So you want to start a Paranormal Group?
Birmingham Investigators of the Unknown
27th June 2008
We are seriously intending to start a brand new and exciting paranormal group based in the Birmingham UK area called Birmingham Investigators of the Unknown or BirminghamIU. The founder members have good experience of the paranormal and will be looking for new members to join us. If you are experiencing the paranormal and would like some assistance, then our totally free service will range from simple advice to full investigations. Eventually, in the future as the group expands, we also hope to provide good value paid investigations to famous locations, open to the general public. The group will always remain non-profit making and everything will be put straight back into the group.
Our website is currently being designed at the time of writing, but please see http://www.birminghamiu.com for more information about the group itself. As the group develops I will describe the steps taken to start our group. If we are a success it will provide good advice to other people who also want to start their own group, if we fail it will at least show you where we went wrong.
Founder Members With The Same Goal
The group has initially formed from 3 people living in the same residential block near Birmingham City Centre.
I've got vast experience of the paranormal and have received formal training as a member of another local group which mainly use scientific investigation techniques. I haven't yet learnt to use any psychic abilities properly, but I'm reading books and attending classes. I'm also very good with computers and scientific equipment. If our new group succeeds, my involvement with my other group will cause a conflict of interests and I will be forced to resign, leaving me to put all my effort into the new group. I must choose a suitable time to resign, if I do this too soon, our group could fail and I won't be part of any group at all, if I do it too late, it will be unfair to my colleges in the established scientific group as there are strict rules about joining 2 groups.
The 2nd founder member has experience of the paranormal and is showing strong psychic abilities, although he's still got a lot to learn and is attending classes.
The final founder member also has experience of the paranormal and is showing some psychic abilities. He has also got excellent computer skills including web design.
We're are all very keen and willing to work hard to make our group a success and have already investigated potentially haunted locations together, including in my own flat (Click for more information) where we have picked up various EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon).
Obtaining Equipment For Investigations
To get the group started we need to acquire equipment. So far we only have a digital dictaphone, torches and 2 walkie talkies. We intend to purchase an EMF meter, an infra red thermometer, a 4 in 1 environment meter, a digital camera and a night vision camcorder. For more information on equipment and where to purchase it, please click here. Extra equipment will be added gradually when we have the money.
Attracting New Members
We have 3 founder members so far and would ideally like 4 or 5, so are on the look out for at least 1 more suitable candidate. Currently we're somewhat limited where we can investigate as we don't currently have a car, so a new member with his/her own transport would be very advantageous.
After recruiting all the founder members we will be looking to other keen members from the public with like minded interests to form the remainder of the group. Our website is being designed and will be publicised over the Internet in the hope of attracting interest as well as advertising for potential clients and places to investigate. Once we have more members, we then need to decide where we are going to meet and how much if anything to charge in membership into the group kitty.
Help From New Friends In The Field
Sometimes as you know it's not what you know, but who you know. Our founder members previously went on paid investigations with another local group. We asked them for help and advice starting our group. The leader is hopefully going to send some clients our way when our group is formed. She says they have far more potential clients than they're about to take on. Okay, we are in some ways getting the left overs, but it's still a great opportunity to get started.
Public Liability Insurance
It's very inportant that any serious group gets public liability insurance as a basic requirement when carrying out investigations in other people's properties. This works quite cheaply, but phone around for the best quote.
Future Updates
We have many challenges ahead of us if we want to start a successful group.
I will update as to how we get on, whether we succeed or fail.
UPDATE 21ST JULY 2008
Since starting BirminghamIU, our 3 founder members including myself have been an a private investigation and various outdoor investigations. We have already caught EVP, numerous paranormal photographs including numerous 'orbs' and white mist. I have almost been taken by what appeared to be a spirit on a couple of occasions and our psychic has been taken by spirit. Our website is up and running. Everything is great, but we need more members. If anyone is interested, please visit our website at http://www.birminghamiu.com and contact us.
