Ghost Hunting Tutorial: Before The Hunt

A this article came from ghosthunting.com

1. Arrive, collect local records and in-person testimonies
2. Walk the location and take all preliminary measurements
3. Review, plan, and prepare for the hunt (who what where)

Gather On-site Testimonies and Relevant Records

Once you've arrived at the location, your first step will be to continue gathering any other information that requires your local presence. This first and foremost includes meeting with eyewitnesses and hearing their accounts firsthand. If you are gathering evidence for a professional presentation, production, or just for documentation purposes, then you will want to bring one of your video cameras, voice recorders, and a notepad with you while interviewing the eyewitnesses. This will provide a lot of valuable information which you can go back and review afterwards for identifying commonalities between different witnesses and coo-berating it with your own evidence from the investigation.

Your other onsite information gathering will likely consist of visiting local courthouses and libraries for records of who has lived previously at the residence. You may want to look for key pieces of information such as names, the time period in which they lived at the location, or if it was a major traumatic event, finding out what exactly happened, where, and to whom. This information will all be helpful in determining what to investigate and which tools to use.

Walk the Location

Prior to conducting your real hunt, you should walk through the location to become familiar with the surroundings. Most ghost hunters choose to hunt in the dark, so it helps to get familiar with the area while it is still light out so you'll have a better idea of where you're going while trying to navigate in the dark. While walking the location you should gather preliminary measurements on such instruments as your infrared thermometers, geiger counters, and all other equipment. When not actively hunting or seeking evidence of the paranormal, you can help to eliminate natural or environmental causes that may cloud real, noteworthy events later on during your actual hunt. This is especially helpful with the infrared thermometers as there may be walls or objects by heating or cooling ducts that are routinely different in temperature when the air kicks on, as a result. Geiger counters may also record radioactive material if radon or other elements might be active below the foundation. Also important to take preliminary measurements of are any and all electromagnetic fields with your EMF equipment. Remember that unless you are using an EMF detector that blocks out AC currents, you are likely to get readings from the electromagnetic fields of electronics or other equipment that might already exist at the location or which may be wired into the framework of the structure. Conducting this preliminary walk-through and gathering measurements should be an essential part of all thorough and objective ghost hunting investigations.

Plan The Hunt

Now that you have everything you need, gathered all possible information from others, and are familiar with the environment and all potential natural causes for interesting measurements, it comes time to plan the actual hunt. Most ghost hunters prefer to conduct their hunting expeditions late in the night. A widely held belief is that spirit activity is most heightened around 3AM. If you've ever seen an episode of Paranormal State, you'll note that they call this period "dead time". It is also when they routinely conduct their own hunts. Regardless of when you decide to do your hunt though, be sure to plan who from your team will do what and where they will be. Your walkie talkies will come in handy for keeping tabs on what's going on from everyone's point of view. You'll want to set up all your equipment in the appropriate rooms. This includes fixed monitoring devices like motion sensors, infrared cameras, as well as all the gear that will need to be hooked up to record the information. Any handheld devices such as Geiger counters, EMF detectors, handheld cameras and, digital voice recorders will all be part of the equipment you will actively be using to hunt with first-hand. You should plan what questions you want to ask aloud if trying to actively engage in getting EVP responses, as well as any other activities which might bring about a response during the hunt.

Spiritual Caution for Ghost Hunters

A this article came from ghosthunting.com

Searching for ghosts can be a very thrilling experience both physically and intellectually from the standpoint of being able to provide actual evidence of ghosts and other intelligent energy forms. For most researchers, capturing a photograph of a formed apparition in a haunted location, and having those afflicted by the spirit successfully pick it out in a line-up of other ghost photos is solid proof that life exists beyond this physical realm. This can lead to the building of faith in other areas of life, especially religiously and spiritually. However, there are some major concerns you should be aware of before you make the decision to actively hunt ghosts yourself, join a ghost hunting organization, or go to one of the many now commercial ghost tours.

First, as we covered in our Ghost Hunting Tutorial, most ghosts are believed to be still attached to a physical life either because of strong addictions, strong attachments to material possessions and experiences, or as the result of a sudden trauma that took their life, or because of unfinished business that they can't seem to let go of. It is important to note that it is very likely that these souls are the ones most in need of prayer and love. If they knew that love the most either as a concept, or formally as God as we taught religiously, and those souls desired it more than anything else, they would likely have already left the material life they knew and find themselves in the appropriate, related experience which they have built up in their belief system and expected. In other words, most of the souls that are still "trapped" or "drawn" to the Earth and to their physical lives after they have passed, most likely are not yet completely aware of or desire God, love, and all related concepts and truths that apply. Even if they were aware of these things, they are still being held back by something. What this means is that these souls either need help through encouraging prayer, thoughts, and feelings to move forward and let go of the physical life they once knew, or it means they are still sticking around by choice because they refuse to let go of things held in their heart such as anger, terrible sins, addictions, etc.. Oftentimes these souls will haunt and attempt to bring others down. Possession and oppression are real concepts if you believe in them and if you are not spiritually strong and secure you may put yourself in a position in which intentionally negative or evil souls may try and bring you down with them.

