A group must have a spiffy name. ARIGs identify themselves almost across the spectrum with an acronym derived from their full name. What was often evident was that the name was derived from a creative, pronounceable acronym such as Paranormal Researchers of Odd Findings (PROOF) and Study of Paranormal Events Confirmed Thru Evidence, Research (SPECTER). Unfortunately, many groups appeared to put more time and effort into crafting their image, beginning with the name, than they did collecting, sharing and analyzing data and explaining results.
What goes up quickly, can come down just as quickly. The lack of investment required and ease of website creation also meant that group sites were abandoned with great frequency. The sites were put up and then not maintained or the domain registration was left to lapse after a year or two as the group fell apart or re-formed with new members (and a new name).
Since most groups are approached by those looking for help in understanding their own disturbing experiences, ARIG member often express sincere feelings towards assisting those individuals. Groups emphasize caring consideration for helping clients get through a difficult and confusing time in their lives. They frequently state that the clients’ best interest is always the priority. The officially stated purposes, mission, or goals of ARIGs nearly universally expressed a commitment to understand the subject and to discover important evidence that leads to knowledge and acceptance of paranormal reality. Lofty goals are listed for their work: to be recognized by the scientific community, to provide indisputable evidence of the paranormal, to prove life after death, to help lost spirits cross over, to find Bigfoot, etc. An aspect of ARIGs that often goes un-cited by critics is their emphasis on community service—educating the public and raising awareness, fundraising for local cemeteries and historic sites, and advocacy for preservation of historic sites and nature conservation. This is both commendable and problematic as will be discussed later.
While a few groups notably listed one of their goals as “to have fun,” most groups emphasized serious intentions. To exhibit their seriousness, ARIG members are visually portrayed on their websites in the process of conducting investigations, frequently using equipment. Humorous or comical photographs were rare. Group photographs commonly include members in matching clothing, frequently black, often with the group logo (earning them the derogatory “black shirt brigade” moniker from non-paranormalists). Cryptozoology or UFO field researchers may dress in modern outdoor gear fit for field work. Cryptozoologists typically require a hat and many sport beards that projects an “outdoorsman” attitude. Many ARIG sites showcase the group members. Short descriptive bios are often included which follow a typical pattern relating to the individual’s day job or former career and a reason why each person is interested in the field. It was through the inclusion of their primary career information that I could ascertain that almost no participants in these groups are scientists by training or occupation (excluding computer science and engineering), but most often have “blue collar” jobs or no consistent or distinct area of employment. Another aspect that was clear in the members’ personal info provided was the impact of personal paranormal experiences. Reasons for participation in an ARIG is commonly given as “curiosity,” most frequently associated with personal experiences the individual has had that they consider paranormal or mysterious. They are searching for answers to their own questions. This is a strong motivator.
Across my survey of ARIGs, I observed a spectrum regarding a desire for publicity. There are certainly those groups that actively seek publicity or even promote themselves as potential television subjects. In fact, their desire to obtain their own TV show or to be featured on an existing one may be stated outright on their website. Publicity-seeking groups will list the press coverage they have garnered and showcase promotional video clips of investigations. Prominent ARIG representatives appear on radio shows, podcasts and in local interest stories. Some ARIGs will also promote their group via media contacts, seminars and events. Many also run web-based radio or video shows or podcasts. Some groups have their own YouTube channels to showcase video findings, photos, and sound files they say depicts evidence. This evidence is open to harsh comments by naysayers and other groups disputing the evidence or alleging fakery. Those groups looking for even more publicity and angling for their own TV shows will produce “sizzle reels” showing their most dramatic activity. Some groups will actively criticize other groups as publicity seekers, calling them buffoons or fakers or decrying their attempts to make the paranormal profitable. Several paranormal personalities obviously have attempted to grab fame and notoriety at every turn, whether that be by gaining a spot on a TV show or being the group that captures Bigfoot himself. This stated or unstated goal of fame causes friction and animosity as groups vie for credibility and attention from the public and media producers.
Most paranormal conferences feature vendors that sell books or ghost-related paraphernalia. The vender area also gives participants a chance to meet others and chat about the conference or items on display, and to share experiences. Taken at the Para-Unity Conference in Woodbridge, New Jersey, 2015. Photograph by Kenny Biddle.
Conferences
Paranormal investigators, cryptozoologists, ufologists and those generally interested in these topics meet up across the U.S. at conventions that host speakers, writers, television personalities, and vendors. Conventions range from small regional gatherings featuring local authors and experts to larger weekend gatherings that include international guests. Paranormal conventions (“paracons”) are common and can attract hundreds of participants. Some paracons cross over all fields combining ghosts with psychic studies, cryptids, and UFOs while others limit the subject area to Bigfoot, for example.
