If there’s one thing that history has taught us, it’s that marginalized and disenfranchised groups will ALWAYS fight among themselves.
Such is the case with the various supernatural/ paranormal/ extraterrestrial groups. There are so many differences of opinion (and approach, and appearance, and…) that I sometimes despair of ever achieving any sort of progress.
I may not be remembering things correctly, but I honestly don’t think that it’s considered any more respectable to be a cryptozoologist, or a UFO researcher, or a (serious) ghost hunter than it was thirty or forty years ago.
While you can certainly make more money from supernatural entertainment (fictional or ‘reality’-based), the net effect has been to increase the number or dubious practicioners…while serious study and field research is just as rare as it was in 1971, 1981, 1991…
Anyway, I’m obviously depressed. Perhaps it’s just that my funds are drying up, my refinancing is dragging on, and one of my favorite bands’ last original members just died. And that’s not to mention the fact that my head in the door slam resulted in a Texas Social Security Disability lawyer refusing to represent me.
Perhaps it’s just that, after thirty-odd years of investigating the supernatural, I have yet to personally experience one unambiguous example of the supernatural that can justify my continued openness and interest.
Oh, I have plenty of ambiguous examples, and second-hand reports, and great stories with no proof whatsoever. I also have two children, a home that needs refinancing, and a car that’s on its last legs (so to speak). So every once in a while, I have to ask myself: how long can I really keep doing this?