It is likely that souls which have chosen a path of destruction, negativity, harm, or evil as we might call it will be drawn to those who are vulnerable in similar ways that they were. These could be people with similar tendencies towards addiction, anger, hatefulness, and much worse. If you are spiritually strong and secure, those who are negative will naturally be repelled by your presence. This is why it is important to bring a priest and other spiritually significant and symbolic items that are believed to repel evil spirits along with you. The items themselves can do nothing, but it is the belief in them that makes them effective. For example, a cross is nothing more than two sticks crossed one over the other, but it is the belief and the meaning that society and our consciousness as a whole as attributed to them which makes them effective. If you doubt your spiritual strength, or the idea of these things causes you to be fearful, then you probably shouldn't engage in it. Ghost hunting is a very mental and spiritually intense activity, which can open doors to your own sinful tendencies unless you are already spiritually strong enough to repel all negativity and evil you might face. Most haunting souls are just lost, others can be extremely dangerous, so you need to use caution each time you place yourself in the middle of a hunt.

The ultimate intention and goal of ghost hunting should not be to communicate with lost souls for guidance. Remember, these are souls that are still drawn here and not into an experience of spiritual love for a reason. Oftentimes they are not individuals that you would want to be seeking your own guidance from. That is best done in solitude through meditation and prayer, between yourself and God (assuming you believe in God in one form or another). Your goal in ghost hunting should be to provide proof to those who are afflicted just as any critically-thinking investigator would, to help any lost souls let go of physicality and move forward, to cast out any negative or evil forces that may be haunting people with harmful intentions, and to bring love, hope, and resolution to all those involved, whether living or passed on. Ghost hunting is not for the spiritually weak, and not for people seeking spiritual guidance. If that is your intention, it would be best to look elsewhere for it as it will likely bring about things that are more destructive rather than constructive in your own spiritual walk.

Ghost Hunting Tutorial: During The Hunt

A this article came from ghosthunting.com

Now comes the time you've been waiting for with lights out, equipment running, and everyone on high alert! It is now time to carry out the hunt you have prepared for and put your gear to work. Most investigators might find it helpful to begin an investigation in prayer for protection against any souls which may be encountered which may have harmful intentions. This is an especially important part of conducting your investigation. Unless you are simply in it for a thrill, how can you ever expect to be of service in helping those who are haunted or in encouraging the souls who are doing the haunting to ever move on past their physical attachments if you yourself do not protect yourself to some degree so that you might be able to be of help and guidance to someone stuck behind. This is vital, be sure to read the Spiritual Caution page for more information about this.

During the hunt you may experience a number of phenomena. Your Geiger counters may measure bursts of radioactivity as may your EMF and infrared equipment. Keep in mind that when ghosts and other paranormal activity does occur, it is usually brief. If it is fixed, it likely has an environmental explanation.

If from your information gathering phase and interviews you have found consistencies, place more of your efforts on detecting that type of phenomena. For instance, if almost every eyewitness says they hear thumping or footsteps, then be sure to place more emphasis on your EVP audio gear. Always be sure to seek any natural explanations as soon as possible. For example, if a loud bang is heard, then immediately use your walkie talkies to ask around and be clear that none of the crew may have been responsible for the sound, or that none of the crew had seen something in the local environment that may have caused it at the time. It is important to clearly record these things as closely to their occurrences as possible. Otherwise if you wait until after the investigation, people's memories may not be as reliable as to the exact order of how things happened. The same goes for all other gear such as infrared cameras. If you see a warm spot or an outline of a person or a body part on an object, make sure no one from the crew recently leaned on the object or could be responsible for the occurrence.

Once you have concluded your investigation, it would be advisable to again end with a prayer and attempt to cleanse the location of any harmful intentions. If someone is being haunted, tell the haunting souls that they need to stop. Use a priest and bring love and kindness into the environment if anything negative or evil has been haunting the location. Although it may seem like a bit of an abstract idea, darkness cannot exist where there is light. If you fill an environment with loving thoughts and feelings, anything destructive, hateful, and dark will naturally want to leave as the light will expose and illuminate everything it is trying to hide. Light and darkness is not intended literally here, but abstractly in an attempt to demonstrate this point. Any evil and negativity is naturally repelled by love and positivity, as it is the opposing force and also the dominant one. Darkness cannot make a light dark, but a single light can illuminate all that is dark. So which of the two do you think is greater? Be sure to bring light to the environment, otherwise you have helped no one and only encouraged that which is evil and destructive in nature. You don't want to be on that side of the coin, as once it has isolated and destroyed others, there is no one left to destroy but itself. Be a light on your investigation.