The Egos and the G-Word

I am a lucky chap, all in all. My full time job is to work in a field that I have been fascinated by since I was five years of age. I get to take groups around reputedly haunted buildings and treat them to my sceptical ramblings countered by my colleagues more paranormal explanations. I get to conduct private research from the revenue this provides and I get to write it up online and in some magazines from time to time! I am a lucky chap.

But I often worry about how long this can last. When will the rug will be pulled out from beneath my feet by some over enthusiastic ego tripper? And if there is one thing I have found no shortage of it is egos! Whilst I suppose it takes some ego to forge a living in the paranormal industry (and believe me that’s exactly what it is and has been for a very long time; an industry) the worst part is that these over-inflated egos are not from sceptics or cynics but they are colleagues, psychics and counterparts! People who believe a decade or more of ‘research’ or communing with spirit makes them an expert and they appoint themselves as some sort of overseer of all others who dare to enter the realm of the paranormal. They see themselves as bouncers at the doors of the supernatural club administering some sort of test or review and fail it at your peril!

These people often see themselves as leaders and guardians of the subject matter, dictating the way a subject is seen and treated. They demand others fall in line. But my question is, how do we know the line is going in the right direction? What if these un-elected and un-screened self-styled gurus are simply dragging their line on an ego trip with no real purpose other than the sensation of importance and elevation?

A few years back I wrote an article for a magazine entitled The G-Word about a prevailing attitude among long term researchers toward anyone who had a casual interest in ghosts. They treated the question ‘do you believe in ghosts?’ with a contemptuous snort and looked down their nose at the unfortunate who dared ask this dreaded question replying only ‘it depends on what you mean by ‘ghost’ before prattling into a list of types of entities and attempting the use of pseudo-scientific schlock which in reality hold no basis in fact as no one yet has actually proven the existence of ghosts in order to pigeonhole them so particularly.

My concern then, as it is now, is that such egos threaten the essence of the paranormal that most of us grew up with and draws so many new faces to the subject. It is fun! OK it seems a strange and inappropriate conclusion to draw given that ghosts are reportedly dead people but the mystery of it all, the ghost stories we were told as kids and the shiver we feel whilst checking out darkened corners of a haunted hotel are all... well... fun! 

But when egos emerge and begin to sap the enjoyment then they also begin to swamp the subject and it becomes more open to ridicule than ever and the flames of cynicism are fanned with each egotistical claim that one thought or belief is wrong compared to their own. The cynics wouldn't need to attack the subject matter as the egos and their 'my opinion is fact' claims would tear it down from the inside! 

Personally I fully intend to enjoy my work and I hope it is a career that will last until my dying day and in the meantime I would love to find some answers and maybe change my view from sceptic to believer.

In the meantime I shall endure the sneers of the egotists, the jibes of the cynics and I shall keep my eye out. Not for a ‘non-sentient entity’ and not for a ‘residual presence’. I will keep my eye out for a good old fashioned ghost… but until then I remain your Disappointed Sceptic.