GHOST
HUNTING
CAN BE REALLY DANGEROUS
by Lisa Lee Harp Waugh The American
Necromancer
Cheerleader
Shot in Head at 'Haunted' House Wednesday,
August 23, 2006
Associated Press
WORTHINGTON, Ohio. A teenager out looking
for ghosts with friends was shot in
the head and critically wounded near
a house considered spooky by local teens,
police said Wednesday.
A man who lives in the house, Allen
S. Davis, 40, was charged in the shooting
and told reporters from jail Wednesday
that he was trying to drive off trespassers
and did not intend to hurt the teen
girls, whom he called juvenile delinquents.
He said he fired his rifle out his bedroom
window Tuesday night after hearing voices
outside the home, which is across the
street from a cemetery and blocked from
view by overgrown trees and shrubbery.
“I didn’t know what their
weaponry was, what their intentions
were,” he said. “In a situation
like that, you assume the worst-case
scenario if you’re going to protect
your family from a possible home invasion
and murder.”
The 17-year-old girl, Rachel Barezinsky,
and two of her friends got out of their
car parked near the home about 10 p.m.
and took a few steps on the property,
police Lt. Doug Francis said. They jumped
back in when a girl in the car sounded
the horn, and they heard what they thought
were firecrackers as they drove away.
The girls, all students at a suburban
Columbus high school, drove around the
block, and Barezinsky was struck while
sitting in the car as they passed the
house again and heard a second round
of what turned out to be gunshots, Francis
said.
Barezinsky, who also was struck in the
shoulder, was taken to Ohio State University
Medical Center in critical condition,
police said. The hospital would not
provide an update on her condition Wednesday.
The
father of a 17-year-old girl who was
shot in the head while ghost hunting
with friends said Friday that the group
had been out for harmless fun.
"It
doesn't make any sense. These were five
good kids and this was something they've
done in the past," Greg Barezinsky
said.
Davis, a self-employed nonfiction writer,
said he had prepared the rifle after
numerous instances of trespassing but
he did not know until Wednesday that
teens considered his house haunted.
Police should charge the teens with
trespassing, he said.
“It’s really something how
homeowners defend themselves and the
way the laws are written, we’re
the ones brought up on charges while
the perpetrators get little or nothing,”
he said.
Davis, who was charged with five counts
of felonious assault, told officers
he had been annoyed by trespassers and
that he was aiming for the car’s
tires from his first-floor bedroom,
police said.
Francis said police do not intend to
pursue criminal charges against the
girls.
Francis said Davis’ home had a
reputation at the high school for being
haunted by ghosts and witches, and students
have been daring each other to knock
on the door or go in the yard.
The
girls and other high school students
have gone out to cemeteries to hunt
for ghosts before, Greg Barezinsky said
at Ohio State University Medical Center.

I was shocked and sickened when I
first read the story quoted above.
For the past several months I have
been considering a story based on
the dangers of ghost hunting; after
the recent events in Ohio, that story
seems long overdue.
Thanks in large part to the popularity
of such paranormal “reality”
shows as Sci-Fi’s “Ghost
Hunters,” the Biography Channel’s
“Dead Famous,” and BBC
Living’s “Most Haunted,”
amateur ghost hunting and paranormal
investigation activities have reached
a fever pitch among adults and teens
alike. The media saturation has become
so thorough that it seems anyone with
a camera, a tape recorder and an avid
interest in the paranormal is going
about calling himself a “ghost
hunter” or “investigator.”
Obviously, ghost hunting has evolved
from the mostly harmless high school
or college dare into a kind of recreational
sport. Unfortunately, common sense
has evidently not been part of that
evolution.
Among responsible individuals who
are involved in research into the
paranormal for the purposes of recording
and scientifically validating the
existence of ghosts, spirits, demons,
etc., there is growing concern about
the number of amateurs interloping
on the paranormal turf. Although the
primary concern is that such untrained
individuals immediately affect the
validity of other trained and more
experienced investigators, and that
this may have a negative effect on
the public’s perception of the
“science” part of paranormal
study, there is a very real and growing
concern for the overall safety of
these anxious, newly-minted fans of
the supernatural.
