AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST RESEARCH ARTICLE Between Electricity and Spirit: Paranormal Investigation and the Creation of Doubt in England Michele Hanks ABSTRACT In contemporary England, amateur paranormal investigators actively seek empirical evidence of the paranormal. These investigators are self-fashioned experts who aim to balance scientific and spiritual perspectives in hopes of researching the existence of ghosts from an objective perspective. Despite actively seeking out ghosts and amassing firsthand paranormal experiences, investigators remain deeply doubtful about the nature of their evidence and the existence of the paranormal. Here, I explore the production and experience of doubt by examining paranormal investigators’ struggles to define and quantify the paranormal. Competing ideas about the substance or nature of ghosts lie at the heart of this struggle. Paranormal investigators agree that collecting and analyzing electromagnetic energy offers the most promising pathway for establishing empirical evidence of the paranormal. However, there is analytic uncertainty regarding the meaning of electromagnetic energy: it might indicate a spiritual or natural presence. Here, I argue that these two competing frames of interpretation engender and sustain states of doubt among investigators; however, paradoxically, these very states of doubt allow them to maintain and sustain embodied encounters with the very paranormal forces they doubt. [doubt, knowledge production, science, spirituality, paranormal, electromagnetic energy, embodied encounters, England] RESUMEN En la Inglaterra contempor ´ anea, investigadores aficionados de lo paranormal activamente buscan evidencia emp´ ırica de lo paranormal. Estos investigadores son expertos autoformados quienes tienen el prop ´ osito de balancear las perspectivas cient´ ıfica y espiritual en esperanzas de investigar la existencia de esp´ ıritus desde una perspectiva objetiva. A pesar de buscar activamente los esp´ ıritus y acumular experiencias paranormales de primera mano, los investigadores permanecen profundamente dudosos acerca de la naturaleza de su evidencia y la existencia de lo paranormal. Aqu´ ı, exploro la producci ´ on y experiencia de duda examinando las luchas de los investigadores de lo paranormal por definir y cuantificar lo paranormal. Ideas conflictivas acerca de la sustancia o naturaleza de los esp´ ıritus subyacen en el fondo de esta lucha. Los investigadores paranormales coinciden en que reunir y analizar energ´ ıa electromagn ´ etica ofrece el sendero m ´ as prometedor para establecer la evidencia emp´ ırica de lo paranormal. Sin embargo, hay una incertidumbre anal´ ıtica con relaci ´ on al significado de la energ´ ıa electromagn ´ etica: puede indicar una presencia espiritual o natural. Aqu´ ı, argumento que estos dos marcos conflictivos de interpretaci ´ on generan y sostienen estados de duda entre investigadores; sin embargo, parad ´ ojicamente, estos precisos estados de duda les permiten mantener y sostener encuentros con las precisas fuerzas paranormales de las cuales ellos dudan. [duda, producci ´ on de conocimiento, ciencia, espiritualidad, paranormal, energ´ ıa electromagn ´ etica, encuentros corp ´ oreos, Inglaterra] AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Vol. 000, No. 0, pp. 1–13, ISSN 0002-7294, online ISSN 1548-1433. C  2016 by the American Anthropological Association. All rights reserved. DOI: 10.1111/aman.12684