The ethics of paranormal investigating and TV shows

We are experiencing a wave of interest in the paranormal that is still increasing as of March of 2009. There are many reality TV shows that seem to show what paranormal investigating teams do. Since our culture responds strongly to television shows there are now hundreds or thousands of groups of (mostly) young people mimicing what they see on TV. Unfortunately these shows don't teach people about the realities of paranormal investigating or the spiritual context in which it is done. Finally there are some basic ethical issues that I think are not addressed on the shows.

I am friends with many of the people that make these TV shows and we have all talked about many of these issues in our friendships. Some of the shortcomings are forced by the production companies that control the editing of the shows.

In the initial phase of participating in paranormal investigating (meaning any attempts to experience the spritual world) there are usually one of a few selfish motives. The most common is to understand some strang experience that happened to the person in their past. The second most common seems to be to verify the afterlife to asuage the fear of their personal death. The third is to find some comfort in "knowing" a loved one who has died isn't lost to them. These are usually the personal reasons hidden under the general public reason of wanting to find evidence of the paranormal.

So, many people start out looking for some compelling evidence of the spiritual world. When they have enough strong experiences to know it's real it seems the ethic should shift from self-interest or self-comfort. If one knows that there are human souls with feelings that seem to be in some difficult state that isn't typical that leads to a few things, mainly a desire to find out what might help them (unless one is inherently cruel). It seems that we would normally try to find a way to help confused or hurting people in the real world, but not so for "ghosts." What is typically done is the continuation of the model presented on TV: collect more evidence of their present state. How many EVPs, K-II sessions and videos of "orbs" do you need to collect, and why? If we are essentially going into a room with a captive there and poking them with a stick to make them perform for us over and over isn't that kind of cruel? Once we know for ourselves that some kind of thinking and feeling entity is there shouldn't we move toward compassion as opposed to exploitation? I know I'm speaking in harsh terms but I think this behavior bears that out.

When we add in the idea, which appears in every religion I'm aware of, of evil spirits it gets even more strange. If one knows for sure that there are evil spirits that are intelligent, deceptive, and hate human beings shouldn't one start to be more cautious during paranormal investigating? Most investigating is essentially giving spiritual rights for unknown entities to form a relationship with us. By asking for communication or displays of power we are exercising our free will and giving rights to these spirits to interact with us. If they are evil why would we assume they wouldn't keep taking advantage of those rights after the investigation? I've personally worked on a number of cases of people on paranormal investigation teams that ended up with spiritual attachments or spirits in themselves.

Once we know that there is a spiritual world I think it's worth thinking about moving past verification and the endless collecting of evidence for selfish reasons. For the Catholic there is generally the belief that all ghosts are evil spirits pretending to be human, so there should be no paranormal investigating at all. For those that believe in ghosts there can be a shift to praying for these souls in purgatory and having masses said for them. Talking with them violates the rules in the Bible and the Church and opens us up to potential attachment as we give rights to these spirits with our free will choices.

It is going to be interesting to see how Hollywood presents the darker cases of the paranormal. I know that currently the trend is toward showing the demon cases, which is likely not wise.

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All material Copyright Adam Blai, 2009.

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