Creating a new concept!

 As I sit here and work on 2 additional paranormal projects, I am left to ponder the future of paranormal investigations. Has the field already hit its prime? Is anyone stepping up to take over where we have left off? I see a lot of teams now coming in and doing this just for the video views. I think the field has lost sight of why we do this... RESEARCH. I see so many teams out there jockeying to be the next Ghost Adventures or Ghost Hunters show. It's not gonna happen. New shows pop up and fall to the side every day. 

Meanwhile, me and my team are pushing forward to legitimize the field of study into the paranormal. I am working on moving forward with the idea of an academy or course to inspire and educate future investigators. My pursuit of refining the field of paranormal investigations will never stop. I am so dedicated to ensuring the integrity of the art, I had to completely dismantle my team and rebuild it from the ground. 

As a paranormal investigator, I have taken a hiatus from investigations for almost a year now. I wanted time away from the field to get a sense of direction for myself. Now that I have, I have a new goal in mind. I want to create a center of resources and research for all to use. Not just ghosts or hauntings, but all thing paranormal. I want to provide research materials and source for the entire field. This covers ghost, urban legends, vampires, werewolves etc. 

I know this may put off a few die-hard main liners of paranormal investigations. But we have to take into account of where most of the modern concepts originated. The folklore or these stories and the modern exploration of them. 

I am currently seeking items and articles for display and educational purposes. My hope is to have a wide array of artifacts and articles to share with the public. I want people to explore the other side of investigations, not just what the TV shows give us. Real unfiltered investigations. 

I want to give everyone a chance to experience and explore paranormal investigations. I want to reach out to other teams and give them an opportunity to be part of this new venture and display their findings as well. 

If you would like to be a part of this new experience through donations of artifacts, older investigation equipment, video recorded evidence, photographic evidence or other means of supporting this, please email me so we can discuss it further. Thank you all and I hope to bring you more news in the future. 

What's the point?

 Why is it so difficult to get teams to commit to unity? Why is everyone wanting to be "The first", "the only" or "the final" in anything? With such a finite community, you would have thought there was more cohesion. But there isn't. You know the story of the "one bad apple"? It is true here too. All it takes is one bad experience for a team or one bad team in general, to negatively influence a community and then taint that community towards others.

There have been so many struggles by good teams, that struggle to engage with the community and promote unity. But because of that one negative experience, that bridge is burnt. I have had my experience people like that, teams, WHOLE TEAMS that did nothing but internally fight and disrespect each other. I have sat back and watch a team, that did everything they could to destroy mine, collapse into ruins. Why? Because of negative or narcissistic leadership.  

No one on that team worked together. No one knew which direction to go and worst off, no one respected the leader. 

You must give more than you receive. You must give more than you take. You must LOVE the field and the experiences. If you don't, it will show and those that followed a lie, will leave when they discover it was all a lie. 

I absolutely love what I do. I am so eager to explore and share what I do with others. So much, that I invite other teams to go with us. I ask other teams to HOST events with us, I don't lie and use them for "ticket sales". When I do host events, I ask that EVERYONE in a team wear their team shirts to PROUDLY represent their team and their association. 

I once was asked to help start and promote a "Para-Unity" group. That person used it for his OWN personal recognition and used it as a stage to promote his team ONLY! A true abuser of trust! Yea, I am still a bit salty over it all. Not just because he betrayed my trust, but he hurt a lot of other teams. HE twisted their trust and commitment to the community. Some out right quit investigating all together. I mean, who "INVITES" you to an event only if you buy tickets? Then turns around and ... never mind. It is all behind us now. But you get the picture.

I VOWED I would NEVER treat anyone like me, and my team was treated that day. I would set the standard for events. I would not only set the bar but RAISE it each time. I wanted the individual to know that this event was about them and the location. NOT ME or MY TEAM! We were just the guides and the attendants. 

I absolutely LOVE this community. I love the people I have met and the locations I have been able to visit and re-visit over the years. Some of my FAVORITE people are related to ghost hunting! Debra and Lisa from the Haunted Old Lavaca County Jail in Hallettsville (shameless plug!! LUV YALL!!) are the reason people LOVE going there. They embody what TRUE unity is about. They LOVE everyone that comes through there and investigates. They make your stay so enjoyable. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THEM!! It's not just words, it's true emotion!! They are family to me!! 

