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Had a great conversation about this in @theparamuseum Facebook group, so I thought I'd share here too. On the subject of so-called "binding and/or cleansing" of hauntings / haunted artifacts - we don't do it, we don't believe in it, and this is why: the very idea is cruel. 1/8
Lots of "ghost hunters" like to adhere to the idea that scary hauntings = evil spirits, an idea thats been perpetuated by nearly all popular paranormal media, from television to films. The truth is that such a black and white view of the supernatural is harmful to believers. 2/8
It's our ( @weird_dana, me, and @theparamuseum's) view that potentially intelligent hauntings should be treated as if they're intelligent, and "outbursts" are most-likely frustrated attempts to communicate. But Greg, you ask, what about all that scratching and screaming? 3/8
Ok, so violent hauntings. There's a lot of screaming, breaking things, and sometimes even scratching and punching. But you know who else does that? Autistic kids. They mean nothing by it, they're just trying to communicate with people who can't understand them very well. 4/8
Not understanding someone is not an excuse to treat them poorly. If you believe in the idea of intelligent hauntings, you have a responsibility to treat them that way: intelligent. Compassion will get you further than fear. Fear solves no problems, it just creates more. 5/8
Our scariest experiences, whether with artifacts like the "Idol of Nightmares" or the "Catskills Crone", were approached with compassion when others screamed "demons" before us. Those stories have happy endings, but only because we learned that scary doesn't equal evil. 6/8
When I see ghost hunters yelling at ghosts about god, screaming with "authority" that they don't belong here, and threatening them with expulsion on behalf of a higher power they claim unique access to, I can only see them speaking to immigrants the same way. It's gross. 7/8
At the end of the day, we just want to promote curiosity over fear. If we can help people reconsider the way they approach the things they don't understand within the paranormal space, maybe they'll be nicer to people, cultures, and communities they don't understand too. 8/8
