The State of the Paranormal Community: What's Really Going On Right Now
“Skepticism isn't the enemy of the paranormal — it's the foundation of credible paranormal investigation. When someone loses sight of that, they stop being an investigator and start being an entertainer.”
— Jason Hawes
The paranormal field has always attracted passionate people — investigators, believers, skeptics, and everything in between. But lately, there's been a lot happening that I feel needs to be addressed openly and honestly. Tonight, I'm sitting down and having a real conversation about the paranormal community, the drama that's been creeping in, and where I think we go from here.
I've been doing this for a long time. I founded TAPS back when most people thought you were crazy for even suggesting you'd spend a night in a haunted location with a voice recorder and a thermal camera. We built something from the ground up — not just a team, but a philosophy. Go in skeptical. Try to disprove it first. Only when you've exhausted every rational explanation do you start entertaining the idea that something truly unexplained might be happening. That approach hasn't changed for me, and it never will. But what has changed is the landscape around this work, and I'd be doing a disservice to everyone who's followed this journey if I didn't talk about it.
The paranormal community right now is at a crossroads. On one hand, interest has never been higher. More people than ever are curious about the unexplained, and that's genuinely exciting. New investigators are picking up equipment, forming teams, and exploring locations that deserve serious attention. That energy is real, and I respect it. But with that growth has come something else — drama, misinformation, and frankly, people who are more interested in internet clout than they are in doing honest work. I've watched individuals misrepresent evidence, manufacture conflict, and tear down others in this community for the sake of views and followers. That's not what this is supposed to be about. It never was.
I want to be clear about something: skepticism isn't the enemy of the paranormal — it's the foundation of credible paranormal investigation. When someone shows me a piece of evidence and says "this is undeniable," my first instinct is always to ask what else it could be. A shadow on a wall. A sound in an old building. A spike on a K-II meter. Every single one of those things has a list of natural explanations that needs to be ruled out before we start talking about ghosts. That discipline is what separates serious research from entertainment. And right now, too much of what's being presented to the public is entertainment dressed up as investigation. I'm not throwing stones at anyone specifically — but I am saying that the community deserves better, and the people we investigate for deserve better.
I also want to address the personal side of this, because some of what's been going on recently has hit closer to home than I'd like. There are conversations happening — about me, about people I care about, about the work we've done — that are rooted more in rumor than reality. I've never been someone who enjoys conflict. My instinct is always to focus on the work and let that speak for itself. But there's a point where staying quiet starts to look like agreement, and I'm not willing to let that happen. So tonight's livestream is about pulling the curtain back — not in a dramatic, score-settling way, but in the honest, direct way I've always tried to communicate with this community. You deserve to hear things straight from me, not filtered through someone else's agenda.
The paranormal field is worth fighting for — the real version of it, built on integrity, honest investigation, and genuine curiosity about the unknown. I'm not going anywhere, and neither is that standard. Let's keep the conversation going.