Paranormal Groups Ignore Candle Face Just to Sell Merch

May 24, 2025

I've written about this before, but I guess I need to say it again. Maybe this time I'll say it more clearly.

For nearly two years, I've been reaching out to the paranormal community, just to ask for help. I've written heartfelt messages to paranormal "investigators," mediums, and psychics all across the country. I've watched their videos. Followed their pages. Bought their books. Bought their merch. I've even met many of them in person, hoping maybe, just maybe, they'd look at what I'm doing and care enough to say, "Tell me more. How can I help?"

I wasn't trying to sell them anything. I wasn't looking for attention. I was just trying to get them to listen to the lost souls. To read the testimonies. To give them back their names. I thought that's what we were all here for.

But most of the time, I get nothing. No reply. No questions. No curiosity. Just silence. Or worse, sales pitches.

I share a journal entry where a spirit pleads for their name to be remembered, and the only response I get is a promo code for a team hoodie. I ask if someone can help me verify a detail from a testimony, and they ask if I've bought a ticket to their ghost hunt many states away. I ask for advice on how to talk to spirits, and I'm hit up for donations. I thought I was reaching out to allies. I didn't realize I was walking into a marketplace.

I've even offered free copies of my books to help spread the stories of the souls still looking for peace. But in return, they ask me to donate to their own projects. I've given nearly $3,000 worth of books to them for free, yet they're the ones begging me for money.

They're too busy filming reaction videos about orbs in haunted houses and clapping back at other paranormal investigators who stole their investigative methods. Too busy livestreaming para-dramas and throwing insults at each other. And somewhere in the middle of all that, real spirits who need our help get ignored.

Most of their mission statements say the same thing. "We help those in need." "We bring peace to the dead." "We give the paranormal a voice." That's what it says on their websites and Facebook pages. But when you actually bring them a case that isn't convenient, that isn't marketable, they clam up. Or worse, they redirect. They ask if I've joined their Patreon. They ask if I've donated to their GoFundMe. They ask if I've booked a ticket to their next live event. The same people who claim to fight evil spirits vanish the second a real spirit shows up.

So far, out of the 62 I've contacted, only one has helped. One. GenX Paranormal Investigations, which has only 22 Facebook likes. But they've helped far more than anyone else, including groups with 100k followers.

The rest? They don't want Candle Face in their lives. She's real, and they don't want what's real. They want to sell merch. She doesn't fit the tourist route. She isn't haunted dolls and voice apps. She's ancient and angry and real. And she doesn't sell well on t-shirts.

I'm not saying selling merch is wrong. I sell books. I offer scrolls. But I do it to make up for the $20,000 I've spent trying to help the lost souls, to print their names, to ship their stories, to share their voices with people who might care.

What I see from others is merch first, mission maybe. It's $25 t-shirts while the dead go ignored in the background. The message gets buried under coffee mugs, magazines, and haunted house tickets. When selling merch takes priority over the spirits they claim to serve, it's time to say goodbye to them.

And yet, I keep trying. That's on me. I keep thinking the next message will reach someone who cares. I keep hoping that somewhere, buried beneath the merch and egos, there's someone who really wants to help the lost souls.

But it always comes back to this. I ask for help, and they ask if I listen to their podcast or if I'm a member of their Patreon. I ask for time to explain what I need, and they ask me to purchase VIP tickets to a paracon. I ask for witnesses, and they ask for subscribers.

This was never supposed to be a business. It was supposed to be about the lost souls who want to be identified. Readers have already identified 11 of 47 spirits, mostly from the Austin, TX area, but we still have many to help. And the ones who escaped Candle Face's lair, the Fugitives, are still hiding. The Remembered are waiting to be read. Waiting for someone to speak their names aloud. That's why I'm still here.

So maybe I stop knocking on doors that are never going to open.

Maybe I stop waiting for the paranormal community to do something they haven't done in a long time: help without selling something.

My readers have done more than the paranormal "investigators" ever have. They're the ones spotting patterns. Sharing names. Piecing together who the lost souls were. They're not asking for tickets, likes, or donations. They're just showing up and solving real cold cases.

Maybe that's who this was always meant for: the quiet ones who see the truth on my pages and stay up at night wondering what they missed.

To those who helped, thank you.

To the rest of you?

Keep your merch. I've got spirits to help!