TheNightling
@TheNightling
0
TV vs. Reality: Paranormal Investigators:
Here is a list I have compiled of the differences between real Paranormal investigators / Parapsychologists and the ones you see on television or who have Youtube channels or TikTok.
1. Unlike the TV and social media paranormal investigators who clearly are monetized, most legitimate paranormal investigators either don’t change for their services, or are paid via gratuity or tips where the client chooses what they pay, or even if they do charge a sum, the paranormal investigations don’t support the person or group in the entirety. In other words, many Paranormal investigators have a “day job” or some other source of income. I’ll expand on this on number 2.
You will find that the media savvy, well-marketed, and famous paranormal investigators are usually showmen like The Warrens, who knew how to sell a story to be published as a book, or sold as a TV movie or theatrical movie.
2. Many legitimate Paranormal investigators are either retired from some other job or they have chronic illness / disabilities.
You know how with some of you, your parents may have pressured you, in your teens, to be “realistic” about your future career, and they, or guidance counselors, may have pressured you to seek out employment that was reliable and stable. The reality is the majority of young people interested in serious paranormal investigations are discouraged by friends and / or family who (whether intended or not) crush their ambitions. Paranormal investigator is rarely a vocation that is encouraged. As such, many people don’t get the opportunity to follow this life goal of being a paranormal investigator until after they have quit or retired from a previous, mundane, occupation.
Similarly, sometimes someone with a disability can’t get conventional employment for various reasons and paranormal investigation gives some satisfaction in social activity and exploring the unknown, and it could even offer a supplemented income. People with disabilities tended to not be able earn a good income (especially here in the US). And Social Security disability doesn’t offer much money either, but it’s enough that you could probably earn a little bit more in paranormal investigating to compensate your income.
For this reason, many legitimate paranormal investigators are not young, nor have they been doing it their whole lives. Many are middle ages to elderly and many have medical conditions or disabilities. It was very odd to me to encounter Ghostbusters fans who thought it was unrealistic that one of the members of Extreme Ghostbusters was in a wheelchair. This is actually closer to reality than most TV paranormal investigators.
3. Something you almost never see with TV paranormal investigators is they don’t usually get shown doing a baseline reading for their EMF detectors. This is kind of important because a cellphone receiving a text, a kitchen microwave heating a burrito, your own infrared cameras, or someone’s pacemaker could give off a high or spiking electromagnetic field (what was once called EMR = electromagnetic radiation). There are many false positives in haunted house investigations from people who don’t know how to to properly handle using an EMF reader. I can tell you stories of someone with a pace maker being mistaken as being surrounded by spirits because their “professional” paranormal investigators didn’t consider that heir pacemaker was sending out little electrical jolts, causing electromagnetic energy spikes.
4. Most legitimate paranormal investigators know better than to spread around photos of “orbs” and passing them off as proof of ghost activity. The reality is most orbs are nothing more than dust particles and most people in the field know this.
5. Most legitimate paranormal investigators won’t immediately dismiss all supernatural activity as definitively evil or demonic. The trend of Demonologists blaming anything spooky on demons or melevolent forces started when Ed Warren traded in his ghosthunter status for “Demonologist” during a “Catholic Warriors against demons” craze that started after the Exorcist movie came out. It was drawn out thanks to the 80s Satanic panic about a decade later and never entirely went away.
6. Most legitimate paranormal investigators will try to offer non-supernatural explanations and will try to rule out mundane explanations before attempting to establish proof that the occurrences might be something supernatural.
7. Legitimate paranormal investigators don’t usually scream in darkened rooms to “rile up” the spirits / demons and then run away screaming at every click or pop. (You know who I’m talking about).
8. Most legitimate paranormal investigators won’t insist that owning a Ouija board “opened a door” or invoked demons. This is a notion popularized by The Exorcist movie and urban legends. And it requires not knowing about things like the Ideomotor Effect. The Ideomotor Effect is when the subconscious triggers un-aware movements that cause the planchet of a ouija board to spell out things, or the swinging of a pendulum, or automatic writing, that turn out to not be supernatural at all.
9. Most paranormal investigators will NOT tell you that having a pentacle or something depicting a pentacle will invite negative energy or spirits. I have seen this on a few older Ghosthunters type shows and it is very insulting and bigoted. Imagine if someone said this about a Star of David or if a society of prominently non-Christians said this about crosses. This is a movie-induced misconception, a bigotry wrapped in spiritualism. The pentacle is sacred to many non-Abrahamic faiths and some Christians who remember its use in warding away demons in the middle ages to the eighteenth century.
10. The majority of legitimate paranormal investigators are not in it for social media clout and will not be filing the entire time, and will even do an investigation without recording equipment, if asked.