SEE COMMENTS BELOW FOR MORE UPDATES!
(All person names have been left out for the purpose of confidentiality at this time)
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Comments
Comment from admin
Time August 18, 2008 at 4:19 am 
We have just put up a better website. We’ve already had over 3000 visitors in around 3 weeks, which is a great start. We’re visiting lots of outdoor locations and are putting up photographs and investigations. Hopefully we will soon attract new members too.
Remember see:
Comment from admin
Time October 18, 2008 at 5:40 am
We have now had interest from possible new members who want to attend an investigation with us as well as other interest and leads for new locations. We have visited a great indoor location called the Grail Court Hotel in Burton on Trent. We have put videos on-line, but have lots still to publish. The evidence is coming in quicker than I can process it for the website. We really do need new members, if you are interested and live in the Midlands, UK area, please visit http://www.birminghamiu.com for more details.
We have had some problems with our website host Freehostia which has caused this site and our paranormal groups site to go down regularly. It’s meant to be fixed, but we are looking for a better and more reliable website host.
Comment from admin
Time November 23, 2008 at 7:14 am
Our website is growing and we now have various forum members, we have now got a 4th founder member and interest from other people. We have caught some amazing evidence so far including light anomalies, a suspected apparition and even EVP. Videos have included 2 trance mediumship examples where Gareth was taken over by a spirit. We are hoping to organise a serious paranormal investigation event for the general public next year, but there’s lots to organise first and we need the finds first to book a suitable location. We don’t intend to make any money from the investigation, we will run non-profit and hopefully by inviting other people with us, it will allow us to pay to visit somewhere that would have been too expensive for just our founder members alone. BirminghamIU has become rather controversial as we have operated in graveyards, but this is because we are short of funds and want to still get out there when we can’t afford or haven’t got a suitable indoor location at the time. Some graveyards are active, but not necessarily by the people buried there and not all are active.
Comment from admin
Time December 2, 2008 at 8:22 am
We have now got a private indoor location with a good chance of getting more from a large housing association in Birmingham. This is excellent. We are working on a new website which will become live soon, see http://www.birminghamiu.com for full details. The new website will be bright and colourful as we believe too many people are seeing dark and gothic paranormal sites.
Comment from admin
Time January 10, 2009 at 4:05 am
For specialised public liability insurance for paranormal groups in the UK, try http://www.westminster-indemnity.co.uk as they offer specific insurance for things like “mediumship” etc.
Comment from admin
Time February 6, 2009 at 8:15 am
We are still increasing our equipment and have just brought CCTV and a 2nd camcorder. It’s good that we have a some indoor locations coming up soon too. We have improved our website and forum and are really hoping to get new members soon. We have had lots of interest, but no-one else has so far made the final commitment, although we still have various interested people. The number of members is only 4 at present and this is too low for what we want to achieve so we are all working on ways to introduce new members, although we want committed, talented and serious individuals and we won’t compromise on our quality of service. One suggestion is to hold a totally free open day explaining the equipment and what we do to anyone who is interested. If you are interested in joining BirminghamIU, please visit http://www.birminghamiu.com and contact us or leave a reply to this post. We will then contact you for a no obligation informal chat.
Comment from admin
Time April 10, 2009 at 4:16 am
We now have new members which means we have 7 members, 2 of which attend occasionally. We have got also 2 indoor investigations coming up including The Station Hotel and a clients house.
Comment from admin
Time April 21, 2009 at 2:50 am
We are going from strength to strength and are getting various private investigations plus lots of interest!
We now have public liability insurance, for our experience and advice on getting this type of insurance, please see http://www.paranormal-marketing.com/2009/04/21/getting-public-liability-insurance-for-paranormal-groups-our-experience-advice as it’s not as easy as you think to be properly covered.
