Jeff Crowell
Paranormal Annoyance
I may become one of the most hated people on the forums for this post, but I think something needs to be said. Bottom line is, I was very taken back by David's comments during this weeks Paracast episode, specifically how much stress his paranormal experiences have caused him throughout the course of his life. You could hear the stress in his voice as he laid out how up-rooting his experiences had been, to the point he wished he had never had them at all.
I believe David teamed up with Gene to create The Paracast for therapeutic reasons; to talk about his experiences and air them out, maybe to get other opinions or insight from other peoples' events and stories, and perhaps that would, in turn, give him some understanding of his own experiences. However, as the show goes on, it becomes blindingly apparent that this is not what has occurred for Mr. Biedny. In fact the exact opposite has happened. He's become embittered and very frustrated at the sheer volume of stupidity and blind-sidedness that occurs in this field of study.
Anybody who's looked into a paranormal discipline for any length of time gets to that point. I think we all can acknowledge that research and study into this type of interest can drive a person into a downward spiral, mentally and emotionally. There are clear examples of this happening (John Keel is just one), though I'm not saying this is what may happen to David. It's still extremely worrying that he's under this type of stress for these events and participating on The Paracast is only compounding the stress I believe.
So, that being said, it's my humble opinion that David step away from The Paracast, and the paranormal in general, for sometime. I know that for those of us who admire him and know he does this field a great service in exposure and filtering "signal from noise" in the end we have to understand that a persons emotional and mental well being are far more important. I think stepping away from the Paracast and immersing himself in his other interests for a length of time will help David quite a bit in several ways.
In my experience, walking away from paranormal investigation tends to 'turn off' any paranormal experiences you may be having, or at least suspends them in a sort of out of sight/out of mind fashion. Another trend we see regarding the paranormal is that people who do walk away from it for several months or even years are drawn back in, eventually, but with a renewed outlook and interest, so even if David does drift away from the paranormal community it doesn't mean he may not ever be back. Either way, I believe if he continues along this path it will become increasingly difficult, stressful, and embittering to him.
*end rant*
J.
I believe David teamed up with Gene to create The Paracast for therapeutic reasons; to talk about his experiences and air them out, maybe to get other opinions or insight from other peoples' events and stories, and perhaps that would, in turn, give him some understanding of his own experiences. However, as the show goes on, it becomes blindingly apparent that this is not what has occurred for Mr. Biedny. In fact the exact opposite has happened. He's become embittered and very frustrated at the sheer volume of stupidity and blind-sidedness that occurs in this field of study.
Anybody who's looked into a paranormal discipline for any length of time gets to that point. I think we all can acknowledge that research and study into this type of interest can drive a person into a downward spiral, mentally and emotionally. There are clear examples of this happening (John Keel is just one), though I'm not saying this is what may happen to David. It's still extremely worrying that he's under this type of stress for these events and participating on The Paracast is only compounding the stress I believe.
So, that being said, it's my humble opinion that David step away from The Paracast, and the paranormal in general, for sometime. I know that for those of us who admire him and know he does this field a great service in exposure and filtering "signal from noise" in the end we have to understand that a persons emotional and mental well being are far more important. I think stepping away from the Paracast and immersing himself in his other interests for a length of time will help David quite a bit in several ways.
In my experience, walking away from paranormal investigation tends to 'turn off' any paranormal experiences you may be having, or at least suspends them in a sort of out of sight/out of mind fashion. Another trend we see regarding the paranormal is that people who do walk away from it for several months or even years are drawn back in, eventually, but with a renewed outlook and interest, so even if David does drift away from the paranormal community it doesn't mean he may not ever be back. Either way, I believe if he continues along this path it will become increasingly difficult, stressful, and embittering to him.
*end rant*
J.
. Very sorry to hear this, David. I'll miss you. As you clearly feel that stepping away is the right thing to do, I wish you all the very best in doing so. I hope we'll still hear from you on the forum. Take care, and I hope that one day, you'll feel that returning is the right thing to do. Thank you for everything you've put into the show.