When you think about paranormal investigators and the workplace, you may automatically think of investigations that take place in the workplace. But it’s not all hauntings and poltergeists: Ghost hunters are also in a workplace of their own and must deal with the office politics of being paranormal investigators. Part of the politics involved stems from the fact that anyone can hang up a shingle and call themselves a paranormal investigator—there is no education or licensing required when entering the field.
“Because there is no standardization and no set guidelines for paranormal investigation, everybody gets out there and tries to be the alpha group—we do this better, we know this better, we have better equipment. And then the other thing they get into is evidence review and they will not share their evidence with other people because they think it’s a secret. There is all kinds of politicking out there that it’s really ridiculous,” said Marla Brooks, paranormal investigator and author of Ghosts of Hollywood: The Show Still Goes On. “There’s so much infighting in the paranormal community because of this kind of thing. It’s ugly. There’s room enough for everybody out there to do their thing and accomplish their goals.”
This competitiveness among some paranormal investigators can manifest itself in several backstabbing ways that are similar to the office politics you find in more traditional workplace settings. For example, Cassiopia Demars of Premiere Paranormal Research says that her group has been sabotaged, as well as harassed, by other paranormal investigators.
“What people don’t know is that the paranormal world is very cutthroat and dirty,” said said. “People have found out what our group is investigating and called the client pretending to be our team and cancelled our investigations. We’ve also had our car vandalized with shaving cream.”
Other communication issues that paranormal investigators face, says Demars, involve reactions from the general public. Although she is a devout Christian, Demars says that some religious people who do not agree with her work have expressed their disapproval through nasty e-mails, voice mails, and letters. Some of her detractors have Biblical objections to what Premiere Paranormal Research does.
“Our defense is that you can’t see God. You can’t hear him, you can’t really feel him—other than emotionally—and he can’t actually touch you,” she said. “God himself is paranormal, so for me to be such a high believer in God and not even give ghosts the consideration would be hypocritical.”
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