Teams that copy and 'borrow' from other teams - Time to share, and stop the childishness.
As it is well known, we are the ones that broke the story on the Naked Cyber Cafe. How that came about, is Bob the owner has been a friend of mine for a few years now. I have always loved the cafe, the atmosphere, the way it reminds me of an underground cafe in NYC. One day he said to me - you should go into the mazes underneath - its pretty spooky down there.
There was never ever a mention before of the place being 'haunted' and was of no interest to other 'teams' in Edmonton. The only information on investigations, or the possibility of paranormal happenings down there, were done by HAPIA. Obviously, another 'team' in Edmonton, read our investigations and saw our articles, and took it upon themselves to go down there and do an 'investigation'.
However, it was brought to my attention, that it was a local cable TV show that contacted Bob and asked if they could go down there. He mentioned that they should contact Beth from our team, because she is the one that has done the investigations, and anything that might be happening down there, she would be the one to talk too. This went on deaf ears.
I decided to show up after work, and went down to the mazes. I don't think the other team was too happy to see me. They asked me a couple of questions (which I mentioned later, not to use any of our research or mentioning's without our permission ,which I think was also ignored). I was basically given the cold shoulder. Its funny though, a member of the other 'team' said 'its important for investigators to work together'. Funny - because Bob said we should be involved, because we are the lead in the investigations, and again - it was ignored. I would have been happy to share our experiences and our research, but it seemed, that it was I that was infringing on their 'territory', their 'spotlight'.
Bob felt bad that it happened. It looked like it was done in a very unprofessional fashion, not only by the team, but by the small local TV program that set it up. Bob is a great business owner, and is always willing to help out people, whether they be homeless, artists, musicians, or even a friend who is a head of a paranormal team.
The reason that this is so silly it makes me laugh, is the fact that other teams in Edmonton, are telling places they have investigated not to let us in. Its almost like they don't want to share the 'spotlight' - problem is - we don't care about the spotlight, we just want to find some answers to the questions I myself have been investigating for 15 years. Yet we were willing to even share our data and information on our investigations in the Cafe, and was given a cold shoulder.
This is where ethics comes into question. We would be more than happy to share our findings, our theories, and our investigations with other investigation teams, if there was any that can prove they have the same code of conducts we have, and the same ethics. So far, we have found teams in the UK that do - ones that have been around for 30 years. It is important that real and I mean real investigation teams share information, so that we can maybe find some answers. But some 'teams' out there seem to be into it because the field has gained attention - thus they can gain attention. Yes, we do interviews, but we are not gung ho about it. Our main mission is to do proper investigative work, to separate actual data from explainable data, so maybe we can come closer to the answers. We don't contact the media - they come to us. And we are very grateful they do. Even though I don't like doing TV, its a great opportunity to try and pass onto the city what we are all about, what we are here for.
A team can have all the money in the world for the most expensive equipment, but when investigations and the truth are out shadowed by what the real mission is supposed to be, then it makes those teams who are in it for the long run, harder to convince people that this is a serious scientific and investigative field.
I guess we should be flattered, that other teams are 'borrowing' from us. Everything from our theories, to articles I have written, to even this latest incident. But again it would be nice to stop this childishness, and bring some dignity back to the field. We are continuing our search for local teams to work with, as well as continuing our search for the truth, the real truth behind possible phenomenon.
Yes we are the boring team. Not in it for fame or fortune, but for answers. Answers we can share with other true groups.