My approach.

I went into investigating the existence of the dead with as much interest in disproving it as proving it. This really gave me a good grounding which still serves me to this day. I was quite shocked as I watched others feel a breeze which on any other time would be classed as expected, only to see them feel out because they now put it don't to a ghost because it was late at night. As I write this I've still not SEEN a ghost manifest for myself with no doubt left. As I spoke about in a past post, I've seen a piece of evidence to make me question the known universal laws as they stand... Just not an apparition. But since I know people who have, such as Sue, and I trust them, that's almost good enough for me. Of course if I saw something directly, I'd have to reevaluate my ideas. It embarrasses me that I haven't seen something. I dread the question because I worry some will take my not having seen a ghost to mean there mustn't be such a thing. On the other hand, I've not seen a giraffe either. 

The thing I find weird about myself is that I hear most people investigate to find relief in the fact there's life after death. But I would rather find out that there isn't. The thought of a second mediocre existence puts the fear of God into me. I think I'm drawn to the magic of the spirit. The whole being invisible and retaining memories after death. Being able to pass through solid objects while still having the ability to slap someone around the face. Awesome. 

Two Teams Become One

It was spring in 2011 when I started to look on the message boards which I was now on to find potential team mates for my own team. There were only two candidates, one was a young fragile, shy guy in Hebden Bridge and the other was a lady in Haworth called Sue Sharpe. I met the Hebden Bridge chap and he had the interest in the subject but didn't seem to want to participate fully. Days after I saw an advert in the local paper for a small investigation in Haworth and e mailed the guy in charge. The guy was Si Booth. He seemed friendly and said I could come along on this evening of his. I asked if I could bring my other team member who lived nearby. 

So that was how I met Sue in person. We met at a pub in Crossroads and chatted about our shared interest, swapping stories of our investigations and opinions. Sue was easy to talk to and it wasn't long before we went to meet Si. We met Si who immediately made us both so welcome as he sat behind his bags of equipment. He played us some evp's he caught and we just hit it off.   We headed to the local graveyard and had our first investigation but it wasn't long before the rain came. I suggested we simply drive to my work instead and that's what we did. 

I suggested also that we use a glass on a YES NO table but Si didn't seem to believe in such methods fully. Until the glass budged. It had become late quickly but this was the start of things to come. For long enough I tried to juggle Otherworld Investigations UK with PPS also but the two teams were just one set of people at the end of the day and mine petered out. Time went on and with a couple of public events under our belts we had Gill join the team and Kevin too along with some who came and went, all offering different experiences and sharing some amazing nights. 

It's really difficult to actually get places who will allow a bunch of strangers to be in their establishments at night. So we often found ourselves back at my work trying out new equipment or methods. We learnt so much so quickly and became friendly with the spirits who regularly came to chat.  As we learnt one new thing, I'd set about trying to disprove it or do it differently so as to see a new result. We would break down any idea we heard about. With protection, without protection, blindfolded, whatever, just to test the ideas and to educate ourselves. I would experiment with fakery to see how much was possible so as not to be fooled ourselves by others. Our facebook pages would often end in arguements with others about the same topics usually. Two such bones of contention were the ouija board and Mediumship. I guess nothing has changed there.