How To Become A Paranormal Investigator
Have you ever thought about becoming a full time or professional paranormal investigator? Perhaps you’re just looking to learn the skills of a paranormal researchers to become a first class amateur ghost hunter.
The great news is that a new online school has been set up to guide you through the essential paranormal investigation skills, including the most scientific research techniques and a guide to the most commonly used equipment on ghost hunts.
The course is suitable for beginner as well as established amateur ghost hunters. While the course is based around the basic principles of paranormal investigation, each lessons builds on this basic information in order to expand your knowledge with the theory behind ghost hunting as well as providing you with advice on critical thinking which will help you make your evidence even more compelling.
The online course covers everything from planning a ghost hunt, the classic symptoms of a haunting, as well as classifications of ghosts, and best practices for analysing the evidence you collect during your investigation.
When it comes to planning a ghost hunt, there are two schools of thought on whether you should research a location before hand. Prior knowledge may mean participants can intentionally or subconsciously influence the investigation. Others believe in planning their ghost hunt in advance. The diploma will help you decide which method of research best suits your investigation style.
The course takes a rational and scientific approach to dealing with evidence of the paranormal and helps you eliminate non-paranormal causes.
It is always best to adopt the mindset of a skeptic and do everything you can to try to prove that the property is not haunted. Once you’ve eliminate every possible explanation for the activity you’ve witnessed, what you’re left with will be evidence of the paranormal.
How to log your evidence is covered in detail in the course. There’s advice on best practice either logging use either an audio recorder or a notebook. The advice is to include all paranormal and non-paranormal occurrences and there’s advice on how to make sure your evidence is measurable.
The biggest source of interference in your evidence comes from the outside world, the course teaches you how you can best avoid this interference by isolating the property, controlling light, and eliminating external noise.
By eliminating some of the phenomena most commonly mistaken for ghosts, what you’re left with should be evidence of the paranormal. The course’s online material is packed full of information on these non-paranormal explanations, which include pareidolia, electromagnetic fields, infrasound, toxic gasses, and sleep paralysis.
But how do you capture evidence of a ghost? The ghost hunting diploma has modules on how to collect meaningful, measurable evidence, including photographs of spirits. Here are just three things you will learn about in more detail in the spirit photography lesson.
• How to ensure spirits are present in your photos
• Camera modes and techniques
• Eliminating dust and other anomalies
As well as a camera, other gadgets which are covered in the best practice guides include a laser pointer, various types of thermometers, trigger object, EMF meters, spirit boxes, ouija boards, and more.
If you’ve ever wondered why ghost hunters perform a seance in darkness, then in the course you’ll find out why. There’s plenty of other information on seances and using ouija board. Participants should form circles by holding hands to focus their energy, plus by holding hands everyone in the room’s hands are accounted for. A few other tips covered in more detail include:
• Encourage spirits to communicate, don’t demand
• Say thank you for interactions
• Don’t use jargon
• Don’t shut it down
There’s also a whole lesson on how to capture great EVPs using any type of audio recorder, either digital or analogue. There’s tips on how to conduct an EVP session, how to record your surroundings, and how to playback and analyse the audio.
When making contact with a spirit, you should aim to obtained information like names, dates, how the spirits passed, and how old they were. You should then attempt to validate this information by cross referencing it with historical information and witness accounts and the course will tell you exactly how to do this.
The course ends with a local at the legal aspects of ghost hunting, such as health and safety and obtaining the correct permissions.
• Always carry a torch and use it whenever walking
• Avoid places where the floor/roof is obviously unsound
• Always wear suitable clothing and sensible footwear
• Never visit a property alone
• Take a first aid kit
• Always let someone know that you are visiting the mine and your expected time of return
• Observe the privacy of those who live near the property
You’ll be able to work through the four comprehensive modules, ‘determine if a location is haunted’, ‘capture evidence of the haunting’, ‘communicating with ghosts or spirits’, and ‘legalities of ghost hunting’ in your own time.
Each module has an end of topic test, it’s not a requirement to achieve a certain score in these tests but your score will give you an indication of the knowledge you’ve gained during the module and also highlight any gaps. You should then go back and revisit the module to ensure their are no gaps in your knowledge as you’ll need a good understanding of the topic to complete the final assessment, which requires an 80% pass.
Best of all, a certificates of achievements is posted to those who achieve a grade of 80% or higher in the final assessment. If you fail to achieve this score, you are able to revisit the course material and try again as many times as you like.
