Ghost Hunting - What's the Point?

There aren't many topics these days that attract more media attention or public interest than ghost hunting. Sure, you can dress it up by calling it 'paranormal research' if you want, but the visceral appeal of ghost hunting has little to do with its more scientific aspects. We all enjoy watching a team sweep a room with electromagnetic field detectors, or troll hopefully for electronic voice phenomena with their digital recorders. Infrared-capable camcorders, motion detectors and night vision scopes are all fun to see in action, but the real payoff - the thing that keeps viewers coming back week after week, that drives investigators back into dusty attics and dank basements time after time - is the outside chance of capturing concrete evidence of a genuine haunting.

So what would you do with evidence of a genuine haunting if you had it? You'd probably use it as the basis for an awesome ghost story, and when you get the end and everyone goes, "No way!" You get to say "Way!" and point to your video or audio or so-called 'orb' photo as proof, at which point the allegations of fakery are sure to be raised, and you'll find the only people you've convinced with your 'proof' are those who wanted to believe from the outset. My good friend Charlie Adams, whose research and resulting series of books chronicle some of the best ghost stories from all over the eastern United States, feels that considerable intrinsic value lies in the stories themselves, wholly apart from whether the teller is able to substantiate the tale with concrete evidence. I can't disagree with him on that.

So just what is the point of ghost hunting? It represents, at a bare minimum, an opportunity to interact with people who are undergoing a profound experience that few of their friends or family share, or can even begin to relate to. Accordingly, I believe a trained paranormal investigator should focus as much time and concern on the clients who have sought his or her help as on the physical space in which manifestations are supposed to have occurred. Visual, auditory or tactile contact with the supernatural can be unnerving for an investigator who visits an alleged haunted space. Imagine how much more disconcerting such experi­ences are to those who live and work in those places! Ghost hunting also affords us an opportunity, in our own primitive way, to bring available instrumentation to bear in an effort to document our clients' personal experiences, and that - in and of itself - has value in validating these often emotional encounters with the inexplicable.

At the dawn of the 21st century, our society is sufficiently evolved that we have ceased to burn witches; we have undertaken serious exploration of the cosmos; we have even (somewhat belatedly) begun to seriously probe the depths of our planet's oceans. Yet, for a variety of reasons, we often hesitate even to consider the possibility of a continuation of life - or vital energy - beyond death, other than in a religious context. This makes me wonder: Has organized religion had a stultifying effect on the serious pursuit of paranormal research? Do our own religious convictions, in whatever faith they may be grounded, limit our openness to perceive or process manifestations of energy or presence popularly referred to as 'hauntings'? Paranormal research is not the only unhappy prisoner of the emotionally-charged border between science and faith. It is, however, one of its more prominent detainees.

Those of us who carry on paranormal research will continue to do so unless and until so-called 'hard science' has conclusively disapproved the occurrence of genuine paranormal phenomena. Though many researchers believe the existence of most orbs to be debunked at this point (they're associated with the development and increasing popularity of digital cameras having flash devices in direct proximity to the camera lens), we believe there is value to work of this nature when undertaken in a serious, professional and methodical manner. Additionally, there is an undeniable rush experienced when you find yourself somewhere alleged to be inhabited by spirits, and the thrill of the hunt inherent in stalking and capturing visual or sound images of things beyond the realm of everyday mortal experience. So feel free to join a local ghost hunting group, follow published cases or television specials with interest, or choose to remain a staunch skeptic. If you opt for the latter, you'd be right at home with most of the paranormal investigators I know. A detached, rational spirit of inquiry and openness is the hallmark of what good paranormal research all about, and - I believe - represents the only proper approach to creditable paranormal research.