By Rosemary Ellen Guiley

c. Visionary Living, Inc.

Ever thought you’d like to investigate reports of hauntings? In the past, you might have staked out a site with a camera and a notebook. Today, paranormal investigation is increasingly sophisticated and precise, aided by high technology.

Scientific ghost investigations became well-established in the late 19th century, as a result of interest in Spiritualism phenomena. Since the mid-1990s, high-technology equipment has dramatically changed the nature of paranormal investigation, especially in America. Most contemporary researchers prefer to use the terms “paranormal investigation,” which covers a broad range of phenomena, or “ghost investigation” or “ghost research”  to decribe their activities. “Ghost hunting” has become associated with sensationalism or humor.

Paranormal investigators estimate that up to 98 percent of all reports of haunting phenomena are false or have natural explanations, such as tricks of light and shadow, peculiar atmospheric conditions, geological or electromagnetic influences, animal noises, and so on. Some cases are exposed as fraud. Other cases seem to have human agents, especially poltergeist cases, in which phenomena are caused by unconscious psychokinesis (PK).

Investigation techniques

Early investigation methods had to rely heavily–even solely–upon eyewitness accounts and basic research and detection procedures. Investigators visited haunted sites and recorded what they experienced through their own senses. They took photographs if possible. They interviewed witnesses about their experiences, researched the site history, and looked for natural explanations first. As technology developed, equipment became part of the ghost investigator’s tool kit. Contemporary ghost investigators have a wide array of high-technology equipment–some of it very expensive–to help them.

The Society for Psychical Research (SPR), London, has established guidelines for investigations of hauntings, apparitions and poltergeists. Effects are divided into five classifications: 1) unaccountable movement of objects; 2) unaccountable noises (including voices and music) and smells; 3) apparitions, mysterious lights and shadows; 4) unaccountable touches, pushes and feelings of heat and cold; and 5) feelings of fear, horror, disgust, and of unseen “presences.”

The good investigator must be an open-minded skeptic, and look first for all possible natural causes. These fall into two classes, mechanical and personal. Mechanical causes include machinery vibrations and lights, road noises, and the like. Personal causes are due to people, whether unconscious or deliberate. For example, someone might unwittingly cause floorboards to creak and ascribe them to a ghost. Some people purposefully create trick phenomena. Determining and eliminating these potential causes requires a thorough investigation of a site during day and night to determine natural lights, shadows and noises. Maps are consulted to show fault lines, power lines and underground streams, mines, tunnels, etc. that might be responsible. Investigators evaluate their evidence for significant patterns, and which effects are primary (the first to occur) and which are secondary. Effects that are “veridical,” that is, possibly paranormal, occur when a percipient receives information unknown to him or her and not obtained by ordinary means, and which can be verified through research. Veridical experiences are the most valuable to the scientific community.

Investigators also must do historical research concerning a site, especially geological conditions and construction activity. Earlier press accounts of hauntings at a site are taken into consideration by some ghost investigators and not by others. Those who reject such reports feel that they are likely to contain distortions and errors.

Three basic investigative techniques are used: description, experimentation and detection.

The description technique involves taking eyewitness accounts. Witnesses should be interviewed separately to avoid influence upon one another’s accounts. In addition to details of the experience, witnesses are asked to provide information about their circumstances, health and states of mind; previous knowledge, if any, of similar experiences; and any previous paranormal experiences or occult activities. Investigators must keep in mind that in the reconstruction of an experience, the “Rashomon” effect may occur; that is, every witness may see the same experience quite differently.

The experimental technique involves bringing in a psychic or medium to see if his or her impressions tally with those of the eyewitnesses, and to mark a floorplan of the house or building to show spots where hauntings occurred, based upon their sensations of “cold spots” (unusually cold areas) and clairvoyant impressions. Opinions vary concerning the use of mediums. Some investigators feel that mediums most likely pick up clues through telepathy and clairvoyance with those individuals involved, and that they may be predisposed to consider hauntings as caused by spirit or spirits of the dead. However, if a number of psychics are sent blind to a site and come back with the same reports, the evidence is taken into consideration. Some investigators have mediums conduct “circles” or seances at haunted sites in an effort to communicate with a haunting entity. As the use of high-tech gear has increased, the use of psychics and mediums has decreased.

