Personal Behaviors

• Never smoke while on an investigation. Smoke can be mistaken for ectoplasm or mist.

• Do not use any alcohol or other mind-altering drugs before or during any investigation for apparent reasons.

• No horseplay during an investigation. All members are expected to act in a professional manner at all times during an investigation.

• Dress appropriately to the weather and the business. Webb Paranormal Group Member T-Shirts, Jackets, Sweatshirts with Slacks or Jeans. Closed toe and heel shoes.

Professional

Tell the clients what to expect.
Describe your processes, how long it will take, how many people will be there, and the types of evidence you hope to gather.

Be extremely ethical with your evidence review. 
Evidence interpretation should be objective. Your homeowner could react in panic if you affirmatively state their house is haunted. When you are unsure of any result, do not emphatically call that evidence. If you had an encounter with a spiritual being that made you uncomfortable, describe the situation honestly and carefully. Do not throw a demon into the mix, or assign a role to the spirit. If you present an image that may be interpreted in a logical manner, don’t call it evidence.

Protect confidentiality. 
Do not give out information regarding investigations in any way, alluding to an investigation, even to say the city name, like Dothan, is enough to be investigated for breach of confidentiality. If someone asks what you do, answer, “We talk about ghosts.”

Keep your word. 
If you say it will take two weeks to show your clients evidence, get back to them in two weeks. You know how quickly your team can process evidence, so be honest about it. Decide as a team how long it will take to get back to a specific client, and then do it.

Don’t make promises you can’t keep. 
For example, if are asked to cleanse a house of spiritual beings, don’t guarantee it will be effective. You don’t know the outcome because these are different spirits in a different location. Even if it’s worked the past 100 times you’ve done it, the 101st time might be the one that doesn’t work.

Have integrity. 
This covers a lot. Be honest about what you do or don’t find. Don’t tell clients that your team is the be-all and end-all in paranormal investigation, so if you find nothing it means nothing is there. Don’t talk smack about your clients. Don’t go into assignments with a secondary agenda, like “free publicity” for your group. You are there to investigate your clients’ homes or businesses and to report back to them with evidence. That is all.

Leave the location exactly as you found it. 
 Leave natural areas pristine. Ensure you remove every piece of tape holding down a camera. While washing your hands do not splash water everywhere. Clean it up. Make sure towels are straight. Flush the toilets if you use them. Leave it clean.

If you plan to eat or drink during an investigation make sure you clean up after yourself. Do not anticipate “borrowing” anything from the client. Bring a trash bag and pack up your trash and take it with you when you leave. The homeowner or business should not even know you’ve been there, so use a careful eye during cleanup and restore the home or business to its previous condition.

Get back to your clients, even if you find nothing. 
Just because your team found nothing does not mean the clients’ experiences aren’t real. Be sensitive to their fears and concerns.

Don’t post evidence publicly unless you have written permission.
Keep lines of communication open.

• Become informed about the people, property or the investigation in general. Do your homework before you go into the investigation. Search any newspaper, magazine, land records, genealogy sites, local historians etc.

• Make sure your equipment is ready before the investigation. You should have a checklist of equipment and supplies. Check it and be sure you have everything you need and that your equipment is in good working order. Pack duplicates of everything. Keep a spare bag loaded in your car, then repack the “every day” bag as soon as you leave an assignment. We need double batteries, tapes, extension cords, etc.  Always check all equipment to be used during an investigation. Make sure it is working properly, clean, and has fresh batteries.

• If using a 35mm camera, always start each investigation with a new roll of film. For any form of camera, make sure your camera lens is clean before taking any pictures.

• If using your phone camera, make sure you have a folder labeled for this particular investigation and all photos are saved in it, rather than mixed up with the personal photos. Download the photos immediately to a computer or jump drive so you can give them to the lead investigator or personnel reviewing the evidence. Once this is done, you must erase all photos and evidence from your phone.

• Always carry an I.D. card with you on an investigation.  (Your Webb Paranormal Group I.D. card, a driver’s license, or state I.D.)

• Never go ghost hunting alone. Always go in groups of at least 3.

