Antietam Paranormal Society

When I started investigating the paranormal in 2008, I would have to say that for me it was just for fun. Three of us just wanted to go out to really cool haunted locations and experience the paranormal for ourselves. I am sure that is how a lot of people start out, but over time does it become something different for a few people? Almost like a calling? A hobby is usually defined as any enjoyable leisure activity that we engage in voluntarily and consistently when we are free from the demands of work or other responsibilities. Hobbyists that collect items, form fantasy sports teams, gamble, dance, craft, or write; are serious about their chosen hobby. Is paranormal investigation an enjoyable leisure activity? Personally, I don't think so. (It's time consuming and frustrating in most cases. Leisure, hah.) I have seen a lot of individuals and teams pop up over the years and to be honest the people that just want to experience something don't last as paranormal investigators....

I am going to start this particular blog with a bit of a warning, because this may not be your cup of tea. The opinions, thoughts, theories, and views in this blog have been developed by years of observation, experimentation, first hand accounts, and case studies. While you may not agree or even subscribe to the information within this blog, there are many that do agree and fully accept these philosophical theories. This blog is informational, however it should never replace the educated opinion of a medical professional. Please contact a medical professional if you are experiencing any mental or physical illness. SPIRIT ATTACHMENT If you have been interested in the paranormal for any length of time or you have watched paranormal television you are aware of the potential of spirit attachment. If you have seen one of the most popular and probably controversial paranormal television shows, you'd know that lead investigator is always getting possessed. But what if I told you that thro...

You've just hung your shingle and you are ready to take on cases, but you don't know where to start. If you are reading this blog and you have never read any of my blogs, stop. Go to the main blog page and read the blogs that start with "The Paranormal Team Starter Checklist". There is information on how to get started, confidentiality and liability, sharing your team, finding and adding members, and important documents. I firmly believe that every team or individual that is taking on cases needs a good foundation and needs to be organized. Once you have gotten some field experience, your mission set, you have developed protocols, and you have put your team out there; you are ready to take on clients! (Disclaimer: Just because our "hobby" is considered a "hobby" doesn't mean you shouldn't take necessary protocols to protect yourself physically or legally. When you accept or take on a paranormal case, you are taking on the responsibility to ...

It is a truth universally acknowledged (in the paranormal) that if we had indisputable evidence of the paranormal, well it wouldn't be paranormal would it? The tug of the skeptic and the believer is probably never going to go away, but I find myself still wondering what words to use to both sides of the argument. They say the burden of proof is on the claimant, however that works both ways to say it exists or doesn't. I have personally been a paranormal investigator for over 15 years and in that time I have seen so many changes in the paranormal field and a lot of them in myself. I used to be grounded in logic and fact, this was what we were searching for wasn't it? Proof that spirits or ghosts, or the paranormal exist? Even if the proof was to myself, I find that over the years my purview of everything has shifted. While I still seek logic and facts, there is another facet to my research. In the early days if you had asked me I would have said that the things that go bump ...

One of the first unspoken rules with ghost hunting or paranormal investigation is to always obtain permission to access a property. This statement and ethical line brings up a host of other concerns about exploiting locations with purported paranormal activity. When it comes down to it, there are too many people who lack the moral obligation to obtain permission to access or explore these properties. If we look at the situation from a broader view to include others who have no interest in the paranormal, this isn't just an ethical line for a questionable field of study, trespassing on property is a criminal act. They don't see it as a passion for the study of paranormal phenomena, they see it as a nuisance and potentially harmful. The epidemic of accessing locations without gaining permission doesn't just involve the physical presence for paranormal investigation or ghost hunting, it also includes urban exploration and sharing these locations publicly for self-interest. Let...

I have been the Case Manager of Antietam Paranormal Society since its conception in 2008. I was instrumental in creating the foundation of our team and all the protocols for case management (and pretty much all the other formal guidelines for the team). In the early days I scoured the internet and books for how to investigate the paranormal, how to document the paranormal and more. I had no idea what to look for or what to document in those days, so I just created a document for pretty much everything. I will say that some how to books on paranormal investigation had a section that included some of the documents recommended for a paranormal case file, Troy Taylors Ghost Hunter's Guidebook was probably the best, but in all things you have to adapt them to your particular cases. These are a few of the documents that are used the most on our team, but there are a ton of others. We have kept track of all of these variables since we started private investigations in 2009. I have adapted...

Anyone who has done their research knows the premise of the Stone Tape Theory is that certain rock or stone has retained or captured an energy or memory of some event from the past that will replay like a tape recording. These experiences have also been labeled as residual hauntings as if the energy of the event has been left or absorbed into certain objects or places. These spirits or ghosts have been seen or experienced by multiple witnesses to be doing the same actions completely unaware of people or objects in their vicinity. They have also noted some of these spirits or ghosts do not follow the layout of the current structure but follow a different route that some speculate could have been a former layout or structure in the past. Recently I came across a note from a Facebook follower asking how my team or myself viewed the Stone Tape Theory and whether we had any experiences or data that demonstrated the validity of the theory. While I cannot refute those who have hypothesized th...