Have you ever been on a paranormal investigation? Don't worry, the equipment ghost hunters use isn't as daunting as it appears. Once you understand the basics of how to detect ghosts, you can begin capturing evidence.
Establish a Baseline
The first thing you need to do is a walk through of the premises and take various readings with your equipment. Record each reading. This will give you a baseline so you can compare it to any readings you take during your investigation to determine if you captured signs of paranormal activity.
Use Your Five Senses
You don't completely rely on equipment. You need to pay attention to your five senses. Humans have a built-in system that alerts you to danger or anything out of the ordinary. This might be feeling nausea, getting goosebumps, smelling an odor or aroma, hearing sounds that often don't show up on recordings or videos, noting cold spots that can be verified with temperature gauges, and other equipment.
Personal experiences are important and should be combined with equipment readings to help validate your findings.
Try Some Equipment
While your five senses are always your best tools, if you're intrigued by sensors and equipment, you can try using some of the following.
Digital Recorder
There are various ways to record EVPs (Electronic Voice Phenomena). There are some newer digital models that fit on your wrist and allow you to listen in real time and not have to playback the recording. You can use any type of digital recorder throughout your investigation. Just be sure you have a no whispering policy, so you know any whisper that shows up on the EVP belongs to a ghost and not one of your team members. It's believed that a voice recorder can pick up sounds and spirit voices not audible to the human ear. However, there are times when a spirit can speak with a disembodied voice that you can hear without any help from equipment. This type of spirit audio is rarer than capturing an EVP. You can transfer your recordings to a computer and use specialized software to filter out various noises for a clearer EVP.
EMF Meter
The EMF (Electromagnetic field) meter detects any fluctuations in the electromagnetic energy of a location. The meter usually has several lights that light up whenever there's a spike in the field. Paranormal investigators believe spirit energy interferes with electromagnetic fields. When a spirit is present, the EMF increases or spikes.
Night Vision Camera or Goggles
Night vision equipment allows you to see in the dark. The scene may be a monochromatic green tinge color scheme, or a black and gray like a film negative. Depending on the quality of your equipment, you may be able to see several hundred feet in the darkness. Full spectrum night vision offers a greater ability to see things often hidden from the naked eye. This equipment allows paranormal investigators to use visible, infrared, and ultraviolet light spectrums for video recordings and photos.
Thermal Infrared Camera or Goggles
A thermal infrared camera or goggles is a rather expensive but favorite piece of equipment of many paranormal investigators. The thermal imaging allows you to pick up heat signatures, hot spots, or cold spots. It's believed that spirits require outside energy to manifest or interact with their surroundings. It is possible to see a spirit when you use either device.
Ambient Thermometer
An ambient thermometer will let you know the temperature and the humidity. This piece of equipment is helpful in confirming cold spots.
Infrared Thermometer
An infrared thermometer measures surface temperature. It can monitor the temperature in a room or other areas to detect any sudden drops in temperature. This is especially handy for detecting a cold spot. Ghosts absorb energy, and their presence is often indicated by a cold spot. This equipment can also show any air leaks that may be creating a temperature fluctuation.
Ghost or Spirit Box
The spirit box is a scanner that sweeps the various radio frequencies of FM and AM bands. This sweeping generates white noise. It's believed that these frequency energies can be used by spirits to speak within the static energy.
Laser Grid System
The sophisticated laser grid uses a laser grid projection system that creates a grid of sensor lights that maps out a room or area. If a ghost or other anomaly moves in front of the grid, it will show up when the light pattern is interrupted.
Compile Evidence
After your investigation, compile all the evidence you've collected. Log each reading along with the time and conditions when you took it to establish any range of changes. Once you have everything logged, correlate the data to see if there any anomalies are present. The more pieces of evidence you have, the more likely you have evidence of a haunting or the presence of spirits. Don't forget to include your personal experiences. Even though these are considered anecdotal, they still provide support for the data your equipment collected.
Detect Ghosts With Captured Evidence
There are many ways to detect ghosts by using various paranormal investigation equipment. You can correlate the evidence you capture during an investigation to provide a complete picture of the type of haunting taking place.
