Mansfield Training School & Paranormal Witness… The Fallout

In a post last week I wrote about how a place that I have been shooting for some time had become the subject of a SYFY show called “Paranormal Witness” After watching the show I went to damnedct.com and posted the links to the youtube and my story about my history with the place on their comments area under “Abandoned”  Since my comments a torrent of others have put in their two cents including a group of ghost hunters “Team Proof”, an ironic name for a ghost hunting group because in reality, when you look at their site they really have none to speak of.

It turns out that Team Proof are the ones that provided information (none of which made it into the show) on the haunting at MTS and are claiming that their real “proof” is in the hands of said television company and they are afraid of legal action if they post it all. As this is a weak explanation, they went on to also explain that their story differed from the show on SYFY as it was finally put out and that it was sensationalized but hey, you can buy our book that has it all in there that will be out soon!

Ugh.

I then went to the “evidence” files that they have for other sites and what I found was less than spectacular.. Much less. The evidence consists of digital images of out of context objects, balls of dust or bugs flying through scenes lit by the flash, and lastly, 1.5k images of.. well, I dunno what they were supposed to be. None of the evidence was worth the time and what it really left me with was a sense that these folks are either clueless or, out for some attention (buy our book!) I made comments of this on the damnedct.com site and a storm ensued that ended up with the eventual, albeit not wholly unexpected digital epithet of “STFU”

Meh… So what does this all mean and why am I talking about it other than to kvetch?

Well, as an Urban Explorer, these sites are often compromised by fools seeking ghosts. They report these places and even (like the Proof people) eventually post the locations online and then its all over. Vandals show up and the places get even more beaten down and patrolled by cops and the like. All because someone wants to sell their book or garner the attention online. Of course the same could be said about anyone going there and taking pictures or video and posting them online, however, the most of us do not post the locations and we do not make things fantastical and tantalizing for the morons to try and get EVP’s there.

URBEX is a passion for many (myself included as you can see) These places have a great history to tell both in life as well as in decrepitude today. Often times these places are dangerous and loaded with asbestos, spores, fungi, etc that you really need to be careful about. Breathers are a requirement and care should be taken when shooting them. All too often the damage done by the ones who go before without care lead to the diminishing of the place in a more rapid way. I ascribe by the axiom that they came up with for the outdoor movement “Tread Lightly” Basically leave it as you found it. In the case of MTS there has been a lot of vandalism from rocks through windows to spray paint on the walls.

Sad really…

CDV

 

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