Do not ever leave the group and take off alone. When your ghost-hunting team splits up to cover various areas of a location, they should always be in groups of two or more. Safety is a primary reason. Also, the evidence collected by a person who goes off on his or her own might automatically be suspect. To help ensure the integrity of any evidence, it must be gathered in the presence of two or more people. This leads us to…

● Always get permission to go onto private property when no trespassing signs are posted.

Just because you have a well-organized ghost-hunting group with cool T-shirts does not give you automatic permission to go into any abandoned building or even any cemetery after hours (most are closed after sunset) to do an investigation. Even though a building looks abandoned, the property is still owned by someone, and going into it without permission is illegal.

Always – ALWAYS – get permission to investigate a building. You can often get special permission to investigate a cemetery by contacting the owner, if it is privately owned, or from the city, town, or county if it is a public graveyard.

• Safety issues. Before doing an investigation in the dark, do a walk through in the light. This will identify any possible trip hazards, gopher holes, downed tree branches, headstones, etc.

• Always have a first aid kit with you on an investigation, just in case!

• Be Respectful: Introduce yourself and be polite. Ask the spirits for permission to photograph them. You are creating your paranormal group’s reputation. Respect is paramount, to the property being investigated, to the spirit world, and to the client. A property owner or client wants the assurance your group is not going to be destructive in any way, that the possibility of theft is never an issue, and that you won’t be noisy or rude.

Treat any client and witness with the utmost respect. Listen to their reports of experiences carefully and seriously. Every paranormal group member should be especially mindful of this when investigating a private residence.

Be respectful of your team members. We do not allow discord in this group. If there is fighting, each member involved will be dismissed from the group permanently. Without respect for one another, our group will fall apart.

Someone else who needs your respect is the investigatee – the spiritual being that might be hovering in a region. Television investigators can be rude and aggressive when encountering a spirit being. This is not productive. This is strictly for dramatic TV, and not helpful at all for the client or the spirit being. It could backfire on the investigator, as well.

Don’t copy television or so-called reality TV. The TV show is scripted. If spirits truly are people who have passed on, they deserve to be treated with the respect you’d give any living person.

• Do not provoke spirits or act disrespectfully. You may receive a response you don’t want.

• Make sure all camera lenses are spotlessly clean. Be aware when shooting film of things that get in the way, like hair, fingers, and camera straps.

• No one under the age of 19 is allowed to go on private investigations.

• Be aware of bright lights such as the sun, moon, motion lights, and street lights that interfere with the lighting. These could create shadows or cause lens flare in your photos and could be confused as an orb.

▪ Always try to find a rational explanation for any activity that is encountered on an investigation. If none exists, then you just might have something.

▪ Do not attempt communicating with spirits on an investigation, except with the team and under their rules. You may not like the response you receive.

▪ Avoid unnecessary movement while taking pictures. This may kick up dust that will distort photographs.

▪ Be mindful of reflective surfaces when operating flash photography. Search the room for mirrors, walls with enamel gloss or semi-gloss paint that shows reflection, glass curio cases, etc. Draw a diagram of the room beforehand and mark those places so that when you review the photographs, you will not see something that is not there.

▪ Always show respect to both the living and the dead while on an investigation.

▪ Keep a clear mind and neutral emotions while on an investigation. Negativity begets negativity and attracts spirits, we would rather not encounter.

▪ Do not lie or make up untruthful things.

Do not fake evidence. It is imperative we seek truth, not exaggeration. If you want to alter your findings, don’t waste our time with our investigations. These investigations are about trying to find the truth about a possible haunting as best we can.

Falsifying or lying about a sighting, manufacturing, or faking an EVP, photoshopping, and evidence tampering is a sin. Why would someone do this? For the attention, we would assume. This behavior is counterproductive to the investigation, what Webb Paranormal Group is all about, and decisively wrong.

Do not steal.

In other words, do not steal from other ghost-hunting groups. Many groups with websites have found that their evidence – EVP, pictures, etc. – has been “borrowed” by other groups without giving credit where it is due. Do not take evidence from other groups (from their websites or in any other way) without permission. And certainly do not claim it as your own.