Believe it or not: Ghost hunters go high-tech

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However, the deceased apparently need technical help to talk. The $70 Belfry Bat Detector picks up ultrasonic sounds. More common, though, are cassette or digital voice recorders used as ghost-whispering gadgets. Some ghost hunters prefer devices with poor recording quality, believing that entities use white noise to form a voice.

The conversation may sound one-sided while investigators ask questions of ghosts, but ghost hunters swear they hear words and phrases, known as electronic voice phenomena (EVP), once they play back a recording, crank up the volume, and clean it up with software. Experimenters have edited with software such as Adobe Audition or Audacity, and uploaded hundreds of EVP sessions to various Web sites.

Lisa and Tom Butler say they have been talking to dead people through voice recordings for 16 years. The husband-and-wife team runs the American Association for Electronic Voice Phenomena, a nonprofit group whose Web site receives some 2,000 visitors daily. The Butlers say they achieve audible results for nearly one-third of their recording sessions, enough to be statistically meaningful.

"This is a lot bigger than ghost hunting," said Lisa Butler, a retired psychologist. "We have people reaching their loved ones, both through audio and visual formats. There are people who are skeptical about it, but it's something you can do for yourself."

More than a handful of people claim to have invented a "telephone to the dead," first imagined by none other than Thomas Edison. Leong saw such a ghost-gabbing device demonstrated this spring at the Colorado's Stanley Hotel (it inspired Stephen King's novel The Shining). But she's not interested in dialing the dead.

Here's an important news break for everyone: we're all going to die and what comes next is one of the biggest mysteries in universe

--Jeff Belanger, GhostVillage.com

"Like Ouija Boards, there are inherent dangers in using this device at the present stage of its development," Leong said. "I mean, how can one be sure that one is hearing the voice of the person who has passed away, and not a demonic entity disguising or mimicking the dead relative's voice?"

Skeptics argue that there is nothing to fear from a perceived haunting other than wasting time and energy. Benjamin Radford, managing editor of Skeptical Inquirer magazine, has seen phasmophobia, or fear of ghosts, drive families from their creaky old homes. And if ghosts seek to right wrongful deaths, he wonders why we don't see more hauntings.

"This whole country is an Indian burial ground," he said. "People have been on this planet (hundreds) of thousands of years and probably wherever you are at some point, someone dropped dead nearby." Supposed evidence that ghost hunters provide, such as EVP recordings, only mislead impressionable people, Radford said.

"All of these are ambiguous stimuli, the audio equivalent of faces in clouds. I've been there where people have cranked up this poor little tape recorder saying, "I hear someone saying 'Set me free!' Or maybe it's saying, 'A wallaby!' This is not a message from the other side."

So, what about the orbs of light? They're all camera glitches, Radford said. And as for EMF readings, there's no evidence that ghost meters pick up anything but electromagnetic field readings, which scientific studies have correlated with psychological hallucinations, but not with ghosts.

Throughout history, people have deployed the seemingly magical, new technologies for mystical pursuits. During the Spiritualism movement of the 19th century, tricksters took phony double-exposure portraits of semitransparent "ghosts." During seances, mediums rigged parlor contraptions to tap out crude Morse code messages under tables. In the 1930s, people recorded such sessions with the phonograph.

"In recent years, it has to do with the sense that ghosts communicate at different wavelengths, so (people think) if we could tap into the infrasound, or infrared, with the right gadget, then we can hear them," said Mary Roach, who wrote the book Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife.

Her research found no mainstream scientific studies to back up the claims of ghost hunters. Still, one-third of Americans believe in ghosts, according to a poll in 2005 by the Gallup Organization, which found a notable increase in paranormal beliefs since the 1980s. Whether the popularity of ghost-hunting feeds, or is fed, by television, Roach finds the trend both amusing and disturbing.

"These shows tend to be on channels like Discovery, which were originally associated with science," she said. "The people they're putting on are billed as researchers, but they're amateurs. I don't like to see it presented as a legitimate, acceptable and truthful undertaking."

Jeff Belanger, who runs GhostVillage.com and has written seven books on the paranormal, agrees that the ghost-hunting equipment lends a sense of credibility to something that cannot be measured. "As much as some organizations and individuals try to strip out the esoteric and spiritual and bring it down to pure science, it's not always possible because you're looking for something beyond our understanding of the universe," he said.

But Belanger finds ghost stories valuable for teaching people about history. He thinks that interest in the extraordinary spikes after catastrophic events. For instance, the Spiritualism movement coincided with the Civil War. More recently, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and wars in the Middle East may have spurred more Americans to imagine the afterlife.

"Here's an important news break for everyone: we're all going to die and what comes next is one of the biggest mysteries in universe," Belanger said.

[Ninjak]

Too light on the 'high tech'

Good article, though I wish they had delved a bit deeper into the actual tech equipment used. It's definitely advantageous to build our own equipment at times. I'm putting together a tech glossary/tutorial at some point for SMP, so it was still a nice article to come across.

Tech Team
Southern Maryland Paranormal (TAPS Family Member)
www.somdparanormal.com

[ralfthedog]

Try some balloons.

