Throughout the U.S., England and Australia, people will be searching for individuals who are so remote they lived in another lifetime, and yet so present their voices ring crisply and their translucent forms wisp through this world as if they were still breathing. Ghosts — rarely seen and hardly heard — keep the living fascinated in unyielding searches.

With about 1,000 ghost hunters and attendees spread across 50 teams, Oct. 1 marks one of the largest unified hunts for paranormal activity as a part of the first National Ghost Hunting Day. The two-hour hunt will begin across the world at 10 p.m. at designated haunted locations. It will be held in conjunction with ScareFest, a three-day festival held in Lexington, Kentucky, where video footage of the different ghost hunts will stream live.

Maria Schmidt created National Ghost Hunting Day as a platform for her organization, Haunted Journeys, which finds paranormal vacation spots. She hopes National Ghost Hunting Day will unite the paranormal community, preserve haunted sites through awareness, give back with proceeds donated to local animal shelters, and lastly, educate the public about ghost hunting, she said.

“What is ghost hunting?... A lot of people think it’s wild and crazy guys playing around on TV and it’s not,” Schmidt said. “It’s a very sophisticated practice that teams are very committed to doing. They spend a lot of money buying the best of equipment and do a lot of research and a lot of studies.”

National Ghost Hunting Day not only includes a hunt, but also an experiment called “The Bridge.” Ghost hunter Brian Cano, a paranormal scientist and actor on SyFy’s “Haunted Collector,” designed the experiment as a way to test what happens when lots of people around the world search for paranormal activity at the same time.

The hunt is not just for experienced ghost hunters, but also for novices, Schmidt said.

“That’s who we’re attracting. I don’t want to just attract the people who do it every weekend,” Schmidt said. “I want to attract people who are interested but have never gone on a ghost hunt, and I just want the opportunity to share that.”

Info Box:

What: International Ghost Hunting Day

When: October 1; hunt kicks off at 10 p.m. eastern time.

Where: hunt takes place at satellite locations around the world with the gun-shot start and video footage at ScareFest in Lexington, Ky.

Who: anyone can participate

Cost: $10 to be a ghost hunter or observe the hunt (proceeds donated to local animal shelters); $20 for historic sites to register as satellite locations

For more information on National Ghost Hunting Day visit: http://www.nationalghosthuntingday.com/

For more information on ScareFest visit: http://www.thescarefest.com/

For more information on Haunted Journeys visit: http://www.hauntedtravelsusa.com/

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