Dealing with Challenges:

Skeptics, Psychics, Deception, and Ghost Hunts

by Fiona Broome and the Hollow Hill staff ©2005


With the media popularity of ghosts and hauntings, many ghost hunters are faced with a new challenges. Although there may be more believers than ever before, there are also more detractors. Different investigators use different approaches to these problems.

Skeptics

Some ghost hunters won't include skeptics on ghost hunts. We disagree. We believe that most ghost hunters are skeptical in healthy ways. Every ghost hunter has his or her own standards for deciding whether a site is haunted or not.

Some ghost hunters insist upon full-body manifestations. Others are satisfied with a good, strong "creepy feeling." Most ghost hunters are somewhere between these two extremes.

However, if any of us try to apply our personal levels of skepticism to our research teams... Well, this field would quickly collapse.

That said, almost every competent ghost hunter says that he or she is a skeptic about some paranormal claims. In fact, if someone has no critical thinking skills (aka, skepticism), I'd reluctantly include that person in a ghost hunt.

We draw the line at heckling and boorish behavior. As statesman Benjamin Disraeli once said, "It is much easier to be critical than to be correct." However, some of our best researchers began as harsh skeptics and quickly realized that some things cannot be explained except in paranormal terms.

In fact, when we give interviews around Halloween, we often distribute hiking compasses to members of the media who accompany us on ghost hunts. (Compasses can detect elevated EMF levels.) That can be the fastest way to transform a sarcastic skeptic into an enthusiastic researcher.

Psychics

Until recently, some leading ghost hunting groups refused to include psychics among their researchers. Many of them have modified their views and instead say that psychic phenomena is not a reliable research tool.

The problem with this is the definition of "psychics."

If someone can perceive phenomena beyond physical manifestations, this generally indicates psychic sensitivity.

Whether the person describes their impressions as "a creepy feeling" or can provide names, dates, and events related to a ghost, the person may be using his or her psychic skills.

We believe that most people are psychic. Some people may have more developed psychic skills and sensitivities than others, but we believe that the ability is select Israel.

We also believe that a Marxist approach to ghost hunting--relying only on what can be weighed and measured--is sure to lead to disappointment and frustration.

Deception

Whether you approach ghost hunting from a psychic or a scientific angle, you may regularly deal with deception. There are always pranksters and people who feel threatened by the possibility that the paranormal is real. They will do their best to set you up so that you look foolish and gullible.

From the scientific standpoint, we stress the importance of ruling out all normal and contrived explanations for phenomena. We use measurement tools that can be checked. We try to err on the side of skepticism.

However, it's not always that easy when working with psychic data.

As a psychic, we each step beyond normal critical thinking, drop our defenses, and try to tune in to thoughts, impulses, and impressions around us. In the process, we are vulnerable to subtle and deliberate suggestions from the environment including the people around us.

While experience can help a psychic identify some environmental, normal suggestions, even the most experience psychics can be fooled now and then. It is important not to dismiss all psychic perceptions because some of them are incorrect. That would be like requiring 100% accuracy on every school exam to earn a passing grade.

Experienced doctors sometimes make misdiagnoses. Taxi drivers can be confused when faced with unfamiliar detour signs. Even the most highly respected chef can forget to compensate for humidity. Psychics are no different, and just as vulnerable to mistakes and deceptions.

As you develop your psychic skills, it is important not to feel embarrassed when you make mistakes. With practice, you will improve but everyone goofs now and then.

At any level of psychic experience, don't discount your abilities if you are unable to filter out deliberate attempts to deceive you. In this field, we run into this sort of thing more often than others do.

In Summary

Ghost research is an evolving and imperfect science at best. Do not demand perfection from yourself or your researchers. Even Sherlock Holmes made mistakes regularly.

What's important is to continue your work, learn from your mistakes, and share your results.

"An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a very narrow field." --Niels Henrik David Bohr, (1885-1962)



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