The Top 10 Paranormal Investigators

1. Zak Bagans

Zak Bagans is one of the most famous American paranormal investigators of all time. Thanks to his starring role as the host of the Travel Channel series Ghost Adventures. Bagans actually co-founded the show in 2004, which went on to become a long-running fan favourite in the paranormal community.

Bagans has also been said to communicate with the dead and even curated a ‘haunted museum’ in Las Vegas where he shows off eerie artefacts. According to his official IMDB page, Bagans is quoted as saying, “I don’t hunt ghosts, I communicate with them”.

2. Amy Bruni

Amy Bruni is a well-known investigator with over two decades of experience in paranormal investigations. Her career began in 2007 when she appeared on the ultra-popular show ‘Ghost Hunters‘.

Over her seven seasons on the show, she worked as an investigator. She’s researched the history of the haunted locations the team would explore. Later, she went on to co-star in another spooky TV series, Kindred Spirits.

3. Ryan Bergara

Ryan Bergara is the co-host of Ghost Files on the YouTube channel ‘Watcher’. Along with best friend and right-hand man Shane Madej, the two paranormal investigators are passionate about seeking out paranormal activity (or debunking it, in the case of his sceptic partner). The pair also uses various high-quality ghost-hunting equipment to record their findings.

Before branching off to begin the show, Bergara and Madej rose to fame as ghost hunters on the incredibly popular BuzzFeed Unsolved: Supernatural‘. They worked on the show between the years of 2016 and 2021.

4. Yvette Fielding

Yvette Fielding is known among the paranormal community as the ‘First Lady of the Paranormal’.

She is mostly known for leading the team of paranormal investigators on the set of Most Haunted. She would tackle her investigation of every haunted house, museum, prison, and other spooky location with the outlook of finding out the truth behind the reported hauntings. In fact, she is still heading the team on her YouTube channel to this day.

Fielding has also authored several ghostly books, including ‘Ghost Hunters: A Guide to Investigating the Paranormal’. And, ‘Archie the Ghost Hunter and the Rising’.

5. Jason Hawes

Have you ever heard of a plumber-turned paranormal investigator? Well, now you have! Jason Hawes is the co-founder of The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) in Rhode Island. Hawes gained fame as one of the stars of Ghost Hunters, which was a series that focused on documenting paranormal activity.

The series ran for 11 seasons before it was later revived in 2019. Jason also went on to create Ghost Nation, which aired on the Travel Channel and has even written books on the supernatural, which have added to his credibility.

6. Adam Berry

Adam Berry’s interest in paranormal activity started after a terrifying experience that he claims to have had in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Following this, Berry delved into years of research and studying the supernatural before he and his husband, Ben, founded their own paranormal research team.

In 2010, Berry won the reality TV show ‘Ghost Hunters Academy’, which landed him a coveted spot on Syfy’s series Ghost Hunters. This is where he met with his future co-star and investigative partner, Amy Bruni.

The duo’s unique relationship and commitment to their investigations helped to launch them into stardom among the ghost-hunting community.

7. Ed Warren

You can’t think about paranormal investigators without thinking of the (soon-to-be divorced) husband and wife team, Ed and Lorraine Warren. Ed was a self-taught demonologist and co-founded the New England Society for Psychic Research in 1952, which actually makes it the oldest ghost-hunting group in New England!

Ed and his wife conducted several of the most notorious haunting cases in history, including:

• The Amityville Horror case
• The Perron family
• Annabelle the doll
• The Enfield Poltergeist

Although sceptics have challenged the authenticity of Ed’s work, he remains a huge influence in the field of paranormal research. His legacy has even been featured in books, television series, and films like The Conjuring.

8. Lorraine Warren

Lorraine herself was just as famous (or infamous) as her husband, Ed. Having co-founded the New England Society for Psychic Research with Ed, she was also heavily involved in the world of spiritual research.

Over the years, Ed and Lorraine began to work together on their investigations. And Lorraine definitely brought her unique skills to the table. Lorraine was reported to be a clairvoyant and a light trace medium who claimed to be able to communicate with spirits and gain unique insights into the supernatural.

9. Maurice Grosse

Speaking of Ed and Lorraine Warren and their involvement in the Enfield Poltergeist haunting, there is another investigator who showed up on the scene during the case. That man is Maurice Grosse, who was a part of the Society for Psychical Research and recorded and documented hours of video and audio evidence of the so-called poltergeist activity.

Grosse has said that his interest in the paranormal started after his daughter tragically passed away following a motorbike accident in 1976. Following this, he began to search for answers and wound up researching paranormal activity.

10. Nick Groff

Nick Groff is a man of many talents, one of which is investigating supernatural phenomena. This musician, actor, and paranormal investigator claims to have got his start when he was a child and was enthralled with horror films and the enigma of the supernatural.

In 2004, he co-produced and co-hosted Ghost Adventures alongside Zak Bagans and Aaron Goodwin. After 10 seasons, he left the show but continued his career with his own series Ghost Stalkers in 2014 and Paranormal Lockdown from 2016 to 2019.

FAQs

Do these paranormal investigators have real evidence?

While plenty of these paranormal investigators have claimed to gather evidence and have even published reports on spooky activity at several locations, sceptics have dismissed these claims as pure fakery. Whether you believe them as to what really happened in their investigations boils down to how you feel about their documentation of these events. So, do you believe them?

Are paranormal investigators the same as ghost hunters?

Paranormal investigators and ghost hunters are similar, but are not the same. Ghost hunters usually focus on capturing evidence of spirits or ghosts. But, paranormal investigators have a much broader scope. They usually try to investigate any type of paranormal activity, which includes ghosts, but they don’t exclusively focus on these entities.

Final Thoughts

Paranormal investigators have been at the helm of supernatural discoveries. And they have changed the landscape of the paranormal community forever. Although some of these investigators are believed to be nothing but charlatans, it’s difficult to refute every piece of evidence that they’ve collectively gathered.

No matter what, these professionals don’t seem to be going anywhere. As long as there is ghostly activity that needs to be explained, they’ll be there to confirm (or debunk) these spooky happenings.