They actually define paranormal activity as anything that can't be explained by prevailing scientific laws or facts Eg - Aliens can also be classified as paranormal beings.
These competitions include - from the top of my head - The ones chocs described , Plus ESP (Telepathy, Psychokinesis , Telekinesis , Pyrokinesis) , Contact with the supernatural (inclusive of dead people) , etc
But extreme genius for example is not paranormal activity, Eg if the OP can compute the factorial of 6.8 million , within 20 seconds , he is only brilliant but not classed as paranormal, and his entry would be rejected.
Actually the guyz who are involved in these competitions have either been involved in so called witch hunts and were disillusioned , or are secretly hoping for perhaps a new scientific discovery.
England has a lot of these paranormal associations , they're all on facebook , and it is true the focus a lot on ghosts and spirits
Oh i forgot to mention , they're are all kinds of new fangled devices that have been developed for detecting this activity eg:-
Super silly right ? heh ,
, But they actually do use counters like this , and as you all probably guessed it, It is indeed an electromagnetic wave detector