Why Ghost Hunt?
- Dr Iain M Lightfoot
- 6 days ago
- 4 min read
The longer I spend involved in paranormal investigations, the more I realise the questions are changing. Do I even know why I do this anymore? Interest, yes. Excitement, yes. Intrigue, yes.
When you begin, it is simple. You think that you are seeking answers and proof. Yet, there are answers available and plenty of proof if you look. You want to experience something undeniable that changes your very understanding of existentialism. You tell yourself that if you could just see a full apparition standing in front of you, hear a direct voice response, or have an intelligent conversation with something beyond this life, then perhaps everything would finally make sense. I have done these. Does it? I mean, because of this do I have a better idea of the essence of humanity? Of life's meanings? (I mean 42 is a great answer btw!)
Yet, does it? The deeper you go into paranormal investigation, the more complicated the questions become. What exactly are we searching for? Is it genuinely proof of an afterlife, or is it the excitement that there might be something else out there beyond the ordinary and predictable structure of everyday life?
Perhaps part of it is the attraction to the unknown itself.
Ghost hunting sits outside the boundaries, on the outliers of what society would call 'normal' as it is not mainstream. In fact, most people would avoid dark abandoned places and most people would rather stay home and watch 'love island at first sight strictly x-factor' than sit in silence in an old tunnel at two in the morning asking questions into darkness!
However, there is something strangely compelling about voluntarily, and willingly stepping into places others avoid through fear, discomfort or scepticism. If I am honest, I think there is something appealing about that at the same time. Humans have always admired exploration, even outsiders and underdogs. We the modern explorers who are willing to push beyond the accepted boundaries of normality and ask uncomfortable questions of energy that we believe exists.
Indeed, the somewhat rather strange paranormal investigators seems to exist in a strange middle ground between belief and ridicule. Too sceptical for some believers, too open-minded for hardened sceptics. And yet we continue.
Why!?
Every now and then something happens that stirs something deeply inside you (no its not last night's curry!). Not necessarily dramatic, but deeply, very personal. A moment where you feel something change inside yourself, a response that feels intelligent and the feeling of the atmosphere suddenly changes. There comes with it a sensation that you are interacting with something that does not belong entirely within our normal understanding of reality. This feeling is difficult to explain properly to somebody who has never experienced it. It is an electricity. It is a buzzing. It is breath-taking. It is NOT fear.
So What? Why do we Ghost hunt?
Good question and well stated. So what? What do we actually want from this? We say we want answers but do we really? Is it the thrill of the adventure or the chase?
If tomorrow night a full apparition walked into a room and sat opposite me, would that finally satisfy my curiosity? Would it simply open ten more questions? How is this be possible? What is consciousness? Where do spirits exist? Why can they communicate sometimes and not others? Why are interactions so inconsistent? Why does paranormal evidence always seem to exist just beyond absolute certainty? Is there an afterlife? Did you live in this world? How are you experiencing your existence now? Do you feel? Are you happy or sad? Do you experience emotions or pain or happiness?
Maybe this certainty itself would ruin the mystery and therefore our experience of the investigations?
Perhaps part of ghost hunting is not really about reaching the destination at all. Maybe it is about remaining in the space between doubt and belief because that space keeps the mind alive and searching. There is excitement, wonder, and curiosity there. Maybe a curiosity is just a part of who you are and that is why we do this?
After years of investigations, I do sometimes wonder whether paranormal investigation becomes less about finding ghosts and more about understanding ourselves. The locations, the darkness, the atmosphere and the anticipation all seem to amplify deeper thoughts that everyday life usually keeps buried. Mortality. Meaning. Fear. Hope. Existentialism. The possibility and hope that life continues in some form beyond death! Ghost hunting often begins externally, yet eventually the questions become internal. Perhaps that is the real truth behind paranormal investigation. The curious mind is rarely satisfied for long. Every answer creates another question. Every experience changes the shape of what you think you are searching for. Maybe that is why we continue walking into old buildings carrying cameras, recorders and questions into the dark. Not because we fully expect answers but because something inside us needs to keep asking.
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