Outside of case studies dealing with
specific hauntings in modern surroundings
– usually prompted at the request
of individuals or families seeking
help with spirit activity in their
own environment – the natural
“habitat,” if you will,
of ghost hunters is an extremely dangerous
terrain. Because ghost hunting involves
seeking out the dead, obviously, a
paranormal investigator must go to
where the dead can be found –
in places such as cemeteries, abandoned
houses and buildings, remote and barely-accessible
properties in woods or other hard-to-access
locations, and even well-known or
famous locations to which seasoned
investigators might have access but
which amateurs often can only access
via trespassing or breaking other
vagrancy laws.
Each of the areas mentioned has its
own inherent danger.
Cemeteries, obviously, have geographic
dangers such as open graves and broken
or jagged statuary; and although one
may go to cemeteries seeking the dead,
it is often a haunt of living human
beings who prey on others to rob or
assault them (the cemeteries in pre-Katrina
New Orleans provide a good example
of such dangers and this is one reason
why access via organized tours is
the best way to visit them).
Abandoned houses and buildings offer
another set of dangers. Derelict houses
can have crumbling walls, ceiling
or foundations; there could be environmental
dangers lurking in the basement of
attic of such places. Debris from
years of misuse can cause injuries
that can lead to infections later
on, and there are literally dozens
of stories about amateur ghost-hunters
poking around abandoned houses and
falling through floors from attics
or into basements and waiting for
hours to be extricated. And, like
cemeteries, abandoned houses often
attract the criminal elements that
often use them as “shooting
galleries” or crack houses.
These people don’t like to be
observed and don’t take kindly
to being disturbed by uninvited “guests.”
Abandoned buildings, on the other
hand, offer all the same dangers of
abandoned houses but these are usually
multiplied to the Nth degree. Usually
there is more than just one story
where haunted buildings are involved
and this means accessing upper floors
via rickety staircases or makeshift
ladders and poking around crumbling
architecture that may pose all kinds
of dangers to the unwary. In short,
getting caught for trespassing in
either of these locations should be
the very least of the amateur ghost
hunters’ concerns!
Properties located in woods and out-of-the-way
or mostly rural places present their
own dangers, primarily because of
their remoteness. An injury sustained
in an abandoned house in an urban
area is closer to treatment than the
same injury sustained in a remote
abandoned property, especially if
that property is in an area mostly
unfamiliar to the ghost hunters. Additionally,
rural or remote areas present the
ghost hunting amateur with dangers
from individuals, such as the man
detailed in the story above, who will
not hesitate to shoot first and ask
questions later!
And needless to say, famous locations
present a whole plethora of legal
problems if one is caught poking around
them without proper clearance or the
knowledge of the owners or authorities
involved.
With all the obvious dangers and many
others that will go unlisted, I am
continuously amazed at the overall
lack of responsibility shown on the
part of people – quasi-celebrities,
if you will – who have made
the ghost-hunting hobby a popular
past time. By this I mean people such
as the extremely popular Ghost Hunters
team, in particular, and the equally
famous Most Haunted team, as well.
Despite all the science and speculation,
the thrills and chills and hoopla,
never has either team added a single
caveat, that I have seen, to any of
their broadcasts flatly stating that
they activities shown on these television
shows should not be attempted by the
amateur or unskilled! Instead, these
popular paranormal “reality”
shows encourage all sorts of idiotic
and dangerous imitations by the very
fact that there are no disclaimers
or warnings associated with their
series.
Now, I am not detracting from the
fact that these are popular shows
– I watch both, although Most
Haunted is my particular favorite.
But never is the subject of common
sense brought up – and if the
hosts and producers of these popular
shows are simply assuming that common
sense is, in fact, common, then they
had better get associated with liability
laws very quickly.
