Paranormal Investigations - part 2

This article is from the www.examiner.com

May 22, 10:40 AM by Kathie Kessler

So now that you've found a paranormal group, what can you expect and what will be expected of you?

First of all, the groups coordinator will call and speak to you about what your situation is, the activity you are experiencing and find a mutually convenient date to set up the investigation. Please remember, the people who belong to these groups do it on their own time, with their own money and do have day jobs. So it's a good chance you will be asked to do it on a Friday or Saturday evening.

Before the investigation night, it's a good idea to start keeping a log of when things happen, note what happened, the time, location and who witnessed it.

Some groups have a person who is available to do property record searches regarding the history of the building/land, but if you are available to do this or have this information already, it is always a great help, especially if you are not in the same local area as the group is.

On the day of the investigation, the team will arrive and most likely sit down with you and talk some more about what's been happening, probably with a voice recorder on.

You WILL be asked to leave the premises, and remove any pets or at least have them secured in one area. This is so that when the team is running audio and video equipment, they can identify any unusual noises, talking etc, because they know what team members were present and who was where. We have had people who thought this was a big event and had other people over to “watch”. Please, don't do this. It is a waste of the groups time as well as yours. There will be too much contamination of recorded evidence to make any reasonable conclusions of anything found on tape.

Commonly used equipment:

• Standard Digital or 35mm Cameras
• EMF Detectors – There are several kinds, but they all read the electromagnetic field in the area. Fluctuations in the field can be signs of activity
• How many members are in the group and how many will be coming to your location
• Voice Recorders – Probably the best piece of equipment in my arsenal. I have 3, along with each member of my group having their own. Most evidence we capture are EVP's or Electronic Voice Phenomenon. The human ear typically hears between 20 Hz to 20 kHz. Spirit voices are often come in lower than the human ear can hear, but the digital or magnetic voice recorders will pick them up and will be audible upon playback. To hear a few of the Evp's that Kathie has captured click HERE
  About.com Paranormal's page also has a section to reader submitted evps (one of mine is there as well).. but you can listen to those by clicking here
• Night Vision Video Cameras – These are standard video cameras that can shoot in O lux (or no night), or can be night vision DVR cameras hooked up to a computer. These are used to monitor areas of activity.

Other groups may use newer experimental equipment, such as an item known as “Franks Box” or a “Spirit Box”. What this is, is a digital radio that has been modified to continuously scan the radio band without stopping. It's thought that the white noise gives the spirits a medium in which to use to communicate.

There are other high end devices such as FLIR (Forward Looking Infrared Cameras), that show heat signatures, but they run in the thousands of dollars and unless you're well financed, most groups don't have these.

These are the basic tools of a paranormal investigator. But the most important tool of all is his common sense, to look for the normal before jumping to the conclusion of something being paranormal. Often times people will have some sort of activity happen, and then be convinced that EVERY noise, or item that goes missing is because of the “ghost”. This is often not the case, and one must be very careful not to fall into that trap.

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RELATED POSTS: See part 1 of this story by clicking HERE