There are a lot of people out there calling themselves ghost hunters. Some of them are people looking for answers to questions about the afterlife. Others are trying to study paranormal phenomenon. Some are even just people trying to help other people. But there are always a few bad individuals in any group, and some ghost hunters are simply people looking for a fun time, people looking to get famous, or worse people looking to take advantage of others.
Right now, anyone can be a ghost hunter. In a way, that’s great. It means everyone has the opportunity to do it. But not everyone should do it.
Personally, I think ghost hunters should have the option of getting some sort of certification or formal training. People could feel more comfortable knowing the groups coming into their homes would be following some sort of ethical standard.
But, right now, there’s no universally accepted ghost hunting training. Most of us learn by experience and the classes that are offered are usually put together by small ghost hunting teams. Because ghost hunting is hardly a science, very few legitimate schools would consider hosting a course on the subject. Also, there are so many different schools of thought, how would they choose which techniques and approaches are the correct ones?
I would love to see a standardized course developed in the future, but right now ghost hunters have to rely on nothing more than the experience of being in the trade.
Do you think schools should offer ghost hunting classes? Do you think there should be an ethical code of conduct for ghost hunting?
We could always go with a certain amount of years as an "internship" with a well-known ghost group. Though, to be honest, not many people have one around them.
ReplyDeleteThere could be an organization you belong to where you apply for membership and, based on what you have done in the field, you are considered certified. It could also pair up beginning hunters with a known group in their area.
Heck, some of the groups should also be able, through this system, to certify someone themselves.
Tricky getting everyone and everything on the same page, though.
No. It should not be regulated as long as there is no proof that ghosts actually exist. This is the same kind of activity as reading tea leaves on the bottom of a cup, throwing salt over one's shoulder to ward off bad luck, and collecting four leaf clovers (none of that needs to be regulated either).
ReplyDeleteA lot of groups work with a sort of internship structure for training new members. It works for the people in the system, but not everyone knows how to access it. Most of my concerns about regulation come from groups that take advantage of people. A fellow group member just pointed out one groups site-they are charging people over 400 dollars to hunt and 'remove' ghosts. How would anyone ever know if their ghosts left? I hate to think how many people have handed over money to people who basically come in and do nothing.
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