Here is a list I have compiled of the differences between real Paranormal investigators / Parapsychologists and the ones you see on television or who have Youtube channels or TikTok.
1. Unlike the TV and social media paranormal investigators who clearly are monetized, most legitimate paranormal investigators either don’t change for their services, or are paid via gratuity or tips where the client chooses what they pay, or even if they do charge a sum, the paranormal investigations don’t support the person or group in the entirety. In other words, many Paranormal investigators have a “day job” or some other source of income. I’ll expand on this on number 2.
You will find that the media savvy, well-marketed, and famous paranormal investigators are usually showmen like The Warrens, who knew how to sell a story to be published as a book, or sold as a TV movie or theatrical movie.
2. Many legitimate Paranormal investigators are either retired from some other job or they have chronic illness / disabilities.
You know how with some of you, your parents may have pressured you, in your teens, to be “realistic” about your future career, and they, or guidance counselors, may have pressured you to seek out employment that was reliable and stable. The reality is the majority of young people interested in serious paranormal investigations are discouraged by friends and / or family who (whether intended or not) crush their ambitions. Paranormal investigator is rarely a vocation that is encouraged. As such, many people don’t get the opportunity to follow this life goal of being a paranormal investigator until after they have quit or retired from a previous, mundane, occupation.
Similarly, sometimes someone with a disability can’t get conventional employment for various reasons and paranormal investigation gives some satisfaction in social activity and exploring the unknown, and it could even offer a supplemented income. People with disabilities tended to not be able earn a good income (especially here in the US). And Social Security disability doesn’t offer much money either, but it’s enough that you could probably earn a little bit more in paranormal investigating to compensate your income.
For this reason, many legitimate paranormal investigators are not young, nor have they been doing it their whole lives. Many are middle ages to elderly and many have medical conditions or disabilities. It was very odd to me to encounter Ghostbusters fans who thought it was unrealistic that one of the members of Extreme Ghostbusters was in a wheelchair. This is actually closer to reality than most TV paranormal investigators.
3. Something you almost never see with TV paranormal investigators is they don’t usually get shown doing a baseline reading for their EMF detectors. This is kind of important because a cellphone receiving a text, a kitchen microwave heating a burrito, your own infrared cameras, or someone’s pacemaker could give off a high or spiking electromagnetic field (what was once called EMR = electromagnetic radiation). There are many false positives in haunted house investigations from people who don’t know how to to properly handle using an EMF reader. I can tell you stories of someone with a pace maker being mistaken as being surrounded by spirits because their “professional” paranormal investigators didn’t consider that heir pacemaker was sending out little electrical jolts, causing electromagnetic energy spikes.
4. Most legitimate paranormal investigators know better than to spread around photos of “orbs” and passing them off as proof of ghost activity. The reality is most orbs are nothing more than dust particles and most people in the field know this.
5. Most legitimate paranormal investigators won’t immediately dismiss all supernatural activity as definitively evil or demonic. The trend of Demonologists blaming anything spooky on demons or melevolent forces started when Ed Warren traded in his ghosthunter status for “Demonologist” during a “Catholic Warriors against demons” craze that started after the Exorcist movie came out. It was drawn out thanks to the 80s Satanic panic about a decade later and never entirely went away.
6. Most legitimate paranormal investigators will try to offer non-supernatural explanations and will try to rule out mundane explanations before attempting to establish proof that the occurrences might be something supernatural.
7. Legitimate paranormal investigators don’t usually scream in darkened rooms to “rile up” the spirits / demons and then run away screaming at every click or pop. (You know who I’m talking about).
8. Most legitimate paranormal investigators won’t insist that owning a Ouija board “opened a door” or invoked demons. This is a notion popularized by The Exorcist movie and urban legends. And it requires not knowing about things like the Ideomotor Effect. The Ideomotor Effect is when the subconscious triggers un-aware movements that cause the planchet of a ouija board to spell out things, or the swinging of a pendulum, or automatic writing, that turn out to not be supernatural at all.
9. Most paranormal investigators will NOT tell you that having a pentacle or something depicting a pentacle will invite negative energy or spirits. I have seen this on a few older Ghosthunters type shows and it is very insulting and bigoted. Imagine if someone said this about a Star of David or if a society of prominently non-Christians said this about crosses. This is a movie-induced misconception, a bigotry wrapped in spiritualism. The pentacle is sacred to many non-Abrahamic faiths and some Christians who remember its use in warding away demons in the middle ages to the eighteenth century.
10. The majority of legitimate paranormal investigators are not in it for social media clout and will not be filing the entire time, and will even do an investigation without recording equipment, if asked.