It is people like Debra and Lisa that inspire the next generation and push us old farts to the next level. They keep us centered and focused; they keep us humble. They show the community wat TRUE para-unity is, wait... forget that phrase. I'm starting another one...#paraluv. Because that is what they bring to the table, nothing but love and respect. 

I learned early on, that if you want to attract respect, you first must give respect. This community is built upon mutual respect and kindness. It will continue to grow if we work together to ensure this community is here for the next several generations. As technology becomes more advanced, I am almost sure, there will be break throughs in the field of paranormal studies. Be it in the area of equipment or in the area of evidence captured, there will be breaks throughs! I just hope I am still around to see them! lol

What I would like for you to take from this little rant is this: love each other. Respect each other. Give more than you receive. If we all do this, OUR community will be a better place, bridges will be built, and friendships would have been established. So go out there, reach out to other teams, say hello, give more to a paranormal Facebook group that you take (don't just post your team stuff). Engage with your neighbors. But most importantly, have fun!

William Hope: The Father of Paranormal Photograghy

 

William Hope was born in the year 1863. William began his career as a carpenter when he was a young man. Soon William rose to a certain level of fame with the "spiritualist" circles of the day. William had a certain knack for capturing the images of spirits in his photographs. William Hope produced the first paranormal photo in 1905. Soon after this feat, he created a new group which he called the Crewe Circle Spiritualist Group. Soon after, William began to rise to fame as being able to capture the images of loved ones in photos. 

This was the age of Spiritualism. Spiritualism was at its height in popularity between 1804 and 1920. Spiritualism was a religious type movement. Its belief system stemmed from the thought that the spirits of the dead existed and could if they so chose to communicate with the living. At its peak in 1897, it is said that more than 8 million followers in both the U.S. and Europe practiced some for of spiritualism. The core of its followers were upper and upper-middle class society. Spiritualism grew and spread for almost 50 years without formal groups or organization. This was made possible through periodicals, tours, and lectures. 

In 1905 William Hope produced his first ghostly image. This launched him into fame as something of a medium, not to mention later being called the "Father of Spirit photography". The only problem with all this, William was a total fraud! During the early age of photography, the development process was not commonly known. William used this to his advantage to create his fame and dupe the public.

William used a technique commonly called "double exposure". During this process two different exposures or images are layered on top of each other creating the ghostly image. Once word got out about William Hopes ability to capture the ghostly images of loved ones it gained the attention of the Society for Psychical Research based in the United Kingdom. This group set out to conduct organized research into human experiences the challenged the contemporary model. They were the FIRST group of individuals to research paranormal claims. 

In 1920 William Hope ran into his first bit of trouble. Edward Bush laid a trap for William by using a fake name. Edward Bush sent a letter to William Hope with the name  of "Wood" and sent a photo of a living person whom he pretended was his dead son. Edward Bush then attended a sitting with William Hope and Hope produced a photo of a spirit which happened to be the same photo that was sent to Hope. The phrase "Dear friend Wood" had appeared on the photo. Researchers with the SPR concluded that there was sufficient evidence to prove William Hope as a fraud.

In 1921 a gentleman who was a close friend of magician Harry Houdini attended a sitting and found the unusually dark conditions of the room were ripe for suspicious activities. He also suspected Hope of switching the photograph plates during these sessions.

In all, the Father of Spirit photography was a fraud. But his actions inspired the possibility of capturing spirits on film. Pushing the field of research into a new direction not thought of before. If it was not for William Hope and his fraudulent photos, we may have never began to think of capturing the spirit world through the lens of a camera.

Why did I become a paranormal investigator?

First thing, I did not want to try and be the next Jason Hawes or Grant Wilson. I never intended to be something I would consider a "superstar". I did not want a TV show or a podcast. I did not do this for the self notoriety or the so-called fame. I did this because I wanted answers to questions and situations that I myself experienced. 

I see a lot of people and teams out there calling themselves EXPERTS. I have never called myself this. I have always referred to myself as a "ghost hunter". I have never put a title or a moniker to the explanation other than "ghost hunter". Everyone is SELF TAUGHT in this field. I did not go to school for this unless you included the School of Hard Knocks. 

I see so many folks loosing their way, wanting to be the next Ed and Lorraine Warren. I do not want that level of responsibility. To claim this level of achievement and all you have done is a few hunts, that is so immature. 

