What to go to college for to be a parnormal investigator!?!?

Question

I dont know which areas to study to get into parnormal investigating and hopefully want to get into something like TAPS.

Answer 1

Um, I think paranormal investigating is generally something that is a hobby-type interest, and only in TAPS's case becomes a job.

Because the 'paranormal' isn't exactly something considered as real, I doubt many colleges actually have majors associated to it. You are better off studying something you also like, that you can do as a career, and do the paranormal interests on the side because it's unlikely to actually turn into a consistent "job" since TAPS is a rare minority in that sense.

If anything, maybe you can find something that you would like that could be *helpful,* like TAPS has their experience as plumbers that helps them debunk certain things.

Answer 2

There are not a lot of college courses offered at any colleges in the U.S.A.  None specifically for paranormal investigation.  Photography classes would help.  Some psychology classes would also be helpful.  However, there really is no money to be made by doing it.  It is more  of a hobby kind of thing.

Answer 3

I don't understand why you don't want to study something real, like science.

Answer 4

The first thing to do is to get the right preparation for college. Probably the best place to do that is at Hogwarts. From there you might consider a college of naturopathy or chiropractic.

Sadly, the opportunities to pursue a career in paranormal research at a university are not very good just now. Princeton had a program for years, and it shut down when its principal investigator admitted that in 40 years he hadn't been able to achieve a single positive result. Duke had a program for quite a while, too, but it seems to have disappeared.

Answer 5

unless you charged for it which TAPS doesn't do. Thats not how they make money. If you charge for it, why would people pay when the best is free. Even with the TV show and if the show didn't exist they have jobs that pay thier bills. That might be your first worry. You can do that on the side without college.

Answer 6

It won't be a class, but I would recommend psychology and sociology. It would probably be a club that you would join.

Answer 7

Since paranormal phenomenon have never been scientifically validated, there is really no particular major to suggest except perhaps something in broadcasting, since TV is the only media that attempts to lend any credibility to paranormal phenomenon.

My suggestion is to give up paranormal investigation as a career, and do something real.

Answer 8

The answerers above me hit the nail squarely. Paranormal research is an unpaid hobby, but an understanding of psychology, physics, life sciences, photography and media is valuable. A solid base in scientific method and scrupulous integrity will go a long ways toward furthering our goals. More power to you!

Answer 9

First, paranormal investigator isn't really a career option as that many groups do not charge for their services. Parapsychology can be a career but the job opportunities are very limited (at one time 40 paid positions in the world).

The members of TAPS all have day jobs.

However, most full members of the Parapsychological Association (the professional association for those working in parapsychology) (link below) hold doctoral degrees in conventional sciences (psychology, medicine, physics, engineering).

What area of the paranormal (which is an umbrella term for lots of things) you wish to investigate will determine what science degree you should pursue. If you want to look for Big Foot and other such animals then Zoology or Biology would be good choices. If you want to study UFO's then Astronomy, Astro Physics, Meteorology would be choices.

If you want to study haunting activity then physics, engineering to study how things might move or sound and psychology to study how people might react are all choices. So it also depends not only on what area you want to study but how you want (what perspective) to study it.

Paranormal is not well enough defined to study or have a career in or anything else in science. Science requires you to choose an area to study.

However, other skills like criminal investigating, photography, sound engineering, or historical research can all be used in helping with investigations of the paranormal.

Feel free to email me if you want to discuss your interest further.

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