Contrary to popular belief, the life of the ghost hunter is not all lurking in attics, tape-recording bumps in the night and lying in wait for hours in somebody's stuffy broom closet for the ghost of great Aunt Selma to appear. Sure, there's that glamorous side. But there's also some housekeeping involved. Perish the thought! It's enough to make Aunt Selma do The Twist in her grave. Still, a group of paranormal investigators, clairvoyants, psychics and researchers from all over the country got down to the practical side of ghost hunting a few weeks ago in a bland, decidedly non-haunted conference room in the Concord Hilton. There, any cold spots were just fierce air conditioning, and electromagnetic fields were generated only by a tweaky fluorescent light. These are the professionals. People who seek out the dead -- not to make a living, but for the need to know, and to help folks who may have had odd and often frightening experiences. These are people with actual academic degrees in parapsychology, or 20- and 30-plus years investigating hauntings.

They know ghosts.

What they don't know is how to legitimize their field -- free it from the goofy "Ghostbusters" specter and let the world know they're dead serious about their jobs.

So about 25 of them gathered for a two-day session, talking about just that -- organization, standardization of terms, databases, dealing with the media and what to do about the explosion of amateur groups out there. They talked technology, from infrared-- thermal-vision devices to Geiger counters. They even came up with an official name: the Paranormal Research Organization, or PRO.

Oh sure, they threw in a few juicy ghost stories too, all oohing and ahhing like kids at a campfire when somebody's holding a flashlight under their chin. They can't help themselves. But it was all work-related.

The meeting was arranged by one of the East Bay's resident experts of the eerie, Loyd Auerbach of Pleasant Hill, director of the Office of Paranormal Investigations who has literally written the book on the subject, "ESP, Hauntings and Poltergeists," in addition to several other related books.

"I think this is the start of something brand new for the field," Auerbach said. "It's to help us find out where we need to put our energies, where we need to focus, trying to figure out what is really going on in all these cases.

"We generally attend conventions with formal presentations, but we never get together and just talk," he said. "This is really about brainstorming."

And so they stormed. First off, they all admit there's a division in the ranks between the scientific and the spiritual, and the meeting brought both together -- several experts who seek out physical evidence on film, tape recordings, electromagnetic devices and through witness reports, plus several renowned psychics and clairvoyants.

Ultimately, when they work together, the result is much more impressive, they say.

"Both are valuable," Auerbach said. "When a psychic is having an experience and technology is getting something at the same time, then you can be sure an anomalous experience is taking place in the environment, regardless of what you call it. It comes down to having lots of evidence. Not just one photo or one psychic experience."

There was one case, he said, where a psychic said a little girl -- a ghost -- was holding her hand. "With infrared thermal vision, you could see that the psychic's hand got warm, then cooled at the exact same moment she said the little girl was gone," he said. "That's the kind of evidence we like."

"That's, of course, the ideal situation," said Kerry Gaynor of Santa Monica, who has investigated at least 1,000 cases of haunted houses during the past 25 years. "It's very hard to be at the right place at the right time."

Gaynor was quiet during the spirituality part of the conversation.

He looks a little like Fox Mulder with a puff of brown hair and sharp eyes. He sat next to Auerbach, who has a goatee and a common-sense way about him that makes talking about ghosts seem no more unearthly than discussing vaporlock.

To his right was Annette Martin of Campbell, a psychic who has a degree in psychology, was once an opera singer and says she's been communicating with the deceased since she was a little girl. Someone suggested a database and guidelines for amateur or new researchers. "We could have lists of good calibration centers to go to (for technical devices)," said Pete Haviland, a researcher from Houston. "And a certified photo analyst, for someone to say, 'This is real, this is a hoax.'"

The group held a brief debate on semantics. Aann Golemac, a clairvoyant medium from Alameda who has done extensive work on the USS Hornet said she doesn't want to be called a ghostbuster.

"When I was on the 'Today' show, they even used the 'Ghostbusters' theme music," she said. "The media just doesn't get it. We are doing serious investigations. We are paranormal investigators. I am not a psychic. I am a clairvoyant medium. I see, I hear, I sense and I bring messages from the other side.

"I am not a ghostbuster," she said.

Others in the group, though, felt that a sense of humor can help, especially when dealing with the media.

"When the movie 'Ghostbusters' first came out, I got all sorts of calls from the media saying, 'We know that's not real. So what do you guys really do?' I looked at it as an opportunity. I think there's a way to present that sense of humor and still be credible."

Kathy Rehm of Belmont, the only amateur in the group who has taught a college course on ghosthunting with your camera, said it's amazing how many people have had ghostly experiences.

As soon as I tell someone I'm a paranormal investigator, they immediately come up with a ghost story: 'My Aunt Edna died two years ago and I still smell her perfume. Is that OK?' Rehm said. The point is, everybody's got a story like this. It is a common thing. Part of life. We can be normalizing the experience for them by saying, "Yes, it's OK."