Comment from admin
Time May 13, 2009 at 5:59 pm
Everything is still going strong and we are conducting private investigation with various leads, we are finally taking off.
Comment from admin
Time June 16, 2009 at 6:42 pm
**LATEST BIRMINGHAMIU NEWS**
We are still very active and have been attending various private investigations which unfortunately cannot publicised on-line due to confidentiality and privacy reasons, hence why more on-line videos tend to be outdoor training locations. We are working on a new introduction video which will explain more about what we do and how we work today. BirminghamIU have come a long way in the last year and through continuous improvement our techniques have become extremely successful for both investigating alleged paranormal activity scientifically and in dealing with spirits themselves using compassion and understanding using various psychic techniques. Our founder member Peter has moved milestones and never ceases to amaze with his ever improving psychic abilities and he is now actively training myself to develop my own psychic abilities which has been so far an incredible experience and journey. Although my first paranormal investigation was in 1996, I’m a scientific investigator and now I’m learning to use all possible methods available. Sherree and James are also both using their psychic skills a lot more and are also doing some incredible stuff. Gareth is currently very busy with other important things in life including starting a new family home and has taken a temporary step back, but he doesn’t intend to leave BirminghamIU as a founder member. We also have another new member named, Steve who will hopefully be attending his first training investigation very soon.
BirminghamIU are perfectly capable of clearing spirits if absolutely necessary, but we will only do this where we find the spirit is causing harm and refuses to stop after repeated attempts at understanding and compassion. As an absolute last resort we clear spirits using force, but most spirits we clear actually choose and want to go to the light after we have communicated with them properly, getting to the bottom of why they are there, they often just need a helping hand. Often people misinterpret spirits as evil when they are in fact just very upset and confused regarding the way they died or the way they’ve been treated, with lots of patience, compassion and understanding, quite often we find spirits that are classed as evil aren’t evil at all, only occasionally do we encounter a truly evil spirit that wants to continue causing harm no matter what. In this situation we may have no choice but the clear a truly evil spirit using force, but we don’t take this decision lightly. Where a spirit isn’t doing any harm, unless they request to go to the light themselves, we will not clear them as it’s very unfair until they are ready to leave. It’s important to remember that spirits are people with conciousness and feelings like you or I. Sometimes we find spirits that are happy to stay and are watching over living family or friends which is usually very pleasant.
We are still looking for new members for BirminghamIU and are hoping to expand our team to around 8 to 10 members potentially. There’s a lot of work to be done and often we sadly don’t have enough time to do everything and we have to prioritise tasks. Obviously helping private clients gets very high priority followed by studying evidence and writing reports Etc. Constant training also takes a high priory as it’s very important we don’t make any mistakes and work to the best of our abilities at all times. Unfortunately maintaining this website and forum can take a lower priority at times, so sorry for the lack of fresh new content lately. A few new members would increase our resources and allow us to provide an even better service, full training is provided and we don’t currently charge anything for membership or services. All we ask is that you are able to travel to Birmingham and the surrounding areas for training, meetings and investigations, you must are keen to learn, be reliable and are at least open minded about the existence of paranormal activity.
If anyone would like any advice about anything paranormal or would perhaps like the team to investigate or deal with any possible paranormal activity, please contact us at admin@birminghamiu.com or Phone 0121 634 3849 or 07910 661131 and ask for Paul or Peter. Remember all our services are always totally free, private and confidential. We are a very friendly informal team that will put you at ease, we thoroughly enjoy what we do and would love to hear from you. We will never ever ridicule anyone for what they believe they have experienced, we have certainly come across some amazing unexplained phenomenon in our time and will never quickly dismiss any information given.
Best Regards,
Paul
BirminghamIU Founder Member
(admin@birminghamiu.com)
(Tel 0121 634 3849 or 07910 661131)
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Comment from admin
Time July 7, 2008 at 4:35 am
Our initial website is up and running although so far it’s a basic template which we will improve and add to over time.