Basic guide for ghost hunting – Part 5

Ghost Hunting, not to be confused with “ghostbusting”, can either be an exciting, entertaining pastime or a phenomenal exercise in self-delusion, depending upon the motivations and perspectives of the participant. But before we can examine the factors that determine this conclusion, we must begin by defining what “ghost hunting” is, and what it is not.

Ghost Hunting is, in the most simple of terms, the practice of seeking out paranormal experience of the sort most commonly associated with the idea of “ghosts” or “hauntings.” In a more refined definition, it is the above combined with an attempt to obtain some sort of “evidence” of the reality of such phenomena. Ghost Hunting is not, however, at all related with “ghostbusting”, or attempting to “cleanse” an area of spiritual activity, or dispelling a haunting, in any sense other than a related “geography.” These are entirely different fields of endeavor, with completely different skill sets required.

In ghost hunting, the most basic requirements are simply an open mind, your five biological senses, and an accessible location which is reputed to be “haunted” in some fashion. One enters the premises, generally at night, and attempts to gain an experience of this reputed phenomenon. Ideally one does this in a fashion that doesn’t result in a group of people simply scaring the wits out of each other (which can be a good time all it’s own, but is somewhat contrary to the purpose of actual ghost hunting,) and instead in a fashion that promotes the likelihood of a genuine paranormal experience being possible.

More advanced ghost hunters may decide to take with them a variety of equipment to provide documentation of their experience, and to uncover interesting phenomena that were not originally detected by the hunters. Common examples of this equipment are digital cameras and digital voice recorders. More advanced equipment may consist of Electromagnetic Field Detectors, Infrared cameras (night vision), and motion sensors, complete with a laptop computer that can compile the information recorded by all these devices into a single record, but such an array is only rarely employed by anyone but the most serious, and well funded, ghost hunters.

Digital Cameras, for instance, are utilized to capture “spirit presences” that are generally considered invisible to the human eye, but may well show up in photographs. Examples of this are often called “Orbs” or “Streaks”. They are seemingly luminous bodies that

Haunted People, Haunted Lives

Do you ever hear things that go bump in the night? Are you awakened by soft voices or the sound of a lively party going somewhere in your home? Do you see unexplained mists or shadows that rush along your walls or ceiling in the night? Perhaps you have looked at photo, and saw something that looked out of place, and felt it may be a ghost? I have a very good friend that claims she has lead a haunted life. She says she has had many experiences with ghosts. Stating “I have seen ghosts for as long as I can remember.” She also is very intuitive, and has an uncanny way of predicting the future. Not only worldly occurrences, but she also seems to have an uncanny talent to predict the future of family, and friends.

We all at one time or another have been unnerved by a spooky ghost story, weather around a dark campfire or perhaps a darkened movie theater? Just the thought of seeing a ghost, can send a chill up the spine, of the most skeptic person.

As of late many television networks have picked up on the ghost phenomena, and are producing shows that delve deeply into ghosts, and the different kinds of ghost that haunt. These shows are most often geared toward investigating ghosts, one might say hunting ghosts.

One such show is “Ghost Hunters.” Ghost Hunters is a weekly show aired on the Sci-Fi channel. It is based on real life ghost hunters going out on the road to investigate sites that are said to be haunted. By day the ghost hunters are normal people, with normal jobs. After work they become are ghost hunters. By night they visit various sites of hauntings, and with sophisticated equipment, and a team of investigators, they set out mainly to debunk ghost hauntings. As a rule they are successful, and offer logical explanations for the unsettling phenomena that are occurring at any given haunting. But – on rare occasions their investigations have turned up unexplainable remarkable result. To include filmed footage of apparition’s, tape recordings of clear voice phenomena, along with individual experiences.

So what are ghosts? No one truly knows if they exist? There are many vague theories that attempt to define ghosts, many going back hundreds of years. After reviewing and researching the subject of ghosts, it is very apparent that there are many types of ghosts out there.

Ghosts and hauntings seem to be a relatively common part of the human experience. And there appear to be several types of ghosts or hauntings, and more than one theory may be needed to explain them all.

