Ghost hunting

Mention the TV programme "Most Haunted" to most people and if they've heard of it they'll probably remember two of the cast in particular - Derek Acorah and Yvette Fielding.

Following these broadcasts many ghost-hunting groups were set up including one in Milton Keynes where I live. Now the thing about England, especially this neck of the woods, is that it's sometimes difficult to heave a brick without hitting something historic. This article is about an investigation at the Swan Inn at Great Horwood. The A421 route is Roman and just outside Buckingham itself at Thornborough there are two Roman burial mounds - so people have been living and dying in this area, and leaving traces behind, for nearly two thousand years.

Have a read through the report of the investigation. Ok, it's a local newspaper story but the standard of the work carried out is pretty common. One critic of these standards is Hayley Stevens, a paranormal researcher. Hayley appeared on the Fundamentally Flawed vodcast and while I respect her professional work I do have issues with how she interacts with people.

The thing is that Hayley, and many others, have been critiquing the low quality of the research being undertaken for years and people are still asking these groups to turn up and investigate ghostly sightings.

It's as though they won't be told.

Equally, and as I mentioned on FF#77 post show hangout, there are no barriers to setting up a group, there are no qualifications to pass and no statutory public liability cover required.

Furthermore, as I said in The Place, it seems to be a part of the human condition to want there to be "something" rather than it's people being uneducated or stupid.

Therefore, we're left in a state where there are people who believe in ghosts, other people who think ghost hunting or investigating ghost sightings is fairly straightforward (but whose investigations are actually very amateurish), and there are no restrictions to anyone calling them a ghost hunter or practising as such.

The cynic in me sometimes considers the prospect of setting up as a psychic, a medium, a healer or as a ghost hunter because it all looks like taking candy from a baby and people simply won't be told, and if anyone is going to take the candy then why shouldn't be me ?

Then that old nagging sensation called personal integrity comes a-knocking and I stop thinking about it.

It's really annoying sometimes.