Written by William Butt

We are all attempting to reach the same conclusions, the same end state; to prove the existence of the paranormal. Many call this a fruitless task that cannot be accomplished and there are too many skeptics in the world.

What the paranormal field needs to focus on is not the skeptics and people who do not want to acknowledge the paranormal or question those who search for answers. No matter what evidence you are able to find
these people will always be there ready to tear it all down. What we as paranormal investigators need to focus on are things that are within our power.

It is time to completely distance ourselves from paranormal reality shows. These shows all have fancy gadgets and use investigation techniques that do nothing more than erode our creditability with the very people we are attempting to help. Ghost boxes, sunglasses that provide readouts of “ghostly” words are unproven and a little silly.

These gadgets do the same thing that yelling at nothing in the dark of an abandoned building accomplish, which isn’t much of anything. The same can be said about anyone offering ghost hunting 101 courses online. The last time I checked you can’t find a ghost hunting position on monster.com. These people are trying to do nothing more than cash in on the current paranormal tidal wave sweeping across our televisions.

Anyone can become a paranormal investigator but it takes work and a willing to do it correctly. You should want to become a paranormal investigator out either sheer interest or that drive to find the answers. The question I constantly think to myself is if these shows and “professionals” are really so good at this, why aren’t they any closer to answers than they were during season 1.

Instead we need to focus on two things, first conducting investigations, and the second is communication. You must plan these investigations and have a methodology for conducting them. Methodology is of the utmost importance, you must be able to repeat your techniques over and over with the same results. I realize each location presents its own circumstances yet the methodology should stay the same.

To many times people go into investigations with no concrete plan. You must approach the investigation like you would any science experiment, with a hypothesis and techniques to verify your thesis statement and techniques to disprove your thesis statement. This can all be done without cutting edge technology. In my opinion you have more creditability with less cutting edge technology and more proven technology, i.e. DVRs, cameras, video cameras. There is no need for a state of the art surveillance system, particularly at night because night vision proves unreliable after a certain distance from the camera. With a sound repeatable methodology you can prove your results. It may take time but you are on the right path.

Communication is key, you hear that for the majority of the things in your life, paranormal investigating is no different. There are paranormal groups scattered about the country. We need to communicate and share evidence, your data pool and experience magnifies greatly when sharing information. Paranormal investigators need to become a centralized network of groups instead of random groups scattered about.

The more we share real verifiable data the more will learn from each other and the closer we will get to the answers we are all searching for.

About the Author: Will Butt is a documentary filmmaker, military officer, and
paranormal investigator. You can follow him on twitter at twitter.com/fearnothingprod