For the longest time now I have been inundated with the same question:
How does one become a ghosthunter?
Or, What type of education do you need to investigate the paranormal?
Apart from reporters, questions like these usually come from individuals with a strong interest in tales of the strange and unusual, and who are at a loss for the perfect starting point for their journey into extraordinary explorations. On the surface, it seems like such an easy question to answer, but these people must quickly realize that there is far more to “ghost hunting” than just tracking down legends and snapping photo after photo in a cemetery at the stroke of midnight.
I guess the proper response to such a question would be another question.
When it comes to the paranormal, what exactly are YOU looking for?
Everyone has their own reason why they become interested – obsessed, really – with paranormal subject matter. More often than not, it is a highly personal quest. Rarely is it due to just outright fascination of the Unusual. There is usually a much deeper desire driving this kind of exploration and it’s usually rooted somewhere in the realm of personal experience. Those who just want cheap thrills and entertainment never stick with ghosthunting for very long and are easily disappointed when they find out how much work is involved, and how few and far between genuine paranormal experiences can be. They continuously hear the tales of supernatural phenomena from the media and Hollywood and mistakenly believe all it takes to see a spirit is a late-night visit to a cemetery with a Ouija board, or some such nonsense.
Then there are those who seek nothing more than becoming a folklorist, spreading the legends of ghostly goings-on in books and websites for all to read. These folks comprise the first rung on the ladder of paranormal research. They are the philosophers and tale-spinners of the supernatural realm. Recounting the tales of others is as close as they wish to get to the Other Side. They find an artful thrill in providing a smorgasbord of macabre stories and usually care little if the legends are really true or not. Their sole purpose is to entertain while enlightening the public to the unseen world that resides in a curious tandem with our own material existence. It is the work of the folklorist that provides the basis for all research because without their literary tapestries, woven with a blend of history, human tragedy, and dramatic strangeness, ghosthunters everywhere would find themselves working even harder to uncover stories of human interaction with the paranormal.
There are still others who attempt to uncover the truth hidden beneath the surface of the storyteller’s yarns. They seek to experience the legend first-hand; to travel beyond the realm of everyday life and into a brand new world where weird and wonderful events transpire; to witness those things they have been told all their lives do not exist, yet cannot be explained away or pushed into darkened obscurity by the mere act of disbelief. They calculate and record; catalog and dissect. They provide scientific meaning to the folklore and document their findings for posterity.
And, finally, there are those who see in the paranormal the full potential of humankind. They see the building blocks for greater illumination which no one religion or scientific discipline can provide: the transcendence of the mind over the body and the comfortable merging of the human element with scientific fact.
Perhaps the proper question that should be asked, I suppose, is not how to become a ghosthunter, but why did you become a ghosthunter? What is it about the subject that compels some people to completely, and without reservation, submerse themselves in it? Is the drive to touch the aethereal plane just the result of a lifelong fascination with the macabre, or is it something much deeper?
Why did you become a ghosthunter? Why would you want to?
Why did I?
When I think of ghosts I don’t think of restless souls or residual patterns of psychic energy playing back to those sensitive enough to access them. Of course, these ideas and theories are present, but they do not represent the true spirit (if you’ll pardon the pun) of my research.
When I think of ghosts I think of what they reveal to us on a much deeper level. These enigmatic entities represent the foundation for the exploration of the human condition, the nature of reality, and the potential that exists within each of us. They are more than snippets of scientific data waiting to be processed and cataloged. They are more than stranded souls that need to “move into the light.” They are rainbows in the dark; glimpses of the true nature of existence. They reveal to us that reality is not what we think it is. They reveal that there is more to our world – our universe – than what the five senses can interpret for us. They show us how primitive our understanding is, yet, at the same time, present us with the opportunity to see within ourselves and the things of which we are capable. And, in the end, we are left with the overwhelming impression that our world is far more vast than what we are able to discern in day-to-day life.
That is why I hunt ghosts. Why do you?
