What is the difference in ghost hunters and parapsychologist?
I hear many ghost hunters claim to be professional parapsychologists.
So far I have 2 answers, but why do ghost hunters claim to be parapsycholigists when they only hunt ghosts? This has boggled my mind. As I understand it a parapsychologist works through grants and has access to universities, but ghost hunters appear to be average people.
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Anyone can be a ghost-hunter.Just say you’re one and presto you are.A parapsychologist that’s special.They pretend to be serious scientists.Some may even think they are.Neither are taken seriously by most real Scientists.
Ghost hunters are anomaly hunters. They look for evidence of ghosts by calling anything not immediately and obviously explainable a ghost.
A ghost-hunter only investigates ghosts (spirits of people after their death – if they exist). A parapsychologist, on the other hand, investigates supernatural phenomena of all kinds including ghosts.
Because mainstream science still considers parapsychology to be the stuff of quackdom, most universities (and anyone else) will not fund such studies at all – at least not in the U.S. Most of the funding that anyone gets for it is from private sources. You can get a "degree" in it from some schools, but not from any accredited university that would recognize it as a real degree. And I take no position on whether or not it should be, as someone who has had an interest in the paranormal since I was a child, I’m just telling you how it is from my own research on the subject. I would never pursue it as a career unless I didn’t want to pay my bills.
So, when naysayers tell you there is no difference, according to mainstream science and general public perception, there really isn’t.
the real difference is this…..
Ghost hunters want to find the ghost.
Parapsychologists want to sit the ghost down and see whats bothering it.
Seriously, parapsychology is the study of the paranormal, although few people who make the claim to be parapsychologists actually approach it in a scientific manner.
Ghost hunters, like I said, are just looking for ghosts, with cameras, IR equipment, or whatever they believe will lead them to the ghosts.
Most parapsychologist (those who engage in scientific study of human abilities) have Ph.D.’s from accredited universities in a main stream area of science. There are very few that have Ph.D.’s in parapsychology.
The Parapsychological Association
http://www,parapsych.org has been an affiliate of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science
http://www.aaas.org since 1969. The PA web site lists the educational background of several of their members if you care to look.
Ghosts are largely ignored by most modern day parapsychologist because studies cannot be conducted in laboratories (it’s all field work).
Ghost hunters (a very few of which have degrees in some science) usually investigate on a part time basis. Most ghost hunters are amateurs.
A ghost hunter is not a parapsychologist. However, a parapsychologist (or any other scientist) may study the experience of ghosts in a variety of ways.
Michael John Weaver, M.S.