Ghost Hunting As I Know It

 Hey, everyone!

It's Vic the Millennial with a new article for you.

Last time, I shared with you some knowledge about scams and scammers. I might write more articles on the topic later. But this time, we're going to explore an entirely unrelated topic: Ghost Hunting. Or more commonly known as these days, Paranormal Investigating. 

When I say this blog is covering a variety of topics, I mean it.

Let’s start with what is paranormal investigating. As the name suggests, it is the act of investigating the paranormal in pursuit of proof of its existence. Paranormal investigators go out of their way to explore the whole world over to collect evidence of ghosts, spirits, supernatural powers, cryptids (animals considered to be myth, nonexistent or never fully recognized as existed) and extraterrestrials (aliens from Outer Space). 

The act of finding proof of ghosts, in particular, has been an interest of mine for over a decade, which is why it's the focus of this article. But, disclaimer, I've never actually hunted ghosts before. I only watch documentaries of ghost hunting on TV and YouTube.

So, how do paranormal investigators find, or try to find, proof of ghosts? Why, through the use of equipment and tools. And there are many different kinds.

Each paranormal investigator is different and have their own way of doing things. But the one piece of equipment that absolutely every last one of them will use is . . . the video camera. Especially ones with night vision. Most paranormal investigations take place at night with the lights off, so they need cameras with night vision that can see (and more importantly record) what is going on.

But video cameras aren't the only cameras that paranormal investigators use. There is also a nifty little thing called the thermal camera. As the name suggests, it is a camera that sees things based on their temperature. I'm sure you've all seen movies where there's one guy using special goggles that sees everything in red or orange based on heat signature. Same thing, only it's real application. To paranormal investigators, something extremely cold, but moving around like a living thing, could possibly be a ghost. Same if they find unexplainable human shapes.

There is also something called the Structured Light Sensor camera, or SLS for short. The SLS was originally used in gaming systems to track the movement of players for games that, well, get players moving. Its ability to map human shapes make it an appealing tool for paranormal investigators because, if a human shape gets mapped where there are no humans, chances are, the camera's spot a ghost.

Digital recorders. The classic ghost hunting tool. Paranormal investigators claim that digital recorders can hear things that our own ears naturally can't. So they use digital recorders in the hopes of capturing the voices of the dead. But digital recorders aren't the only things that can potentially capture spirit voices. Video cameras can also capture voices if their microphones are sensitive enough or the mysterious, disembodied voices are loud enough. There are also plenty of other tools with powerful and sensitive microphones these days that also get used in place of the digital recorder. 

Next is the Spirit Box. There are plenty of devices called by that name. But the original, that I know of, is a device that scans through radio frequencies at a rapid and constant rate. The thought is that the device would pick up the voices of the dead through the radio and let us hear them through speakers or earphones. 

Snippets of radio broadcast do come through, but depending on how fast the Spirit Box constantly switches channels, full words or phrases should be impossible. So if full words or phrases do come out, same voice over multiple sweeps, then it might be a ghost. Even more so if the words coming out of the radio are relevant to any questions you ask or to the place you are investigating. Allegedly, this allows you to have a conversation with spirits in real time.

Now, we move on to another common piece of ghost hunting gear: the E.M.F. detector. E.M.F. stands for Electro-Magnetic Field. Theory goes that ghosts emit E.M.F. or can affect it. High E.M.F. could be a sign that a ghost is around, but they could also be a sign that you got an electric problem going on that you should get checked out ASAP. Prominent ghost hunters with TV shows have mentioned that high E.M.F. can come from faulty wiring or tech and cause headaches, hallucinations, nausea and other things most people would rather not deal with.

Lots of ghost hunters on TV and YouTube also use a tool called the REM Pod. This tool creates its own E.M.F. bubble around itself like an invisible force field. Whatever breaks that field will sound an alarm. Basically, if it starts making noise while absolutely nothing visible is touching it, then there might be a spirit playing around with it.

Variations of the REM Pod include the Dead Bell, which works the same way, but looks like those vintage bells you see in old timey hotels. Another is the MEL Meter which can also measure E.M.F. and temperature. 

The E.M.F. detector, the REM Pod and its variations have been used not only to detect ghosts but also to communicate with them as well. How? Things like "tap once for yes, two for know", "tap as many times as how many . . ." Get the idea now?

And then we have motion detectors that, well, detect motion. If it detects something moving in front of it, but that something is invisible, then it might have detected a ghost. Paranormal investigators also use motion detectors the same way as the E.M.F. tools to talk with the dead.

Here's a surprising tool of the ghost hunting trade: flashlights. Plain and simple flashlights. The kind that you twist right or left to turn on and off, that you can find in any retail store. If ghosts are powerful enough to move things around, they can turn on or off a flashlight to let people know they're there. Just another way to do some simple question and answer sessions like with the tools mentioned above.

Some ghost hunters also like to use tools like the Ovilus, a box that spits out words based on things detected in the environment like E.M.F., temperature, etc. There are other tools with different names that work pretty much the same way. 

And finally, we have . . . the smartphone. Yes, the smartphone. A video recorder, photo camera and voice recorder all rolled into one. But apart from those obvious features, there are also a multitude of apps specifically made and advertised for ghost hunting. Many of these apps call themselves Spirit Boxes, but they're more like Oviluses or other random word generating tools.

Now, some paranormal investigators swear by these smartphone apps, the Ovilus and its brothers. But other investigators find them all sus and avoid using them entirely.

Evidence of the paranormal, in general, is something to be taken with a grain of salt, even if it looks genuinely unexplainable otherwise. Especially when shared in documentaries on TV or YouTube, or other streaming sites. That's just the nature of the industry. But I think some, if not all, paranormal investigators and the evidence they show are genuine. 

Still, to each their own. Some people will believe in ghosts and the evidence shared on the internet. Other people will think it's all baloney. The choice, dear readers, is yours.