Paranormal investigating

I'm curious if anyone on here has worked or is working as a paranornal activity investigators? Im curious what is it you actually do and did you take any courses etc to help you?

a reply to: Ghostsinthefog

Why? What have you encountered that you want to know more about?

'Usually' , an interest grows out of experience.

I'm not a paranormal investigator, but you must have patience if you are to pursue this as you may find yourself at many places without anything at all happening on that particular day. There are of course various instruments used. You can look this up online and study before going forth into the unknown. You would like to be able to differentiate between ghosts, poltergeist or demons. Fascinating subject!

a reply to: Ghostsinthefog


What do you want to know?

I've been a Field Investigator for MUFON and have spent over 20 years researching and investigating the Shadow people phenomena. Ghosts, Sasquatch, earth lights, and other "paranormal" things I've poked my nose into over the years are just all par for the course.

If you want to know about college courses, I would advise against it unless you have the money for specialty schools. You'll need to take a lot of investigation courses, that have more to do with crime then paranormal. I can give the link to a good school, but you might find that most of the items taught are really in-depth.

a reply to: Guyfriday

OR...just ask advice from those already in the field, perhaps local groups.

originally posted by: Night Star
a reply to: Guyfriday

OR...just ask advice from those already in the field, perhaps local groups.

This can be good advice too, but if a person wants to really get in to it, sometimes these groups can be not as good on the advice front as they are on the experience front. That's why I left that out, but your statement is true for people getting their feet wet for the first time

***PERSONAL NOTE***

before anyone chimes in (not you NightStar, you seem level headed about these things) and tells me I'm wrong in my advice, ask yourself how many groups out there are full of people that automatically assume that a speck of dust in a photo is an orb?

a reply to: Guyfriday

how many groups out there are full of people that automatically assume that a speck of dust in a photo is an orb?

Yes!!
We have a local group who deems everything as demonic possession... ........ can't roll my eyes hard enough.

originally posted by: Guyfriday

originally posted by: Night Star
a reply to: Guyfriday

OR...just ask advice from those already in the field, perhaps local groups.

This can be good advice too, but if a person wants to really get in to it, sometimes these groups can be not as good on the advice front as they are on the experience front. That's why I left that out, but your statement is true for people getting their feet wet for the first time

***PERSONAL NOTE***

before anyone chimes in (not you NightStar, you seem level headed about these things) and tells me I'm wrong in my advice, ask yourself how many groups out there are full of people that automatically assume that a speck of dust in a photo is an orb?

As I'm not Night Star, but know her well anyway, lol, I can tell you as someone with experience in most things paranormal that that is just it. There are so many things you may be of interest in from UFO's to alternate universes. Perhaps finding an online group with a common interest can lead you to people like them in your area.
BTW, the only UFO/orb picture that I believe is real is the one I didn't take in 2007 in my UFO encounter. Didn't have cellphone with camera app at that time.

a reply to: Guyfriday

before anyone chimes in (not you NightStar, you seem level headed about these things) and tells me I'm wrong in my advice, ask yourself how many groups out there are full of people that automatically assume that a speck of dust in a photo is an orb?

Good point! I agree, there are too many actually. That is how you weed out the good from the bad... a good paranormal investigator will go in and rule out every normal, plausible explanation first before making the leap into believing it is paranormal.

I've investigated the subject enough to know the "Yes, there are strange things."
Mystery solved? Less than "Nope."
That's all I can honestly say.
Good luck to any legitimate investigators, but don't be surprised or dissappointed if you come up with nothing tangible.

a reply to: skunkape23

Good luck to any legitimate investigators, but don't be surprised or dissappointed if you come up with nothing tangible.

Many times, nothing at all will happen even though you have spent many hours in a supposedly haunted area. Then there comes a day in that same area you just might have a paranormal experience. You just can't predict when or if something will happen.

I will venture to say that noisy film crews tromping through the woods will never catch legitimate evidence of Sasquatch.
A thing I know to be real.
Ditto with ghosts and UFOs and a whole wide spectrum of High Wierdness.
That seems to be the nature of this "Thing".
I would love to be proved wrong.

I investigate here and there and a bit over the years. I didn't take courses, but rather learned by myself and was involved when family/friends were active with the ghost hunting, but I've heard of some offered online. A lot of it's trial and error, observing others investigation, some to watch investigation shows/how to videos. Of course, in person is better.

