Tag: ethics

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Ashley Ann Lewis

Director / Dept Chair Occult at National Paranormal Society

Ashley became interested in the paranormal at a young age, but at that young age she did not have much understanding in it at all. I wasn’t until 2010 that she really became interested. Thanks to a Resolve carpet cleaning can that flew across the room, Ashley among three others who witness what happen that night, they pulled a team together. Ashley is a heavy researcher and though she may find the answer to what she is searching for she’ll search even harder. She’s overly determined and takes her part in the paranormal field very seriously. Between working hard and spending every dime she had she became a found of a paranormal team that is based out of Historic Louisiana and was honored to take on a position as a Representative with The National Paranormal Society. There is still so much she does not understand which drives her to work even harder and to further educate herself on everything.

Latest posts by Ashley Ann Lewis (see all)

• Alma – Wild Man of Central Asia - April 8, 2016
• Crypto and the Eye - November 19, 2015
• Negative spirits versus demonic - April 9, 2015

Working with your friends is always fun, and there is always room for a little fun in a paranormal investigation, but it is important to keep in mind that you are on location to collect scientific data.

• Will your friends listen to you when they need to? Will they take you seriously?
• Does everyone have a reason to be there?
• Each person on an investigation should have a set role and a set job for that role. No individuals other than trainees on occasion should be there. Not only can having extra individuals potentially contaminate evidence, but they can also be offensive and unprofessional to both living and dead housemates for too many people to be parading through a location.
• In the end everyone will have a differing opinion on a location. When it comes down to it let your evidence review team make the final call based on what they have.

Different individuals have different methods of investigation. Some will go on a hunch, some will remain purely scientific, others will use occult means to determine a haunting, and still others may possess some level of clairvoyance. As investigators and as a team it is important to respect each others differing methods of evidence collection. One easy way to avoid issues in this arena is to set standards of what is and is not admissible evidence before going on any cases. One of the biggest problems in the paranormal investigation community is talking negatively about other paranormal groups and individual paranormal investigators. This is childish behavior and just makes you and your group appear unprofessional.

Before planning an investigation, find out if any other paranormal investigation groups have investigated the location. Try to contact the paranormal group and listen to their experiences and see if they will show you any evidence they may have.

In return, offer to share any findings with other groups. This could be sharing with a group that previously shared with you or sharing findings with groups that are scheduled to investigate a location you already have. Granted, if the client has asked that the finding not be shared publicly then remind the group you plan to share the information with of that. In fact, it is always good to include a form that either grants or declines the sharing of findings with other groups for the client to sign for legal purposes. When working with other teams it is not the point to be the “winner”. Although we may all have differing investigation methods we all lose when we tear each other apart and claim fake on someone else’s work.

• If there is something you don’t understand in another team’s work take the time to question what brought them to that conclusion.
• Inquire on any history that you may not have on the location.
• If you see an error in evidence take the time to gently explain the error rather than calling fake. We all started out somewhere and by helping an individual better understand a mistake you are making more allies than you are by calling them out as a fake, a fraud, or a noob.