GWRIP_NEW

Ghost and Ghost hunting (part 1)

Not everyone may be clear about the study of the paranormal so I thought it would be a good idea to go into it a bit more from out side the box. Researchers live in there own world and we are used to terms like "residual", "EVP", "EMF" and any countless number of other terms that leave some people who stumble upon one of our conversations thinking we are from another planet. So let us go over some basic information to help the everyday individual make heads or tails of what we do.

First lets talk about what we don't do. We don't use Ouija boards and hold seances in our quest for ghosts. Although there are groups out there that rely on these tactics and that is fine for them, we do not. We feel that the only way to truly understand and validate paranormal phenomena is through scientific data collection. In other words we want numbers and hard data. We may have personal experiences but it is hard to record that type of data for use in any validation of a particular phenomena. If you are touched by an entity during an investigation it may be a great personal experience but wouldn't it be great if we could measure the amount of force you felt when you were touched? Further what if we could verify that the ion count in the room went up at the moment you were touched? This would prove something, but what?

Ghosts are a strange prey, unlike anything else we as humans have hunted they are so controversial that the hunt methods surrounding them can not even be agreed on so how can you hunt something when you have no idea of exactly what it is you are hunting? Ask anyone what a ghost is and you will almost always get the same answer, it's the spirit of someone who died. That however is the short answer and without delving into a thousand other questions it is easier to define what the word "ghost" means. A ghost is an anomalous sensory experience witnessed by one or multiple individuals that may be validated by both physical and psychical means. In other words a "ghost" may not necessarily be the spirit of any individual or may be, we simply do not know. So how can we hunt it if we don't know what "it" is?

It is generally believed that ghosts for what ever reason can manipulate and alter Electro Magnetic Fields (EMF), this is why the ghost hunters best friend is an EMF meter. Up until several years ago these meters were only available to those who had a small fortune to spend on high tech gadgets. Today however these meters can be found in all shapes, sizes and price ranges. No matter there cost they all do the same thing and that is they measure the electro magnetic fields that surround us. The majority of these fields come from all of our modern technological society. cell phones, cars, motors, anything that runs on or produces electricity generally gives off EMF. There are also natural EMFs, this means we are swimming in a virtual sea of invisible electro magnetic radiation. Some say it is detrimental to our bodies while others claim there is no harm to it at all, but researchers in the paranormal say that high EMF can cause our minds to do and witness strange things and may be responsible for a lot of accounts of paranormal activity, high EMFs may also "power" ghosts in some way.

There are many reports of battery drain during investigations. It has always been theorized that ghosts feed off of the energy in batteries in order to manifest and although some evidence does suggest that following a drain event, activity can amplify it only raises more questions. How can you get energy from a battery? Why would a ghost bother with 9 volts of potential energy from a dry cell battery when the actual energy floating in the air is higher? Perhaps the battery drain is only a side effect to rather than the cause of an event. We just don't know, what we do know is that ghost activity is associated with higher than normal back ground levels or, baseline EMF readings and that is what we look for when trying to find where to place other sensitive data collecting equipment such as video recorders or audio recorders. The best evidence usually is not seen but rather heard and that is where EVPs come into play.

EVPs are Electronic Voice Phenomena they are recorded sounds that were not audible during the time of the recording. EVPs also appear to be on a much different frequency than most normal everyday sounds. The concept of recording disembodied sound is not a new one. In fact Thomas Edison was convinced he could build a device that would allow communication with the spirit world. His spirit phone was never completed though but today's work with EVP and other validation techniques could yield such a device in the near future. EVPs are one of the easiest things for any researcher to try, all you need is an audio recorder, physical tape or digital. It should be said that many researchers like to use only physical tapes as there is a hard copy. However a physically recorder IMO will yield many false positives thanks to internal sounds such as the motor and gears turning. A digital recorder will suffer no such short comings and in good models an entire night can be recorded on one flash card.

An EVP session will consist of several basic questions, each of which is ended with a period of silence. We keep our EVP sessions short around 10 - 30 minutes is enough to test an area. If we get a hit there we will usually return and set up a stationary recorder which we will let run unattended usually with a camera pointed at it. EVPs have given us our best evidence but still we don't have an answer as to what we are hearing. In some of the cases we have observed we can rule out everything but an intelligent cause for the sounds we are receiving. If it is intelligent then what could it be? As we saw with the stairs EVP, it seemed to be a direct correlation to something that I had said well before the recorder was turned on. It also occurs far into the session seemingly out of the blue. Could there be some kind of communication across two dimensions in which time does not flow at a constant rate? In other words a question is asked in universe A and it is heard and replied to in universe B but the reply does not reach universe A for say one hour and when it does arrive it is far out of synch much like a weak radio signal. It is speculation but it does seem that we are dealing with another side of reality or in a scientific term, perhaps another dimension. It may sound crazy but there is some evidence to suggest that we are dealing with another dimension and not just spirits of the dead.

According to the law of conservation of energy we know that energy can not be created or destroyed and as such can only be transferred in form. We are energy, that is to say that the thing that make you who you are is within your brain. The brain is a source of electro chemical power, you run off of this energy it is a measurable amount and it is what modern medical devices measure. It has been theorized that the typical brain can produce about 10-12 watts, that's enough to power a light bulb or to manipulate other sensitive electronic devices. So if there is energy there then what happens to it after death? Does it just evaporate away as heat? The skeptics will say yes, that is what happens, the heat leaves the body and thus the energy it transferred thermally and there is no more, what made you you is gone. However this theory does not explain a vast majority of anomalies encountered by a vast majority of individuals around the globe. Even if ghosts are just residual events, sort of recordings of emotions left to replay on time itself, then how can we explain answer to questions that seem to be coming from another realm of existence?

We will go more into this next month, until then good hunting everyone.

2009 Ron