The polar vortex has come and gone and we (and hopefully you) have survived the coldest temperatures in recent history. The chill upset another experiment I was performing and now I must start all over. I have come across a few reports of people who have drawn paranormal activity to themselves simply by the act of looking for it. Either through investigation, photography, EVP work, or regular divination, some people attract spirit attention. I just happen to have the attention span of a toddler. I start projects with good intentions and lose interest relatively quickly--usually about three days (if it's a really big project like learning a foreign language or a new religion I give it three years--three's the magic number). So, if I am attempting to contact the dead by means of a seance, ouija board, or paranormal photography I will get frustrated and find a new obsession. I assume when I hear of other people having great success with attracting unwanted spirit activity it is because they are either more connected or more determined. So to say the polar vortex stopped my experiment is to gloss over the fact that I would have lost interest anyway...unless something interesting happened.
The point of the hunt, however, is that investigators must make many attempts before a big capture can be celebrated. Therefore, I will start again now that the temperature is warmer. (We had hoped to go out on the battlefield today and were heading out the door to take some foggy pictures and do some EVP, but it started pouring rain.)
So, during the inclement weather we have few choices but to investigate our house.
Our house is in the old part of Gettysburg, but it was built in 1979. Apparently the original structure burned down and they rebuilt a period appropriate house on the foundation of the original.
For anyone who knows much about the battle of Gettysburg, the battle ranged all over town. On July 1, 1863, the northern soldiers were chased through the streets of town as they retreated from the rebels. Some were killed on the streets, others took refuge inside the houses and escaped or were captured. There have been reports of haunting in most of the structures in town, including the houses built in the last half of the 20th century, due to the activity of the ground on which they stand.
When we knew we were going to be moving into this house we decided to look up its address on diedinhouse.com. This is a handy website that will provide the history of houses for the small fee of $11. All I did was enter the address and the names of all the people who have ever owned the house, died in the house or died since moving from the house are displayed.
When I entered the address for this house it came up that a young man died here just last spring. Thanks to Facebook, I was able to track him down and the reason for his demise--suicide. With the already active soil around Gettysburg, I expected the possibility of some bad residual energy. Nothing really obvious has presented itself, however.
We did an investigation around Halloween and turned up nothing...but there have been some, possibly, interesting events since then.
After moving into the house we noticed one of the doors to an upstairs bedroom is lacking a doorknob and the door frame is separated in a way that suggests the door was kicked open. So, we assume this is the room the suicide may have occurred in. On New Year's Eve, we had gone to the Battlefield Bed and Breakfast to socialize then returned to put on warm clothes and head down to the square for the festivities. We opened the door to the room mentioned above and were confronted by a very unpleasant smell. When I first smelled it I thought of a locker room with its stinking socks and unwashed bodies, but the more I smelled it the more it changed to something like vomit or spoiled food. Roy thought he smelled vomit and poo combined. We checked the garbage for food, but only found paper. We looked around and didn't find any evidence of the cats, and we keep the door closed to this room because we don't want the cats making it smell. We popped open a window, turned on the fan, and closed the door again to keep the cats out. When we returned one hour later, there was no hint of the smell. The smell was so strong, initially, that I would expect it to have a lingering suggestion, but no. We tried to recreate the smell a couple nights later by closing up the room for a few hours and were unable to duplicate the smell. Were we smelling a phantom smell? Perhaps of the suicide victim?
One night, I was abruptly wakened between the hours of 3 and 4 am. As I lay in bed, I heard what sounded like a plastic cup being set down on the kitchen counter. It sounded too controlled to be the result of an animal knocking something over, and both cats were on the bed. So I lay there listening for something more, and watching the cats to see if they sensed anything, but they went on sleeping. I fell asleep and had a dream that the house was haunted by a young boy the age of 10. He kept shadowing us in the dream and finally admitted to me that he was afraid to cross over because his parents were abusive to him and he was afraid they'd be waiting for him. The dream was very vivid and the story was not related to anything I might have heard somewhere else.
When we came home from a 7 day excursion to Oregon (when I broke my leg) we found the TV and living room lights on. We dismissed the TV since a cat stepping on the remote could cause that, but what about the lights? It is very fishy, since I am anal about making sure all lights are off--especially since we spent a lot of time figuring out which lights to leave on to give the impression the house was occupied. But since I cannot state with absolute clarity that we didn't accidentally leave the lights on, I must dismiss it as possible paranormal activity.
Then there was the night just last week when we were both awakened by a loud noise downstairs, between the hours of 3 and 4 am. Once again, it didn't sound like an animal.
