Think you want to be a paranormal investigator? You want to go to haunted houses, run around in the dark, talk to ghosts, and live the exciting life of a ghost hunter? Well, here is my encouragement and my warning to you.
As a paranormal investigator you will need a lot of tools. What are the necessary tools you will need to be successful at ghost hunting? Read on.
You might be thinking, camera, digital voice recorder, video, and everything in between. While those tools are very cool, we are going to talk about the mental tools you need to do this job. After reading this you will either want more then ever to get out there, or you will be disappointed and will be content just to watch it on TV. Lets see which one you are!
The biggest and (in my opinion) most important thing you need is a healthy amount of skepticism. Belief in the paranormal is great, but going into an investigation with no skepticism will lead you to jump directly to paranormal phenomena if something shows up. A healthy skepticism will help you to identify what is natural, easily explainable, and what could be true paranormal activity. After all, ghost hunting is about getting real, true proof of the paranormal. Seeking to understand it. You cannot hope to understand or discover anything if your clues are false. If you think you will have trouble with this particular tool, then make sure your investigation partner/partners have enough to go around. Always have a Scully to your Mulder. (Remember that show?)
Another thing you will need is patience. A true thorough investigation take more then one night. You cannot hope to prove or disprove anything with only a few hours of investigation. You will need to be patient and calm. Any jumpiness or impatience on your part can get you into trouble with equipment, with judgment and with your end result. If you are expecting a zombie to jump out of the closet any minute you are likely to miss the subtle clues to a true paranormal experience. Be patient, be calm, and be observant.
Which leads me to my next item. An eye for detail. VERY rarely are you going to find a blaring , huge, loud clue to the paranormal. Usually its small, soft, slow and easy to miss. If something were to move an inch, would you notice? If the stuff on the table were in a different order then normal, would you know? That squeak you heard, was it a floor board, the house settling, maybe the sound of a wooden chair sliding across the hard wood floor? You need to be observant of the small things first. The big thing will more then likely be noticed quickly, its the small things that can be the biggest clues.
The next thing is you need to have knowledge of physics and the laws of nature in general. Being a paranormal investigator is like being a perpetual student. How did this item get onto the floor in this location. It may seem to you that if it merely fell it wouldn’t be on the other side of the room. But you need to be able to understand how things work. What happens if it falls and hits this item just on its corner on the way down, putting a spin on it and when it hit the floor it was able to move easily to the other side of the room. Pick the item up and try to recreate it. After you have proven or dis-proven you should also ask why it fell in the first place. Vibrations from the floor? Open window? Rat or mouse? You need to think of everything. Just remember that the simplest answer is usually the right one. Only after you CANNOT recreate it or explain it should you consider paranormal phenomena.
Now lets talk about psychology. You will need a knowledge of how the mind works. Why when you look at a dirty window does your mind create a pattern that looks like a face; because your mind is seeking a pattern to identify and object. The dirt/shadows on the window fit a general pattern, so your mind fills in the rest for you so you “know what it is,” or at least that’s my conclusion after much reading of many different books. You will also need this when interviewing a client. By no means should you outwardly question them in a way that makes them think you don’t believe them. There defenses will go up and you will be in for a very long interview. You should however make sure they are as detailed as possible and make sure you get enough background info on them to be able to make some educated guesses on how their mind may work. You will get the ones who just need attention for whatever reason and make up things to get it. You will have the ones who have hallucinated the event for some reason, maybe medication, maybe they were drinking but left that out to make their story sound believable. On the other hand you will also get the solder, or police officer, mother, child who is completely convinced of the things they experienced and they really want to know what it was and why, and who. Learn from every interview and apply what you learn to future interviews.
Last but not least you will need to be able to take it when NOTHING happens. Contrary to what is on TV not every investigation turns up evidence. I would say that 98% of the time there is a simple, natural explanation for the phenomena and you will not find any evidence whatsoever. You will need to be able to keep going even though you STILL haven’t found anything. Its discouraging, but when you finally hear that voice on the recorder and you CANNOT explain who, how, or why, you will be thrilled to the bone. That 2% is SO worth the waiting through the other 98%.
Still want to be a paranormal investigator? Yeah? Me too!
Mommy D.
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