The most numerous events cater to interest in ghosts and spirits. Vendors man tables to sell ghost hunting technology and paraphernalia. Book signings and paranormal celebrity meet-and-greet events, tours, movie screenings, and special ghost hunts are features of such events. UFO events are similar and national or international gatherings can attract major crowds. Some small local conferences combine Bigfoot with UFO topics into an event,2 often to the chagrin of some vendors or speakers from one field who prefer no overlap with the other. Several large sci-fi or comic fan conventions include “tracks” within their huge programs to cater to specific sub-interests which include paranormal themes. Skeptic tracks may also appear alongside the paranormal tracks allowing the convention participant to sample a critical view of paranormal topics. Conversely, skeptical-minded attendees pepper the audiences of paranormal presentations, most often asking probing questions and calling out inconsistencies in facts and methodology.
Conferences and conventions are where ARIGs interact with each other, sharing techniques and findings and staying apprised of the latest information circulating in their individual communities. Conferences serve as critical face-to-face contact for ARIGs to form, add new members, and embrace new directions and ideas. Skeptical scholars are rarely included in the program. Hospitality towards skeptical views varies widely but, generally, conventions of ARIGs are geared towards those who subscribe to paranormal conclusions and are supporters or fans of the media personalities that espouse that view.
Professionalism
Sometimes, I think that ARIG participants may have taken the 1984 movie Ghostbusters too seriously and sound a bit too much like this “commercial” shown in the film:
Dr. Ray Stantz: Are you troubled by strange noises in the middle of the night?
Dr. Egon Spengler: Do you experience feelings of dread in your basement or attic?
Dr. Peter Venkman: Have you or your family ever seen a spook, spectre or ghost?
Stantz: If the answer is “yes,” then don’t wait another minute. Pick up the phone and call the professionals…
Stantz, Spengler, Venkman: Ghostbusters!
Stantz: Our courteous and efficient staff is on call 24 hours a day to serve all your supernatural elimination needs.
Stantz, Spengler, V
enkman: We’re ready to believe you.
The characters portrayed in Ghostbusters were PhD-holding professors in parapsychology. However, there have not been many professional parapsychologists, and the few university parapsychology labs that existed have been dwindling. Even fewer academic researchers have been able to shape their research into quests for UFOs and cryptids. A similarly small number of historians, psychologists, social scientists, and other scholars study the social aspects of paranormal belief. Notably, almost none of their work is positively recognized by ARIGs.
A real-life example of professional ghost busters does exist and shows how popular the concept of on-call parapsychologists was in the wake of the original Ghostbusters film. In 1989, the German Society of Psychical Research funded a project called Parapscyhologische Beratungsstelle (PCO) to have professionals and specialists available to members of the public that wished to report extraordinary experiences. They received 4,000 requests in a year for assistance, overwhelming the tiny staff and demonstrating an enormous demand for such services. Through 2003, the PCO received 2,500–3,000 requests by phone or in person per year (Von Lucadou & Wald 2014). I’m not sure if the volunteers were “ready to believe” but callers were ready to tell their stories to a person who would listen and not laugh or belittle.
Many ARIG participants and independent researchers write books. Between the rise of do-it-yourself publishing and the growth of niche publishers catering to the audience of paranormal reality television, publishing a paranormal book does not necessarily signify expertise nor promise financial gain. Regal refers to a handful of successful authors as “elite amateurs” who have the ear of the rest of the community as they provide opinions and hypotheses (Regal 2011: 17) yet their views remain outside mainstream academia.
A surprising aspect of ARIGs that I found was how often they invoke the term “professional” for their activities and deliberately eschew the term “amateur.” Of the 1,000 ARIGs that I examined, 70 identified themselves explicitly as “professional” investigators with reference to the group or group members themselves. Reference to a “professional manner” related to conduct was not counted in the total as this was understood to be a behavior characteristic, not related to experience. What exactly do they mean by “professional”? A professional investigator is a tough job that requires a unique and practiced set of skills. Experience matters for those who work as investigators for law enforcement, insurance companies, or the government.
It could be said that certain investigators who have TV shows or write books might be considered “professionals” if they receive income from the activity despite lacking any formal training. Several para-celebrities charge fees for appearances and lectures. I found only one ARIG group that charged for their services, although the practice is becoming more prevalent but not advertised. Are they professional ghost hunters if they never actually find verifiable ghosts? How can you declare yourself to be finding Bigfoot when after many years, you don’t have physical remains of one? Considering that the explosion of paranormal television shows was subsumed within the larger phenomena of reality television, unscripted works with primarily amateur casts or contestants, the use of “professional” to mean “gets paid for work” is colliding with the use to mean a “high standard of experience and/or quality.” Adding “professional” to ARIG marketing material seemingly became a common means to express a sense of seriousness in their investigations.
The roots of quasi-professional paranormal investigation are in the foundation of the Society of Psychical Research (SPR). Work of the SPR was well known to Dan Aykroyd who co-created the movie Ghostbusters. According to Maher (2015), early SPR work relied on an observational technique. Their process was as follows:
• inspect sites to rule out natural causes;
• talk to the witnesses and make a permanent record of their experiences;
• obtain corroborating witnesses and supplementary information;
• attempt to observe the phenomenon or detect fraud;
• assess the data collected; and
• publish a formal report presenting the conclusion.
