How Ghost Busters Work

Photo courtesy The Psychics and Mediums Network See more ghost pictures.

From the moment you read the title of this article, you probably had the song going through your head: "There's something weird, and it don't look good. Who you gonna call?..." Many of us are familiar with the Hollywood version of ghost busting, made famous in the 1984 hit movie "Ghostbusters." But there are people for whom hunting ghosts is no laughing matter.

What are real-life ghost busters like? Do they hunt down ghosts and vanquish them? Do they shoot proton beams, drive a customized ambulance or come home after a hard day's work coated in green goo?

In this article, we'll meet some actual ghost hunters, find out what they do and see what tools they use in the course of their work.

Meet the Ghost Hunters Randy Liebeck Photo courtesy Randy Liebeck Randy Liebeck Cop by day, ghost hunter by night Although his career in law enforcement doesn't put Randy Liebeck into contact with too many ghosts, he indulges his lifelong interest in the supernatural by investigating reported hauntings after hours. He has served as a consultant for several TV shows and has written for the magazines Fate and Unknown. Liebeck has investigated hauntings throughout the United States using an ever-growing technological tool kit to try and capture evidence of a real ghost. Joe Nickell Photo courtesy Ed Grabianowski Joe Nickell Professional paranormal investigator Joe Nickell is a senior research fellow for the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), a non-profit organization that applies scientific methods to claims of paranormal or supernatural phenomena. He has investigated hundreds, if not thousands, of haunted houses and other paranormal phenomena. He has worked as a detective, a stage magician and a journalist and is now a full-time, salaried paranormal investigator. He has published several books and many articles and is also an expert in forgery detection and document authentication.