Category: Ghost Hunting

Are there grants for paranormal research or ghost hunting?

No, there are no grants for ghost hunting. Most paranormal research funds are intended for parapsychologists.

Many books and movies start with an aging, wealthy individual. He or she wants definitive proof of an afterlife.  So, the rich recluse hires a team to spend the night in a haunted house. The team promise to return with proof — one way or the other — about life after death.

In most fiction like this, particularly movies, the investigators deal with unspeakable terror at the hands of the house’s ghosts. Usually, one or more of the researchers never leaves the house alive.

(Best of these movies include the original The Haunting, and The Haunting of Hell House. Though they’re dated, they have more authenticity than most films in that genre.)

locked doorsA variation of this involves a large reward to any of the group who who stay (or survive) one night in the haunted house.

And, for good measure, they’re locked in the house. It’s similar to the staging used for the TV series, Ghost Adventures.

Ah, if only someone would present me with that kind of offer…

In real life, I don’t think that’s ever happened. Not like in the movies, anyway. No decrepit billionaires offering large sums of money for evidence of life after death.

You may find grants related to ESP and other areas of parapsychology.

However, corporate funding or individual grants for ghost hunting don’t exist.

As a result, some ghost hunters accept individual clients or conduct readings for a fee.

Some people say that’s preying on vulnerable people who want to contact lost loved ones.

Often, I agree.

I’m not sure where to draw the line. Is it more moral to take a day job in fast food than to work as a paid psychic medium? You’ll need to decide for yourself.

Charging a high fee just to investigate a private residence…? No. I won’t do that. I’ll find more honorable ways to earn a living, and still have time for paranormal research.

In other words, don’t expect grants to finance your ghost hunts. If any exist, I haven’t heard of them.

What did ghosts do before electrical ghost hunting tools?

When someone asks me how ghosts communicated before modern ghost hunting tools, I laugh.

My reply is simple. “They did what the living did, before electricity.  They used what was available.”

Ghosts can communicate without modern electrical devices. Sometimes, people are so focused on high-tech ghost hunting tools, they forget that ghost research flourished in the 19th century and earlier.

Low-tech ghost hunting tools

Time tested, non-electrical communications include:

– Pendulums.
– Dowsing rods.
– Table tipping and table tapping. (The first involves the table moving. The other means rapping sounds on the table. Both may occur at the same time.)
– Automatic writing.
– Ouija boards and spirit boards. (Some insist they’re very different devices. There are safety issues; be sure you’re aware of them before sitting down with this kind of tool.)
– And, one of my favorites: Direct requests to ghosts. In other words, just ask them to respond in specific ways, like moving an object or making a sound.

The problem is: non-electrical communications can be entertaining, but they’re not scientific evidence.

Worse, they’re very easy to fake. The more high-tech the faking methods, the more difficult they are to detect.

Famous "brown lady" ghost photoMost ghost hunters want more than easily debunked entertainment.

Some want ghosts that perform reliably on command, and give 100% accurate responses to questions, 100% of the time.

Even the living don’t do that. I’m not sure why we expect ghosts to.

Others want full-body apparitions in photos they take themselves.

We seem to be able to photograph orbs, and shadow people. We rarely see apparitions, much less capture them on film.

Some people want to hear ghostly voices on a recording.

Convincing apparitions and crystal-clear EVP are so rare, they still impress me… when they’re credible, that is.

The future of ghost hunting tools

Today, scientists and technicians are developing high tech, paranormal research tools.

They’re designing ghost hunting devices that might produce consistent results under laboratory conditions.

We’re getting closer, but it may be several years until we have ghost hunting tools that work consistently in haunted locations.

However, for an entertaining — and often convincing — display of ghostly activity, old-school methods can be a fine choice.

If it’s your research — meaning that you’re in full control — low-tech ghost hunting tools can be excellent. Perhaps even better than electronic ghost hunting devices.

If that’s what you’re looking for, follow the careers of two ghost hunters.

One is Brian Cano, who appeared on the “Haunted Collector” TV series. He’s familiar with many old-school ghost hunting tools & methods.

The other is researcher Sean Paradis. He’s been exploring very low-tech ghost investigation tools.

Is there any scientific proof of ghosts?

There is no scientific “proof” of ghosts or anything else.

“Proofs” come from mathematics and logic.

scientific proof of ghosts - not in any libraryScience relies on evidence, and much of it is provisional.

Scientists are constantly improving techniques and research methods. Thanks to a steady supply of new discoveries, there is no final word in science. That makes it an exciting, evolving field.

So, there is no proof. If you want conclusive, scientific evidence of ghosts, it doesn’t exist yet. You may find an answer that makes sense to you. It might be all the evidence you need.

Scientific evidence is something else.

We can go to a haunted site and — often but not always — trigger unexplained phenomena. However, our results aren’t consistent.

In other words, ghostly phenomena can’t be duplicated to lab standards. Never mind “scientific proof of ghosts.” We don’t even have reliable scientific evidence at this point.

If we could reliably duplicate what we encounter at haunted sites, we might find better answers to many ghost hunting questions.

Whole Brain Emulation (WBE) or “mind uploading” could open doors for ghost research. It’s the storage of intelligence — what’s in your brain — in digital format. Engineer Ray Kurzweil predicts that will be possible by the year 2045.

Let’s say we could routinely store memories for every human being. Let’s also assume we’ve refined communication with ghosts. Then, we could compare what the ghost tells us about his life, against his digitally stored (WBE) memories.

At the moment, that’s pure sci-fi. However, it’s one of many possibilities. If the data in the computer or avatar match what’s conveyed by the ghost, point for point, that could be compelling evidence.

But, it’s still not scientific proof of ghosts.

We’re also trying to refine EMF detection. Some orbs may result from EMF that accompanies a haunting. With better research tools, we may understand more about orbs, EMF, and ghosts.

However, people have been trying to understand ghosts for centuries.

We’re still far from turning this into a credible science.

For now, there’s no “proof.” We can’t convince skeptical critics that ghosts are real, either. Of course, there may never be enough evidence for that.

Many people believe what they want to believe. After all, some people still insist the world is flat, and nothing will persuade them otherwise.

I’d love to claim that there’s scientific proof of ghosts, but there isn’t and never will be. What we’re actually searching for is scientific evidence of ghosts. And, we’re making good progress there.