GaryJJSpate at 20:50, 3 August 2026

2026-08-03T20:50:26Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:50, 3 August 2026
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	[[Category:Ghosts and Hauntings]]		[[Category:Ghosts and Hauntings]]
	[[Category:Parapsychology]]		[[Category:Parapsychology]]
	~~[[Category:Forteana]]~~
	~~[[Category:1882 introductions]]~~

GaryJJSpate: Created page with "{{RitualInfobox |name=Paranormal Investigation |type=Investigative practice |traditions=Secular/amateur ghost hunting; parapsychology; psychical research |purpose=To detect, document, and attempt to explain reported paranormal activity, most commonly hauntings |origin=19th-century psychical research; modern amateur "ghost hunting" form popularised from the 2000s onward |first_practiced=Society for Psychical Research founded 1882 |practitioners=Amateur and semi-profession..."

2026-08-02T22:49:10Z

Created page with "{{RitualInfobox |name=Paranormal Investigation |type=Investigative practice |traditions=Secular/amateur ghost hunting; parapsychology; psychical research |purpose=To detect, document, and attempt to explain reported paranormal activity, most commonly hauntings |origin=19th-century psychical research; modern amateur "ghost hunting" form popularised from the 2000s onward |first_practiced=Society for Psychical Research founded 1882 |practitioners=Amateur and semi-profession..."

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{{RitualInfobox
|name=Paranormal Investigation
|type=Investigative practice
|traditions=Secular/amateur ghost hunting; parapsychology; psychical research
|purpose=To detect, document, and attempt to explain reported paranormal activity, most commonly hauntings
|origin=19th-century psychical research; modern amateur "ghost hunting" form popularised from the 2000s onward
|first_practiced=Society for Psychical Research founded 1882
|practitioners=Amateur and semi-professional investigation teams; parapsychologists; psychic mediums (in mixed teams)
|notable_case=Enfield Poltergeist; Amityville Horror
|status=Widely practiced; not recognised as a scientific discipline by mainstream academia
}}

'''Paranormal investigation''' — commonly referred to as '''ghost hunting''' in its popular, amateur form — is the practice of visiting locations reported to be haunted or otherwise paranormally active, using a combination of interviews, historical research, and specialised equipment in an attempt to document and, where possible, explain the reported phenomena.<ref name="epfl-ghosthunting">{{cite web |title=Ghost hunting |url=https://graphsearch.epfl.ch/concept/5138823 |website=EPFL Graph Search}}</ref> The practice spans a wide range of rigour, from academically-grounded parapsychological research to informal amateur groups, and is widely classified as a pseudoscience by mainstream educators and academics on the grounds that it does not follow standard scientific method.<ref name="epfl-ghosthunting" />

== History ==
Organised paranormal investigation traces its origins to 19th-century psychical research, most notably the founding of the [[Society for Psychical Research]] in 1882, which applied comparatively systematic methods — witness interviews, case documentation, controlled sittings with mediums — to claims of hauntings, telepathy and mediumship.<ref name="epfl-ghosthunting" /> British investigator Harry Price, one of the most prominent early ghost hunters, published his memoir ''Confessions of a Ghost-Hunter'' in 1936, helping establish "ghost hunter" as a recognisable public role distinct from academic parapsychology.<ref name="epfl-ghosthunting" />

The modern, equipment-heavy amateur form of paranormal investigation expanded dramatically from the early-to-mid 2000s, driven substantially by television series such as ''[[Most Haunted]]'' in the UK and ''Ghost Hunters'' in the United States, combined with the increasing affordability of the specialised electronic equipment the genre popularised.<ref name="epfl-ghosthunting" /> The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS), the group featured on ''Ghost Hunters'', reported its membership roughly doubling during the late 2000s, a growth it attributed directly to the show's popularity.<ref name="epfl-ghosthunting" /> Small businesses supplying ghost-hunting equipment and paranormal investigation services grew substantially over the same period.<ref name="epfl-ghosthunting" />

== Standard equipment and methods ==

=== EMF meters ===
Electromagnetic field (EMF) meters, which detect fluctuations in electromagnetic fields, are among the most widely used tools in modern ghost hunting, based on the belief — not accepted by mainstream physics — that a spirit's presence can disturb the local electromagnetic field.<ref name="ghostlyactivities-emf">{{cite web |title=EMF in Ghost Hunting: How It Works, False Positives and Field Tests |url=https://ghostlyactivities.com/ghost-hunting-with-electromagnetic-fields/ |website=Ghostly Activities}}</ref> The specific device most associated with the practice, the K-II (or "K2") meter, was not originally designed for paranormal use at all — it was created for electricians to locate wiring and appliance-generated fields — before ghost hunters adopted it for its sensitivity and simple LED-based readout, and it became widely recognisable following its regular appearances on ''Ghost Hunters'' from 2007 onward.<ref name="usghostadventures-emf">{{cite web |title=EMF Detectors Explained |url=https://usghostadventures.com/uncategorized/emf-detectors-explained/ |website=US Ghost Adventures}}</ref><ref name="paranormaldownunder-k2">{{cite web |title=K2 Meter in Paranormal Investigations |url=https://paranormaldownunder.com/k2-meter-paranormal-investigations/equipment/ |website=Paranormal Down Under}}</ref>

