Decide your passion. Go after your goal.

My Path to Parapsychology

Decide your passion. Go after your goal. It’s pretty straight forward. Decide what you want to do in life, figure out how and go do it. Unfortunately, most people have a hard time figuring out exactly what they want to do with their time. Many go through life doing a job that does not bring them any satisfaction. They’re simply just going through the motions.
I did not have a hard time finding my passion; Parapsychology
How could you not be interested in psychic phenomena, lucid dreams, near-death experiences and the paranormal. Parapsychologists are studying and researching these topics and the discoveries are nothing short of incredible.
I thought “Wow, that would be the perfect career for me, I could research what I’m interested in and get paid to do it.” Well, I figured out what I wanted to do, what I was passionate about, now I just had to find out how to do it (professionally & financially). It’s not like I could just go into a research center and apply for a position, the field of parapsychology has been crippled by funding. There are no longer any universities that recognize parapsychology as an academic science so it’s simply not taught anymore. How was I going to become an actual parapsychologist if there were no jobs available and no real significant funding behind the research?
As I started to put together my plan of how I was going to accomplish this goal a thought hit me. “What if I just make a decision to become a parapsychologist today? What’s stopping me?”. After pondering more about my situation it became clear that most people I know who have been successful take action first and plan second. Taking time to plan out my career path was becoming pointless. There was no typical career path for becoming a parapsychologist. There was only one thing left to do, make a decision to take action toward my goal, and thats what I did.
Shortly after, I started my first project, a website created to organize information on parapsychology and new research I was working on. I submitted it to the Parapsychological Association conference in Boulder, CO and it was accpeted as a poster session for presentation.
When designing my first research project I had no idea where to start, had no experience, or plan for how I was going to accomplish this. I knew I just needed to do one thing, get started. So I approached the Rhine Research Center and asked for advice and assistance in organizing my project. Not only did they help me in getting started they introduced me to a fellow researcher and former Duke professor who would eventually assist me greatly in writing and organizing the project. That research project was accepted for funding and thus my career as a parapsychologist had officially begun…