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| Stone cottage, Hobart. |
There are good people involved in the paranormal industry, but a lack of regulations and oversight means that anybody can set up shop, including people who have not yet developed a basic sense of empathy and maturity.
I recently learned of some pretty poorconduct by a ghost tour operator down in Tasmania. The story here involves a pensioner who lived in an old heritage-listed cottage in Hobart for at least 40 years, possibly more. She raised her family there and it's the kind of home a person becomes emotionally attached to.
Problems started a few years back when a local ghost tour began stopping outside her home as part of the tour and telling the customers that it was haunted. It is the kind of building that could easily be passed off as being haunted simply because it is so old and has 'the look'. But the homeowner did not want these people congregating outside her cottage telling stupid stories about it, especially as she had lived there for decades without having a single 'spooky' experience. Her home was clearly not 'haunted'.
She asked the ghost tour people to please stop coming to her home. Unbelievably, they refused. They would not respect the wishes of an old lady who just wanted to be left alone, and they kept coming back. Her rather hilarious response was to place a large illuminated smiley face outside the cottage for tour nights, a tacky decoration that was described to me as being the 'kind of thing you might see in a Chinese restaurant'.
Apparently the ghost tour people did not like this disruption to the 'atmosphere' of their tour and so they wrote to the Tasmanian heritage department, claiming that the smiley face was against heritage guidelines, or something. Of course this complaint was knocked back.I am left wondering just what is wrong with these people. I have seen this same grubby attitude displayed before, with a ghost tour operator ignoring the heartfelt pleas of people to stop telling ridiculous ghost stories about a murdered family member.
It is bad enough that the stories they tell aren't even true, but to actively dismiss at the feelings of people who just want to be left alone in their home, or who want to feel that a loved one is resting in peace, is beyond the pale.
I don't know exactly who these Tasmanian ghost tour clowns are, but they have displayed a real lack of empathy and maturity in this case. I would welcome any feedback on who these people are and further details on their operations.
I wrote some brief notes for this post a few weeks back. Unfortunately the lady in question has since passed away. She showed patience and humour in the face of harrassment, and I hope she rests in peace.