Sue St.Clair and Matthew Didier's Paranormal Blog

One of more popular questions we are getting from media during this 2009 Halloween season is in regards to safety, and legal concerns that paranormal researchers face.

What are some legal and safety concerns when someone decides to look for paranormal activity?

From a legal situation, the first worry is people that "break and enter" or trespass in the name of the study. A lot of people assume that if a place has a reputation as being haunted or is "abandoned and spooky", it's carte blanche in terms of doing whatever it takes to go in and "find the ghost"!

Trouble is, there is no such thing as an "abandoned" property... all property is owned, be it by a person, corporate entity, or the government (or "crown") so permissions are needed... also, when a place is closed, there may be safety risks involved from a structural or even health consideration. We use a small mantra with this... "Ask. The worst anyone can say is no."

Second worry is vandalism. When a place gains a reputation as haunted, some people take is as a "badge of honour" that they bravely went into the "haunted place" and managed to survive. This is ludicrous on many levels... first of all, since the keeping of recorded cases in North America, there have only been two properly documented injuries that have been attributed to ghostly phenomena... the first if the infamous "Bell Witch" case from Tennessee in 1817 (which is hotly debated still,)... the latter case is "The Entity" case from California in the 1970's.

Though Hollywood would have people believe otherwise, these are the only two cases where third-party neutral witnesses agreed that "unknown" properties were at play and that medical authorities were brought in to prove that the "damage" was actually there and not readily explainable. In essence, more people are physically hurt from botched exorcisms, "escaping" perceived phenomena (and tripping or bumping into things,) and from being financially compromised by charlatan house clearers or the like than ever by a "ghost"... so "surviving" or "braving" a haunted place is not really a big coup...

None-the-less, many would-be ghost hunters, in a desperate attempt to prove how grand they are, tend to like to tag or otherwise leave something for people to know "they" were there...

Realistically, it doesn't take (to steal a line from wrestler Mick Foley,) much "testicular fortitude" to go to the spooky place at night... however, to go in broad daylight to a museum, historic site, or any place like this and try to engage the staff at the site about their possible paranormal happenings requires a tonne of courage.

Third thing is privacy. As a rule, people don't want to be known as living in the "haunted house" and often it can lead to "thrill seekers" visiting in various facets (including the "vandals" mentioned above,) and even fraudulent people offering their services to "get rid of" the ghost for a fee.

Also, to stigmatize a home as "haunted" does negatively affect the property value... and often, that stigmatism is undeserved.

This is why we don't and won't give out exact addresses or contact information about any of our reports unless it's been previously published and made public through other sources.

The only other thing I can mention is that if someone is honestly interested... it can be an enjoyable and very fascinating subject to look into... but there's absolutely never any reason or need to put yourself or anyone in danger... ever.

As they say about doctors and organ transplants... "When in doubt, DON'T!"