Seems a bit messed up, bringing this subject to fruition, but is there a different between a Paranormal Investigator and a Ghost Hunter?

I have been involved in the paranormal business for approximately three and a half years. In that time, I’ve developed theories, investigated, hunted, and read a lot of books. I’ve also seen the development of hundreds of groups across the country and around my neck of the woods.

During this time I began to ask myself, is there a difference between a Paranormal Investigator, and a Ghost Hunter. The conclusions I came to are simple, but yet fitting.

First to start, is there a difference? Yes, I do believe there is, and I will do my best to provide you with examples. A paranormal investigator is a problem solver; one called in by clients to help solve their paranormal problems. These investigators include Demonologists (such as John Zaffis), and your normal average investigators (Ryan Buell of Paranormal State). Their style is similar to that of a criminal investigation, sometimes even a CSI type investigation.

Secondly, the ghost hunter. Often times, these are the people you may see from time to time in the cemetery, looking around trying to get activity. These folks are also called in by clients, often to establish whether a location is haunted, thought not to really solve a problem. The greatest example of this is the TAPS group from Ghost Hunters on the Syfy channel.

More often than not, most groups are ghosts hunting groups, choosing to investigate to establish a haunted location. Is that a bad thing? No, most groups invariably start out as such. Should they remain that way? No, in the grand scheme of things, we can poke and prod spirits, but ultimately we have no clue why they are here. We can get random generic answers, but we truly don’t know, and that bothers me.

The main problem I have with it is what’s the point? After a while, establishing haunted locations is just establishing haunted locations. What do you do after that; I don’t believe that anyone is really looking into that. I will give a nod to Ryan Buell, because he helps people, and spirits. Call me strange, but there is more to this than “hey, your place is haunted.”

As always, please share your opinion on this matter. Do you think there is a difference between the two?