Ghost hunting classes coming to Anoka, Roseville. Yes, skeptics can sign up.

Strange noises, vague images, haunting sounds: are they real, your imagination running wild, or ... something else?

Heidi Steffens has made a career of delving into the paranormal and teaching students — from full-on believers to ardent skeptics — how to investigate the world of the mysterious. For 14 years, Steffens, who operates St. Louis Park-based My Spirit Experience, has taught “Paranormal Investigating 101″ (yes, there’s also a 102) through community education programs around Minnesota.

As summer falls toward autumn and its longer nights, Steffens has a course scheduled for Sept. 5 in Anoka, the self-proclaimed Halloween Capitol of the World, where she usually has a waiting list. Upcoming classes are also scheduled for Roseville, Grand Rapids and Duluth. Information on the classes can be found at myspiritexperience.com/ghost-hunting.

“It gives you something to think about, to ask questions like ‘what is going on here?” Steffens said. “If it’s not the electrical or plumbing system making noises, what is left? What could it be? That is where it gets interesting.”

Growing up, Steffens said, she could see, hear and understand spirits, and wondered why others could not. She started in the world of the extrasensory by doing spiritual consultations for people who were stuck in life and needed a path forward, sort of like a psychic or spiritual guide, she said. She also teaches classes in tarot card reading, dream interpretation and similar fields.

Inspired by the reality TV series “Ghost Hunters,” Steffens joined the Minnesota Paranormal Research Society in 2008, started a podcast and took a deeper dive into ghost-hunting and paranormal experiences.

In Paranormal 101 classes, Steffens presents what she says is evidence from previous investigations. She demonstrates equipment to track electromagnetic fields, recorders and cameras that pick up “what we can’t hear or see,” she said.

“We look at it from a paranormal investigative approach,” Steffens said. “We ask the right questions. Can things be debunked or proven?”

Classes are mostly lecture, but participants can practice their sleuthing skills by trying out the equipment and conducting mini-investigations of their own.

“We go down the hall and see how it works, and sometimes stuff happens,” Steffens said. “It’s fun. You can investigate when you have the basics.”

Minnesota is not known for an abundance of haunted sites, Steffens said, though she mentioned one personal favorite: the Christie Home Museum in Long Prairie, once investigated by the International Paranormal Society and which is hosting its own paranormal-themed fundraiser this Oct. 19.

In general, Steffens recommends places like old schools or hotels as good ghost-hunting targets. Always go in a group, she said.

This fall also brings election season, something many are likely to find scarier than any ghost story. But Steffens said part of the appeal of her classes is that the paranormal connects everyone in ways we don’t understand. “It breaks down barriers,” she said.