Finding a Group

After my experience at John’s house I knew I wanted to investigate more places. I wasn’t exactly sure how to go about doing more investigating but I was pretty sure I couldn’t just go around knocking on doors asking people if their house was haunted. I went back to the internet forums I had been previously searching and much to my dismay, everyone I talked to suggested that I join a group. Since my first ever contact with a group lead to my evidence being stolen, I wasn’t very happy with the answers I had received from fellow investigators.

For almost a year I tried doing my own investigations and, while I had some hit and miss success on outdoor sites, I was annoyed at walking around graveyards hoping for something to jump out at me. I finally gave in and went about searching for groups in my area. I found three different groups (which was a little surprising given that I lived in a small town). The first group I found was out of the question - they had stolen my evidence and I wasn’t about to trust them again. One of the groups was huge, with nearly a hundred different members spread out over a tri-state area. Their website was filled with video and audio evidence of things they had caught and pictures of equipment I had never heard of. It was overwhelming, and I was certain they wouldn’t want someone with almost no experience. The group I settled on was made up of five people who were looking for a sixth person. I went to their open meeting where a few other people had showed up - possibly join the group as well, but none of them seemed overly interested in doing so.

Like the rest of the people that had shown up to check out the group, I wasn’t sure I really wanted to join. I looked over the small amount of equipment they used and studied their mission statement. I knew it was either this group or, I would be back to wandering around the same graveyard night after night. So, I signed up for their training. During my time in the group, I learned how to have better EVP sessions and how to use an EMF meter. While what I was learning was incredibly useful, I didn’t like how we conducted investigations. I was convinced not everyone had a haunted house and, yet, even the smallest floorboard creek seemed to verify a haunting to this group. After six months I decided that I was better off on my own and left the group.

While telling my tale of frustration on the forums I had become a regular on, one of the members of the large group I had passed up suggested I join them for a guest investigation; he also mentioned that I might like their theory of “debunking” hauntings, instead of going in believing every location was haunted. After much thought, I agreed to join the group on their investigation.

Immediately, I knew that this group was going to be much different than the one that I had just left. It started with the fact that we were going to be investigating the location during the day. Expressing my confusion to the founder, he simply looked at me and asked if I had ever heard of spirits having a bedtime. Oddly enough, it was the exactly the answer I needed. My house was active at all times which meant others most likely were, as well.

For nearly four months we didn’t find any hauntings. That was certainly a lot different than the last group that found every location to be haunted, and reinforced my original belief that the house I had grown up in had been a rare occurrence. Once an opening for an investigator came open, I took the spot, knowing that I had found a group that I could learn from, and eagerly advance passed the knowledge I had gathered just from being a guest investigator.