Provoking Entities: The Do's an Don'ts

When it comes to paranormal investigations, we usually think of a group of people walking around a house with equipment, demanding whatever is there to show itself. Many reality tv shows depict investigators as very forceful and aggressive towards entities, often making fun of the spirits in order to draw them out. There is no doubt that paranormal investigations are exhilarating, but it is absolutely essential that you remain calm and objective throughout the investigation, ESPECIALLY when something incredible happens, such as seeing apparitions, hearing voices or doors slamming, or being touched. There are a couple of reasons for this, the first being that your goal should always be to DISPROVE these occurrences. The second reason it's imperative that you stay calm is because what you are generally dealing with in these investigations, are people.

Its important to consider that no matter how much research you do into a case or location, unless the entity directly TELLS you who they are, you have no way of knowing for sure who it is you are speaking to. These entities have thoughts and feelings just like the rest of us, and something they feel a lot is fear. Most spirits are in some kind of emotional distress, often showing signs of confusion and fear, and if you enter a location being loud and aggressive, yelling at the entities and demanding that they appear to you all while carrying strange blinking and beeping devices, you are going to scare whatever may be there away. You may also be doing damage to an already scared and confused person.

Now, that having been said, provoking entities does have it's place in certain circumstances. If you are investigating a location with a particularly negative intelligent haunting that tends to be rude or aggressive, some provocation may help draw the spirit out to confront it. Be careful not to overdue it, but saying things like "So you are brave enough to torment this family, but not to show yourself to us?", or "Here I thought you were tougher than you are" antagonize the spirit a bit, often leading to communication.

Be respectful when investigating areas with evidence of intelligent human hauntings, and try to put yourself in their place. Set up yourselves and your equipment strategically in each room you investigate in order to make the space as comfortable as possible for the spirits. And most importantly, don't go to notoriously haunted locations just to provoke entities with the hopes that you capture evidence. They are people just like the rest of us, and they deserve respect too.