The traditional view most people have is that ghosts are people that have died, and stuck around for one reason or another in a ghostly form. It is also theory that due to a persons untimely or traumatic death can leaves them in a type of limbo. Not knowing they have died?

Prominent ghost hunter Hans Holzer states, “A ghost is a human being who has passed out of the physical body, usually in a traumatic state and is not aware usually of his true condition. We are all spirits encased in a physical body. At the time of passing, our spirit body continues into the next dimension. A ghost, on the other hand, due to trauma, is stuck in our physical world and needs to be released to go on.”

A Residual haunting or what some ghost hunters call “recordings, are said to be a form of recording of the environment the dead person past from, where something happened in life that leaves the ghost sort of stuck in time. The spirits energy stays on to replay this experience over and over. This type of ghost as a rule is not aware of the living people around them.

The most bothersome ghost is that of the Poltergeists. This type of ghost is the most active, and said to be the most feared. It is claimed that a poltergeist ghost has the ability to actually affect the physical world. Poltergeist are said to have the energy to move items, turn electric appliances on, slam doors, and move your possession’s from one place to another. Some can also be very mean spirited, causing havoc to the places they haunt. Most supernatural investigators consider poltergeist to be malevolent demons.

Let’s move on to a friendlier ghost, the messenger ghost. The messenger ghost is said to be the most common ghost. A ghost that is earth bound for a short time after their death. It is said they stay close to their loved ones. They are very aware they have died, but stay for a while to comfort the people they left behind. It is said they have the power to appear only briefly, perhaps to deliver a comforting message? The message could be just a comforting measure or a pressing message, on how they may have died?

To a skeptic, ghosts do not exist at all. Are there ghosts among us? No one can actually prove ghosts don’t exist. To the believer that has had first hand experiences with ghost, you would be hard pressed to convince them that ghost don’t exist. So one can easily surmise there are many people among us that do believe in ghost. Haunted people, with haunted lives.

The History Behind Ghost Hunting

Ghost hunting followed a renewed interest in spiritualism caused by two young girls that claimed to speak with a dead peddler. Forty years later one revealed that the noises heard during his “presence” were fake, but by that time, such a resurgence of interest occurred that no one cared. The first group that devoted it’s time to the search for disembodied souls was a society devoted to ghosts at Cambridge University in 1851. London’s Ghost Club started 11 years later. These pioneers provided the beginnings for today’s avid ghost hunters.

There are really only three forms of ghost hunting:

The first uses psychic methods to make contacts. Sensitive’s walk through a home and make communication with the ghost or go into a trance. Others may use Ouija boards or other channelling tools to make contact.

The second type of ghost hunter uses something known as “ghost buster” tools. These can consist of Infrared cameras, tape recorders and energy measurement tools like the electromagnetic field meter. Pictures of orbs, ectoplasm and spirits represent their proof.

The third type of ghost hunting uses the scientific method. They gather all data and evidence of a haunting and search for normal, natural scientific explanations. If they can find none, then these investigators look to the paranormal for answers.

In their introduction to ghost hunting, The American Ghost Society tells the future ghost hunter’s that some of the cases that they investigate are frauds and pranks perpetrated to make the ghost hunter look foolish. Other cases without merit are people that, out of fear, mental illness or some other reason, mistakenly believe that their house is haunted. These ghost hunters search for the truth and understand that the scientific community does not accept their work but make it their duty to find evidence of true hauntings.

Most ghost hunters seek the adventure of the unknown or simply want answers to age-old questions. Some, however, are more dubious and their desire is for personal fame. With the fame and claims of ghost hunting come the fat cheques for the books they authored, or ironically, had authored by ghost-writers. Television guest appearances and movie contracts add to the bounty. These types of ghost hunters usually have spectacular stories, later debunked by further investigation. The public seldom learns of the misinformation and prefers the gripping tale told originally.

The unfortunate effect of the professional attention seeker is that true ghost hunters receive not only a bad name, but further dismissal from the scientific community. Most impassioned ghost hunters want substantial proof that what they believe they experience while hunting spectre was real. The stories aren’t spectacular but interesting and as any good ghost story, they can send a chill up your spine.