You can buy equipment packs(cheaper to more expensive sets) for beginners. I started with and mostly do EVPs. Simple EVPs, with a recorder, is the cheapest way to get started, can pick up one used or even use a phone for the recordings. You can find a deal on used EMF readers as well. There's free software online to evaluate the EVPs with later on.

Those are some things off the top of my head. Also, as shows, etc., often remind people be careful when investigating as some areas are restricted/no stressing to even if not can be pretty dangerous.

a reply to: Guyfriday

You seem a very reasonable guy, would you mind sharing one of the most bizzare things you have come across?

a reply to: Hotdawg


Earth lights are far and away the most bizarre thing I've ever encountered. I was out on a UFO sighting investigation, and out in the woods saw both the after math of a possible largish primate and the hauntingly beautiful glow of earth lights.

There were reports of large aliens out in the deep woods. Some photos of these glowing masses were all the visual evidence the person who made the report had to show us. They gave us a rough idea as to where in the woods we should go, and off we went. It was just me and another investigator that headed this off, since neither of us expected to see anything other then some after math of a tree that had fallen. It was late after we had set up camp, and headed out to the sighting area, but when we got near the site where the "UFO" was seen we heard a muffled noise off in the tree line. We looked and spotted some small trees moving around like they got pushed hard, and on the ground we saw some large humanoid footprints. We took some pictures of the footprints and kept a very watchful eye out for what at the time we thought it could be a bear, or maybe a sasquatch. I thought bear, which made me nervous, even though I had a gun on me it was dark and I remember being worried that I might not respond in tine if a mama bear got mad. The other investigator thought it was a sasquatch and wanted to leave since for some reason the idea of being in the dark with a sasquatch didn't make him feel comfortable.

We both agreed to just go to the spot where the UFO was seen, and see if we can tell if anything landed, then head back to camp. It was just a few moments later that we saw what can only be described as looking at a dimly lit lightbulb, but without the bulb. The light floated around the area, it was so random that it seemed intelligent, but still seemed random at the same time. We heard some noises in the trees again, but when the lights started everything was silent. I don't think we were out there by ourselves, but whatever was out there with us didn't seem to care the we were even there. We tried to take a few pictures, but since we had a sealed MUFON camera we don't know if the pictures ever came out or not (it was after this case that I started to carry my own camera so that I could get my own set of pictures). After the lights died down the noises started up again, but sounded like whatever was in the tree line that was watching the lights with us, were moving away. We waited for a little while, then headed back to camp. Nothing else happened that night.

Afterwards I had contacted a geologist about the possibility of these lights being something natural, and they told me that due to the minerals and rock types, plus the seismic activity in the area, that earth light could be a possible explanation for the lights. After seeing what I did, I had a clever thought that if the noises we heard were in fact a group of sasquatches, then maybe they see the earthlights as a god of some sort. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed to make sense. There are a lot of sasquatch sightings near areas where mystery lights are seen. In many of these cases people just think that the lights are UFOs, and that bigfoot must be an alien. What if these people are wrong, what if the sasquatch see these lights from a very basic point of view? These lights come from nowhere, travel around in an area, and then just as oddly as they arrive they vanish. Maybe the sasquatch see these lights as a deity of the woods or something. Who knows, but I do know that I've seen these lights after that too, and in areas where sasquatches are also reported so maybe I'm on to something.

The reason I say that these earth lights are the most bizarre thing I've seen, is that unlike the shadow people, some ghosts, the UFOish looking thing, and more than a few sasquatch leavings (ie tracks, creatures moving, ect ect) earthlight are explainable, but strangely mysterious at the same time. Knowing how they could be forming and watching them happen can best be described as finding out that Santa Clause isn't real, but not understanding how the gifts appear under the tree. Earth light are kind of like that, or seeing a magic trick that is very well done, but you already know how its done. They leave you with a sense of wonder when being seen, and at the same time a sense of appreciation for how the physics of the world works. The other investigator still thinks that we saw some kind of other worldly beings exploring our world, but even after explain to him the science behind these earth lights, the fact that they exist seem to have left an spiritual affect on him. From a scientific point of view I found that sad that a people could be so fragile in their beliefs, but at the same time appreciated the effect.

