How to Contribute to Ghost Hunting at Any Level



(Thanks Devin for this idea serendipitously)

Anyone can contribute to the ghost hunting field and you don’t have to be tromping around abandoned buildings with a team and equipment to do it.

My sister is a good example of ways you can help ghost hunting without having to be a field person.

My sister isn’t willing to buy any ghost hunting equipment and absolutely refuses to use a new-fangled computer, but she lives in an amazingly rich area of abandoned buildings and dramatic history in West Virginia. There are no local ghost hunting teams, so no one has scared off local businesses who have historic buildings. She would have a great pick for any place to hunt, but she’s going to forgo that avenue.

So, here’s some alternative options she (or you) could consider that in the end could even make her money:

A. If she loves cemeteries, should volunteer to the cemetery association. They could give her a list of cemeteries that haven’t been documented yet. She could go to the cemeteries, write down the names and date of birth/death for each occupant and take photographs. This could help the cemetery association to build their records, as well as to put them online for genealogy buffs to find relatives. This is a perfect option for those who love cemeteries, love history, and love doing things that are neat and orderly and concise. It’s a way to volunteer in the field without having to run around in the middle of the night. You can also take a trash bag and clean up the cemetery, pick up overturned flowers for the graves and put them back in place, and also get some amazingly eerie photography, which is often sell-able on line. People are very fascinated with eerie sunsets and graveyards and the lonely starkness of an unattended grave. She could sell the photographs or keep them for a potential coffee table book. This is also a really helpful option for people who have suffered losses. It sometimes helps put things in perspective and comfort them to know that people still visit, still remember, and still miss loved ones just like they do.
B. If she loved history, loved stories of the past, and found it all quite romantic, she might consider working for the local historical society or she might consider being a researcher. Finding the true back stories to tragic deaths, battles, and murders is a way to compile information that can be helpful for the local ghost hunting group. She can let them know she has a library card and is ready and willing to learn about any site they’re trekking to. She could check with the registrar for the city to learn about the building or lot’s history and make a great relationship with those at the local library. In the end, this could become an intriguing book that you’ve compiled based on the true background of famous hauntings.
C. Should my sister be technically inclined, she could do a little research to come up with ways to modify her equipment or perhaps invent new testing equipment that isn’t out there in the field now. This has the potential to be sell-able online. Just look at how the KII meter took off. When I ordered mine, I was on a waiting list.
D. If she liked detective work, this is a great field for it. She could print out a map of the US and proceed to find the most verified haunted places in each state, marking them on the map, looking for correlations with water and geology and train tracks or other features that no one has noticed yet. This ground-breaking information would be a huge boon to ghost hunters in their research. This map could be sold online and would offer not only certified haunted locations, but the features that might link them together. Folks could add other places they’ve discovered and see if they meet the factors that tie the other locations together.
E. If she didn’t get bored easily, she might consider reviewing evidence. If she connected with a local group, they could allow her to have copies of the EVP and photographic evidence. She could sit and review this evidence for anything that might be missed. With expert software, she could be sought after to review such things.
F. If she were a spiritual seeker, she might consider learning about feng shui, crystals powers, incense, paganism, occultism, demonology, or many other possible avenues for ghost hunting. When a team needs someone for advice, she might be the one called on to come and feng shui the environment or give advice on how to cleanse a house.
G. If she were the literary type, she might make friends with ghost hunters in the hopes of writing a book about it, poetry about it, or art inspired by it.

The important thing to know is that, although you see Jason, Grant, and Steve in the forefront of ghost hunting in the field on “Ghost Hunters” show, there are many more people behind the scenes. People trying to contribute to the field and knowing their talents. When I hunt, I keep in mind that my skepticism, logical mind, psychic abilities, and my counseling skills make me better for certain situations. Had I not been in the field, I would pursue art inspired by graveyards and getting my horror novels done—finally. But, I enjoy all those things, so I get a little of each done and none exclusively. That might be the case for you, as well. Sometimes, just being a supporter of the arts by going to concerts and helping to finance them is more important than being the singer on the stage.

Where would one be without the other?

Comments

  1. I actually enjoy doing the research as well as joining in on the hunt. Before I do many of my blogs, I always research the subject from several different sources. I learn so much from doing that. Also, after my Dad died, I got in contact with his family for my genealogy research. Learning more about my Father's family history helped me get through the grieving process. I felt much closer to him.
    Above the Norm.

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  2. I grew up watching my mom do her genealogy. When she died, my oldest brother (a real a-hole of a fundmental Christian/self-absorbed) took all her things including all her genealogy back to like 1000 AD. Jeez! He put it in his storage and then forgot it. I bothered him for years and years and he never responded and finally I just broke off my relationship with him and am trying to find her genealogy on my own. I'm in luck, though. The internet makes it all so much easier than when she was doing it at the library. My father's family is the hardest one. Although I have all his family from his home in Norway, his mother was Laplander--hard to find records. I love the process, though. I think even if I'm not remember, I'm in someone's lineage when my son has kids some day...

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  3. Whoa, you're related to the majestic indigenous Sami people of Norway?! Ye gads, Autumn, that explains a lot! I mean, they're a shamanistic culture whose link to the infinitude of Nature is inextricably entwined. You are good at psychometry. It's definitely an inherited trait. I hope that the above link will help you with that missing genealogical element in tracing your own lineage.

    Happy family tree climbing,
    Anadæ Effro ( :-)}

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  4. Anadæ;
    Thanks for the compliment. Yes, my grandmother was raised in Lapland Sweden and was nomadic, milking reindeer every day. She left as a young woman to Norway to be a maid. My grandfather was from one of the wealthiest families in Norway that owned the iron works. They arranged a marriage for him with another important woman, but when my grandmother showed up, he fell for her instead and thwarted the family by marrying her. WWI meant they couldn't sell iron to Germany, so they shaped it into church bells but got caught doing it. They closed down the family business and grandpa took my father and his siblings and grandma and moved to California. My grandmother was very much like me personality wise, supposedly, and very intuitive. Her daughter (my aunt) was very psychic and saved her sister's life with it when they were in a car and she begged her sister to get into the back seat with her. She did as she asked and minutes later a train hit the front of the car. She used to go to Vegas and win money for her vacations because she was that good. I guess I come by it naturally. I definitely have a healer's hands, would like to explore the use of my energy. I took Reiki but the instructors said I had too much energy and needed to learn to control it. I think that will be my next journey. I really think I could heal folks with my hands. That's saying a lot because I'm extremely skeptical and logic-minded (from the Norwegians) and practical (from my mother's Scottish folks), but ultimately I can't deny the abilities and the strong ties to nature which always renews me. That's why I say I'm not religious, but spiritually I'm definitely pagan.

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