Paranormal Investigation and the Like

The Importance of Skepticism with an Open Mind

I am not a big believer in ghosts. It will take a lot for me to believe, as with most other things. I have read about some crazy ghostly experiences, seen and heard some great evidence, and even captured evidence of my own. All of that, and I still haven't found myself believing in ghosts, or any afterlife for that matter.

Some are shocked to see just how many non-believers there are working in the field. I've heard people say it does not make sense. However, skepticism is actually very beneficial when it comes to what we do as paranormal investigators. Unfortunately, there is some confusion over exactly what we do, so I have to clear that up first before I explain the benefits of skepticism.

Contrary to popular belief, we are not trying to prove anything. We do not wander around in the dark with our equipment for the sole purpose of trying to prove the existence of ghosts. Interestingly, some of our equipment isn't even for collecting evidence of them. We have pieces of equipment that help in our debunking, or disproving, of paranormal activity. And that is exactly what we do.

We head to supposedly "haunted" locations, at the request of a client, and we use our tools, the most important of which is logic and reasoning, to determine if there are no spirits present.

Prior to an investigation, we like to tell ourselves repeatedly that there are no ghosts and no haunting. On top of that, our leader never tells us the claims of activity. With these two things, we begin completely unbiased. And that makes sense. If you are told that the client often feels a certain "presence" in a certain area of a certain room, you are so much more likely to psyche yourself into feeling that "presence". On the other hand, if you are not aware of this claim of activity, you will not falsely feel anything, and thus, will not ruin the integrity of the investigation. 

Sadly, a large amount of groups do not operate this way. This leads to a lot of false evidence being captured, and therefore many locations are deemed "haunted", when really, they are not.

Anyway, now you see why it is good to be a skeptic. For further explanation, let's give a specific scenario. Say something happens during an investigation, like some creaking is heard upstairs, which is actually just the heat causing the wood to contract and make subsequent noises. Any smart skeptic will point to a settling house, or even a small critter like a rat. These explanations for the creaking add that little bit of doubt, and thus, the investigators will properly dismiss it and will not use it as evidence. Someone who isn't a skeptic, who is all pumped up to hunt some ghosts and has this preconceived idea that the house does have ghosts, will automatically be like "OMG IT'S PARANORMAL!". (That's kind of an inside joke within our group). Those creaks will then be thought of as phantom footsteps, the client wil be told about them, and the investigators will label the house as "haunted". This actually does happen a lot, unfortunately.

So, I've found that being skeptical of the paranormal helps in many situations. I feel that skeptics and non-believers are better investigators than the opposite, to be honest. 

You have to remember, though, to keep an open mind. Just because you do not believe ghosts exist, does not mean you are right. It could be entirely possible that they are out there, and that those floorboards creaking were legitimately the footsteps of spirits. Most evidence actually does points to their existence being real. If something paranormal does happen, a skeptic should keep an open mind and accept the fact that maybe it is indeed paranormal, and not try to debunk everything every time.