Across the world, people have the opportunity to join the ghost hunters by paying a small fee to joining a ghostly walking tour of haunted areas. Many times ghost hunters lead these tours and give important historical information as well as relaying stories of ghost sightings at the sites that they have visited.

Pondering the existence of ghosts, demons and angels – Part 33

Have you seen the movie Ghostbusters? Well, I’m sorry to inform you that there is no such things as ghost traps or holding tanks. Scientific proof is only possible to a certain degree, and that’s very debateable. A larger percentage of our populations does believe in ghosts, but the only way to convince the rest would be to put a live (?) ghost on display at the Smithsonian. That’s not likely, but let’s take a brief look at some of the gadgets of the trade…

EVP are allegedly voices from the other side that are captured on both tape and digital recorders. Some of these disembodied voices seem to carry on conversations with the researchers, while others are as mindless as the apparitions that people see doing the same things over and over again. Some believers even question the validity of EVP; thus, proof positive that these recordings are the voices of the dead is impossible.

Thermal imaging cameras pick up heat discrepancies, and many of these images are VERY compelling. In one particular episode of Ghost Hunters, an alleged spirit picked up on one of these “heat” cameras actually interacted with the investigators. When “it” nodded, as if to acknowledge the presence of the TAPS members, it actually sent chills down my spine. Likewise, there are some good photos that have been taken on both standard and digital cameras. I am hardly the expert, but I understand that it is fairly easy to “create” ghost photos, via double imaging, on a standard Kodak-style camera. Nevertheless, there is a very creepy ghost photo that was taken in Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois. Check out www.bachelorsgrove.com and judge for yourself. If the photo is no longer there please correct me on this one!

Many other devices are easily written off. Digital thermometers may pick up cold spots, but many skeptics will tell you that these are merely drafts. Dowsing rods could easily be manipulated by the holder, and the list goes on and on. Like it or not, the belief in the existence of paranormal phenomena is pretty much in the eye of the beholder. I lived in what I truly believe was a haunted house for four years, and I wrote about it in another article. I have witnessed or imagined two other really odd events outside of that house, and I have never explained either one of them to myself, let alone anybody else. I think I’m as sane as anybody I know, but I’ll let you be the judge.

I was born and raised in a rural area just outside of Morgantown,

Derby the ghost city

Derby is probably the most haunted city in England. The city, dubbed ‘The Dead Centre of England’ has plenty of spooky surprises for visitors with over 1,000 reported ghost sightings each year throughout the city.

Some of the most well known haunted sights in the city include a house complete with its own ghost lodger, some floating trousers and the Dolphin pub built in 1532 has as many spirits in front of the bar as behind with no less than four ghost regulars making this ghost capital of England

Stories of ghostly sightings are not a modern phenonimon. Tales of bumps on the night stretch back over 500 years that we know of and could we go back far further than that. There isn’t a corner of the city where ghost stories and sightings can’t be found making it a ghost hunters dream.

Perhaps the most haunted building in Derby is the Derby Gaol or jail. The Gaol is home to some of the most frightening and most difficult to explain stories in the whole of the city. From stories of seeing ghostly figures gliding down corridors to large cell doors shutting of there own accord to slightly more sinister stories. One man claimed to see two figures hanging from the rafters as he walked in. A builder who was working on one of the cells recently had to leave several times after feeling sick while in the cell, a phenonimon experienced by many when they enter the cell including TV ghost hunter Yvette Fielding from ‘Most Haunted’. Some have even felt something tight around their necks squeezing there throats, two women were even seen running from the cells, crying and clutching their necks after feeling their throats tighten. If you are feeling particularly adventurous you could even spend a night in the gaol on an all night vigil.

TV show reviews: Ghost Hunters – Part 2

The plumbers are back and no I’m not talking about the brothers, Mario and Luigi of Super Mario Bros. fame. I’m talking about the ghost hunting plumbers, Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, from the original Sci-Fi Channel hit reality show, Ghost Hunters. Jason and Grant, along with the rest of The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS), return after a record-breaking forth season in 2008 with a fifth season, which premieres Wednesday, March 11 at 9 p.m. eastern time. Season 5 kicks off with the TAPS team investigating the Hannum House in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, one of America’s oldest homes; a 313 year-old revolutionary war dwelling.

