Death.

Death is fascinating. There is no denying, that we all on some level are fascinated by not only our own mortality, but by the demise of others.  In this field, I spend a lot of time talking death, what happens we die, and how people have died. I am unapologetically comfortable with death, it doesn't frighten or disgust me, and I will probably at some point make you feel uneasy with my openness and desire to talk about it. However, it should be understood that I am disconnected emotionally, and find it important to remain respectful while discussing the life and death of another human being.

It is a personal struggle of mine, to find an appropriate balance while doing my own research for my History degree, or while working on research for a paranormal investigation. I never want my interests to make me look like a sadistic sociopath. But sometimes, its hard to discuss tragic events that have occurred at a reportedly haunted location without appearing offensive, or disconnected from the events. Recently, I was listening to another investigator discuss the history of a location we would be investigating. In part of his speech, he relayed the story of a homeless man freezing to death on the exterior steps of the building, which he described excitedly as "cool", and even confronted with some negative reactions from the crowd, he persisted that he thought it was great because it was a more recent death than the others.

 It was an eye opening moment for me, because I knew I could have unintentionally said something just as offensive.  It's too easy to cross the line in paranormal investigations, we all need to make an ongoing commitment to evaluate our investigation practices to make sure we are not only serving our clients in the best way possible, but also that we treating the spirits we encounter with dignity whether that is in our communication with them, or our research of their lives. Tragic events can be intriguing, fascinating, and downright entertaining but we can't forget that they were also life changing, awful events that caused heartache.