The Para-Tragedy of Para-Unity
Or, Bigotry in Ghost Hunting
You know, I didn’t want to write this one, Traveler. I especially don’t want to put up a companion video this week on my YouTube channel. But I cleaned out some old inbox stuff today, and in doing so, I came across an e-mail I had once received. Enough time has passed since I first saw this e-mail that weirded me out and seemed to want a reaction from me. I think it’s time I go into the homophobic e-mail someone sent me about Ghost Hunts USA.
Let’s talk lore, Traveler.
Ghost Hunts USA
Ghost Hunts USA was a paranormal experience tour company founded out of…somewhere. I’m not sure where, but their business address was a corporate mailbox in Delaware. Much of the information for the company is lost to time, as the hosting on their website has expired. According to their Facebook page, they were in business for nine years. And then, in 2023, it was over.
But we’ll get into that in a moment.
Ghost Hunts USA experiences ran anywhere from $129 per person to far more. As their pricing page is lost to time, I found their Yelp page!
They ran Google and Facebook ads almost exclusively if memory serves me correctly. In 2021, I was on Eventbrite looking for something to do, and a half-price, half-time event was to be held at Cresson Sanitorium in Southwest Pennsylvania.
Finally, an event for $50!
I use the term event loosely. I can safely say it was the worst ghost hunt I’ve ever participated in.
The four-hour event was more like two. We had to go with guides for two hours while they performed demonstrations. At one point, the group was made to stare in the dark for ten minutes and look down a hallway.
I can do that at home for free and see the same amount of ghosts I saw that night.
I took that night personally, and I never used GHUSA again. But I held onto the terrible experience. I didn’t say anything about it at the time.
By the way, Cresson is amazing. Currently, they have to deal with some government-related things. Check out their website.
And if you need ghost-hunting videos about Cresson, here’s this and this. Shout out to both MONDOdocs and Pasadena Paranormal. I wish I had my own ghost hunt video, but here we are.
So fast forward to now, and why am I writing this? GHUSA closed its doors at the end of April 2023. A month prior, Wilson Castle in Vermont announced that GHUSA owed them a lot of back money to use the facilities to conduct hunts.
And then, Rolling Hills Asylum came forward, and others afterward. It was a big thing in the paranormal community, and I put my two cents in on my YouTube channel.
And then came the e-mails.
The Owner is A Gay!
I made a video out of one, and you can watch that here. And then, from what I assume is the same source, I received this email below.
And this is why I’m writing this. Imagine going to the store, buying a pie, going home, and unwrapping it. And when you slice into the pie, there’s no filling. It’s crust in a tin. You drive back to the store and demand a refund. Then the baker screams, “Our gay owner used all the pie filling money on gay sex!” and then proceeds on a long, detailed story about…well, something like this.
Welcome to the paranormal community, Traveler.
This is bigoted as hell, and I never gave it the time of day back then, but I feel like I should now. See, I’m asexual. I’m on the rainbow flag and pretty open about it. It’s a hard road, but another story for another day.
However, if you’re wondering just what in the hell asexuality has to do with ghost hunting, so am I! But why does an owner being gay make him a bad owner? Ghost Hunts USA was a flawed company that allegedly committed fraud several times. Some straight people also commit fraud. And yet, we’re introduced to some light homophobia here in a strange rant. I never thought I’d find myself defending Ghost Hunts USA in any regard, but look what happens with casual bigotry.
I wasn’t mad at the owner for being gay; if that even is the case, it’s not anything I feel like investigating. I lost money on a terrible ghost hunt. I was also horrified that they allegedly scammed people out of thousands of dollars!
And that’s why para-unity will never exist.
Para-Unity
What is para-unity? Well, I’d link a tangible definition, but there really isn’t one. Every article I find on para-unity is egotistical drivel that’s either in favor of it or opposed to it. Let me simplify it.
Para-unity is the idea that paranormal investigators and teams should work together to prove the existence of ghosts. Instead of driving a wedge in the community, we need to tighten our bond with each other.
And that sounds great! I hate being a cynic. Friendly people with the common goal of helping each other achieve that goal are Shangri-La to me.
But para-unity doesn’t exist, and it never will. I’ll have an easier time conjuring up the ghost of Abraham Lincoln to do a striptease on a seance table.
