Dr. Mark Farley's Personal Blog

Like most equipment used by paranormal investigators, it wasn’t originally designed for ghost hunting. It was designed for a whole other purpose, and the paranormal community adopted it for use in investigations.

You can tell a professional paranormal team from a thrill-seeking team by the amount of preparation they do before the investigation. The actual investigation is only the tip of the spear. Researching the site and interviewing witnesses is the basic foundation of any paranormal investigation. Because without research, how does your team know what they are investigating?

I was reading a Facebook post on another paranormal page that talked about the problems in our community. I do admit that our community does have its problems

One of the biggest misconceptions that new investigators have is that a house is haunted; it’s haunted twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. They can walk in at any time and witness paranormal activity. For years, I have heard members of the paranormal community say, “If a house is haunted, you should witness paranormal activity both day and night.” From my experience, this is absolutely wrong.

So you capture a photograph of what you think is paranormal. If you’re like me, you’ll spend hours staring at it. Then you post it on social media to share what you captured and, hopefully, receive a little validation.

Also, I credit Urban Exploration for the reason why I have so many paranormal experiences. Every day I had off in my twenties and thirties, I was exploring something abandoned. I always took the time while I was exploring an abandoned building to sit still and quietly observe what was going on around me.

In my opinion, there are many different ways an investigator could engage in provoking. A good gauge during a spirit communication is to think about how you would like to be treated. In your normal day-to-day interactions with people, you want to be treated with courtesy and respect.

I believe if you’re truly trying to “help” the client. You should be focusing on explaining the events they are witnessing. In these situations, proof doesn’t help anyone but you; explanations help the client. Deep down, the practice of debunking only helps the investigator. Because deep down, through this facade of skewed skepticism, they really want to capture the “Holy Grail” of paranormal evidence. Investigations are for explaining; research is for proving.

I am rather strict during the investigation because the last thing I want is a team full of thrill seekers. I want professionals; I want standards; and I want quality. If our field is going to be accepted as a legitimate field of study. These are the three traits I feel every team must strive for.

Being an experienced paranormal investigator, this is what I would like to see a layman do when encountering something paranormal