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I had a long, inner debate as to whether or not I should post on this matter at all. I didn’t want to seem like I was falling prey to anything that would compromise my professional integrity and personal ethics, and I certainly did not want to express myself while under the possible influence of the severe hurt and disappointment I obviously felt at the hands of someone involved in this field.. However, after much consideration, I truly believe that what I am about to say needs to be said, and since I was personally attacked on this website, and the parties have chosen to remain “anonymous,” failing to address their concerns with me privately, I have made the decision to use this format to address the issue. I apologize to my wonderful readers who have gotten caught in the crossfire. My plan is to eventually remove this blog from the site when and if the matter is resolved to some extent. I truly hope it CAN be resolved, because I honestly believe that much of the problem is simply different parties involved just not knowing all of the facts, and reacting based on their own perceptions of a very tricky situation.
I guess the best place to start is the beginning and tell this story as I lived it…because frankly, I’m not entirely sure what the whole story is either. I can only assume based on things others have alerted me to that the cause of all of this unpleasantness stems from an incident with a television show.
Back towards the end of March or early April, my group, HPIR, received a mass email from a national ghost show, looking for cases to feature in our area. I know this was a mass email, because friends and acquaintances of mine in the area all seemed to start posting information about sending in their experiences to this particular show, lol. As a group, we discussed the email, but ultimately decided based on our confidentiality clauses and expectations to our clients, that we would not be sending in anything based on our investigations–if a client wanted their story told or their location featured, they could make that decision themselves. Several members did discuss possibly sending in personal stories on their own, but as a group, the email was dropped and we moved on to other things.
Less than two days later, I received an email to my personal (not HPIR) email from a lady from A DIFFERENT ghost show on a different channel, lol. While researching cases in this area, she had come upon my blog, and thought it was an excellent resource. She requested I contact her to discuss some items she was interested in, which I did the following day. This particular show has a pretty specific format, and we just couldn’t make some the items work out, and one place that was suggested as a good fit will be featured on yet another paranormal show in the near future, so that one was out as well. I felt bad that I couldn’t be of more help, and suggested another location that the mystery element behind it would make, in my opinion, a really interesting angle to explore. This person LOVED the idea, and contacted the client right away, who also seemed to be really open to the idea. Over the next few days and weeks, I sent in a lot of my primary documentation, and she, the client, and myself played phone/email tag helping chase down leads and doing some follow-up historic research to cement the show proposal. Since I had already invested quite an amount of time in compiling a history for the location, I was asked to consider appearing on camera for a historian interview, should the show actually air.
I am terrified of being on camera, despite my many appearances on the local news, where my team, erm…LOVINGLY threw me under the bus, because their shyness outweighed my own, lol. I am not in this field to be on television, but I did sign my waiver and agreed to appear if needed. I have not publicly mentioned this, save for a few cryptic FaceBook posts, for several reasons. For one, there is no guarantee that this show will ever come to air, and I didnt’ want to feel stupid about posting something that may later fall through. Secondly, I didn’t want to be accused of bragging or acting like I was “better than anyone else.”
Admittedly, I DID put in a LOT of hard work on this case, as the location in question is one that is very dear to me on a personal level. My research with this case, as well as any other that I work on behalf of HPIR or my website, was aimed at uncovering the puzzling truth, and backing it up with verifiable documentation. It would be a lie to say that I am not proud of the hard work I put into this case, but that doesn’t mean I think I am better than anyone else. I cannot copyright primary documents, nor can I copyright HISTORY. It is there for the taking and interpretation of anyone willing to chase after it. But, for whatever reason, HPIR and myself were the first group to not only publicly release this information in a compiled form, but to also take a hard look at it and question it’s relationship to the case itself.
I have made this information VERY public, so that anyone can easily find the documentation in question for themselves to interpret, or simply ask me to provide it. Also, over the years, I have worked with other groups and interested parties on HOW I conduct my research, but there’s only so much that you can actually teach someone on the subject, so I apologize if my lack of information on the subject has ever offended anyone seeking help. Historic research IS a skill, but its largely reliant on perseverance, patience, and luck.
The third reason, and perhaps most important as to why I didn’t publicly discuss, and even refuse now to straight out mention any names, is simply a privacy issue. The show is in its planning stages, and while very far along with a very good chance of going to production, I did not want to jeopardize their trust, or the trust of the client, by spouting their business around. This show is not about me….it is about this location and its owner. If and when they want to make this publicly known, I will be more than happy to help spread the word. Until then, I find that it is none of my business, and do not want to compromise the parties involved in any way.
Things went on like this for several weeks, when I found out another local group who had been publicly posting about their involvement in the FIRST television show had submitted their information on the same case as I had been working on with the second television show. I didn’t say anything to anyone about this information, but I will full up be honest with saying that I knew in my heart right then and there that this was going to end badly.
I held onto the hope that things would work themselves out without me being in the picture at all…but literally DAYS later, here comes the researcher working that other group’s submission knocking at my email….two of my email addresses, actually, lol. The message was the same for both; he was working on behalf of his show, came across my blog, and wanted me to contact him ASAP to discuss sending in some information and possibly appearing on the show. I contacted him the next day, but not before simply giving a head’s up to the lady I had been working with on the other show. It was designed as a professional courtesy, and I believed that it was the ethical decision to give her a head’s up that another show was interested, and had contacted me personally wanting my information. I was asked to call her after I had talked to this gentleman to see what he had to say.
While talking to the researcher I was extremely honest with him about his requests. Any possible evidence obtained at the location during HPIR investigations was HPIR property and I was not authorized to release that to him. As for the historical information, I did disclose that I was working with another show, and as a conflict of interest, would not be sending him copies of my primary documents or my analysis of such unless for some reason, they decided not to air “my” show.
