To Certify Or Not to Certify

...That seems to be the hotly debated topic of the paranormal community these days: whether or not to become a "Certified Paranormal Investigator". Right now, many groups and individuals offer courses, both on-line and off, that one must pay for on how to conduct paranormal investigations or to be a ghost hunter.

Now, while there certainly are parameters already in place to help people learn how to use the electronic equipment as well as how to conduct organized investigations, what parameters are there on ghosts? Can anyone REALLY prove they exist? Of course, there are those who just know they exist because of their own personal experiences and then there are those who feel just as strongly that there are no such things as ghosts.

But for those who "know", or are at least willing to entertain the idea that ghosts exist, what qualifies them to certify others to hunt them? Paranormal investigations have only recently, in this past decade, become a widely accepted hobby throughout the world and the numbers of those conducting investigations have exploded over the past five years. Since this area is so new, no educational institutions offer this topic as a legitimate course with academic criteria. Again, who would qualify to be able to teach the course at this point?

There have been a few people, such as Ed & Lorraine Warren and Hans Holzer, who have been investigating alleged hauntings and ghosts for many years, long before it became an accepted topic of conversation. Even Holzer and the Warrens disagreed all those years ago on each other's methods of conducting investigations. However, they both got results and both have been able to help families. For that reason, whatever methods they did choose to utilize probably was neither right nor wrong, but it worked for them. Both the Warrens and Holzer are highly respected and well-known investigators in today's paranormal community; however, they are not and never were "Certified Paranormal Investigators".

Having minimum standards for conducting organized paranormal investigations with those educated in the use of technology can be a good idea to help get better documented results. Better documented results will lead to more acceptance in the scientific community. However, because there are so many grey areas outside of the concrete basics of paranormal investigations, can certification be justified at this time or ever? This area may never have a clear answer and will remain just as heatedly debated as the subject of orbs (and that's another whole story.....).