The fact is, none of the activities
shown on these popular paranormal
shows should be imitated by anyone
unfamiliar with the proper investigative
techniques used by valid paranormal
researchers (including the legal way
to access all properties) and who
does not know the basic safety precautions
to assure that accidents and injuries
don’t occur.
Despite all its popularity, there
are no genuine credentials in the
field of popular paranormal research.
There are no licenses or certifications
one can obtain that can be used to
demonstrate valid education in the
paranormal field, and there are certainly
no accreditations that will provide
the common sense necessary to success
and enjoyment of the ghost-hunting
hobby.
Most valid investigators of the paranormal
will use the proper channels for access
to a property they would like to research.
This can be anything from a verbal
agreement with the owner to a written
contract in which the investigator
and his team are given specified access
to the property in question and to
which is generally attached a waiver
containing a “hold harmless”
clause that will release the property
owner from liability in the event
of accident or injury sustained by
one of the investigative team members.
Barring this, authentic ghost hunters
will exhaust channels of authority
to assure that they have access to
the property they are studying and
that they are unharrassed while conducting
the investigation. Permission goes
a very long way and the best way to
obtain it is to be up-front and honest
about your intentions and the goals
of the investigation. This lends a
lot to your personal reputation and
the reputation of your team and it
will set you apart from the thrill-seekers
and amateurs who are just out to get
scared in a scary place. Because valid
agreements work both ways, you are
also protecting yourself from liability.
Strange things can happen on any ghost
hunt and these are not all paranormal
in nature. Usually everyone’s
adrenaline is pumped, everyone is
excited and the energy is popping.
What you want to avoid is having your
serious inquiry turn into a comedy
of errors when inattentive team members
suddenly start falling through dry-rotted
attic floors or stairs, or get trapped
under shelves and debris in basements;
some have even fallen off roofs and
become jammed in chimneys in overzealous
searches for evidence of ghosts and
spirits! And remember, a serious investigation
is a controlled and careful one and
it is likely that evidence acquired
in a sober atmosphere will be more
readily accepted than that obtained
in accessory to a “frat party”
or Halloween hayride atmosphere!
A good rule of thumb regarding any
location is to go there during the
daylight hours and make an assessment
of the property. Identify the obvious
dangers, note the possible dangers
and possible sources of faulty evidence,
and generally get a “lay of
the land” so that when you and
your team return for the actual investigation
there is less danger of an unexpected
event – the avoidable kind,
that is! No place should be taken
at face value and the investigator
who forgets this often does so at
his peril.

Take for example the story of a cemetery
investigation gone horribly wrong:
One recent letter I received tells
of a team of six young ghost hunters,
mostly in their 20’s, all college
graduates, who, inspired by the popular
Ghost Hunters TV show set out one
night to investigate a local cemetery.
The team had what they considered
all the right equipment including
cameras and tape recorders to capture
evidence of paranormal activity. They
headed into the cemetery, excited
about their prospects and immediately
split into groups of two, setting
out in different directions. But what
they ultimately encountered was one
of the more tedious aspects of ghost
hunting, namely, nothing happening
at all.
After about an hour of poking around
in the dark, two teams ran into each
other and began talking about abandoning
the hunt. However, they couldn’t
resist playing a prank on their remaining
team members. In one episode of Ghost
Hunters, they said, they saw TAPS
founders Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson
scare team members Brian Harnois and
Steve Gonsalves during a cemetery
investigation. They decided to imitate
the “pros.”
The two remaining members were in
an older section near the rear of
the cemetery where one found an old
headstone that caught his interest;
the last burial was listed on the
stone as 1892. Hoping to get some
orbs in a photo, he advanced onto
the grave and began to photograph
the headstone. Suddenly, he felt the
earth moving beneath his feet, but
before he could jump off the grave
the mud beneath him began to fall
in, sucking him down with it! What
he did not know at the time was that
the coffin from the last burial –
nearer the top in this instance –
had disintegrated and had collapsed
under his added weight. Immediately
he struggled and began screaming,
but the more he scrambled, the deeper
he sunk; his futile attempts to climb
out of the mud only pulled it into
his mouth.
