Jason Hawes Speaks Out: The State of the Paranormal Community and Why Honesty Still Matters

There comes a point where you have to stop, look around, and say something — even when it's uncomfortable. The paranormal community has meant everything to me for decades, and right now, it needs a real conversation. Tonight, I'm sitting down to talk about what's been going on, the drama that some people have brought into a field that deserves better, and where I think we go from here.

I didn't start TAPS because I wanted fame. I started it because I genuinely wanted to help people who were experiencing things they couldn't explain, and I wanted to do it the right way — with integrity, with skepticism, and with respect for both the living and, if they exist, the dead. That foundation has never changed for me. But lately, I've been watching things unfold in the paranormal world that make me feel like we're drifting further and further from those core values, and I think it's time to address it head-on.

Let me be clear about where I stand, because I think some people lose sight of this. I am a skeptic first. Every single location I walk into, my first job is to disprove the haunting. I'm looking for water pipes, faulty wiring, drafts, infrasound, anything that can rationally explain what people are experiencing. That's not me being dismissive of people's fear or their experiences — it's the opposite. It means that when I can't explain something, when something genuinely defies every rational test I can throw at it, that finding actually means something. The credibility of this entire field rests on that standard. And that standard is getting eroded.

What I've been seeing lately — and I'll get into the specifics during the live stream — is a growing culture of manufactured drama, of content designed to shock rather than inform, and of people more interested in building a personal brand than actually contributing anything meaningful to paranormal research. I've seen investigators fabricate evidence. I've seen interpersonal conflicts get weaponized publicly in ways that hurt innocent people on the edges of those situations. I've seen viewers get misled by people they trust. And I've largely stayed quiet, because I don't believe in adding fuel to fires. But quiet starts to look like complicity, and I'm not willing to be complicit.

The paranormal community has always had its disagreements — that's healthy. Different methodologies, different beliefs, different interpretations of evidence. I can respect someone who sees things differently than I do as long as they're coming at it honestly. What I can't respect, and what I won't stay silent about anymore, is dishonesty. The people who reach out to investigators are often vulnerable. They're scared in their own homes. They deserve investigators who take that seriously rather than treating their situation as content. They deserve the truth, even when the truth is that there's a rational explanation. And the community as a whole deserves people who are willing to have the hard conversations rather than just playing to whatever gets the most engagement. Tonight's live stream is one of those hard conversations, and I hope you'll join me for it.

The paranormal field is worth fighting for, and so is the community built around it — but only if we hold ourselves to a higher standard than what some are currently setting. I'll see you tonight at 8:30 PM EST, and I promise to be straight with you the way I always have been. That's never going to change.