The detection technique involves such procedures as securing rooms and objects to test their disturbance; setting up electronic surveillance equipment (cameras, tape recorders, temperature sensors, Geiger counters, etc.); and spreading flour, sugar or sand on floors to detect footprints.

In America, organizations such as the American Ghost Society (AGS) and Ghost Research Society (GRS) offer detailed guidelines to ghost investigators, covering equipment and its setup and interviewing techniques.

High technology

The increase in use of high-technology equipment is more widespread in the United States than in England, where ghost investigators continue to place more emphasis on eye-witness observations. Some ghost investigators are concerned about too much reliance upon equipment. Recordings of environmental factors such as electromagnetic fields, temperatures, electrical currents and such may show simply the environment and not any phenomena directly related to hauntings.

Nonetheless, high-tech ghost investigation got its start in England. The controversial researcher Harry Price was among the first to use modern technology in his ghost investigations, the most celebrated of which was Borley Rectory in England. Price leased the Rectory and created a laboratory. Conducting tests with 48 volunteers, and with the use of modern technology which included felt overshoes, steel tape measures, a still camera, a remote-control movie camera, fingerprinting equipment, telescope and portable telephone, Price still was not able to prove the existence of ghosts. After his death, critics contended that he had manipulated certain facts.

The basic ghost investigator’s tool kit remains simple: notebook and pen; flashlight and extra batteries; small tool kit; measuring tape; colored tape to mark locations; and a good 35-mm camera and plenty of film. Other gear often included are dowsing rods; video camera; motion detector and compass.

More sophisticated equipment include:

– Electromagnetic field (EMF) meters, devices intended to measure geomagnetic storms, and which measure changes in EMF that might corroborate haunting activity;
–Field strength meter, which observes radiation patterns of antennae;
– Night-vision scopes and goggles;
– Relative humidity gauge, for measuring changes in the air;
– Negative ion generator, which some investigators believe attracts ghosts;
– Negative ion detector, for finding areas high in negative, or free, ions, and may reveal explainable sources of such;
–Geiger counter, which detects radiation and also some anomalous phenomena;
–Digital thermal scanner, which measures instant changes in temperature;
– Tremolo meter, a voice-stress analyzer useful for interviewing witnesses, which may reveal possible fraudulent claims;
–Tri-field meter, which detects extremely weak static electric and magnetic fields.

Thermal photography equipment also is used; it is far more expensive than many investigators can afford.

Some investigators work with their own special equipment. The GRS has a multiple-equipment setup run by computer called GEIST, the German term for ghost. GEIST stands for Geophysically Equipped Instrument of Scientific Testing. A laptop computer and a polling box and hooked up to several devices: a geiger counter, EMF meter, negative ion detector, ultraviolet and infra red detectors, temperature sensor and camera. Whenever a device is activated, the camera snaps a picture. Every event is automatically recorded on the hard drive of the computer. GEIST can automatically reset itself after each event. GRS investigators can monitor a house or an environment without any investigator being present. The investigators can see which device went off and when.

Vince Wilson, author of Ghost Tech, sometimes employs cameras strapped to remotely controlled devices, such as mini-blimps and toy vehicles.

Some investigators discourage the use of digital cameras, which have no negative or hard print for examination, and which can show blobs that actually are due to lack of pixels, but which are often mistaken for orbs, luminous balls not visible to the naked eye which have been recorded at some haunted sites.  Digital cameras are, however, used increasingly in the field.

For a good rundown on investigation equipment, visit Wilson’s site at http://www.ghosttech.net.
Paranormal  investigation as a science

Critics contend ghost investigation is imprecise and not a true science because it is heavily reliant upon the anecdotal testimony of witnesses and on personal observations. Despite the greatest precautions taken on the part of an investigator, it remains virtually impossible to rule out telepathy and clairvoyance among the living as factors affecting a haunting.

Funding remains a problem for ghost investigators. Most researchers finance their projects themselves; organizations such as the AGS and GRS draw from their member subscriptions and contributions. Few institutions are willing to back ghost investigation with grants. The high-tech equipment can be very expensive – a single piece can cost anywhere from several hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars.

Despite the impressive research of hauntings, investigators have learned little about hauntings and the laws, if any, which govern them. High technology may prove crucial to establishing proof of ghosts and survival after death, because it enables capture of phenomena that defy explanation.

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Adapted from The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits, 2nd ed., by Rosemary Ellen Guiley, published by Facts On File, 2000.