Some folks do an event or two and forget their roots!! I will NEVER forget where I started or why I began this journey. Once the pressures outside my control begin to try and dictate my actions, it is time for a change! I will NOT change who I am or what my group has become. I will not compromise my ethics and morals for someone else! 

The last few years have been fun, that is no lie. Even with the current public health situations we have had a blast investigating a few locations. I need to refocus MY efforts back to my roots. I am investigator. I enjoy the dark and damp locations that others think "too dirty" to investigate. I LOVE the silence of a building, to feel the historic pressures and to be able to experience the natural paranormal energies. I want to get back to my roots!! The REAL reason I became a ghost hunter, I want to experience as many paranormal situations as possible and try to answer the age old question:

ARE GHOSTS REAL???

Why ghost hunts are not free?

 There are a lot of factors that go into a good ghost hunt. The most important is the location then the equipment. Neither are cheap. Most of these popular locations charge a rental fee to gain access for a night or weekend. Some only allow you on the property for a limited period of time. You don't even get a full 24 hours for your money! Some locations require a lot of up keep and maintenance. This translates into cost of operation, which means .. you got to pay!!

Some of the places do a very bare minimal to accommodate their guest and do minimal cleaning. While others make their location as clean as possible! In order to keep these locations suitable for investigations they has to be a property manager ( again CO$T of operating ). 

My most FAVORITE place to visit, Haunted Old Lavaca County Jail in Hallettsville! OMG!! This place is sooooo clean. They have it all!! Ghosts, sleeping accommodations, a FULL kitchen, restroom and shower!! So places do not even have a toilet for you to use and STILL charge you an rathe large amount of money.

 A lot of folks are always asking "when can I go with you on your next hunt?"  and my response is usually the same. " I'm sorry but at this is a team member investigation only." Most of our investigations are residential and require a "soft" approach. But when we do offer the public its always the same as well. "Oh, you mean we have to pay?" or "Maybe next time, let me know when you go"

When you say there is money involved the interested seem to disappear or the say "hold 3 for me till this Friday please!!" Then when Friday hits and you message them, they NEVER respond. This is why I do not hold tickets any longer. FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE!!

There are a lot of costs involved with hosting a ghost hunt. You don't want people walking away from an event you hosted saying "dang, that's it?"  For the most part, that is what a lot of groups do too! You pay, you show up and you walk around with that team until the time is over. But I want to give an experience that I would want and that costs money! Perhaps its $40 per person, but you are gonna get to investigate a REAL HAUNTED LOCATION, use REAL equipment, bottled water, snacks, and perhaps even pizza for FREE! There are teams and groups that will charge you EXTRA for this!!

So when you see a team or location out there posting about an event and charging for it, they are not trying to pay their light bill or water bill. They are trying to off-set the out of packet expense that they are paying for your benefit! You have been begging to go and they are giving you that opportunity. The chance you have been waiting for is $40 or $50 away. That money goes to assist in the location rental, to assist in buying the bottled water, snacks, food, batteries and even perhaps a gift bag if your lucky enough. 

So do not be so snub when you see a group posting about "charging" for a ghost hunt. Do not be so rude to make comments that are negative. If you can not go, sorry, but don't comment saying "why so much" or " I can't afford that" or "not everyone can afford that".. it just shows your contempt and lack of knowledge on what all is involved with that process. Be better than that and say "have fun" or "maybe next time"...... DON"T BE A KAREN!!! lol

World's Largest Ghost Hunt 2020

 Let me first say a HUGE "THANK YOU" to Debra Fawcett and Lisa Mihalik Franks for allowing my group, Liberty Independent Ghost Hunters of Texas, to host this event at the Haunted Old Lavaca County Jail in Hallettsville, TX. This was an amazing opportunity for us and I sincerely appreciated it. Not to mention being dubbed the "House Band" and being asked to host many more events!

What can I say, that I have not already said about the Haunted Old Lavaca County Jail? Each and every time I have ever investigated this historic location, I have came back with yet another paranormal experience and PROOF that this place has earned the moniker "Most haunted jail in North America".

This years WLGH ( World's Largest Ghost Hunt ) wasn't all too different from how the intended plan was supposed to play out. This year has been rough for social gatherings. They cancelled the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, then toilet paper disappeared like a 15 yr old does when you ask them to take out the trash! But things got more hectic and frantic when public disturbances started to pop up and threaten the communities.

