So you want to be a paranormal investigator / ghost hunter.

Ghost hunts and investigations have their ups and downs, and they are a bit different than you might see on TV. Here's a few examples.

The Good: Adrenaline rush from doing something scary.
The Bad: It's dull, the need for quiet being paramount.

The Good: You meet interesting people on both sides of the veil.
The Bad: You meet "interesting people" on both sides of the veil.

The Good: Collecting lots of evidence, fair to top quality.
The Bad: Going over the evidence, (which becomes quite tedious) the pay offs being few and far between. Every hour of evidence requires 1.5 to 5 hours to analyze properly.

The Good: Lots of great people in the paranormal community willing to help you.
The Bad: Lots of jealous jerks in the paranormal community who think, for no reason at all, that they are better than everybody, and nobody knows anything but them. Many of these are "Evidence Nazis." This isn't to trivialize Nazis, all of whom I'm sure are having a very bad afterlife, nor to make light of Nazis. An evidence Nazi is someone who trivializes everyone Else's evidence as bogus simply because they didn't capture it. They'll come up with all sorts of cockamamie explanations for a crazy picture that is not their own. What's important to realize is that they're out there, the closet skeptics, and to not let them under ones skin.

The Good: Ghosts do occasionally get caught in images or in sound recordings.
The Bad: Ghost don't show up, talk, materialize on command. It's easy to forget, even for us, how many hours of recorded material is needed to catch a 1 second anomaly.

The Good: You help people on both sides of the divide.
The Bad: If you're ethical, you don't make a dime for your services.

The Good: You could become famous, or get on television.
The Bad: You could become famous, or get on television. From then on, due largely to the jealousy factor, the potential is there for you to become labeled a sell out, not strict with your evidence, doing it only for money, etc. As long as you know your motivation is good, sincere, none of what the jealous set says matters much.

The Good: You get to help people. That should be the number one goal. Secondary to that is having fun, satisfying curiosity, and getting the crap scared out of you on occasion.
The Bad: I got nothin'.

On tools you'd need to get started, they are, in order of importance:
1. Integrity. You can do a hunt stark naked with no equipment or a group at all if you have your integrity (BTW, NEVER do a hunt alone! Always be in a team at all times of at least two people!) Loose your integrity and you might as well join a traveling carnival, because your ghost hunting days are done. Documenting findings is problematic though, so you'll need...

2. A sound recorder. If you go with analog tape, be sure that your tapes are always new, and never, ever used twice. I had someone in my group send me a sound recording. He was all excited. "There's piano music bleeding over from another dimension." I was stoked. "Cool, crazy abnormal evidence! Send it to me" I said.
Well, it was a recording that a friend of a member made on location with analog tape. Used tape. This guy was a vocal music student. The piano music was the guy's taped lessons. Seems he inadvertently was lightly pressing on the "stop" button on the recorder while recording. This caused the recording head to come off the tape slightly, allowing the previous music session to stay and mix with the EVP session. It took me about .21 seconds to figure this out, and another .21 seconds to call our member up and, well, I wasn't very happy. There are also analog tapless recorders, but I have the best luck with my trusty Sony digital recorder. And it's far easier to load onto a computer for examination than analog.

3. A camera. If you're good with film (I am not) use a film camera. Do know that the costs for developing can get pricey. After a few rolls with nothing to show this cost is going to become an annoying burden though. When you do get results they can be spectacular. Unfortunately for every 100 to 200 hundred photos you might get one anomalous photo, if that. Digital is cost effective, but a bit more prone to false orbs (yes, I know, TAPS says orbs are almost all dust or bugs (or moisture) but the actual number isn't quite that bad, at least as far as my research shows. Still, we do disregard 99.999% of orb photos. Bill Cook, a 20 year veteran in this field told me the other day "If I see even one more orb photo I swear I will throw up!" Bill runs the Haunted Barstow tours.

I'm a show killer!

Wow, I'm a show killer. I called into PIOCLA's show tonight as their host was working solo without his normal partner, and he was doing a great job. I watched on screen as his number of listeners dropped off the second I called in.
"OMG, I feel so terrible! I'm so sorry, I killed your show!" I exclaimed. So I got off his show and got prepped for mine with 5 minutes to spare, then just to prove I'm a serial show killer, I then went our show and proptly killed it too!
I hearby pronounce a ban on myself from the Claranormal talk radio show, and ask my collegues at Claranormal to step up to the plate!