During the investigation, the TAPS team learn of the history of the home, which, over the years was used as a brothel, a tavern and a courthouse. The family living in the Hannum House share with Jason and Grant their personal experiences, which include hearing voices, footsteps in the hallway, a ghostly Colonial figure that walks from the upstairs hallway, down the stairway and into their kitchen. The biggest concern of the family is where most of the paranormal activity seems to be centered around, which is in the bedroom of their 6-year-old daughter.

In the second half of the episode, TAPS heads to Philadelphia to investigate the historic building that was once the home of famous seamstress Betsy Ross, which now serves as a tourist attraction with an adjacent gift shop. The investigation focuses on the strange activity reported after an alleged incident between two security guards that ended with one of the guards shooting the other three times and leaving him for dead in the basement of the gift shop, as well as several bizarre happenings in the Betsy Ross house.

Another claim is that a former director of the Betsy Ross House saw something in the attic so terrifying that she had to climb out the window and onto the flag pole. After a full episode of investigating, Jason, Grant and the rest of the TAPS team once again give fans of the show a glimpse into the world of the paranormal in convincing fashion with their array of high-tech ghost hunting equipment, such as the K2 meter which is used to detect electromagnetic fields (EMF), and of course, their trademark debunking techniques.

About the Show

The Sci-Fi Channel introduced Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson – plumbers by day, ghost hunters by night, in October 2004. Jason and Grant head up TAPS, a close-knit organization of volunteer paranormal researchers that are made up of ordinary people who investigate and attempt to debunk claims of paranormal activity. In their investigations all over the U.S. and Europe, these self-proclaimed skeptics have managed to expose some of the most frightening and compelling evidence of paranormal phenomenon ever seen on television. The TAPS team consists of Jason Hawes, Grant Wilson, Steve Gonsalves, Dave Tango, Kris Williams, Amy Bruni, Craig Piligian and Thomas Thayer.

What are ghost orbs and how do they manifest themselves – Part 3

In the world of paranormal experts, there is cause for debate regarding the exact definition of an orb. Psychic Sylvia Browne has said that orbs are always angels, but the majority declare orbs to be a mode of transportation for spirits. The exact definition of an orb is basically a ball of energy. They manifest themselves most often in photographs. In pictures, they either look like a ball of light, or like a large see-through bubble.

Many people have seen orbs manifest before their eyes, again, a ball or streak of light, or a large bubble. When an orb appears before a person, they have no problem explaining what they have just seen. But, when an orb comes through in pictures, there is a large margin of error as to whether it is an orb, or a camera or processing glitch.

If someone has seen the orbs in many pictures, over time, taken by different cameras and in different locations and weather situations, most likely it is an orb. There are many websites about paranormal activity which encourage people to send their pictures of orbs or other questionable phenomena, and their experts can rule out dust on the lens, for example, or any other type of interference between the camera and the finished photograph. This would be a great source of education for someone whose photos frequently include orbs.

Many amateur ghost hunters take their cameras regularly to cemeteries and other places known to have experienced paranormal activity, for the sole purpose of trying to catch orbs or other phenomena on film. In some cases, the results have been startling. The most striking photo I have seen of this type was taken by a woman in the New England area. She had taken a picture of a cemetery at night, and the entire cemetery was covered by a thick layer of hundreds of orbs. It was quite fascinating.

Over the years our own family photo collection has featured many photos which include orbs, either in the background, or quite chillingly, surrounding a family member. Though they are always a source of great interest, we have learned to take them in stride. In my personal experience, I have never known an orb to be harmful, or to cause any trouble for that matter.

So, in conclusion, whether orbs are angels, or transporting spirits, they are something we can live with harmoniously, and study quite extensively.

Got A Haunted Home With Your Refinance Home Mortgage?

Are Real Ghosts Haunting the Web?