But thanks to the wonderful ladies of the Haunted Old Lavaca County Jail, the WLGH202 marched forward!! We had sold out the event in UNDER 24 HOURS of posting the sale of the tickets on Facebook. We started the planning and logistics since January 2020. We visited the 4th annual WLGH hosted by a different team and we did not like what we seen or experienced. As we stood in the parking lot we discussed several aspects to ourselves and what WE would want to experience from an event like this and what we would have done differently. 

So we booked our very first solo visit in January 2020 and WOW, what an experience!!! Within the first several minutes of us investigating we could heard FOOTSTEPS!!  We received MASSIVE REM pod responses, EMF "hits" audio EVPs and the very loud and "FAMOUS" loud bang that we caught on video.

So, as me and my wife sat one day at lunch, we discussed the event and how we would have done things differently. Then I started kicking the idea of L.I.G.H.T. hosting the event and I thought... why not ask! So I sent Debra a message asking if she had any teams in mind to host the event in 2020 and that we would like to throw our name into the hat for consideration. Well little did we know they had already been kicking the idea of us hosting the event between themselves! 

So fast forward!! We had 15 wonderful guests buy tickets and unfortunately 5 did not show for various reasons. But we had a BLAST!!! We set up a hand draw mural by Staci Hemmenway and her daughter Keali for folks to take selfies. We had a banner to commemorate the event, signs, and even made personal event badges for each guest with their names on them. 

I wanted the guests to get the experience that WE DID NOT GET!! They paid for a ghost hunt and that is what I wanted them to get!! Last year some of the guests never even got a chance to enter the building and it was NOT for lack of trying or the managements fault. The team last year just did not have the planning nor the team work to accomplish that task. There was in-fighting amongst them, public cursing matches, so sad. Another thing we did that the other team REFUSED to do, is we ENCOURAGED the other teams that came out with us to WEAR THEIR TEAM SHIRTS!! I wanted to not only represent the Haunted Old Lavaca County Jail or the World's Largest Ghost Hunt, but I wanted those individuals to represent THEIR TEAMS AS WELL. Because like the motto said, TONIGHT WE COME TOGETHER AS ONE!! 

Why shouldn't they get to wear their shirts? This event was not a platform or stage for me to elevate my group or showcase them. It was the GUESTS that were important, it was Haunted Old Lavaca County Jail that was important. I wanted the guest to feel as if they were the main attraction and we DID!!! I am so proud of my team and the way we all worked so hard to make this happen. Our guests were so happy they actually got to investigate!! Last year we were made to stand around and WATCH the hosts investigate, we were told that we could NOT bring in our our gear, that we could NOT take pictures or video. 

Our ONLY request was for our guests to not live stream or to make a video that would interfere with other people investigating. If they wanted to do that, then we provided a 4 hour block of time for them to free roam the jail and shoot all the video and live stream they wanted. I made sure that team got what they paid for!! The jail provided snacks and bottled water, so did we... we didn't charge folks for water like the other team did last year.. SMH

My goal was to host an event that people would LOVE returning to and it worked!! Several of our guests said they could not WAIT for next years event, that made me VERY happy. Then Debra Fawcett said "oh, your already booked, you signed a lifelong contract"! HAHAHA, talk about feeling good about your accomplishments.. To be invited back in a matter of minutes after the conclusion of the event. I am so excited!! But...... IT. GETS. BETTER!!!

We have also been asked to host several other events at the Haunted Old Lavaca County Jail. For starters, May 1st, 2021.. First Responders Appreciation night, Assisted Ghost Hunts and tours, both day and night!! Of course, the 6th annual World's Largest Ghost Hunt 2021 and more ghost tours and hunts!! So as we sit right now, we have 4 planned public events at the Haunted Old Lavaca County Jail, possibly 5!!

So if your wondering and I know you are!! YES, you too can book the jail for yourself!!    https://www.facebook.com/lcj33/     Just follow the link!!!

Its the best decision you'll make!! 

If you want to follow our groups adventures?? Follow the link!   https://www.facebook.com/groups/LIGHT2018/

I can not say how big of an honor it was to host the WLGH for the Haunted Old Lavaca County Jail and to be asked to host it again and many more. Founding  Liberty Independent Ghost Hunters of Texas is probably one of the most memorable things I have done and there is SO MUCH more ahead for this group!! I hope you get to book a stay at the Haunted Old Lavaca County Jail for your self, you will NOT regret it!!

                      As our motto say, 

                                                       YOU ARE NOT ALONE!!!

Camera being knocked over by ghost