With this method, we have a reasonably objective attempt to document the activity and explain the potential causes. This method is not undertaken in full by ARIGs, most of whom are goal-oriented toward documenting what they will label paranormal activity by any means or measures. The alternative to an observational technique is an experimental technique which also developed out of the parapsychological community the SPR aided in creating. One example of this experimental technique outside of a laboratory was to provide a floor plan of a supposedly haunted location and, without providing any clues, have subjects mark out impressions. Again, ARIGs almost never invoke this process espoused by the original society.
Several ARIGs declare there are no real “experts” in paranormal activity because it’s an evolving field. In other words, because no paranormal theory is accepted by most researchers, then no one can claim expertise. (See the chapter on Science and the Paranormal for further discussion.) With no set standards, and expertise and authority claims effectively neutralized, any researcher can call herself “professional.” Expertise is democratized—anyone can be an expert if they can convince an outsider of their authority. A potential client may see the word “professional” and assume there are some special qualifications for being a ghost hunter or Bigfoot investigator. There isn’t.
Ghostbusters was just a movie. It wasn’t real. Not only do some people think their local ARIG can pop over to deploy a ghost trap and remove the problem (Krulos 2015), some ARIG members aspire to be such experts.
Educating the Public
ARIGs commonly state a mission of education, which means to provide information they hold to be true or find useful regarding their particular view of their subject matter. The IIG survey (Duffy 2012) reported that 85% of responding groups of paranormal investigators consider “educating others” as a main goal after “helping people” and “conducting research.” About a third teach classes on the subject and one in six reported they give tours to the public. Yet, is what they are teaching factual or is it promotion of a belief? Are they qualified to teach about ghost hunting or cryptozoology, subjects that, in a broad sense, are multi-disciplinary and include topics typically covered in academic settings such as history, folklore, and science?
Appeal of participating in an ARIG includes the status that comes with being part of an organized group and having a personal title like “President” or “Chief Investigator.” In society, honorific or official titles like “Dr.” or “Professor” often require academic or professional credentials. Titles elevate the spokesperson’s apparent importance and suggest experience or professionalism. This is effective in media. Researchers adopt a confident tone of a topic expert to the press, emphasizing their dedication to their field as a demonstration of reliability and seriousness.
Several ARIGs arrange one-day or weekend training events or workshops to teach methods of investigation to anyone who is interested. These include “ghost hunting basics” or camping excursions to search for Bigfoot evidence. There is often a charge for these programs. Many ARIG representatives (and individual paranormal researchers) will seek more formal and informal educational opportunities such as lectures, presentations to the public, guided tours, and even formal classes online or in person at a school or community center. The same tone of expertise is invoked in those situations. Across the country, ARIG leaders partnered with local community centers and small colleges to offer continuing education classes (without academic credits) in paranormal topics. ARIGs and other community individuals are invited or allowed to present because the institutions providing community education look for subjects that are popular and bring in people to the classes, some of whom pay or may pay for other classes in the future. ARIG members can be found leading classes in paranormal investigation, developing your psychic powers, or guiding you on how to talk to your guardian an
gel. Opportunities to lecture and teach are highly sought by the ARIGs as perfect opportunities for educational outreach and promotion of their conclusions, beliefs and methods. The appearances might result in recruiting new members, donations, or increased access to prime investigation locations. Any semblance of affiliation with a school, college or university is readily used in the group’s promotional materials. While use of and association with the school appears to be a tacit endorsement of legitimacy for the ARIG activity, it’s almost never an official endorsement by the institution. The few college courses for credit taught by professors that explore fringe subjects are often explorations of folklore, mythology, and cultural history, or exercises in critical thinking and identification of pseudoscience. There is value in studying, for example, the history of ghosts (see Finucane 1996) as a reflection of cultural norms. The exploration of the growth of UFOs’ popularity in the U.S. nurtured by an American sense of distrust of government and science is of value from a social science and cultural perspective. A few formal academic programs for parapsychology remain, focusing not on how to use gadgets or how to exorcise spirits and entities, but on how to design a useful psychological test and apply proper statistical methods in analyzing experimental data—entirely different from what is presented by amateur researchers. These courses generally do not involve attempting to interact with spirits. Are ARIG-led classes and educational events legitimate and useful? They certainly could be. For example, a class could be structured with reliable and referenced information to provide a worthwhile educational experience. A lecture can inform an audience about the history or current popularity of the subject. Providing a class or presentation equivalent to a formal or informal educational opportunity would take a considerable effort and teaching skills that not many hobbyists have. True experts in any field are expected to have several years’ worth of comprehensive knowledge of the topic. That knowledge isn’t used to impress or gain attention. It is digested and used to feed further understanding. Public ARIG presentations I’ve observed lacked authenticity and deep knowledge. Key words were used without a coherent meaning provided. Speculative ideas were thrown about without references or foundation. Expertise involves more than regurgitating names and facts; it requires comprehension and application of that knowledge that results in a capability to explain. Expertise allows for sound judgments to be made and the ability to think critically about the primary issues and problems in one’s field. Gaining that level of expertise is possible by amateurs but it takes decades of dedication. To take the position of an authority and educator is ethically questionable when expertise is shallow and contrived.
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