Welcome to the PEEP Podcast. I’m your host Nicolle Morock, and on this episode, I want to talk about ethics in paranormal investigating. I don’t think anything I’m about to say will be controversial, but if you disagree with any of it, let me know. I’m willing to have a civilized, constructive conversation about it.

I’m inspired to cover this topic by the number of people I see on Facebook posting in paranormal-related groups that they’re new to the field or they’d like to find some new haunted locations to “investigate.” Often those posts are answered with places that are likely private properties that appear “abandoned.”

Oh, then there are the popular cable TV shows where investigators walk into a supposedly haunted location and yell profanities at the spirits that reside there. Or just as bad, immediately tell the people who live or work at the location that there’s demonic activity based on a gut feeling and some local folklore.

And what about the investigators who walk into a place looking to prove it’s as haunted as everyone says it is? Maybe you’re wondering how that’s a bad thing. I’ll get there. Hang with me for a moment.

As someone who’s spent a lifetime studying paranormal topics in books, magazines, and documentaries, and who’s been on hundreds of investigations over the course of 10-plus years, I think it’s incredibly important to include ethics when talking to people who are interested in getting involved in the field. So, if I were to teach a class on the subject – I’m not but if I were – here are some of the points I would make:

First, let’s define ethics. There are four definitions on dictionary.com, and I’m going to use two of them here to set the stage for this discussion:

1. The rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group, culture, etc.

2. That branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions.

NSPIR has a set of rules for investigating. Some of them are basic ground rules for how we as a group like to run our investigations, such as no whispering during EVP sessions – listen to episodes 17 and 20 for more on that rule – and use the buddy system. Everyone works in pairs, at a minimum, because if something paranormal happens, you want a witness for corroboration and if a bad accident happens, you need someone who can help or call for help.

But we have other rules that are based on our values and respect for other human beings. These represent our ethics. Here are the highlights:

• No trespassing. Just about every property is owned by someone. Get permission to be there. If you can’t contact the owner for permission, don’t go.
• Case in point – we had an old plantation home in our area with a reputation for being haunted. It appeared abandoned, but the fact of the matter was the owner had plans to completely renovate it to the condition it had once been when previous generations of his family had lived there. The work was going to take a long time and a lot of money, and he was excited about the prospect.

He gave us permission to take our meetup group there for training purposes in exchange for cat food. Yes, cat food. He fed the neighborhood’s feral cats to help keep the rodents and other varmints at bay.

Each time we visited the home to do an investigation, we noticed more graffiti and other damage from people who had never gotten permission to be there. Windows were busted out, stair railing was damaged, what few items left in the house showed signs of smoke damage. It was a mess because of legend-trippers and people with no respect for other people’s belongings. Eventually, we had to stop going because he was frustrated with the whole situation, and because it was no longer a safe building for us.

Years later, the house is still there, in worse condition than ever. I think he’s given up on the hope of restoring it – all because people were disrespectful and selfish.

Obviously, that makes me unhappy on his behalf, and I hope some of the trespassers have been caught and charges were pressed.

• No provoking. It seems to be a popular tactic – challenging whatever spirit might be present to push you or otherwise forcefully show a dramatic sign of their presence. There are a couple of reasons we are against that behavior.
• First, if there is a spirit present and you make it angry, what happens? Maybe you get the thrill of an interaction. And then you leave. You have the luxury of going home to your own quiet abode. But did you think about the people who live in the home or work in the business you’re investigating? Even if it’s a public location that gives ghost tours, it’s still not cool. If you stir them up and leave them angry, who do you think will bear the brunt of that ire? The people who have to be there every day. Don’t be inconsiderate like that.
• Second, if there really is a spirit present, most likely it is a human spirit. It was someone living at one time. Walking into their space and being demanding, or worse – insulting, is the epitome of rudeness. How would you feel in their shoes? Would you want to be cooperative in the investigation? Probably not.
• So, by provoking, you’re either going to make an angry or frustrated spirit act out toward everyone, or you’re going to make them not want to interact at all. How is either of those options helpful? It’s just not.
• Don’t jump to conclusions.
• NSPIR takes the experiences of the people who live in the home or work in the building seriously. We listen to their stories of activity and how it makes them feel and use the information to help us pinpoint what areas to focus on, what tactics to use, and what time of day or night to investigate – if the activity in a home happens at 3pm every day, why would we bother being there at 3am? You investigate when it makes sense to the situation, not when the TV shows tell you that you should.
• Once we decide to take a case, we use the information given to us to try to find mundane explanations first. Is there a plumbing or HVAC problem that might cause mystery noises? Does an area have unusually high EMF, which can affect a person’s feelings and perceptions? Is it possible someone in the household has let a prank go to far? It happens. I speak from experience.
• Then we do a full investigation with EVP sessions, any experiments that might be relevant to the reported activity, photography, video, etc.
• Once we’ve done that, we thoroughly go through the data and look for anomalies such as electronic voice phenomena on audio recordings.
• If we find anything, we present it to the homeowner (or business owner) and let them determine whether it’s enough to deem the place haunted. We do not proclaim a location haunted. We present our findings and say whether we witnessed the activity ourselves. If we had no experiences and no anomalies, does that mean it isn’t haunted? No. That only means we got nothing. And that happens more than you’d probably imagine.
• If you go into a location looking to prove it’s haunted, you’re going to suffer from confirmation bias. You’ll be looking for things that seem to prove spirit activity and potentially ignoring evidence to the contrary. That way of investigating is intellectually dishonest.
• Don’t jump to conclusions, part 2 – it’s probably not a demon.
• There are at least two good reasons not to tell someone they have a demonic entity terrorizing their home or place of business:
• 1. If the activity there is paranormal in nature, how likely is it that there’s a demon on the loose? In my experience, if demons are real, it would be a rare occurrence. I’m more inclined to believe the mischievous or frightening activity is the spirit of a person who’s trying to get attention or possibly send a message of some sort. And yes, that could mean it’s an angry or even sociopathic spirit. What a person was in life, so they’ll likely be in death. Nasty people become nasty ghosts.
• 2. Ask yourself how telling the person who invited you into their home that they have a demon present will help them, especially if you don’t have some darned solid proof to back that up. Again, you give them reason to be more afraid in their own home, and then you get to go home and sleep in your own safe bed at night. Meanwhile, how could they sleep after being told that? If you can’t prove it and you can’t fix it, but you really do believe there’s demonic activity, bring in someone who has the knowledge and experience to deal with the situation BEFORE scaring the homeowner. Who might that be? Start with your local clergy – a trained priest, minister, rabbi, whatever. Don’t take it upon yourself to discern something like that, especially if you have no way to mitigate the problem. Be willing to acknowledge and accept your own limitations and ask for help.
• Be honest about your motives. If you’re just thrill seeking, that’s okay, but don’t present yourself as a truth seeker or scientifically motivated if that’s not your reason for investigating. Some people may think it’s cool to give you a chance to investigate their home just to see what you get, and if they trust you with that opportunity, keep the rest of these guidelines in mind.
• Keep it confidential. Unless you have permission from the home or business owner to talk about their case, don’t tell the world who they are, where they live, and what’s going on. If you must talk about the case, change the names and hide the location. You wouldn’t want anyone airing your dirty laundry, so don’t air theirs.
• Giving details may bring unwanted attention such as a line of cars full of curious people driving through their neighborhood taking photos of their home, or worse, trespassers.



And now we’ve come full circle.

These are the main points I’d make if teaching a course on ethics in paranormal investigating. There are others that could be made, too. Feel free to chime in on Facebook or Twitter.

Thanks, as always for listening!