by Kevin Southard

Created on: September 22, 2010   Last Updated: September 30, 2010

Choosing a Career in Paranormal Investigation

Before you decide to quit your day job to become a paranormal investigator there is one thing you need to know. Calling it a career is kind of misleading.  Unless you are a member of one of the highly televised paranormal shows or one of the very select few, you generally won't be getting paid for your services.  Most teams if not all are strictly volunteers.  As a matter of fact most members of these teams spend a portion of their own monthly income buying and repairing their own equipment as well as, funding their own trips and investigations.

I am a seasoned paranormal investigator or if you will, paranormal researcher.  I spent several years as the director of a well-known and highly respected research team in the Southwestern region of Ohio.  I have a wide background in the field, which ultimately helped my organization gain the clientele and make the contacts needed to succeed in the field.  Keep in mind, it isn’t necessary to have an extensive background or knowledge of the paranormal but it helps.  Anyone can get involved.

Paranormal investigators come from all walks of life, doctors, lawyers, firemen, housewives, and as we all know, plumbers. They all have one thing in common, an interest in the paranormal.  Lets examine for a moment what exactly a paranormal investigator is. The typical paranormal investigator is different from a “ghost hunter.”  A ghost hunter is usually someone who does it as a hobby and typically sets out to find a ghost.  They usually assume that any unexplained activity is the workings of a ghost and can be found exploring cemeteries.  The paranormal investigator systematically explores all possibilities and attempts to prove natural and scientific reasoning's for such activity.  They gather and compare evidence collected ranging from photos, video, electronic voice phenomena, also known as EVP’s and personal experiences.  Paranormal investigators are generally open-minded to the existence of ghosts but do not automatically assume that the activity in question is a ghost or paranormal.  Once evidence is gathered they painstakingly try to recreate the activity in question to rule out the possibility of paranormal activity or in short, to “debunk” the claim. 

While many of the operational responsibilities such as fundraising and promotion of the organization are shared

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