We have decided to do another investigation of the house, including the cellar. This time we will do it between 3 and 4 am since that seems to be the most active time. I have heard some people call that hour, "Dead Time." It is also considered the time of darker entities since 3 am is the counterpart of 3 pm--when Jesus died (if you believe in that stuff). We will report any evidence we receive.
 Let's face it, the paranormal is a great field to get your geek on. If you love gadgets, electronic wibbles and flashy thingamajigs then being a paranormal investigator will thrill you to death...no pun intended. A couple of weeks ago I finished a book about all those wonderful things we like to take out into the dark of night in our never ending endeavor to capture the crucial pieces of evidence that bring us closer to answering all those perplexing questions about the other side.
The book is called "Strange Frequencies: A Practical Guide to Paranormal Technology" by Craig Telesha. First let me say: this is not a how-to book on ghost hunting. It is about all the equipment we use to ghost hunt and the history behind it. This is an excellent guide for the non-techie. It is chock full of information about photography, video, audio recording, EMF detectors, and the use of radios such as spirit boxes. The author compares the old and the new and talks in depth about the advantages and disadvantages of each. There is even a chapter on how to build your own gadgets, including schematics, for use in the field.
He talks about photo and audio contamination from a technical viewpoint. Telesha discusses some of the other pieces of equipment we know and love such as EMF meters, thermometers, ion counters, Geiger counters, motion detectors, radar detectors, compasses, as well as giving you a basic understanding of how they all work.
The theme of this book isn't paranormal investigating but the science behind it. Page after page is turned without one mention of ghosts. This is a great book to reference when researching new equipment or when looking to go old school. The book was published in 2008 and in technological years that's eons ago. But the history and principles of the technology that we use in our investigations is as relevant today as it was when the book hit the press.
Knowledge is power. Knowing how the gadgets in our hands work will go a long way in helping us identify and debunk any "evidence" we get during our investigations. Telesha does a good job in demystifying the tech side of what we do. It's well written and really caters to those whose knowledge of ghost tech is minimal.
I've read a lot of books on the paranormal and ghost hunting. Many touch on the equipment you need but few tell you why you need it or how it works. This book fills that gap. I have no doubt that this volume should be on every investigators reference shelf. Dive in! It's a quick and easy read and will pay off in your investigations for years to come.
There are few things that inspire more argument and eye-rolling in the paranormal community than Orbs. I remember the first time I heard the word "orb". I was a naive religious zealot who didn't believe in an afterlife and was perusing the internet. I came across someone who claimed to have photographic proof of a spirit. I thought, "I have got to see this!" She was on a nighttime ghost tour (here in Gettysburg, believe it or not) and she had captured an orb sitting on a bench next to another person. I remember thinking it was some kind of a joke. I dismissed the photo and its author as evidence that insanity was still very much alive in the world, and stored the word "Orb" away for later use.
After the death of my childhood faith, I started exploring alternative beliefs. I had always been taught to fear the spirit world as being nothing but demonic. Now I wanted my own answers. I began my obsession with the paranormal world by watching the Ghost Adventures episode on the Stanley Hotel in Colorado. I had just finished reading The Shining and was dying to visit the Stanley. I was so thrilled to realize it was actually haunted! I loved the way Zak and his crew did the investigation! They were very efficient and business-like in their approach. (I guess I expected to see the cast of Finding Bigfoot, or South Park's representation of them.) At any rate, some of the earlier episodes of Ghost Adventures pointed out interesting orbs as evidence. I reached into my memory banks and pulled out my first skeptical exposure to orbs. I started to wonder if they knew something I didn't.
Most paranormal groups start out by cutting their investigative teeth on cemeteries, and we weren't any different. We weren't stupid enough to think a picture full of orbs was anything other than dust or moisture, but when we would take a picture of a lone orb that was either very bright, large, or moving we would take notice and think we had gotten some evidence. In fact, when investigating my brother's house I took a picture of an orb than can be seen reflected in the TV. I thought that was clear evidence that orbs have substance and are real.