Something I have always wanted to see, Fill up some helium balloons to the point that the strings just touch the ground. You have an instant way to chart the air currents (and changes in air currrents) in a building.

If something non material were to pass through one or more balloons, and if that non physical thing were to carry an electrical charge, you would see the balloons stick together or repel each other. If the balloon were to suddenly get cold, it would loose some lift.

The other cool thing about this method is that it is easy for the general public to understand. They could even try it at home. Great for TV.

No, I do not believe in ghosts, however I have always been fascinated by methods for trying to find them.

[Phillep_H]

Why high tech?

If a rock is big enough to stumble over, you should not need to use a microscope to find it.

Same for ghosts. If they are obvious enough to draw the attention of someone who is not ready for them (believes in them), why the "microscope" to find them?

[Nabojim]

.. or not

Thankfully our tax dollars are not being used to fund this kind of foolishness. I know that I help fund other kinds of foolishness, but at least not ghost hunting. They are as likely to find ghosts as others are to find extraterrestrials. But, at least they are tech savvy.

[NWLB]

Microsoft announces .Boo for Windows.

Microsoft announced it will launch a new, web-based, service which will revolutionize ghosts. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was quoted as saying ?we are pleased that Microsoft remains the company of choice for the vaporware industry.?

Experts on the afterlife debated the value of the new service. ?Ghosts are already frozen, suspended as they were in life, seemingly alive, but unable to do anything. Microsoft?s entry could be construed as redundant.?

[Phillep_H]

A new question

Is there life after the BSOD?

[Chuckabutty]

Foolish Ghost Hunters

As an ordained minister and exorcist of eight years standing, who performs exorcisms six nights a week, I can tell you that the ghosts people seek are demons. If people only believed the bible, they would know that these spirits are the fallen angels who were led into rebellion by Satan. God cast them down to earth 302,000 years ago. Spirits never die, and these spirits are the "ghosts" that people look for. The danger is absolute. Anyone seeking "ghosts" or spirits, will become entangled with them, leading to possession. I know, because I have recently dealt with several ghost hunters who knew something bad was happening to them but did not know why. There is only one solution to helping those hunters who start to have problems, and that is an exorcism. And don't think you can run to a Catholic priest for help. The best they can do is to sprinkle holy water on you and tell Satan to leave. Satan laughs at such garbage.

God has forbidden His creation to consult mediums, psychics and Ouija boards. This all comes under the heading of "divination." The spirits who pretend to be from the deceased, are called "familiar spirits," because they once lived in the person and knew their lives, intimately. They are able to answer questions to which only the dead person would know the answer. God forbids this practice because the enquirer becomes possessed. Possession usually begins with depression, nightmares, nightsweats, an inability to sleep or to sleepwalk. Voices may be heard in the person's head, and visions may occur. This is all demon possession, and nothing less than an exorcism will cure that person.

There are many other ways of becoming possessed, and "ghost-hunting" is only one of them.

For more information:
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzevk9mh/enddaysdeliverance/

[paranormalinvestigations]

your opinion

thats great you are an ordained minister - well so am I - and I do belong to a paranormal investigative team - and have been around a long time. Not once we have seen a possession - or any of our members come into harm. We take precautions when we do our investigations - but you are not knowledgeable with all the facts. I have yet to hear one team - even the one we associate with in the UK that have been doing it for 35 years, that come across a possession - or who have had problems with themselves. Ghosts belong to all religions, not just your faith - and all faiths have different views on it - yours is right for you - but not for others. we are not foolish - some of us have been led into it due to the fact we heard a 'calling' as some would say. Ghosts are those who have passed, and don't know they are dead, are afraid to pass over, or don't want too. They are not demons, they are the lost.

[andeyejah]

secretarys yummy!

Cor id love to take Secretary around some old haunted places in Ireland.I wonder does she wear glasses hhhmmmm!.

[paranormalinvestigations]

ghost hunters and high tech

The problem with everyone getting these gadgets - most of them do not know how to use them, and they do not know how to scientifically collect the data properly. Teams like ours who have been in the field for years, and have had research papers published, our data gets mixed in with those amateurs who may mean well - but do not know what they are doing. Its good to be inquisitive, and to be interested, but do not call yourself a team unless you are in it for the long haul, and know what you are doing. We have seen ghost hunter teams here in our city of Edmonton who have done more harm than good when the go investigate private residences, due to the fact they do not know what they are doing. And one yet - who a member proclaimed herself psychic last year, they go into peoples homes, her partner will say its haunted, then she will do a cleansing - for a donation. This industry can be bastardized just like many others - but its the true paranormal investigators that will hopefully be able to find the truth behind real paranormal experiences.

[Ghost_Owl]

High Tech tools for ghost hunting.

As a founding member of the Pacific Ghost Hunting Society I think that the more scientific data we can collect by using these tools. The better chance we have of gathering real data that will hold up in the scientific community and solve this mystery once and for all.

[BCF1968]

No such things as ghosts

If ghosts where real then hospitals would be the most haunted places, since millions of people die in them every year.

[Gary Lee]

Lots of Gadgets, but No Proof

Entering the art and mystery of the paranormal, with claims of strange accounts, we see plenty of scientific-looking props, but no real evidence.