Many paranormal investigators often do everything by what they believe is going by the book. Right or wrong ghost hunting has become what many describe as a monkey see monkey do operation. Many who enter today into the world of paranormal exploration have no level of formal understanding or training of any sort other then what they have seen on television or youtube videos. Sadly many of the paranormal investigations they mount up are more then just flawed, and the wake of devastation they leave in their tracks is often more destructive then helpful to the haunted person they try to help.

This is of course why I suggest many times over that paranormal research is not for everyone.

Many individuals only hunt for ghosts or explore paranormal activity for their personal kicks. And even those that appear on television and youtube's will tell you how obsessed they are with paranormal research and investigation. The of course there are those that either are looking for a personal paranormal high, or just a real good scare to get the dookie scared out of them.

I was told by a paranormal activity junkie that it is just the thrill of a fear coming over them that gets them off in sexual as well as a self gratifying ways.

Sad but true these over the edge "paranormal thrill seekers" often abandon haunted individuals if the paranormal activity is not present to them immediately, or up to the standard of the next intense haunting they wish to face. Or they openly tell others that think their frantic ghost haunted person who is crying because they are scared and need help is really just pulling their leg.

Some times those that explore haunted or cursed locations might become subsequently actually cursed. Their lives go to hell on all levels very fast. Of course it effects them mentally sexually and in all personal affairs around them and even effects their physical health and thinking mind. They make mistakes act rash in making decisions and become obsessed with immeasurable ills and ailments. And directly and objectively at the root is some haunting or paranormal experience they had, or maybe even a visit to a real haunted location or an interaction with a real ghost that caused all this in the first place. Many lives have been ruined because paranormal activity is afoot and the investigator or innocent person is oblivious to it until someone points it out to them.

The real dangers of experiencing real paranormal activity and it not changing your life in same dramatic way is next to impossible.

... Lisa Lee Harp Waugh, 2011

Known as the American Necromancer Marshall, Texas's own Lisa Lee Harp Waugh investigates all that is paranormal in in the the great Lone Star State and around the world.

Waugh has been a special and well respected guest on many Morning and drive time talk radio interviews and web cast paranormal talk shows in the UK and internationally.

Waugh currently researches and writes about interesting paranormal activity, cryptids and is considered an authority when it comes to ghosts and strange encounters with the unknown. Waugh loves collecting urban legends myths and ghost stories from around the world and of the Great state Of Texas.

Many over the top thrill seeking paranormal investigators often look for the more seriously haunted individual and locations. They might listen to your story over the phone, say oow and aww at intense points. Then tell you after hearing it that they are very booked up and could not possibly help you for a few months or more..

Give your haunted individual and the actual ghost your full attention.This is the main reason your investigating ghosts isn't it?

... Gina Lainer

Many find it hard to deal with those that feel that their story of ghost haunting them is nothing more then bad plumbing, electrical interference, or a bad reactions to what medications or prescribed drugs a person may or may not be on. Or the fact that they think they have heard it all before time and again, and this haunting that the haunted person is relating to them is nothing more then a imagination gone wild. Recounting instances of what was on many of the paranormal shows or movies that were just on cable a few nights earlier.

Whether it is truly in your power to keep the meeting with a client professional. Or just staying on track and addressing the issues. Dealing with the people involved, the haunting, or paranormal activity in what strange psychological way the spirit or entity is causing the person to feel uncomfortable. Is as many know and attest, no understandable easily accomplished task.

So how do you focus when you think your hearing a awful lot of paranormal stories burning your mind everyday full of ghost crap in a bag on your own doorstep?

Well first you must learn to listen and formulate your answers carefully. Even if your instincts and the careful observation of the individual body language or voice and emotions so definitely tells you if they are sincere or not. Or you surmise this is only a poor sick individual crying out for something more then just paranormal attention.

Keep your wits about you and really listen to the person as they tell you of their encounters with what they believe to be a real ghost, Poltergeist haunting or paranormal activity. Pay attention to the minor details that they might skip over. Stop them and always try to get more details.

And of course never answer a question with a question.

Often it is good to set up more then one interview. One preliminary and one right before the investigation so that your whole team might ask questions that you might have missed or just not thought of during the initial paranormal investigative interview.

Of course you may have asked the common questions, time of day first experience or several other incidentals that are common in the field today.

And of course you certainly ask the haunted person or persons, for information judiciously. Hoping to be direct and to the point.

Remember part of Paranormal investigation is the actual act of interviewing the haunted person or persons. Gathering information of their personal experiences, sightings, encounters, past history with other paranormal activity or ghost, and or supernatural beings and entities.

Your main goal is here to elevate the haunted individuals fears of the paranormal activity they are experiencing directly. That is even if it is Paranormal Activity, factually actually and truly 100% real or not!

Facing Real Paranormal Fears... Their's And Yours

People as well as ghosts often deal with personal fears as well as the lifetime of their demons that they they just can't shake. And as a paranormal investigator your job is only to record and observe the situation as an outsider looking into a place someone fears and worries over being invaded by an unseen unnatural paranormal active force.

If your not a real psychologist or a recognized counselor then you have no right to openly help a troubled persons grief or problems.

You are their just to observe and document their claims. Proving to them and others by such that they are not going crazy. And helping them to seek more help on a level you can't certainly provide.

You may without knowing compound their grief by second guessing whether they you should express your personal opinions and make them less fearful of ghost, or make your remaining time with as just an investigation. Because at this point until you witness with them the paranormal hell they are going through you genuinely can not relate their fears to yours.

