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The unknown has always held a particular fascination for believers and skeptics. While science has advanced in leaps and bounds in the last centuries, there are still phenomena that science has not been able to shed light on: the paranormal.

Frightening stories, bizarre creatures and stories of the surreal fall into the domain of the paranormal, and it's hoped that with the dedication and research of some dedicated individuals, the light of the known might one day reach a little farther. The paranormal investigator stands on the fringes of science, peering into the unknown.

It's the paranormal investigator's job to look into occurrences and phenomena that aren't explainable by conventional sciences. These unexplained phenomena include ghosts and hauntings, UFOs, sightings of unidentifiable creatures (such as Bigfoot or the New Jersey Devil), near-death experiences, crop circles, mysterious disappearances--and appearances--and poltergeist activity.

Paranormal investigators often try to document strange occurrences that science has no way of explaining. These documentations, whether in the form of photographs, video recordings or audio recordings, are an attempt to prove that the creature the investigator is chasing does indeed exist.

Anecdotal research is the least scientific of the methods, but it creates an in-depth record of all stories, sightings and rumors that are connected with a particular phenomenon. The down side to this method of collecting stories is that there is no way to substantiate the claims included, as they are often secondhand or passed down through residents of an area. There is rarely any sort of hard evidence that goes along with the stories, although it has served to create a database of paranormal phenomena that can be cross-referenced to find similar stories across the globe.

The participant-observer approach is when the investigator immerses herself in the phenomena they are investigating. One of the most frequent ways this is undertaken is on ghost hunts; the investigators stake out an area that is rumored to be haunted and attempt to document proof of spirits in the area. In the case of ghost hunting, scientific equipment such as EMF detectors, digital cameras and audio recorders are used to record traces of the ghosts.

Anomalistics is the process of taking scientific methods and accepted scientific principles and using them to investigate paranormal activity. Anomalistics is more focused on debunking paranormal activity than it is proving that it exists. It operates under the theory that paranormal occurrences simply exist outside of scientific research, and once they are completely understood they will fit in with accepted science.

Bernard Heuvelmans, a Belgium/French scientist, has been called the Father of Cryptozoology. His interests began in zoological oddities--such as the aardvark--but soon developed into a passion for uncovering animals that fit into no known template. Heuvelmans was one of the first researchers to think of exploring the depths of the ocean and investigating creatures previously thought to be nothing more than myths and stories--such as the giant octopus and giant squid. Heuvelmans' lifetime of work is housed in France's Center for Cryptozoology, which he founded in 1975.

In the 1920s, Charles Fort was responsible for the largest collection of stories about the paranormal in the world. These 40,000-plus stories were complied in seven books, including "The Book of the Damned and Wild Talents." Subject matter includes everything from teleportation and rains of animals and reptiles to spontaneous combustion, alien abductions, even ball lightning.

Carl Sagan is one of the most notorious opponents of the ideas of extraterrestrial intelligence. Sagan believed that there were scientific explanations for what were being called UFOs, and often wrote such matters. Sagan was also a part of a committee that examined Project Blue Book, the U.S. Air Force's investigation into UFOs. The committee determined that the study was not a satisfactory scientific study.

Joseph Banks Rhine was one of the first investigators into parapsychology and telepathy. He was one of the first to test subjects and their ESP abilities, as well as carrying out the first tests on psychokinesis. Rhine coined the term "parapsychology."

The paranormal investigator doesn't just have to deal with the paranormal; the people he shares the research field with can be divided into those who believe and those who don't. On one hand, many people feel there is much more in the world, well beyond what our scientific research has revealed. There are those who believe in ghosts and spiritual healing, those who believe in UFOs and creatures that have yet to be classified by modern zoology.

On the other hand, there are those who believe there is nothing that cannot be explained by science. They view the world of the paranormal as nothing more than hoaxes that will be debunked.

The paranormal investigator must walk the line between the two. While by nature the paranormal investigator is admitting to the unknown, he must not be too eager to believe. The paranormal investigator must be willing to look at the investigation and the evidence presented in an objective way/ A lack of objectivity will harm paranormal research more than it helps.

Many paranormal investigators act as a part of a larger institution. With the growing popularity of the paranormal field thanks to movies and television shows, there are more such organizations across the world.

The Parapsychological Association was founded by Joseph Rhine in 1957 as the first organization solely for the research of parapsychology. The association is responsible for research into "psi" phenomena such as telepathy, precognition, psychic healing and clairvoyance.

The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry is an American organization founded in 1976. The main objective of the CSI is to encourage scientific inquiry into paranormal phenomena. The presence of the word "skeptical" in the name of the organization can be misleading; instead of being skeptics in the sense of not believing in the paranormal, members are skeptical in the sense that they expect paranormal claims to be substantiated with hard evidence.
TAPS--The Atlantic Paranormal Society--rose to fame in the SciFi Channel's show "Ghost Hunters," but TAPS has a wide network of family groups that share information and pool research tools. Members of TAPS share case files and use their vast network of investigators to thoroughly investigate reported hauntings.

The James Randi Foundation was established to support research into claims of paranormal activity. James Randi, a magician and skeptic, launched the foundation in hopes that it would aid in promoting the fact that paranormal phenomena need to be investigated completely and scientifically before taken as fact.

Read more: About Paranormal Investigators | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_4700505_paranormal-investigators.html#ixzz0rH8cVBva

(Excerpt used from ASSAP website http://www.assap.org/)

Paranormal photos are those that appear to show either things that were NOT seen at the time of exposure (such as orbs, rods) or things that WERE seen and considered paranormal (such as ghosts, UFOs). More generally, they are photos reported as paranormal!

The following account represents the results of an informal study of paranormal photos carried out over several years. The study involved the close analysis of over a thousand anomalous photos, taken over several years by over three hundred different photographers using dozens of different digital camera models. In addition, several hundred photos, published in the web, were also examined, though not as closely because the originals were unavailable.

Though the photographs were not collected as a statistically representative sample of all paranormal photos, the relatively large sample means we can probably assume most paranormal photos follow a similar pattern.

Though this not a practical guide to analysing paranormal photos, it does provide much of the theoretical background to do such work.

Read the full article here!