He then asked me if I had seen a certain video. I replied that yes, I had seen THIS GROUP’s video and was familiar with it and where it was filmed. When I mentioned the name of that group, who I assumed owned the video, and who were the ones who told us that they were doing this show, he said he had NEVER heard of them. I had to spell out the group’s name for him, and yes, I did mention that they were on FaceBook saying they were working with the show. Maybe I shouldn’t have said that, but I was flabbergasted and confused as to why he didn’t know who this group was when they were publicly stating their interest in this show.
He then asked me if I had heard of another local group, and I told him, that yes, I had heard of them. I also stated that I believe the video in question was actually put up on YouTube under their name, but could not provide an answer why, as I was under the impression that the other group was the owner of the video and had been telling him that throughout the earlier part of the conversation. I told him that I know that group had investigated the same location, but I couldn’t say for sure or not whether the two groups had a joint investigation there when the video was filmed, or whether they didn’t have their own YouTube account, or what was going on. This researcher did seem quite interested in this information, and did tell me flat out that he thought there was something weird about the ownership of the video, and he himself had had issues finding out who actually shot it.
So I guess this is the part where I REALLY become the bad guy. Again, he flat out asked me what I thought of the video, and I gave him an honest answer. I told him that my group did have a video that we shot where we were able to recreate the original, and scientifically explain the two aspects of alleged paranormal phenomena. This information was never meant to discredit anyone or their work, nor even really presented as a “debunk.” Rather, it was presented in a manner where I offered an alternative, natural explanation…not a cut and dry THIS IS NOT PARANORMAL!
We NEVER made this video public, and I haven’t even given the video to this guy because I cannot tell anyone that the video is paranormal or not, nor do I want that type of responsibility. All I can offer is a possible alternative, based on our educated opinion. We chose not to make this video public because we didn’t want to call out anyone, or hurt anyone’s feelings, or again, be accused of what we’re so often accused of anyway–acting like we’re better than anyone else. Our video was for US and for our client as something else to consider…although when we asked the client about it, he had not seen the original video for himself. As much as we love the paranormal and seek answers to those time honored questions, we’re not doing our clients, ourselves, or this field any favors if we don’t question our own data, and engage in peer review. Our goal is not to prove the paranormal exists…our goal is to uncover the TRUTH.
Maybe I said too much to this guy, but again, my intent has never been to make anyone else look bad, or stop them from being involved in this other show. I gave honest answers to questions I was asked, and gave information that I actually thought would help the show without me becoming directly involved. I had nothing to lose if this other show was filmed…heck, I was contacted to have my information used and to appear, lol…so I was set either way, not that I had that as an ulterior motive, lol. What was important was that a wonderful local site got some national exposure.
I do feel really bad though, and if the situation was reversed, I’d probably be pretty livid, and take it out on who I thought was the most obvious choice as well. Again, I did nothing malicious, though and I am so sorry that someone would think that I am that kind of person.. I did, however, contact the producer of the other show after my conversation to let her know that they had not yet contacted the client. It was my understanding that she was going to contact the client that day to let him know that they could not do the show if he signed with the other company.
This is where I AM going to get a little mean: I may have given a head’s up that resulted in one production company calling the client to let him know their policy, but that is ALL I am taking responsibility for. It was the client’s choice who to sign with, not mine, and I never discussed the matter with him directly. Although these two shows started working on this location close to the same time, it was the one I was assisting on that actually GOT the waiver for the location signed early on, but was another aspect I had NO control over. Whatever the authenticity of the video or my research, or what have you, the bottom line is they jumped on it first, and got the waiver signed weeks ago.
And personally, I’m not even sure why I was contacted by that other company anyway…their show was one that relies on personal stories backed up with evidence…not historical research. If the case was truly a done deal, I probably would not have been contacted being asked for my group’s evidence as well as my thoughts on a specific video and its ownership. In my opinion, there were some red flags alluded to by the information over the video’s ownership, and I was sought to help strengthen the story. (Which I just now confirmed based again on a FaceBook status mentioning this video).
A week has transpired since my conversation with this other production company, and I have not heard anything from my contact as to what is going on. I do know that this other group who had previously been sharing updates about doing the show has publicly stated that it is on hold until further notice. However…this is also when someone called me the c-word on my own blog–specifically on one of my entries on the location in question, while at the same time, the two groups involved in this case besides myself have both posted hateful status updates on their FaceBook pages about an unnamed local group, one specifically mentioning a video and how someone claimed it wasn’t theirs…which is obviously NOT what I said…I was trying to tell the guy just the opposite, lol.
I do not appreciate someone coming onto MY blog and using such language. I may write this blog, but it belongs to the readers and the researchers out there who are seeking their own answers, and that is just crude. Again, I sincerely apologize for any wrong I may have done to deserve this treatment, and I do empathize. I did not purposefully do anything to “screw anyone over” in any way and I never have, nor will I ever, say anything negative about anyone in public. Aside from this one blog post, I will not stoop to the sophomoric level that my team (who is an innocent bystander in this) and I have been exposed to over something so trivial.
This blog is not meant to shame anyone, or be preachy…but simply to just really get the FACTS out there as I know them to be. It seems that there are those spreading a lot of misinformation, whether or not they are honestly mistaken or not, which I just confirmed by reading through all the comments in the one little rant, lol.
If any party involves wished to discuss this with me further, please feel free to do so through email. I have fully stated the truth and if it would make any difference, would gladly sign an affidavit to my integrity. I’m not sure where this story got so convoluted, or why…but I have a darn pretty good guess….
Read more at Theresa’s Haunted History of the Tri-State
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