We got into this field years ago out of personal reasons, and while we’ve put investigations mostly on hold (due to a variety of circumstances, which we won’t go into here…), we’re still both compelled by the subject.

That subject, of course, is what happens when you die? To be brutally honest, our general impression after a decade or so of being involved, directly or indirectly, in the paranormal field, is that shockingly few practitioners are actually interested in the question itself.

For m0st, supposedly, the question is already answered: you either “go into the light”, whatever that means, or you “cross over”, whatever that means…and if you have unfinished business (most people do when they die), or you have regrets or sources of anger or hurt, you hang around dusty basements and grunt monosyllabic things at club t-shirted investigators, who build elaborate stories about you and your past and your family history, and pat themselves on the back and move on.

But at the roots of this discipline is trying to understand the nature of mortality, understanding the remnants of personality (if any) that survive death.

For anyone still interested in that, we strongly encourage you to watch (rent or buy) “A Ghost Story” , the indie film released this year with Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara.  Poetic, elegant, and not always easy to watch, it takes a decidedly uncompromising view of death, widowhood and some thought provoking explorations of the themes of time and mortality. It is NOT a paranormal film, although it brushes by some of the constructs of the paranormal oeuvre. If you belong to a paranormal team, get the team together for an evening, put away the devices, and watch this. Discuss it.

It is uncomfortable in places – director David Lowery draws out some of his scenes to excruciating length. There’s very little dialogue in most of the film, and the subject of the film is portrayed as a Halloween bed-sheet-with-eye holes spirit, counterintuitively to not-comical and devastating effect. Alternately bleak and hopeful, the film will take you to places you may never have been before. And if you’re the type who likes to swear at ghosts to get them to leave a spike on your voice recorder, this film may give you pause.

Watch this film. It will move you, provoke you to thought, and may help coax you away from the ghosts-as-clubhouse-fun triviality that the para-reality shows have deadened your humanity with.

Nick Groff, who one of Zak Bagans’ Terrible Trio on Ghost Adventures, split the show and is now starring in two of his own para-reality gigs: Paranormal Lockdown, and (the now second season)  Ghosts of Shepherdstown.

I suppose for a certain segment of the ghost-show faithful, Nick’s somewhat more subdued demeanor (compared with the comically overheated Zak Bagans, still Vincent Price-ing his way through old buildings in his respirator mask) lends some sober credibility to the proceedings. That’s a pretty low bar to cross, though, and like most of the Destination America para-drivel, this is wholly consumed with ‘dark entities’ and ‘negative presences’, the nouns and adjectives interchangeable. Plus the chilling prospect, seemingly every episode, that they’re “dealing with a demon.” Throw in an older lady playing the role of channel-shaman, a cop or two distressed by “all the reports of paranormal events”, some tale-spinning locals, a two hundred year old building or two, and you’ve got a healthy stew ripe for ghostploitation.

The para-reality thing jumped the shark a long time ago, and this pretentious, tortuously contrived and virtually evidence-free clown show isn’t helping bring it back to its rather tenuous roots: mainly, that paranormal investigations (and we’ve done our share) are usually tedious, meager of evidence, devoid of doomy soundtracks and not particularly scary.

Are ghosts real? Well, as for us, we think there’s some reason to believe they are…or at least, something like it, is real.

Are ghost shows profitable? Self-evident, kids.

A shot of the VERY creepy Masonic Cemetery at Central City, from a ghost hunt we did up there a few years back.

For all our Colorado pals, our friend Stephanie Waters is hosting the 3rd Annual Spirits of Colorado Paranormal Convention next Saturday (September 14), this year up at Central City. Despite the gambling casinos (all pretty low-key) and blue-haired lady buses, Central City is one of Colorado’s best Victorian mining towns, with history oozing from every street and back alley. We think it’s a great location (nothing against Cripple Creek, where the convention was held last year) and this year should be the best yet. From Steph’s website,

Come for one day or stay the entire weekend! All seminars and events are priced separately and payable directly to the instructor at the door. All seminars are about an hour long and cost 5.00 each, CASH ONLY, PLEASE. Approximately six venues and thirty choices within one block walking distance. There will a half hour interval between each event. Historical tours presented by the B.P.O. Elk’s Club and the Gilpin County Historical Society, will be featured throughout the day.

 Evening Events Run between 60 to 90 minutes and will cost $5.00-10.00 each. Professional Paranormal Investigations will be held at various locations. There will be an old morgue seance, cemetery walk, and haunted history tours. All events and sessions are cash only and will be paid directly to the presenter. Professional psychic readers are priced individually.

The Stanley Hotel, from our investigation there in 2008

One of our FB friends linked a few weeks back to this para-listicle about America’s most haunted hotels. We normally don’t read these, since they’re usually intended to promote some book or some group someplace, but this one caught our eye since we had actually investigated two of these places – the (in)famous Stanley Hotel, in Estes Park, CO, and the St. James in Cimarron, NM.

OK, fair enough, so we read the piece (at least the sections on these two hotels) and we posted a lengthy comment about both of them. Just so you know, we weren’t nasty or vulgar: here was our response to the post:

My wife and I have investigated at the Stanley (twice) and the St J, as well as a few other reputedly haunted hotels not on your list. All three investigations yielded not a single bit of compelling evidence. The staff had the Stanley had a few interesting stories to tell, and we got a few ‘orbs’, but that’s all. The first time we stayed in the famously haunted room, investigated most of the night, and zip. This was a few years before the Stanley turned their haunted reputation into a mini-concession – exhibits, charging for investigative teams, paid onsite mediums (really ???), paranormal conventions with TV personalities, etc. The place is a carnival now.

The St J was also a complete bust, although in fairness it was  Saturday night and there was a lot of noise coming from the bar. We asked a few staff there for stories, none had any. It’s a great old Victorian building and a nice place to stay, but its reputation appears much scarier than the reality, at least in our experience. They do have fake bullet holes in the dining room ceiling, to ‘mimic’ the bullet holes from the late 19th century that were plastered over or removed years ago.

I do accept that a reputation for being haunted is great for business these days, and I don’t begrudge any hospitality business trying to drum up paying customers. But in our experience, actually looking for the real thing is quite different from enjoying a good ghost story.

Doesn’t make for particularly fun copy, does it?   

That wasn’t too nasty, was it? Well, the webmaster there evidently thought so, because the comment got whacked by the administrator and didn’t appear below the story. I guess any feedback that scrapes against the legend, even if it was based on firsthand experience, is rather dimly regarded.

The author of the piece is named Troy Taylor – I am unfamiliar with him and his work – but his bio describes him thusly: “Troy Taylor is the author of more than 100 books on ghosts, hauntings, crime and the unexplained in America. He is also the owner of American Hauntings, one of the oldest haunted history websites on the internet. He is also the owner of a publishing company, eight ghost and crime tour companies and has appeared in numerous books, magazines, television shows, documentaries and one feature film about the supernatural.

Perhaps that explains it, then.

We promised them we’d contribute a story or two, and plan to do so soon. But for now, the first issue is out and we’d encourage you to check it out!