Over the years I have embarked on many a paranormal adventure; from the local manor that caught my eye as a boy, to the books I read and onto the many Ghost Hunts I’ve attended around the UK. With each new haunted location came a few answers, but always many more questions to tackle. Some locations I would return to more than once and with that I would begin to learn more and more about investigating the paranormal. The places I went and the people I met became a source for me to learn from, as I gradually gained more knowledge on the paranormal over the years. 

Somewhere back in the dark days of my upbringing the phrase ‘every day is a school day’ became almost a guiding principle for me; perhaps it was something passed on to me by my parents. It’s certainly something I am sharing with my own children hoping that they will also learn from the world around them too. The exploration of the paranormal certainly provides us with a great deal to learn and much to question. Fortunately the questions always seem to outweigh the answers, keeping us addicted to knowing more from one day to the next, from each location to the next. 

However, there is a paradoxical balance or imbalance that exists within the ghost hunting community that seeks to discover more about the afterlife through the investigation of various purported haunted locations; that belief and facts often blur during this exploration, making the journey exciting, but the destination always out of reach. 

My personal journey within the paranormal community, investigating various cases, attending many ghost hunts, learning from lectures, annual conferences, and fellow investigators; has taught me a great deal and provided me with an understanding of the subject that I never had when I first embarked on a trip to the library to learn a little more about some local ghosts. In fact, I started by trying to debunk most things I encountered looking for one thing I could not, hoping to be able to declare that as categorically paranormal. Then I looked at what could be seen as something a little more spiritual in its arrangement, trying to understand more about why these beliefs were so important to the paranormal. I embarked on many a discussion with Mediums and others with strong spiritual beliefs, took part in seances; even held them myself, all with a hope that it would provide me greater understanding of the paranormal. Oddly the more spiritual aspects of the paranormal led me to some extremely interesting pieces of paranormal history and in turn to the Society for Psychical Research (SPR). 

Joining the SPR was completely logical for me, as it represented all I was looking for in a paranormal organisation; with its connections to academia, its resources and the simple fact that it was one of the oldest organisations still operating from a time which seemed like a time out of the stories I had read. I began to analyse the hauntings I investigated and theorise on new possibilities for the cause of them, some beyond the simple understanding that someones personality may have survived their bodily death. 

Eventually I became a member of the SPR’s Spontaneous Cases Committee (SCC), looking to pick up active cases where people were having paranormal experiences that they would want the SPR to investigate. Whilst we do receive many such cases, we also receive a great number of cases which are simply informing us of past experiences that people have had inn their past. These are equally interesting to me, as I believe we should equally try to document these too, as they provide an insight into the phenomena as witness testimony. Engaging in these cases, both historic and currently active became for me something more interesting than visits to darkened public buildings up and down the country, searching for ghost that were either reported by other ghost hunters or decades previously. 

As we started the new year, opening the pages on 2024, the SPR’s SCC was heavily on my mind, reminding me that the approaches, gadgets and opinions from my ghost hunting days were in most, unlikely to be utilised in a proper investigation. Most of what I had utilised in my own ghost hunter days was something I recognised as more of a prop than something useful now. So, as I was trying to think of something to write about for this months blog post, as I realised I had neglected my readers somewhat last year, I suddenly realised that there was a possibility here for an actual series of blog posts. Once I began to make some notes in my journal, the idea expanded a little and before long I had enough for a series to span the entire year. 

This series of blog posts, which I am hoping will be at least monthly, will tackle some critical subjects that I have personally come up against during my time as a ghost hunter, a paranormal investigator and general explorer of the paranormal. Some of the posts will be based on simple questions like; ‘why do ghost hunters investigate in the dark’ or ‘Are REM Pods and other gadgets actually any use’ but the idea is to begin discussion here. My opinion is my own and one which has developed over time following personal experience and research that I have conducted myself. So, if you disagree with anything I write then please feel free to comment, as your point of view is important to me and could help me understand something I may have missed. Of course, if you agree, please comment too, as it would be good to know if there are people out there in agreement with me. 

For example, one post will look at the SLS Camera. A piece of para-tech used by many ghost hunters these days, but is it actually adding value to an investigation or is it simply making things less clear for those with less technological knowledge of how the device actually works. I have even heard TV personalities refer to it clearly picking up Imps, Ghosts and more on their shows; presenting the gadget as a something that detects the supernatural. The question for that blog post will be to determine if it really does. 

Other blog posts will deal with other subject you may have not even thought about challenging; like ‘why do ghost hunters investigate in the dark’ or ‘does video capture have flaws’ or ‘the problem with EVPs’  and other aspects too. 

As ever I will wrap the entire series up with a post to conclude everything previously discussed, which with any luck may include some comments from the readers if their points of view assist the subject matter in either direction. In fact there is no need to wait either, if you have any opinions regarding the way in which many of us ghost hunt, the gadgets we use, the methods we’ve adopted or the quality of the ‘evidence’ said to be captured; then please feel free to comment on this post and share your thoughts. An interactive blog series would be much better than just me sharing my thoughts after all. The paranormal in my mind is all about debating its relative possibilities, so let’s get the discussion going early. 

Remember, this is not about me spinning a negative on the methods of todays ghost hunters; I am simply sharing what I have learnt personally and providing a background on why I disagree or agree with some of the methods in use today. We need to change things in the ghost hunting community and gain a greater understanding of this fascinating subject area. This will likely require us to stop following the same approaches from the last few decades. Whilst some may seem interesting and even exciting, like we are a part of some scary horror film, they may equally have little or no evidential value. So, let’s take a look together and see what survives this years review. You never know, perhaps together we may find new approaches or technology to further the field. 

I hope you will join me on this small quest this year.