Is there much money to be made in the paranormal industry, books, magazines...?

Question

.... dial a psychic etc?

Do the sellers of these products actively seek to increase belief of the supernatural and paranormal to sell more of their product in the same way that meat growers advertise to convince the public that meat is healthy in order to sell more?

Answer 1

There seems to be an instinctive knowledge in the ghost industry, at least for the people who are serious about it, that you can not make a profit from it.  I have been ghost hunting for three years and no one ever told me not to charge.  It is something I just knew.  I have talked to other ghost hunters who have felt the same way.  That is why if you ever decide to have a ghost hunting team investigate your house for what ever reason, you should only consider the teams that do not charge.  They are the serious ones.  Same for psychics.  If they do not charge you, they are more likely real.

Answer 2

Apparently only skeptics try to make money off the paranormal. Apparently, anybody writing books, giving seminars, or making TV shows promoting the paranormal donate their profits to charity.  :)

EDIT:  But seriously. Once again I need to provide facts where someone else has only given misinformation. Contrary to what someone has posted, CSICOP is a non-profit organization. Secondly, CSICOP does not own Prometheus books. They do, however, share a founding member among them (Paul Kurtz). This answerer has since edited his answer after I posted this information, but in doing so he also collapsed his strawman argument. (By the way, I am in favor of the freedom for people to write books and sell them, regardless of whether the author is a paranormal believer or skeptic or whatever.)

Answer 3

Loads of money to be made plus the feeling of importance these people crave by getting a name for themselves.

It's a huge industry.  Look at religion.

Answer 4

I am good friends with a person that is on a paranormal reality show on TV.  Since this is a reality show, the people on the show are not classified as "actors", they are not members of the SAG (screen actors guild) therefore, they cannot demand to be paid as actors would be.  My friend makes around $5,000 an episode.  Not much in my book!  Reality shows are also not scripted (at least this one isn't LOL) and therefore, the production company doesn't have to pay writers.  The money made on TV shows is by the producers, not the actual ghost hunters.  

Some of the 'celebrity' ghost hunters are doing better than others on the financial scale....however this is due in part to the conventions and guest speaking they do when they aren't filming TV shows.  And they also sell t-shirts, books and the like, which they pocket.

Hope this helps!

Answer 5

Yes they do this, it's obvious to those who aren't gullible.

Answer 6

you already gave us your best answer.

Answer 7

Oh, absolutely.  The "belief not based on science/evidence" industry (i.e. New Age, self help, "The Secret", Sylvia Browne, etc.) takes in millions a year.  All you have to do is to sell your own brand of beliefs.  As long as they aren't easily falsifiable and you have a good marketing program in place (i.e. Oprah) you stand to make some decent money.

EDIT: A certain somebody doesn't seem to know the significance of ".com" and ".org".

Answer 8

Yes, in fact the chairman of CSI (link below) Paul Kurtz (link below) is also the chairman of a publishing company named Prometheus Books (link below) that is a for profit company selling skeptical magazines and books full of skeptical opinions and editorial as well as the very infrequent reasonable evaluation by qualified scientist of research in fields of science that they have never conducted any research in themselves.

Yes, the skeptical paranormal industry is all about the money.

Thank you for the question and for brining this to people's attention.

By contrast professional scientific organizations like the Parapsychological Association (link below) are strictly non profit.

Psi

Answer 9

People love to be scared and stuff, just look at the horror movie industry. So i suppose you make em wonder about stuff in a book or something, at least some people will buy it.

Answer 10

Yes there is much money to be made.Check the websites below to see how much.Prometheus books while taking a skeptical tilt deals with far more then the paranormal.CSI is a non-profit organization(that means they are scrutinized by the IRS).They are supported by donations from members and subscriptions to Skeptical Inquirer.A magazine that accepts NO advertising.

Yes there's money to be made and the lions share is not going to skeptical organizations and their products.It's very much the opposite.There's way more money to be made promoting the paranormal then exposing it.Just go to a book store or magazine stand.

Answer 11

Yes, in fact there are lots of publications from for-profit companies selling paranormal magazines and books full of paranormal opinions (magazine links below) as well as the very infrequent reasonable evaluation by actual scientists. And let's not even get into frauds like John Edward or Sylvia Browne and the millions they rake in (hayhouseimages link below). The paranormal is even being used by non-paranormal companies to sell shoes! (REI link below)

The paranormal industry is all about the money. In contrast, scientific and skeptical organizations like the James Randi Educational Foundation (link below) are strictly non-profit.

Haunting You