Hope that answers your question.

a reply to: Ghostsinthefog

I kind-of do as my own independent person. There were a few local groups I considered joining, but due to having a "real" job, I couldn't find the time to make them work.

When I go to a spot, I tend to treat most of the investigation with the scientific process in mind. My theory is that ghosts need energy in order to manifest, so I hunt with an EMF reader, and eventually I will have a thermal imaging camera.

I also have a bit of a sense for when ghosts are present - And no, I'm not one of those people that touch the walls and goes "I feel a dark energy coming from here". But, I have run out of rooms where I feel that I'm not wanted, or that I walked in on something I wasn't supposed to.

As for classes - One of the things that I recommend taking (from a practical standpoint) is linguistics, specifically areas like "text to speech" and even as far as learning to identify words by the sound graphs.

Why? Because if you use EVPs as evidence, pareidolia (the same phenomenon that makes people see skulls, dinosaurs, and rodents on Mars) can also happen with audio: You might hear something that sounds like a scream, when in fact it was something internal.

The other alternative that works well for me is this: If I use a microphone, I try to get a "base line". Aka, if there are four of us talking on the mic, I make sure I know which voice belongs to which person. If someone else enters the room, I make sure to say on there that someone else joined us. That was how I managed to find a couple odd EVPs on some of my adventures.

I also recommend you read things such as "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds" - Reason being if you ever do a hunt with large amounts of people...Once one person thinks they saw something it can influence everyone else to believe it too (I remember my first trip to the Randolph Asylum - There were large amounts of people that believe a balloon moving in a drafty basement was a ghost playing with it).

Best bit of advice I can say is: Go in with an open mind on both the science (I can explain this), and spiritual (this can't be explained).

-foss

a reply to: Ghostsinthefog

I did my own little paranormal investigation of the Palmer house in Minnesota.
It was the only time I ever tried to record and take photos etc.

It was fun!

There was a local team there as well, but they seemed kind of weird so we just did our own thing.
There is a thread here:
My first Ghost hunt: The Palmer House

I even got an interesting "dust ball"

lol

Coincidentally, The Dead Files is doing a show on the palmer house this weekend.

I'd been interested in, and researched the paranormal since I was a kid. Over a decade ago I joined a paranormal meetup group, which quickly turned into a very active and busy investigation group. You don't necessarily need to take classes, and I sure wouldn't pay for any kind of "degree" in the field, those are useless.

And be prepared to spend hours without anything happening. This is what a typical investigation is like. I have captured some EVP's, light flashes (not orbs!) and even saw an apparition, but most investigation will be uneventful.

And DON'T follow paranormal TV shows as the template to how things are done, especially Ghost Adventures. The only show that was closest to showing how an investigation is conducted was Ghost Hunters

a reply to: Ghostsinthefog

I used to be a member of a paranormal investigating group. We did not take a class. We all learned from the popular TV ghost hunting series, did a bunch of reading on the procedures other existing groups used and learned by actually going on the ghost hunts and getting hands on experience.

Basically you book locations that are known to be haunted in your area and go in and do the investigation with permission.

We always had permission to be on the property and were actually locked in overnight to some of the establishments.
If you are running an official group, and going into established businesses or private homes it is recommended you are insured and bonded in case of accidents or claims that may occur during your investigation. This also assures those whom you are booking investigations with a sense of reassurance that wackos aren't just coming into their property willy nilly.

Among the group we all brought equipment to the table to do investigations. Depending on how much money you have in the budget can determine what tools you utilize in the investigation. You can use some very primitive techniques with basic equipment and or go all out with fancy smancy stuff.

Some of the basic equipment needs are just like what you have seen on the popular TV shows of paranormal investigations.

Flashlight

EMF detector

Digital Voice Recorder with a usb connection

Digital Infrared Thermometer

Video Camera Recording Equipment (or handheld video camera / cell phone)

Audacity Software





Audacity

You can start with one piece of equipment and practice in your own home...its as simple as that. You might get quite the surprise if you find something in your own home dwelling !

Ooh... did I mention coffee ! Coffee is an essential tool for the trade (or energy drink of your choice)... being up overnight if you aren't already a night owl can be daunting...especially if your sitting in front of one of those split 4 way monitor screens for hours looking for any kind of strange happenings to pop out at ya.

leolady