Ghost hunters talk about their spooky job — and whether or not they're ever afraid of what they find

There’s a good chance that the thought of having an encounter with a ghost sends a shiver down your spine — whether you’re a skeptic about the afterlife or not.

But for some, it's a passion.

Though they’re called “ghost hunters,” they’re not seeking to trap or capture any spirits. Instead, these paranormal investigators explore places (or even objects, or people) that seem to have some supernatural entity attached to them. Oftentimes, that means seeking out energy where energy simply shouldn’t be — which is why tools like an EMF reader, which tests for electromagnetic fields, and thermogenic cameras, which can sense heat, are used.

Ghost hunters also try to hear messages from beyond with simple digital recorders, which can pick up on sounds the human ear misses. And then there's the "Spirit Box," which jumps through AM radio channels, creating a white noise effect that investigators claim allows spirits to come through with words and phrases.

Wes Leslie is the cofounder of The Haunt Ghost Tours, which operate out of Los Angeles and San Francisco. He first got interested in ghost hunting in New Orleans, where he had a ghostly encounter at his local swimming pool while doing laps, alone. until he wasn’t. He says a ghostly figure joined him in the pool.

“I just didn't feel very scared,” he explains, calling his experience a “residual impression” haunting. “I didn't feel like this was a spirit that was going to try to drown me or something like that. So I started researching more, and a lot of people see water as a portal in and out of the spirit world.”

That experience led Leslie to a growing fascination with the spirit world, culminating with his tour company, which focus primarily on the Chinatown neighborhoods of L.A. and San Francisco. That's where, Leslie says, there’s plenty of spiritual activity to mine. But instead of merely sharing stories of the ghosts that supposedly reside there, Leslie and his fellow guides allow the people on their tour to practice ghost hunting, using the tools that paranormal investigators use on their own journeys.

Leslie, who covers the Los Angeles tour, says that there isn’t an encounter with a spirit every night, something that he thinks gives The Haunt some “credibility.” But, when there is a ghostly encounter, it’s often enough to give even the greatest skeptic pause.

“I was leading a tour once when we were using the Spirit Box, and we're just kind of standing there,” Leslie explains. “These three women that were on the tour, who weren’t a part of the same group and didn’t know each other, all just scream and jump. They all look at each other like — 'You heard that right?!' They all heard, very clearly, this old woman's voice whispering something into their ear. No one else on the tour heard it.”

If ghost hunting is on your radar, that’s likely because of shows like Ghost Hunters, which premiered on SyFy in 2004 and now airs on Travel Channel. Steve Gonsalves, a producer and host of that show as well as Travel Channel's Ghost Nation, is one such person who has helped usher ghost hunting into the mainstream. He's been fascinated with the spiritual world since childhood, and even worked with Ed and Lorraine Warren — the subjects of the horror franchise The Conjuring — on paranormal investigations.

He’s also a former police officer, a job which may seem like it bumps a bit against his other-worldly investigations. But, he says, it’s the opposite, because just like real-world investigations, it’s important for him to go into a supposed haunting with logic in mind. It's why his team, the Atlantic Paranormal Society, once disproved a haunting in a court of law — because if you are going to legitimize ghosting hunting as a science and a practice, he points out, it’s important to also understand that not every claim of a haunting is the real deal.

“You need to make sure that what you're experiencing is really there in the environment,” he tells Yahoo Life. “If you stare out into darkness, you will start to see faces and you will start to see your brain play tricks on you.”

Of course, Gonsalves says he’s experienced plenty of real supernatural events and hauntings, too — many of which are documented on camera for his TV series. But while he says the experiences can be “unsettling,” he’s never been afraid. He likens these hauntings to proof of science, noting that they’re all "energy-based." However, he notes that there are “no facts” in the field of paranormal investigations — only theories.

“Anybody who says that they have a fact — they're lying to you,” he says. “There's no such thing. There are patterns that I've recognized in case studies … that do lead me to believe that there are some energies here that are conscious, and it would seem to be of people who have passed.”

It’s true that even the most dedicated ghost hunter can’t prove the existence of ghosts or any kind of supernatural beyond — yet that hasn’t stopped many people from trying their hardest to find proof of the afterlife.

Ghost Magnet podcast host (and former Girls Next Door star) Bridget Marquardt, for example, will point to an experience that solidified her belief in the paranormal.

It all started with a Ouija board, which she and her cousin were using to contact Marquardt’s recently deceased great-grandfather — after which strange things began happening: Her cousin noticed inexplicable indents on her leg, while Marquardt says she saw her great-grandfather in her house and developed an unsettling sense of being “watched” everywhere she went. It became so concerning for her family, she says, that they sought out both the church pastor and a psychiatrist for help. The pastor told her to keep a diary — which eventually went mysteriously missing. The psychiatrist, thinking the ordeal may have to do with some unresolved childhood trauma, told her to go to her great-grandfather’s gravesite and ask him to stop the haunting.

“It did eventually stop, but it took a long time," she says. "Looking back on it now, as an investigator, I feel like it wasn't really him. It was something else impersonating him."

While Marquardt’s experience may have been unsettling, it fueled her fascination with ghost hunting. Now, on her podcast, she speaks to paranormal investigators and other people with ghostly ties. She and her former Girls Next Door co-star Holly Madison — who, Marquardt says, lives in a haunted house — also regularly go on paranormal adventures together and even co-own some ghost-hunting equipment.

Marquardt says she’s experienced lots of spooky things during her investigations. A recent trip to the allegedly haunted Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, Calif., for example, featured a door being pushed open with no explanation. Yet she’s cautious about making sure to leave her her encounters at work.

“I don’t allow anything to come home with me. I feel like it's about intention and what boundaries you set within yourself. Some people use crystals, some people will say a prayer. For me, it's more about a mindset. I'm here because I wanted to have an experience and because I want proof that this exists. But when I leave here, I'm done — nothing can follow me, you're not coming home with me. I'm done with this experience when I walk out the door.”

For people who want to get started in ghost hunting, Marquardt says there are some simple ways to go about it. First, she points out it’s important to know the history of a place that you’re investigating. And when it comes to finding if there’s a ghostly presence, she believes your own body can be the best tool.

“Your own senses will tell you a lot of things,” she notes. “I can tell, within a few seconds of walking in somewhere, whether it’s haunted or not," she says. "It’s a heaviness or pressure of my chest. It feels like the air is a little thicker.”

For those eager to take it to the next level, she adds, “The number one thing every ghost hunter should have is a voice recorder that will let you listen back to everything, and see if you picked up any [electronic voice phenomena] because sometimes you'll get a disembodied voice, which is something you can hear in real time — like somebody saying ‘hello’ in the room with you.”

Of course, proceed with caution — when you seek out the paranormal, there’s no telling what you will find.

Wellness, parenting, body image and more: Get to know the who behind the hoo with Yahoo Life's newsletter. Sign up here.