I would become angry when people would mock me, or others like me, for thinking orbs were signs of spirit activity. We tried to find books on orbs and only found more inconclusive evidence. Until we picked up a book by Jeff Belanger called Communicating with the Dead. In the chapter on Spirit Photography, author and photographer Ken Milburn called the orbs "Lens Flare. "The lenses in most digital cameras have four to nine elements. That's four to nine separate lenses that are glued together to correct for various types of aberrations. So each one of those surfaces is capable of taking up a reflection and recording it. It doesn't necessarily have to be some bright light that you can see inside the frame, either. It could be something that is off to the side that just happens to hit the front of the lens and then reflects on the elements of the lens. Lens flare can even look like a ball in motion because of the multiple lenses." (71)
Jeff goes on to relate his experiences with orbs and his new digital camera from Olympus. When he questioned Olympus on the cause of the orbs, they said that the flash was picking up the dust particles and moisture droplets found in the air. There is also the possibility that smaller cameras place the flash closer to the lens, which results in more lens flare. Flash travels at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second)--the average point-and-shoot camera has a shutter speed of 1/125 of a second. Imagine the light from the flash bouncing all over the place in the split second the shutter is open. In fact, the light will travel 1488 miles during that time. (Belanger, 2005, pg 71)
I felt that handily explained the reflection of the orb I saw in the TV during the investigation at my brother's house. I was catching an orb of light expelled by the flash and bouncing around the room. (By the way, I strongly recommend Jeff's book. It is way more pragmatic than most books you will find on the paranormal.)
We decided to run our own experiment. We went out just as it was getting dark and took multiple photos with and without flash. If orbs only showed up in the pictures using flash, we would know that the orbs are, in fact, related to the flash.
The experiment was not as conclusive as I expected, but we got enough orbs to demonstrate part of my point.
With Flash
Without Flash
There are no orbs in either of the above photos. In such a wide open space as this I don't think there would be the possibility of light bouncing around, but lens flare would still be possible off the interior lenses...but it didn't happen here. There also does not appear to be as much dust and moisture during the winter as there is in summer. So these pictures are inconclusive. No doubt partially due to the fact that it is still not full dark out. This picture was taken as we were driving down the driveway of a bed and breakfast. The driveway was gravel and we can see the flash formed orbs around the dust in the air. Here's a lone orb we picked up down in the slaughter pen near Devil's Den. I took this picture and there was nothing visible to the naked eye before I captured this. There was a creek rushing among the boulders in the distance, however. Which would indicate the orb was most likely moisture. The above picture is of my Craft room. As you can see, it has books on Witchcraft, Ouija boards, Tarot decks, a voodoo doll, a crystal ball, and crystals. I took over 50 pictures, with flash, in this room and didn't get a single orb. Every picture looks exactly like the above. Then I took 50 pictures of the room without flash and every picture looks like the picture below. The only thing I believe I have proved with this short experiment is that dust and moisture cause orbs. I'm not so sure about lens flare, however. It seems if the flash alone could cause orbs I would have gotten at least one. We have taken more than 200 photos in the last few days and orbs have been almost nonexistent, except in the presence of dust and moisture.
Jeff Belanger concludes his chapter on Spirit Photography without a dogmatic stance against orbs. In fact, the picture on the cover of his book includes a couple of bright orbs found in a darkened cemetery. I think it would be silly of us to claim no orb is ever a sign of spirit presence. I have seen and captured orbs with faces in them. But now that we know dust and moisture cause orbs, and flash flare could cause orbs, we must cave to reasonable doubt and dismiss the vast majority of the orbs we see.
If anyone in the paranormal community would like to present evidence supporting or negating my experiment, please do. If you examine the photos I have posted on the investigation page you will find many orbs. I am leaving them up as an interesting study in various kinds of orbs, but not necessarily evidence of paranormal activity.
 For any of you who still follow this website, you are probably wondering why our evidence has come to a complete halt even though we are now living in one of the most haunted places in America. I was a PI (Paranormal Investigation) junky until our bad experience at Baker City (described in the post The Unsettled Souls of the Geyser Grand). Soon after Baker City, the holidays came and winter set in. Then we had to focus on getting the house ready to put on the market and all the subsequent craziness that followed as we moved and found a place to settle.
We arrived at Gettysburg stressed and apathetic about ghost hunting. We went out to Sachs Bridge only to find busloads of people out there "investigating." How can you investigate when there are a hundred people milling around?! We went on a couple hosted events and didn't turn up anything. It became alarmingly clear that any evidence collected on a hosted event, in which 10 to 20 people are all trying to collect evidence, would need to be thrown out from excessive contamination. Even if I was by myself in the basement of a four story house, which supposedly served as a Civil War Hospital, all EVP evidence was contaminated by the people tromping around overhead and talking loudly. So we stopped going on hosted investigations, which is okay anyway since they are very pricey!
Since we have been doing our own investigations, we have attempted to go to as many haunted places as we can. We always do our research and stay in the most active room of a B&B or Hotel. I am loathe to admit, however, that we haven't collected any evidence since our visit to Gettysburg in the summer of 2012.