... Lisa Lee Harp Waugh

Some fear may be unfounded where others are validated to the nth degree.

Fear from the Greek: φόβος,phóbos, meaning "fear" or "morbid fear", is a distressing negative sensation induced by a perceived threat. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus, such as pain or the threat of danger. In short, fear is the ability to recognize danger and flee from it or confront it, also known as the Fight or Flight response. Some psychologists such as John B. Watson, Robert Plutchik, and Paul Ekman have suggested that fear belongs to a small set of basic or innate emotions. This set also includes such emotions as joy, sadness, and anger. Fear should be distinguished from the related emotional state of anxiety, which typically occurs without any external threat. Additionally, fear is related to the specific behaviors of escape and avoidance, whereas anxiety is the result of threats which are perceived to be uncontrollable or unavoidable. Worth noting is that fear almost always relates to future events, such as worsening of a situation, or continuation of a situation that is unacceptable. Fear could also be an instant reaction to something presently happening.

Fear of death is also known as death anxiety. This may be a more accurate label because, like other anxieties, the emotional state in question is long lasting and not typically linked to a specific stimulus. The analysis of fear of death, death anxiety, and concerns over mortality is an important feature of existentialism and terror management theory.

The fear of ghosts in many human cultures is based on beliefs that some ghosts may be malignant towards people and dangerous (within the range of all possible attitudes, including mischievous, benignant, indifferent, etc.). The fear of ghosts is sometimes referred to as phasmophobia and erroneously spectrophobia, the latter being an established term for fear of mirrors and one's own reflections.

Spectrophobia (from Latin: spectrum, "image") or eisoptrophobia is a kind of specific phobia involving a morbid fear of mirrors and the dread of seeing one's own reflection. The Dictionary of Psychology", by Raymond J. Corsini, 2002, ISBN 1583913289p. 319

Many believe that fears or passed down from generation and cultural backgrounds. The fear of ghosts in many human cultures is based on beliefs that some ghosts may be malignant towards people and dangerous (within the range of all possible attitudes, including mischievous, benignant, indifferent, etc.).

The legends of the Wari' Wari', an Amazon rainforest tribe, believe that the spirits of dead people may appear as a scaring specters called jima. The jima which is invisible except to it's victim is said to grab with a vice like grip a person by the neck the shoulder, tongue or the ears and with very strong, icy cold and poisonous hands and try to pull the person's spirit away to the other side. Tales of such ghost are very common.

Papuans A 19th century missionary describes the fear of ghosts among Papuans as follows: "That a great fear of ghosts prevails among the Papuans is intelligible. Even by day they are reluctant to pass a grave, but nothing would induce them to do so by night. For the dead are then roaming about in their search for gambier and tobacco, and they may also sail out to sea in a canoe. Some of the departed, above all the so-called Mambrie or heroes, inspire them with especial fear. In such cases for some days after the burial you may hear about sunset a simultaneous and horrible din in all the houses of all the villages, a yelling, screaming, beating and throwing of sticks; happily the uproar does not last long: its intention is to compel the ghost to take himself off: they have given him all that befits him, namely, a grave, a funeral banquet, and funeral ornaments; and now they beseech him not to thrust himself on their observation any more, not to breathe any sickness upon the survivors, and not to kill them or "fetch" them, as the Papuans put it."

Japanese Onryō (怨霊) is a Japanese ghost (yurei) who is able to return to the physical world in order to seek vengeance. While male onryō can be found, mainly in kabuki theatre, the majority are women. Powerless in the physical world, they often suffer at the capricious whims of their male lovers. In death they become strong. Goryō are vengeance ghosts from the aristocratic classes, especially those who have been martyred.

Dealing With Ghost Hunter's Remorse

Do you ever feel that you have caused a paranomally challenged individual, or haunted individual some type of horrible wrong wrong by your investigation?

Possibly, or by mistakenly your actions in the investigation or someone in your group causing their haunting to actually worsen.

How do you cope with regrets that a paranormal investigation gave up no proof and the individual calls for your help again and again?

Their are some individuals who either by design for business or personal provocation might so deem a non haunted location actually haunted. This as many come to learn is simply just to get rid of the pesky haunted individuals problem or to bring simply a haunted individual some solace and peace of mind, or to help out a business deeming a location haunted to bring in new business. Many feel guilty for such acts but then again this is how many haunted reputations of locations are born through actual urban legends.

But as a real paranormal investigator we often find out that we must right the wrongs others have placed before us in our path. Whether it was intentionally done in the first place or a misdirected act to sooth a terrified individual. These issues soon grow into something more haunted then one might imagine.

Many people often feel a location is haunted by what personal feelings and tales they attribute to a location. True are not the emotional factor and the fact that many ghost often follow around paranormal investigators and they might contribute to these over blown claims.

REFERENCES

Öhman, A. (2000). Fear and anxiety: Evolutionary, cognitive, and clinical perspectives. In M. Lewis & J. M. Haviland-Jones (Eds.). Handbook of emotions. (pp.573–593). New York: The Guilford Press.

"Phasmophobia. (n.d.). Webster's New Millennium Dictionary of English, Preview Edition".

"Consuming Grief", by Beth A. Conklin ( 2001) ISBN 0292712367, p. 161, "Ghost Fears and Dissociation"

"The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead", by James George Frazer (1913), [ p. 305] in Google Books