“Convinced myself, I seek not to convince.”

This quote is from one of Edgar Allan Poe’s’ stories entitled Berenice. 

It stays true to his form, the traditional gothic horror story, in which his protagonist ends up burying his wife alive and seems to forget about it in his ponderings toward the end of the story. 

Poe’s main character reflects early on that he feels he has lived “a past life.” He then turns to the reader and announces he will not argue this point—hence his quote: “Convinced myself, I seek not to convince.” 

My group members wear this quote on the back of our shirts. We use it similarly to how Poe’s protagonist used it. 

In today’s ghost investigation climate, it seems as if almost everyone involved in ghost investigations is out to convince all the non-believers out there that ghosts really do exist. 

My team views this in a different light. The only time this concept impacts us is when we are working to assist our clients. 

We definitely spend time determining if it is spirit activity or not that is disrupting our client’s lives. We use all the latest equipment to assist us in this effort, as well as ourselves so that we can help our clients with some kind of resolution. 

But as I have stated before this is where it ends for us.

If you have ever spent time on a paranormal forum in the United States, you have already realized what a radical stance my group has decided to take. 

Amidst posters who are passionate about proving that they are more scientific than the next group, my posts are considered almost sacrilegious. 

Because my mantra is: 

Often people do not believe unless they have experienced a paranormal event in their own life. So I will not be able to convince them otherwise. 

Another factor I take into consideration is some people have experienced paranormal phenomena and then convince themselves it didn’t really happen.

I also hold the opinion that people should believe what they want, so why should I try to convince them otherwise.

A reaction I get to this stance is often one of misunderstanding. 

First, I am not knocking down groups that have the goal to provide evidence that ghosts do exist. This is a good thing. 

But this concept and how others view it gets muddled together. 

Gaining more evidence that ghosts do exist is a great goal to work toward. Worrying about how others view our efforts is IMHO a waste of time. 

So I choose not to argue the point. Which frustrates others to no end.

Happy Ghost Hunting!