So YOU want to be a paranormal investigator?

Over the years many aspiring paranormal investigators have asked me "how do I become an investigator" of the paranormal? A burning desire for the truth can only take you so far. Discipline, dedication and patience are definite prerequisites, so be careful what you wish for. Take it from someone who is still learning the hard way, it takes a considerable amount of time, effort and resources, with absolutely no guarantees of finding any definitive answers— only more questions.

This section will help guide the interested novice investigator and enable you to effectively investigate any high-strange event. Updated from time-to-time, this section will provide how-to-tips, rules-of-thumb, places to acquire equipment and examples of the investigative learning process.

Claims of the unusual generally fit no perceived patterns although they can be categorized. Occasionally specific phenomenon will fool you into thinking you've discovered a pattern, but invariably the events will break all patterning. This makes it almost impossible to predict when and where more of these events will take place.

 When I began my investigative work, I made note of thirteen axioms that helped me greatly in my learning process. (Taken from The Mysterious Valley book series):

Thirteen Suggested Rules of Investigation

Where does the aspiring investigator start? With your friends!

Effective monitoring of anomalous areas requires extensive coordination of as many interested and trained skywatchers as you can enlist. As they say, "more pairs of trained eyes are better than one pair." With this in mind, ValleyWatch has been established in the mysterious San Luis Valley. Intensive training in proper investigative techniques, acquisition of state-of-the-art monitoring equipment and coordinated skywatching scheduling were but a few of the aims of this endeavor.

The Internet is a wonderful educational tool. Recently I have received a number of requests pertaining to field investigation techniques for investigating alleged "UFO sightings." While this exciting activity sounds romantic and even glamorous, (but you won't make a million bucks) just under the surface, the reality is quite different. Without question, like everything in life, investigation is a lot of hard work.

The novice investigator must always remember that their role should be one of dispassionate objectivity. Pre-conceptions concerning the reality of the events automatically colors the resulting data the investigator manages to gather, so throw your preconceptions away. This is very important. If your motivations are to prove the "nuts and bolts" reality of the UFO phenomenon, good luck! For the past 50-years many have tried by NOBODY has proven the existence of "aliens" or nuts-and-bolts UFO craft. Yet, there are several investigators that spring to mind when looking at investigative techniques of pioneer UFOlogists that have already tried to resolve the reality of UFOs. Jacques Vallee's Confrontations and John Keel's Operation Trojoan Horse are two seminal works that every aspiring paranormal investigator should read. There is no substitute for being up-to-speed.

So, where does one begin after your cozy, safe armchair has been left behind? First off: define and stake out your local region and cover it like an asbestos blanket.

Here's the best place to start:

• Educate the public so that they know you are there and that you will not judge the experiencer nor the experience.
• Develop a workable "bedside manner" and become the "local investigator" the "local witness" can TRUST.
• Build a connected and viable local network of other skywatchers.
• Don't be lazy. Get out of your armchair and GET OUT IN THE FIELD!
  • Make phone-calls
  • --to make appointments
  • --to gather data properly
• Jump on ALL strange reports in your area

For ten years I covered almost 10,000 square miles in South-Central Colorado North-Central New Mexico, wrote books, played in a band, worked for a living, spent time with his family. And, I still had a life.If I can do it, so can you!

Remember, always monitor your region's unexplained activity, it's ALL relevent. At the time it might appear insignificant, but later on you'll be amazed at how the correlations all line up.

• Paranormal event claims.
• Synchronistic off-beat societal events.
• Unusual natural phenomena: weather, celestial events etc. 
• Local legends and folklore.
• oh yeah & UFO sightings.

It seems UFOs and all these phenomena; plus many more (at some level), are connected folks. I have found that a single "report" can lead to other completely unrelated reports, as well as other corroborating reports! It's amazing.

Suggested System of Classification

[Taken from Confrontations by Jacques Vallee Ballentine Books 1990]

". . . In order to encompass the full range of phenomena one finds in the modern literature, it is important to acknowledge that UFOs are related to significant ways to other anomalies. . ."

AN1) ANOMALY 1: are anomalies that do not have lasting physical effects

such as amorphous lights or unexplained explosions

(AN2) ANOMALY 2: are anomalies wirg lasting physical effects, such as some poltergeist phenomena, materialized objects, and areas of flattened grass

(AN3) ANOMALY 3: are anomalies with associated entities. INCLUDING ghosts, bigfoot, other cypto-creatures such as elves and spirits

(AN4) ANOMALY 4:are those reports in which the witness experiences personal interaction with entities in the reality of the entities themselves. This may include NDE's, religious miracles and visions and OBE

(MA1) MANEUVER 1:gathers those UFO observations that involve an object with a discontinuous trajectory (loop, drop, manuever etc).

(MA2) MANEUVER 2:Include those cases that give rise to physical effects in addition to a discontinuous trajectory. UFO causing dimming lights or engine failures etc.

(MA3) MANEUVER 3 contains the cases of objects with discontinuous trajectories when beings are observed on board.

(MA4) MANEUVER 4 covers onstances of maneuvers accompanied by a sense of transfornation of reality for the percipient.

(MA5) MANEUVER 5 is a manuever as a result of which the witness suffers permanent injury or death.

(FB1) FLYBY 1 is a simple sighting of a UFO "flying by" in the sky.

(FB2) FLYBY 2 is a flyby accompanied by physical evidence.

(FB3) FLYBY 3 is a flyby of an object accompanied by the observation of beings on board

(FB4) FLYBY 4 is a flyby where the witness experienced a transformationof his or her reality into the reality of the object or its occupants

(FB5) FLYBY 5 would be a flyby as a result of which th witnesses would suffer permanent injuries. i.e., Cash-Landrum

THE SVP CREDIBILITY RATING No classification system os complete without a way of assigning credibility or "weight" to an observation.

FIRST DIGIT: SOURCE RELIABILITY (S) 0 unknown source or unreliable source 1 report attributed to a known source of uncalibrated reliablity 2 reliable source, seconhand 3 reliable sourse, first hand 4 firsthand personal interview with the witness by a source of proven reliablity

SECOND DIGIT: SITE VISIT (S) 0 no site visir, or answer unknown 1 site visit by a casual person not familiar with such phenomena 2 site visit by person familiar with such phenomena 3 site vivit by reliable investigator 4 site vivit by a skilled analyst

THIRD DIGIT: POSSIBLE EXPLANATIONS (P) 0 data consistant with one or more natural causes 1 natural explanation requires only slight modification of the data 2 natural explanation requires gross alteration of one parameter 3 natural explanation requires gross alteration of several parameters 4 no natural explanation possible, given the evidence.