2nd radio show's archived, third is Friday!

We're on the air again on the 16th, so come on over and join us at http://blogtalkradio.com/claranormal
We'll cover a lot of ground I'm sure, and you'll be able to listen, call in, and chat with others who are into the paranormal, so come on and let's have us a party!
Overall this radio thing is getting easier, and honestly, I think I'll stick to the "sort of prepared, but not overly prepared" format we've done so far. An hour goes by fast, so trying to fully prepare is a bit silly.
Hope to hear and see you there!

Claranormal on the air

Some fellow paranormal investigators I know, PIOCLA, started an Internet radio program, and I've been an avid listener and some time caller from close to the first show. They broadcast Tuesdays and Fridays at 8 PM Pacific time, they're great guys, and are learning this field by leaps and bounds on a weekly basis.
Last Friday I tuned in for the start of their show, but the show was silent. There was a header which said "Waiting for Host to Call In..." Uh oh. I waited for about a half an hour, shot them an email "Um, guys, there's a radio show on and the hosts are missing. Hope all is well," or something to that effect.
While I waited I continued to goof around on the blog talk radio site, and I started exploring how the site, the radio and hosting features work.
Before I knew it I had signed up to host a show. More to the point, I had 6 minutes until air time.
"What a stupid jerk I am. Seriously, who does this? What am I thinking? I have 6 minutes to prep for an hour show and I got nothing." These are among the thoughts that went through my head as air time approached, sitting there all alone, chortling to myself. Yeah, I could move the premier to another hour, or day, or week, or even month, give myself more time to prep, but for better or worse I was committed. I should be committed to a nut house.
If you know me, you know that I don't take myself seriously, but I do take what I do very seriously. For the record, Justin and I had talked about doing a show for a couple of weeks, so this wasn't a 100 percent impulsive move. 95 percent impulsive, yeah, but not 100 percent. Justin was a bit reluctant, as would anybody who's presented with a hair brained scheme, so in order to get the ball rolling, I just did it.
Yes, I did go on the air for an hour, and this wasn't as difficult a decision as it might sound. Yes, I was terrified, but I rationalized that I could yak for an hour, and this being an impromptu and unannounced show, seriously, who'd even know it's on? There would be no listeners, so there's no pressure. Besides, I'm not a broadcaster, amatuer or professional, so what have I got to loose?
Just do it. I did it.
So I'm yaking away, baa baa baa baa, I call myself on the show with my cell, this to both entertain myself and to finish figuring out how everything works. I make the announcement that when I run out of things to say, the show will likely de-evolve into me making funny guttural noises. More blah blahs blahs and I'm thinking I have about 40 minutes done, only about 20 minutes to go. Good thing too because I'm running out of things to say. Piece of cake, I can fill 20 more minutes. Yeah, the show likely sucks, but this misadventure is almost over. I walk into my computer room, my computer handling the switchboard and chat session for the show, and I check to see how much time I've been on exactly.
16 minutes. Crap.
Oh well, nobodies listening, relax. Then I check the chat screen.
"Oh my, there are listeners," I think while laughing nervously, and they're chatting during the show. I start coughing. Wow, the pressure's on.
A listener named GrimDog types into chat "You're Dying." I think he meant the coughing fit, but either way, yes, I'm dying. The show's going to tank. Oh man, what have I done.
"Pull yourself together," I think. "You have 44 more minutes fill, and you're going to do the best job you can."
At this point it all starts coming together. We get a caller, the aforementioned GrimDog no less, who has a situation at home involving a ghost, and thankfully, he fills a good 20 minutes of show, and hopefully I provide him with good help. God bless you GrimDog!
Am I going to do this again?
You bet.
Will it be a success?
Probably not.
Is that going to stop me / us?
Nope.
We do plan on getting our whole crew on the show, if not all at the same, then show by show. We also plan on having guests, whether they're hawking their goods or not, and we plan on highlighting various haunted locations and paranormal groups.
As those of you who've followed us know, we don't trash talk anyone (unless they really, really deserve it) so no guest need fear us. We're here on Claranormal Talk Radio to get everybody to work together, not to bash. That's Claranormal's philosophy, and the radio show's too.
Give us a listen if you get a chance. Currently we're following PIOCLA at 9PM Pacific time on Friday nights.
http://blogtalkradio.com/claranormal
To call into the show, dial (917) 889-9432