Being influenced by the Paranormal Investigators of Tomorrow.

My group (The League of Paranormal Investigators) was invited by the Miami-Dade Public Library Miami-Lakes Branch library to offer a talk to their young readers group about the paranormal.

A house full of teenage and adult paranormal enthusiasts gathered for a well attended event.

Even some past members came out, it was really good to see Ashley and Robert again. I do hope their life gets more organized so they can come back to the team soon.

I did most of the talking and since I did all the planning for this presentation I was very familiar with what was to be presented.

I most of all wanted to get across the message that what you see on television in the popular paranormal shows is not necessarily what happens in real life. I also wanted to stress that many of the new shows are actually doing an extreme injustice to the paranormal research field, not to mention that some of them are promoting irresponsible and stupid ways of interacting with the spirit world. These shows are made to entertain and they should not be treated as anything other than entertainment in my opinion.

In truth, when you contact a proper investigation it would not make for terribly good television. It a slow and tedious process that offers little in the form of instant results. We do get results but they are rarely instant.

In the presence of so many young minds we put on a presentation centered around the science side of investigation covered the topics of what tools we use and why. we touched on the subjects of why and how non scientific methods can be helpful including the use of psychics on out team.

We told the young crowd about why walking around a reputedly haunted place with a crew of 12 cameramen may make it hard to create a true controlled environment required for any level or research. We talked about why a spike on a K2 meter is not science. We talked about why some of the more popular equipment on TV is rarely used in real world and hopefully killed some paranormal myths in the process.

We talked about the proper way of attaining access to haunted places and appropriate conduct during investigations. But what got all the "oohs" and "ahs" from the young crowd was of course the evidence.

Our team has recoded some really amazing pieces of evidence. From uncovering Miami's most haunted location at the Deering Estate to an assortment of really good evidence collected from numerous residential cases we ended up keeping the place open way past closing time answering questions from so many truly eager to learn individuals.

Questions ranged from the ones that we truly had to think about to the absolutely silly (We answered the ever important "Is the paranormal activity movie real" - of course not, it's a movie! ) but I was very impressive with the level of honest interest, the kids all asked questions that were all real inquires from the young people that want to learn.

Even in my day job I don't get much of an opportunity to work with teens and kids, and never really consider it my fortay to do so, but this experience really made an impression on me.

When I got to the library, I was half expecting the kids to be confrontational and dismissive as they often seem to be when I run into them in the world and they see what I do - they were anything but. This was a great crowd eager to learn and knew the difference between seeking understanding and being confrontational. They were really enthusiastic to see us there and what is more important, I think they really learned something.

I know I did.