Motivations Behind Investigations

The reader may be wondering: just who does go to an investigation? I think I can help. There are several categories and subcategories, let's break it down. (Caveat: the categories are broad and the lines sometimes blurred)

First, there are the curious:

those who want to believe and want to be convinced

those who don't want to believe and don't want to be convinced

those who wonder what it is like to be in a haunted place

Secondly, there are the skeptics:

those who could believe and would with their own idea of evidence

those who could never believe and no evidence would be enough

Thirdly, there are the investigators:

those whose methods and equipment are completely electronic or digital

those whose methods and equipment are not concerned with science: pendula, dowsing, psychic impressions

those whose methods and equipment and beliefs combine both kinds of data gathering

those who believe and require only psychic impressions

Any team member could belong to more than one of these categories: someone who wonders what it's like to be in a haunted place can also have a lot of electronic or digital equipment just as someone who could never believe and for whom no evidence would be enough could also have a lot of "scientific" equipment.

But, regardless the motivation, everyone wants to be there. Everyone brings his/her own agenda and keeps it secondary to the goal of the team involved: gathering data that can (1) be analysed as to category of experience and (2) be repeated (or verified independently). For example, if at a particular site, I get impressions of a family of five that died in a fire, I need to be able to provide details and to have this verified through historical documents.

At any rate, this is a sketchy outline of who could be expected at an investigation.