=== EVP recorders ===
Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) — apparent voices or sounds captured on audio recordings that were not audible to investigators at the time of recording — have a documented history stretching back to the 1950s, when Swedish painter and film producer Friedrich Jürgenson reported capturing what he believed to be spirit voices on tape.<ref name="sdparanormal-evp">{{cite web |title=Paranormal Pursuits: Top 5 Ghost Hunting Equipment |url=https://sdparanormaltours.com/paranormal-pursuits-top-5-ghost-hunting-equipment-for-a-haunting-adventure/ |website=Haunted San Diego Ghost Tours}}</ref> Latvian psychologist and parapsychologist Konstantīns Raudive conducted extensive further research and recording throughout the 1960s and 1970s, producing what remains some of the most widely studied EVP material in the field.<ref name="strangetwisted-ghosthunter">{{cite web |title=How to Become a Ghost Hunter: The Complete Beginner's Guide |url=https://strangeandtwisted.com/blogs/how-to-guides/how-to-become-a-paranormal-investigator |website=Strange & Twisted}}</ref> Modern investigators typically conduct structured "EVP sessions," asking questions aloud and reviewing the resulting audio afterward for unexplained responses.

=== Other equipment and techniques ===
Infrared and thermal-imaging cameras are used to detect temperature changes or figures not visible to the naked eye; digital voice recorders, static and handheld video cameras, and "trigger objects" (items placed to detect movement) round out a typical investigation kit.<ref name="epfl-ghosthunting" /> Investigations are typically preceded by baseline environmental readings — establishing normal temperature and EMF levels for a location before any claimed activity is assessed against them — alongside witness interviews and historical research into the site itself, a structured approach followed to varying degrees of rigour by groups including [[Spirit Searchers]], [[Paranormal Lincs]], and the [[Grimsby Ghostbusters]].<ref name="strangetwisted-ghosthunter" />

== Scientific and sceptical reception ==
No scientific study has confirmed the existence of ghosts, and paranormal investigation is considered a pseudoscience by the large majority of educators, academics and science writers.<ref name="epfl-ghosthunting" /> Sceptics highlight that EMF readings in particular are prone to mundane false positives — the Amityville house, for instance, was initially reported to show unusually high EMF activity, later attributed to poor wiring and malfunctioning electrical fixtures rather than any paranormal cause.<ref name="ghostlyactivities-emf" /> [[Joe Nickell]] and other sceptical investigators have separately argued that most investigation teams "want it to look like they are doing science" without adopting the basic scientific practice of running control conditions — comparing a "haunted" location against an ordinary one under matched circumstances — a criticism examined in more depth on the Vault's [[Poltergeist]] page.

Investigators sympathetic to the practice generally acknowledge these limitations to varying degrees, typically emphasising that no single piece of equipment is treated as conclusive evidence on its own, and that credible findings require corroboration across multiple, independently repeatable readings.<ref name="ghostlyactivities-emf" />

== Relevance to the Vault ==
Paranormal investigation as a practice underlies a large proportion of the Vault's own content: the methodology, equipment and general approach described here is common, in varying degrees of rigour, across groups already documented including [[Spirit Searchers]], [[Paranormal Lincs]], the [[Grimsby Ghostbusters]], and the [[New England Society for Psychic Research]]. It stands in useful contrast to more formally scientific approaches to testing paranormal claims, such as the [[James Randi Educational Foundation]]'s One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge, which required pre-agreed, controlled testing protocols rather than open-ended on-site investigation.

{{VaultOrganisationBrief
|scope=Practiced internationally, in amateur and semi-professional forms, with particular concentration in the UK and US following 2000s television popularisation
|methodology=EMF meters, EVP audio recorders, infrared/thermal cameras, trigger objects, baseline environmental readings, witness interviews, and historical site research
|key_members=Harry Price (early public ghost hunter); Friedrich Jürgenson and Konstantīns Raudive (EVP research); the Society for Psychical Research (early systematic investigation)
|notable_case=N/A — a general practice rather than a single investigative body
|successor=N/A
|current_status=Widely practiced; not recognised as a scientific discipline by mainstream academia
|legacy=Paranormal investigation sits at the practical, hands-on end of the Vault's own subject matter — the actual on-site activity that most of the investigation teams, television series, and individual cases documented elsewhere in the archive are built around. Its core tools were, in several cases, not designed for paranormal use at all, adopted instead for their sensitivity and ease of use rather than any established connection to spirit activity — a detail worth bearing in mind whenever investigation "evidence" is presented as conclusive.
}}

== See also ==
* [[Spirit Searchers]]
* [[Paranormal Lincs]]
* [[Grimsby Ghostbusters]]
* [[Most Haunted]]
* [[Joe Nickell]]
* [[Poltergeist]]
* [[James Randi Educational Foundation]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* [https://ghostlyactivities.com/ghost-hunting-with-electromagnetic-fields/ Ghostly Activities — EMF in Ghost Hunting]
* [https://paranormaldownunder.com/k2-meter-paranormal-investigations/equipment/ Paranormal Down Under — K2 Meter in Paranormal Investigations]

[[Category:Ghosts and Hauntings]]
[[Category:Parapsychology]]
[[Category:Forteana]]
[[Category:1882 introductions]]

Paranormal Investigation - Revision history

GaryJJSpate at 20:50, 3 August 2026