Applying the Scientific Method
Perhaps the science of paranormal investigation can put an end to the misguided stereotypes of investigators as gullible and anti-scientific. At last, ghost hunters are gaining credibility and are being taken a bit more seriously. Yes, there are still many skeptics who claim what they are doing is pseudoscience, but as the evidence reaches some sort of tipping point, peoples' minds will open.
For the field to gain credibility and respectability, investigators know they must do two things. First, they must recognize when evidence could have a normal explanation. Second, they must follow the scientific method during investigations.
Following Scientific Protocols
An investigator employing the scientific method must remain both open-minded and skeptical. Phenomena must be questioned. To get to the root cause, the scientific investigator must ask questions based on the scientific method:
Why is the event happening?
Is there a natural, root cause?
Is this incident connected to any other causative events?
Is there other research or literature that has found connections between events you have observed?
Have other researchers drawn the same conclusions?
What is your hypothesis? Does it agree with your colleagues or is it new?
How will you test your hypothesis?
Can the hypothesis be tested under controlled conditions?
What predictions were made based on the hypothesis?
Were tests based on the hypothesis statistically significant?
After all these steps, if the predictions made on the hypothesis work out, it is time to publish your results in a reputable scientific journal. Other investigators will note the experimental protocols you used and they will try to reproduce your results. If your peers can repeat your experiments successfully, you may have come up with a new theory to explain the unexplained.
