The Veritas Principle: How Paranormal Investigators Separate Truth from Assumption

If you’ve read any of my work, you’ve probably noticed a recurring theme: my characters are constantly searching for the truth. It’s even in the title of The Veritas Codex series. Veritas is Latin for truth.

Lauren Grayson is a biological anthropologist with a passion for research. She’s not just looking for clues, nor is it as simple as getting answers. Truth encompasses so much more.

Answers provide closure. → Truth provides understanding.

An answer can be incorrect but still feel satisfying. In fact, some of the most dangerous answers are the ones that arrive too quickly. They give us certainty without requiring evidence. They allow us to stop asking questions, which is the beginning of stagnation.

Truth is different. Truth often complicates the story. It challenges assumptions. It forces us to reconsider what we thought we knew. It keeps us asking the questions.

And that’s one reason truth can be so hard to find. Truth also has competition. Fear, bias, and ego all come with their own truths. Sometimes, we want something to be true so badly that we stop evaluating it objectively. Other times we reject possibilities because they challenge our worldview.

In The Veritas Codex (Book 1 of The Veritas Codex Series), Lauren is under a lot of pressure to make a big discovery—from the Network, from her audience, from the tabloids— everyone is saying to her, “No one’s better at not finding monsters than you are,” and in truth, that stings. It puts Lauren’s passion at odds with her principles.

We see the same thing in the paranormal community. Many of us want so badly to believe that we will forget that answers and truth are separate concepts. We reject possibilities because they challenge our worldview. We stop investigating and start defending our positions.

Legitimate investigators understand that truth doesn’t belong to any one person, theory, or belief system. It exists independently of our opinions. Our job is not to create it or shape it. Instead, our job is to discover it.

That is a practice that requires patience, and it’s not always a comfortable place to be. This is where the pundits question credibility. When the naysayers started asking, “Why haven’t you found anything already?” Lauren starts asking the same questions. Why hasn’t she found anything?

The entire Veritas Codex series began because I asked the same question. I was watching one of the paranormal investigations shows and thought, we’re how many seasons into this and they never find anything? My writer/investigator brain said, “Maybe they did, but it was a truth they could never tell…”

I allowed Lauren’s insecurities to come through in the story, but in the end, it was never about her being right. It was about getting her character right. She is a complex and competent investigator, who is also human. Not everything she thinks to be true really is, and she makes assumptions that aren’t based on actual evidence, just like most of us do.

At its core, The Veritas Codex is built on the simple idea that the search for truth is more important than the comfort of certainty.

The investigators who will be successful aren’t the ones with all the answers. They’re the ones willing to ask better questions. They follow the evidence and challenge assumptions. They can remain open-minded without becoming gullible, and they understand that the pursuit of truth often requires admitting they don’t know it all.

The most powerful words in an investigation are: “I don’t know.” Because it’s not a lack of knowledge. It’s the beginning of a search and shows that there are still questions left that need to be answered. These three words keep curiosity alive, and as Tsul’Kalu says in the book, “Stay curious, always.”

Does this resonate with you?

In my books—from The Veritas Codex Series to The Manifest Destiny Series—the characters are always chasing truth hidden beneath the surface, shrouded in myth.

Secret histories. Hidden motives. Truths that were never meant to be told.

It’s the same work we do as writers. We strip away illusion. We confront distortion. We face our fears so that we can learn to see clearly—in story, in craft, and in ourselves.

If you want to build your writing life with that same clarity, feel free to subscribe and follow along. Let’s search for the truth, together.

Subscribe to my Substack here and stay curious always.

Want to know more about The Veritas Codex series, and all my other books? Visit my website at www.authorbetseykulakowski.com.