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Over the past few years, Ghost Hunting Groups (GHGs) were founded, particularly in the United States, which have committed themselves to the investigation of haunted sites. This article will focus on the analysis of this movement and its remarkable development, which results from three major factors: (1) the presence of ghost-hunting-related themes in the media, such as on television and in movies, (2) the popularization of the internet and the possibilities that emerge in the area of information access, general exchange and networking, as well as (3) easy availability and manageability of high-tech equipment along with the simplification of data processing due to data digitalization. First, this article will dimensionalize the field of GHGs according to various criteria. Subsequently, an attempt is made to reconstruct the emergence of the movement. Next, the most important methodological approaches (equipment, procedures) will be outlined. And finally, the main part of the text will focus on the situation in the United States. It is based on self-portrayals of the GHGs on their webpages, the analysis of the Ghost Hunters TV series that plays an important role in the emergence of the movement and is closely linked to the GHG The Atlantic Paranomal Society (TAPS), as well as on the few scientific studies that exist on the movement. In a second step, the paper will look at GHGs in Germany, which adopt the American model on the one hand, but in many cases use a different culture-dependent framing, on the other. The article concludes by highlighting problems this form of non-professional research pose to scientific anomalistics.

Mayer, G. (2016). Ayahuasca, schamanische Trance und Santo Daime. In M. Schetsche & R.-B. Schmidt (Eds.), Rausch - Trance - Ekstase: Zur Kultur psychischer Ausnahmezustände (1. Aufl., Vol. 78, pp. 177–197). transcript.

Mayer, G., Leverett, C. S., & Zingrone, N. L. (2022). Women and Parapsychology 2022 – An Online Survey. Journal of Anomalistics / Zeitschrift Für Anomalistik, 22(2), 465–498. https://doi.org/10.23793/zfa.2022.465

In 1991, the Parapsychology Foundation organized an international conference on the topic "Women and Parapsychology," held in Dublin, Ireland. The survey aimed for an assessment of the situation in parapsychology 30 years after this conference. Our team asked women active in the research field of parapsychology and related areas about their scientific careers, authoring articles, contributions to the field and gender-specific experiences. We distributed the link to the extensive online questionnaire on several e-mail lists and websites and also sent the link specifically to individuals. 30 women completed the questionnaire. We got a selective, non-representative sample, with a high average age and level of education. Due to these limitations, the survey did not provide complete clarity as to whether parapsychology differed from other disciplines with regard to the status and situation of women. Several aspects are comparable to the situation of women in other research fields. As is generally the case in academia, women tend to be paid less. They have to make greater efforts to be taken seriously by male colleagues, which can slow down their careers, in addition to career interruptions due to raising children, greater difficulties balancing work and family life, and the like. We found a relatively low proportion (10%) of women who reported sexual intimidation or harassment in the field of parapsychology. General funding problems in parapsychology are even greater for women because of the additional childrearing responsibilities and less institutionalized research. Some findings lead us to the thesis that it is not necessarily the gender aspect that is responsible for rude and inappropriate behavior on the part of male colleagues, but rather a tendentially greater openness on the part of female researchers for worldviews and heterodox research subjects outside of the scientific mainstream. This thesis must be validated in further studies.

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Mayer, G. (2004). Neo-shamanism in Germany. In M. N. Walter & E. J. N. Fridman (Eds.), Shamanism. An Encyclopedia of World Beliefs, Practices and Culture. Zwei Bände (pp. 496–500). ABC-Clio.

Mayer, G. (2015). Der Schamane als moderner Mythos und als Chiffre der Transzendenz - Aspekte der Faszination und Attraktivität der Figur des Schamanen in der säkularisierten Moderne. In H. Fugmann (Ed.), Schamanismus als Herausforderung: Dokumentation des Symposiums 2015 in Bad Alexandersbad (pp. 49–89). Books on Demand.

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