Steven LaChance Blog

I wanted to take a moment to really talk about Architecture of Shadows, which you will soon see going up for presale.

This book felt like the right place to stop and look back. Not to close a door, but to take stock of what twenty five years of work has actually taught me. Not just about hauntings, but about people, memory, fear, and the way certain experiences stay with us long after the moment has passed.

I realized early on that the most sincere thing I could offer was not answers. I do not have definitive answers, and I do not believe anyone truly does. I also do not think we are anywhere close to having them. This is one of those areas of life where belief is personal, shaped by experience, instinct, and reflection. No one can or should tell you what you must believe.

I will not do that in this book. Or in any book I write.

What I can do is share what I have learned. What I have observed. What has held up over time and what has quietly fallen apart when examined closely. My hope has always been that you take that information and decide for yourself what it means.

I can also promise you this. Architecture of Shadows does not follow the paranormal party line. In fact, I suspect some of what I believe and how I think this subject should be researched will surprise people. Anyone who has followed my work knows I have never had much trouble saying what I think. They also know I am willing to sit back and listen when others disagree. That part matters just as much.

The truth is, the paranormal as performance was never something I wanted to be part of as an adult. Once combat boots and fatigues entered my life, that phase was over. I have nothing against teams. I have nothing against people dressing the part if that is meaningful to them. It just was not my path.

I came into this with serious questions. Why did this happen to me and my family. What were we actually experiencing. Dressing up and running around in the dark was not answering those questions. Listening was.

My journeys throughout the world have taught me something valuable every time I set foot in a new place. It is not just the locations themselves, but the people. The ones who share their histories, their customs, and their ways of seeing the world. They shape how I understand things more than any site ever could.

There are so many ways we are alike, no matter where we come from. And just as many ways we think differently. Neither of those truths cancels the other out. They exist side by side.

Traveling to some of the most ancient places on earth changed how I pay attention. It taught me to slow down. To listen differently. To approach what I was experiencing without forcing meaning onto it. I learned that understanding does not always come from looking harder, but from being more receptive.

That shift carried over into my work. I needed to be with people who were going through the same thing I once had. I needed to hear their stories without judgment. I needed to help where I could and step back when I could not. That work mattered to me then, and it still does now.

Architecture of Shadows is not about certainty. It is about patterns. It is about restraint. It is about respecting lived experience without turning it into entertainment or proof. It is about approaching something deeply human with care, patience, and sincerity.

This is an important book for me. I have lived with it for a long time, and you are going to hear more about it in the days and months ahead.