Yahoo Movies What's It Like Being A Real-Life Ghostbuster?
The movie trope of the paranormal investigator summoned to a haunted house or possession is still hugely popular in Hollywood. The idea that a private ghost detective can be called up like an emergency service makes the concept of the supernatural just that little bit more believable.
We caught up with Stephen Mera, the chairman of MAPIT: Manchester’s Association of Paranormal Investigation & Training, to find out what it’s like to be a real-life ghostbuster in conjuction with the DVD and Blu-ray release of ’The Quiet Ones’ this week. He explained the “Holy Grail” for a paranormal investigator is capturing evidence of a ghost that can be replicated under controlled circumstances.
Above: Stephen Mera, founder of SEP: The Scientific Establishment of Parapsychology.
"Even though we do have evidence to support different types of phenomenon and ESP, it doesn’t come through very often and when it does, it’s not like it’s something where you can just push a button and have it happen again.”
"People think parapsychologists are skeptics, but that’s not the truth.” explained Mera. "Parapsychologists do what they do because they believe there’s something worthy of study, but it’s very difficult to obtain conclusive evidence.”
Here’s what we learned about the real life of a ghost buster.
It helps to be a believer
"In 1996, I was employed by Rochdale City Council to investigate one of their homes where there tenants were reporting unusual disturbances. It wasn’t a haunting, it was actually a poltergeist infestation and we had to have the family relocated as things were just too traumatic for them. I experienced phenomena first hand while doing that investigation and since then I’ve realised that phenomena does exist even though a lot people say that it doesn’t.
I understand why a lot of people say that, because it’s hard to believe in phenomena if you haven’t witnessed it. If you have witnessed it, then people recognise it as paranormal phenomena instantaneously and their beliefs do alter. I got thumped in the back. I was quite a big guy, but it moved me across the room about 4 feet.
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When people ask me how that felt, I say it was like an electrical shock and a thump at the same time. It was the electrical shock that moved me across the room, but the thump was a very physical thump that left a bruise. I had been skeptical until that point, but that experience made me consider leaving the field because it bothered me, but I had more questions that needed answering.”
There aren’t many professional investigators, but plenty of amateur ones
"There are not many paranormal investigators in the UK. There are probably only about 20 in the field doing it from a parapsychological point of view. Doing just regular paranormal investigation (from a non-scientific angle)? Everyone’s having a stab at it these days. It’s actually a very hip subject. It’s a subject of great interest, probably because of a certain number of TV shows that are popular now. But they only investigate from one angle.
They want to witness first hand for themselves, but when it comes to assisting the witnesses who have had traumatic experiences, they’re not prepared to handle that.”
There’s a lot of paperwork
"The principle part of an investigation is usually the written stuff: forms, questionnaires and so on. Then, if it does warrant investigation, it’s done in three stages. The first step is the environmental checks to make sure everything is as it should be in the environment. We need to check that there’s nothing taking place such as induced phenomenon or hallucinations.
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The second step is checking for geo-magnetic fields or gas fires. Gas fires can leak carbon monoxide which can cause hallucinations, so we have check things like that. Stage three is when the video equipment comes in for detection methods, using video, photographic methods, and electronic meters.”
There’s no money to be made
"To be in the parapsychology world, you have to do a lot of different things to make ends meet. That means lecturing, tutoring, writing books, being a freelance journalist, all these things contribute to help bring in a wage being a parapsychologist, unless you’re on placement at a university teaching anomalistic psychology. This country doesn’t recognise parapsychologists as much as the United States does, so we have a lot of limitations."
Who you gonna call? No-one
"Unfortunately, despite all the information we put out there about contacting parapsychologists, very little does come through to us. Most people who have “supernatural” experiences usually tell their friends and family and that’s about it, it doesn’t reach our desk. Occasionally, if things get out of hand, they might report it to a priest, but they have confidentiality so we don’t hear about it. Sometimes people may report it to the police, so it is difficult for us to hear about it.
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We don’t believe there’s a lack of incidents taking place, we just believe there’s a lack of reporting in the right manner, so we don’t get that many cases coming in. Often we have to seek them out. People are often reluctant to talk about their experiences in public because of the media attention and potential ridicule.”
The movies generally get the subject wrong
"Most movies on the subject are very poor. When they say they are based upon true stories and life events, it seems to be a bit of a ploy to draw the viewers in. I know a lot of these cases that are turned into movies or TV shows and usually they’re very poor in regards to the accuracy and the true information. You have to draw the line and say how accurate does your film have to be to be truly “based on a true story”? Unfortunately, most of them are very far from the truth, especially more recent ones."
Real life Ghostbusters are a LONG way off
"Parapsychology got its foothold in the UK in the 1800s, but we’re still really struggling to exactly find out what these things [ghosts etc] actually are and how we could capture them. The problem now is the technological era problem, where we’re having battles with people… I receive around 6000 photos a year and the problem for us now is that people are using equipment to doctor them which is far superior than the stuff we use to analyse them, so there’s a technological battle going on.
We’re getting to the point where video and photographic evidence isn’t good enough. We need a multitude of witnesses because a lot of things can be faked and hoaxed and it’s next to impossible to work out if they’re authentic or not. Often, if it looks too good, then people will question if it’s real. It’s a Catch 22 situation.”
‘The Quiet Ones’ is out on DVD and Blu-ray now.
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Image credit: Hammer/Sony/MGM/20th Century Fox/New Line