With four of his friends creeping
around trying to scare him and his
now-missing partner, there was no
one on hand to help him. His partner,
poking around among old tombs on the
opposite side of the cemetery, was
actually overwhelmed with fear when
the pranksters jumped from behind
some tombs and scared the hell out
of him. Soon, however, they all began
to miss their sixth member and began
fanning out in search of him.
Rain began to fall, light and then
harder and the team spent the better
part of an hour searching and calling
for their lost friend before coming
close to the area of the sunken grave.
One team member broke away from the
rest and was attracted to something
moving in the mud ahead of him. Approaching
the sunken grave, he called out his
lost friend’s name and immediately
felt the grip of a cold, groping hand
on his ankle!
Yelling out in fear he pulled his
leg free but lost his balance in the
muck and fell back against a nearby
headstone, breaking his collarbone
and hitting his head as he fell. It
was the screams of this second, injured
team member that attracted the others
to the spot. When they arrived they
found one collapsed in pain on a nearby
grave and another up to his neck in
mud and God knows what else, standing
IN a grave. But the amazing thing
is that, when they first caught sight
of this, all the other team members
began laughing thinking their injured
friends were playing a TAPS-like joke
on them!
It took some minutes before they realized
that their friends were not play-acting,
that they were really injured and
in dire need of assistance: but the
task wouldn’t be easy. The buddy
who was sucked down into the muck
of the old grave was held in place
by wet mud and gravity. They tried
to dig him out, but to no avail. The
more they moved the mud, the more
he sank. And the rain would not let
up. There was a very real chance that
their friend could drown. Meanwhile,
their buddy with the broken collarbone
had passed out in pain and was lying
prostrate on a sopping wet grave nearby.
It was literally hours, near dawn,
in fact, when the amateur ghost hunters
freed their friend from his premature
burial and roused their injured member
enough to get them both back to the
car. They all spent several more hours
in the emergency department of a local
hospital where their soaking wet and
filthy state caused a great deal of
amazement. The equipment they had
brought to the cemetery – cameras,
recorder, everything – was left
there, ruined by the rainstorms of
the night before. They were lucky
to have escaped with their lives.
A glaring footnote: When the emergency
department physician heard their story,
he reported it to a police officer
on security detail at the hospital
front desk. The team were all charged
with trespassing, vandalism, and desecration
of the dead. Needless to say, they
have never attempted such an expedition
since!
Unfortunately, events like this are
all too common these days and the
growing popularity of paranormal reality
shows is doing nothing but fueling
the fire for these sorts of misadventures.
An in this field, imitation can be
dangerous.
Another recent example that has come
to my attention concerns a disastrous
investigation in the Midwest where
the ineptitude and unprofessional
behavior rivals anything Brian Harnois
– Ghost Hunters’ most
reviled and incompetent member –
ever did.
In the Midwest there is a popular
old hotel that is infamous among students
of the paranormal for the many authentic
hauntings and spirit encounters associated
with the place. Over the years, however,
the hotel’s owners have refused
nearly all requests from paranormal
enthusiasts who want to conduct investigations
on the site; the few requests that
have been granted have gone to teams
of parapsychologists from a local
university and, allegedly, to the
respected team of paranormal investigators,
Ed and Lorraine Warren. Requests from
television programs and shows about
the paranormal have been turned down
out of hand.
But recently one team of avid amateurs
got through the defenses and gained
access to this hot bed of paranormal
activity.
Apparently they arrived en masse one
night, several young adults and some
teenagers, wearing matching black
outfits, in black vans filled with
all kinds of electronic equipment
and technical gizmos. Two members
of this bogus team approached the
night manager of the hotel and presented
business cards saying that they had
been “inspired by the Ghost
Hunters TV show” and how they
watched it religiously. The night
manager told them he also liked the
show and wished that the Ghost Hunters
team would be allowed to investigate
the hotel.
