Was asked a question recently which was from a friend called Sarah. Who asked "I cannot go on ghost hunts, because I cannot afford it anymore. How can I still be investigator?" We take up the challenge of looking at different areas of the paranormal and how to do them on budget!
It's a question facing many people who have an interest in the fields of curious experiences and phenomena in our economic climate, a climate which shows no signs of loosening its grip. So what can one do?
Anyone who has visited our site in the last year, will have seen a graphic, a message and a facebook page entitled Investigating the paranormal isn't just about hunting ghosts? Because there really is so much more to the amazing colourul landscape of the unexplained.
Areas such as remote viewing, psychometry, precognition and telepathy are easily examined, with a small number of people.
How? Simple experiments using Zener cards which you can make your own. Take a photo, make sure no one sees obviously put it in an envelope and pass it around seeing if others can pick up, draw and write down information they get just by touch. Put an object or a message in a room and see using remote viewing what it is. Arrange a psychical fun night in.
Prep work: paper for notes, create/buy Zener cards, get envelopes, get some peeps over.
Cost - Very little.
Ghost, stories, myth and legend discovering!
Theres always places with myths and legends attached. Monks, grey ladies, strange figures, anniversary hauntings. Roman roads, cross roads, former battlefields, standing stones, sacred sites and hanging trees even. You'll find them some of them in various books of the subject.
Take up the research side, head to your local studies library. You will find lots of stuff and places to look at. Discover more and even go visit. A great example close to us here in Ye Olde Nottingham is the stories of black George, the very road takes its name from the entity Georges Lane. A lonely and eerie stretch of rural road heading to the small township of Calverton. Many encounters of a black figure chasing cars, a number of situations where late night drivers on the road report a figure or being appearing in the back seat of the car! Not in there few either. Local taxi drivers reputedly avoid the road at night and others plan routes around Georges Lane. Brilliantly simple place to investigate, with the structure and scenario already in place required to do an investigation.
Take a car drive along at night.
Prep work: create a log, times, direction etc
Cost: It'd just be a tank of fuel.
On location of investigation. Example being a ghost inv.
Taking a logical equipment set suited to the investigation. Pen, notebook,
>wristwatch, camera, torch (it may be dark), talcum powder, thermometer and a compass.
All of which bar the camera are relatively inexpensive. A tape/digital voice recorder is very useful though. EMF meters and thermal cameras sure look cool and striking. They are more about monitoring the environment rather than tracking down ghosts.
Which is our advice to any team. Use the principle - "K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple, Stupid." Sure there are advantages to having infra red beam alarms securing areas off, CCTV set ups monitoring when there is multiple locations. But are generally they not needed.
Don't waste time, money and effort on reports which aren't current events. For instance, it may that Mary who experienced the windows rattling, cold spots and the TV turning off 22 years ago without an explanation. Simple isn't viable, for the structure and perimeters of an investigation. But many people have reports they just want to talk about, which is fine in terms of conversation as some are fascinating.
However a simple way is just ask them straight, does it occur today?
Refer them to local studies library, city archives, paranormal database, ASSAP, SPR archives to see if there any other reports that have appeared at the location.
UFOs - a frequent subject of the strange
Have a look at local reports in the press, local studies library and the internet. Whilst many of the reports are from individuals viewing and recording are often nothing more than the crafts in passing. Rather than close encounters.
There is logical things investigators can do like making a call to CAA to see if there was a craft of more earthy origin at that time.
Cost: a phonecall. And log the report.
Hope these have provided food for thought in terms of lowering the outlay whilst being an effective investigator of the unexplained.
Paranormal Networks
Paranormal 101: Practical steps of the investigating the paranormal.
My Opera
In 1950, the Philidelphia Enquirer posted a report which the paranormal network has quoted before in our article "Angel Hair Phenomena" in Beyond The Line Issue 2
Which can be viewed online beginning on p12 
when a chat with a colleague name dropped him in conversation, then he explained that he worked at the store. He asked me to go find out more information, which I did. I had heard of Henry X but nothing more than a passing name in various files and articles regarding ufology some years before. Armen Victorian had history with the Ministry Of Defence, Central Intelligence Agency and many high level intelligence organizations. He is allegedly known to have people on the inside of the government and private agencies, leaking information as it were, which according to website henryxfiles had him brought up in court on treason charges, afterwards he couldn’t secure work – however ASDA did. 
