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

Every now and then, you have to step away from the investigations and just have an honest conversation. The paranormal field is something I've dedicated decades of my life to, and when I see things happening that threaten its credibility — both from outside and from within — I feel a responsibility to speak up. Tonight's livestream was exactly that: a raw, unfiltered conversation about where we are right now as a community, what's working, and what's doing serious damage.

I've been doing this work since the early days of TAPS, long before Ghost Hunters ever aired, long before paranormal investigation became a content category on YouTube or a personality contest on social media. Back then, the goal was simple — go into a location, apply critical thinking, try to debunk what's happening, and only when you've exhausted every rational explanation do you consider that something genuinely unexplained might be occurring. That methodology hasn't changed for me. But the landscape around it has changed dramatically, and not always for the better.

What I've been seeing lately in the paranormal community is something that genuinely concerns me. There's a growing culture of drama, one-upmanship, and outright dishonesty that is bleeding into the work. People are faking evidence — and some of them know exactly what they're doing. Others are getting caught up in feuds and public call-outs that have nothing to do with the actual pursuit of understanding the unexplained. I've watched investigators I once respected get pulled into these cycles, and I've watched newcomers to the field get a completely distorted picture of what this work is supposed to look like. That bothers me. It should bother all of us.

Here's what I want people to understand: the paranormal field only has credibility if the people in it are honest — honest about their methods, honest about their evidence, and honest about their motivations. When I founded TAPS, the whole point was to bring a level of skeptical integrity to investigations that had largely been absent. We weren't ghost chasers looking for thrills. We were investigators looking for answers. If you go into a location hoping to find a ghost, you're going to find one — whether it's there or not. Your brain will fill in the gaps, your equipment readings will seem more significant than they are, and your desire for a result will override your objectivity. I've seen it happen to good people. That's why the skeptic-first approach isn't just a preference for me — it's a discipline. It protects the integrity of the work and, frankly, it protects the people who reach out to us because they're genuinely scared and need real answers, not a performance.

As for the specific drama that's been circulating lately — I addressed it directly during the stream, and my position is straightforward. I'm not interested in public feuds. I'm not interested in tearing people down or playing politics. What I am interested in is calling out behavior that harms the community and the people in it, because silence in those situations isn't neutrality — it's complicity. If you're out here faking evidence, misleading your audience, or using this field as a platform for personal attacks, you should expect to be called on it. Not out of spite, but because the rest of us who take this seriously have a responsibility to maintain a standard. The people who reach out for help deserve investigators who are actually trying to find the truth, not investigators who are trying to build a brand at any cost. I'll always choose the truth. That's what this work has always been about for me, and that's what it always will be.

The paranormal community is at a crossroads, and the direction it goes depends on the choices each of us makes right now. I'm going to keep doing this work the way I've always done it — with honesty, with skepticism, and with genuine respect for the people who trust us with their experiences. If that resonates with you, I hope you'll hold the same standard and help push this field in the right direction.