came when the simple mistakes turned to trickery. We had a location to investigate and for the first time, I didn't choose the individual teams. Mr. Miller wanted to work with his partner, Ms. Ragosino. Since the graveyard incident months earlier, this had me on guard. The investigation went normal, and as sure as the sky is blue, Miller sent 4 " EVP possibilities". It took one listen to recognize the voice as Mr. Miller's, though, what he was saying was no longer mundane things an investigator would say on an investigation - they were now creepy stuff that apparently only a ghost would say. I suppose that Mr. Miller had failed to realize that a) I've been in audio twice as long as the paranormal field b) I work in a music genre where everyone tries to sound creepy and c) After a year and a half, I knew his voice(and nasal qualities) and had a good idea of what range he speaks in. I dismissed the EVP and as had became the norm, the fraudulent recordings were not only released on the internet but also presented to the clients in an online video. This was truly sickening to watch. A fraud at work with his victims. Pure trash.

The truly sad part is that none of the other members of this group ever recognized any of these fraud-laced antics. They are so ate up with ghosts that they apparently have blinders on. Some of them have even been informed of these things, yet, remain with this group. Birds of a feather? Possibly. Either way, this kind of charlatanism has got to be snuffed out in the paranormal field. This group had a member, which they would take to people's homes, that was at the time on probation for drug possession. They have other members which are recovering methamphetamine addicts. Knowing this, I wouldn't want any of them in my home, even if it was haunted.

This, sadly, isn't the only group out there that operates in this manner. Since the paranormal field is not regulated, it is our duty to do what we can and call out fraud or general bad practice when we see it.

So, the paranormal frauds are out there in abundance and not all of them are on TV. The new brand of paranormal investigators are generally not nearly as interested in research as they are being in the media spotlight. Remember, just because someone is on TV or in the paper, it does not mean they are worthy, smart, or good at what they do. Or, respectful for that matter. In fact, if you see someone doing anything media related, they are likely out to sell something. I personally have taken to asking people in the paranormal field what they have to sell me, up front. It seems they all have something: Books, conference tickets, How-To videos, listen to our boring internet talk radio show - you get the idea. The new paradigm in the paranormal world is that of promotion, sales, and advertising. Most of them never even realize that the places that allow them to come in and investigate are only allowing them to do so because they need the business and free advertisement, not because they think they have a ghost. Times are hard and many hotels, B&B's, and museums are utilizing these teams as advertisement agencies. While it may be cool to investigate these places, you must choose the best practice. Most people merely need to hear that a place has been investigated for ghostly phenomena to assume that it is "haunted" and that definitely isn't normally the case. This can stigmatize a place very easily, so be careful. The vast majority of the paranormal field is not there to "help" you as much as they are there to help themselves(sometimes to your personal property).

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