The amateur team then told him that
they had the same equipment as Ghost
Hunters and just as much experience
– “after all,” the
team leader told the manager, “if
plumbers can do it, anybody can, right?”
This bluff got them access to the
hotel for the night and at first they
proceeded very professionally, setting
up equipment and venturing about just
as their Ghost Hunters heroes do on
TV. However, two members of the team,
finding themselves in the hotel kitchen,
decided to prepare themselves a snack
and raided the refrigerators where
they found bacon and eggs. A frying
pan was heated up and before long
the kitchen was filled with the smell
of sizzling hot bacon.
At just this moment, a strange noise
in the hotel corridor alarmed the
two investigators and they went to
the kitchen doorway to investigate
it. The untended bacon started to
burn and one of them ran back to the
stove, tripping on the way there and
spattering the bacon grease all over
the stove and floor. It instantly
burst into flames. The other team
member, trying to help his friend
get away from the fire now engulfing
the stove, slipped in the grease and
fell, injuring his leg.
Both managed to escape the kitchen
and summon help. The fire department
arrived and was able to keep the fire
contained in the kitchen and pantry
area, but the damage there was extensive
and caused the hotel to be shut down
immediately for repairs.
When the presence of the “paranormal
investigators” was divulged
to the hotel owners, they immediately
issued statements disassociating the
place with any paranormal activity
and a planned investigation by a well-known
and popular team of valid investigators
was summarily cancelled.
The members of the amateur ghost hunting
team who sustained injuries that night
are, not surprisingly, suing the hotel
and it’s owners for injury and
any other thing they can think of
to sue them for. The hotel has dismissed
the night manager and several attendants
involved in the botched investigation
and have filed a counter-suit against
the members of the team for property
damage, etc.
This is just one example of how reality
is nothing like reality TV, especially
when it comes to hunting ghosts on
other peoples’ property.
So, what do you do if you are seriously
interested in investigations into
the spine-tingling world of the paranormal?
Where do you start, and where do you
get common sense when it’s really
not so common?
Every major website worth its salt
openly discusses this issue and provides
numerous pointers on how to get started
in the field of paranormal investigations
and these recommendations are sometimes
so obvious they are completely redundant.
However, I have found a friendly list
of some basic rules of thumb that
I can share with you now.

COMMON SENSE RULES, excerpted from
“Hunting the Dead: Methods of
Ghost Chasing” by Brian Roesch.
Never trespass! Most places are indicated
with signs. If the places have no
signs, that does not mean you can
trespass. Always get permission first!
You can end up arrested or even killed.
I have heard of many places where
people have been seriously hurt. A
lot of places have guard dogs that
can shred you in seconds. I will go
as far as saying you could even get
killed by gunshots if a landowner
thinks you are causing serious harm.
So just make sure you use your “common
sense” at all times.
Treat every ghost hunt location as
if it were your own place. Never vandalize,
litter or mark up anything. If you
break something, report it! If it
was something that broke by accident,
the owner is usually nice enough to
not charge you for damages.
You should never ghost hunt alone.
Always carry ID on you.
First time areas for ghost hunts should
always be thoroughly checked first
during daylight hours. At night you
will be familiar with the area during
your ghost hunt.
Bring flashlights and plenty of extra
batteries with you.
Do not ghost hunt in bad weather!
Never take risks!
Avoid trouble situations. If some
idiot sees you and starts trouble,
it is best to leave.
These are some basic rules of thumb
to follow that will ensure your safety
and the safety of others who ghost
hunt with you.
Ghost hunting and paranormal investigation
are burgeoning and popular hobbies
these days, just remember to play
it safe and use your head and avoid
imitating the non-reality of “reality”
ghost hunt shows: you want to continue
to be the hunter and not the HUNTED!
You can contact Lisa Lee Harp Waugh
directly by email with questions or
requests for media interviews or personal
appearance request at: onthebaylisa@aol.com

Or Visit her web Site: The
American Ghost Hunters Society
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