Why doesn’t it exist? Gatekeeping, egos, bigotry, and the human element overall promise that para-unity will never exist.
Para-unity is more of a buzzword that some investigators who get into an argument with other investigators will use to seem like the bigger person after that argument. But there will be no growth, no apologies, no breaking bread and working things out after a call for para-unity. It’s a false white flag.
And because of this, the paranormal community isn’t so much a community but a series of small cartels, each wearing matching t-shirts, who want to get their own selves ahead by any means necessary and sell you one of their t-shirts after they’ve screwed you over.
By the way, if your ghost-hunting group has t-shirts, that’s fine, too. This is a generalization. But there are some really great group t-shirts out there.
And I hate to break it to you, Traveler, but this isn’t precisely inclusive behavior. It results in gatekeeping, price gouging, and bickering, which are just petty things. I’ve seen teams break up, go on hiatus, and to reanalyze Ghost Hunts USA, fraud (alleged).
But, What About Bigotry?
If you don’t believe me about the bigotry, here’s a story from the podcast This American Life dictated by Chenjerai Kumanyika about a negative ghost tour experience. Here’s a thought piece from Tiya Miles. Here’s Scott Woods talking about the Demons in Seattle episode of Ghost Hunters.
I covered that one, too, by the way. No, it wasn’t Keith’s girlfriend’s fault.
These are all opinions on the subject from their perspective as people of color. However, if this is the standard thinking among people of color about ghost hunting and the paranormal, I can assume that scams, bickering, and fighting in the community aren’t going to show them a warm welcome.
My point is this: It’s stupid to be the king, queen, or ruling class of ghost hunting. It’s patently absurd. And it’s foolish to inject bigotry into this. This niche experience caters to a specific clientele of the curious, and that clientele has diminishing returns. Inclusivity brings more curious viewers, guests, listeners, or whatever your audience base is who want an experience. And that should be the goal of para-unity. Not petty gatekeeping that leads to destruction, but guiding in new faces and showing them why the paranormal is incredible and even life-changing.
But I’m not going to hold my breath for that one.
Why Am I Writing This?
My goal in the paranormal isn’t to catch a flying object or take a ghost photo. If those things ever happen to me, that would be awesome. But those things wouldn’t make me more or less of an expert. There are no experts. The paranormal can neither be proven nor disproven. All evidence collected is that of a witnessed experience and not any conclusive science. Science means results can be duplicated. A paranormal encounter will never be the same each time.
Yes, skepticism and skeptics exist. And these are skeptics who won’t believe a single thing you upload to r/Paranormal. Please go on and let me know in the comments here how much they believed in your best ghost photo. I can’t wait to read it.
I’ve taken my lumps with skeptics, and I’ve moved on. No hard feelings.
But I can say that because I’m firm in my beliefs. The paranormal is bigger than me, it’s bigger than you, it’s bigger than all of us. I’m at peace with where I am with it, and I hope you find that piece someday. But that peace won’t come with all the petty, ego-driven garbage I constantly see.
And because I’m at peace, my YouTube channel will continue. This blog will continue. And they’re both going to grow. Because I remember why I started them.
As a tour guide, I was given a seat at a convention panel. I spoke about the paranormal at length to about a hundred people. It was the most fantastic rush I’ve ever had.
A month later, I joined a paranormal investigation at Pennhurst Asylum. As I was walking, two people came up to me.
Was that you at the comic con?
They decided to take the next step because of my panel. And that night? That had a whole conversation with a spirit on an SB-11 Spirit Box (paid link to Amazon. I mean, it’s $149…), and they left Pennhurst as total believers.
And I was so happy. It wasn’t my catch, but look what happened because I love the paranormal so much. It’s one of my favorite memories.
That moment is why I write and why I make videos, and what needs to change in the paranormal field. I do all of this to show curious Travelers places they can go and why these places are excellent to check out. And if they go to these places and something happens that makes them believers, that’s the most gratification I could ever ask for.
So I’m begging you to put the petty, egotistical stuff aside and stop trying to rule ghost hunting. Be a guide. Nurture people into the field. Accept people for who they are. Stop blaming bad paranormal events on the owner of the company being gay.
Or, keep doing what you’re doing. But I’m not going to stop what I’m doing. And I don’t think the way to para-unity is through scamming people and insulting them.
Safe Travels.