I have a theory, and I would be interested in knowing if anyone in the paranormal community agrees with me. Is it possible that some places have been hunted too much? Gettysburg Battlefield, Eastern State Penitentiary, The Ax Murder House of Villisca, Iowa, every McMenamins in Oregon and Washington, the Lizzie Borden House, etc. etc. etc. People pay big bucks to investigate some of these places. For example, on our way east last summer we were going to be passing about 30 miles north of the Villisca Ax Murder House. For $428 a group can be locked down in the house for a whole night. We thought it would be fun to give it a try, but when we went to the website to book a night we found out every night for the rest of the summer was already booked. (I recently watched the Ax Murder House portrayed on Dead Files. The owner said she would not, under any condition, stop opening the house to paranormal groups which only angered the spirits. I can't say as I blame her. Not counting daytime tour groups, if she sells out every nighttime lockdown during the summer she will gross over $13000 per month!)
Very few people seem to get any really conclusive evidence in these places. Considering how often they are hunted, and how active they supposedly are, I would assume there would be a mountain of evidence. What if the resident spirits are tired of people trying to make contact with them? What if they find it insulting? It has become more and more apparent to me that ghost hunting the places that everyone goes to may be a waste of time and money.
I was recently exploring the world of Paranormal Podcasts and came across one called Stirring the Cauldron by Marla Brooks. In one of her episodes she contemplates the question, "Do haunted locations have a shelf-life?" During that episode, she tells of an experience she had in which she asked medium David Wills the reason the famed Winchester House was devoid of spirit activity. His answer is quite enlightening. He told her the spirits were still in the house, but they were bored with the endless parade of paranormal investigators. They aren't impressed with us or our attempts to get in contact with them. Her guest Brian Patrick implied they may not want to perform for us like monkeys endlessly beating the drum to our endless inquiries: "Are you there?," "What's your name," "Do you know you're dead?" etc.
Now don't get me wrong. If you sat in on one of my EVP sessions I would be asking similar questions in hopes of getting a response, because almost every EVP I have ever gotten have been in direct response to a question I had posed. But I have usually gotten EVP's after I have made an effort to connect to the area I am in. I have endeavored to mentally reach out to whoever may be in the ether, and empathize with them in the hopes they feel moved to speak to me. I am not a psychic. I may be sensitive, but my self-doubt is stronger than most paranormal entities, so I just do the best I can.
I think part of the reason I haven't gotten an EVP in a year and a half is because I don't try very hard any more, and my mind has become too cluttered with other things (i.e. moving, finding a job, breaking my ankle, etc.). There is nothing remotely appealing about me that would attract the attention of a resident spirit because I have lost my enthusiasm and love for the paranormal hunt.
Like any relationship, if you fire off the same questions every day to the people around you and never get emotionally invested that relationship will suffer. The spirits on the other side need to know we actually care about them. They need to know they matter to us. So, why are we out there gathering evidence? To get answers to the cosmic questions regarding an afterlife? Or is it just an easy path to fame? We need to treat the spirits on the other side as courteously as we treat the person standing next to us. They were once human, and may become human again. They aren't there for our entertainment.
In a hosted event in which 10 or more people are milling about with cameras flashing and spirit boxes blaring, it is almost impossible to sit quietly and absorb the energy of a room or reach out to the spirits. I would be interested in finding out just how much real evidence is obtained in group investigations. It seems such investigations are for paranormal tourists rather than people really interested in paranormal investigations. I am reminded of my infamous investigation in Baker City in 2012. A middle-aged couple, who seemed inebriated, decided to join the investigation of an area brothel. The man kept "feeling" spirit touch him and would whisper this to his wife (never whisper on an investigation!), while she clicked around in high-heeled boots. I actually felt bad for them because they probably thought it would be a lark, not realizing every other person on the team was going to be glaring at them every time they opened their mouths or took a step. They finally left with some complaints that they were tired of people yelling at them.
So, the logical explanation to this enormous blog (sorry about that) is to avoid group hunts and do our own thing. This is easy to do in open places like battlefields and cemeteries, but not so easy if someone wants to investigate a house, hotel, or asylum. Big bucks must be laid out and a group must be endured. I am constantly threatening to trespass on abandoned places (I would never break and enter--just enter), but my husband's cooler head prevails and stories of incarceration inevitably discourage me from the adventure. Although I did inform him today that I am going to get my tetanus booster, just in case.
The last few hours of 2013 are upon us. It is traditional at this time to contemplate the last year and anticipate the next. I remember when 2012 wrapped-up, I made the wish that 2013 would end with us living in Gettysburg--and here we are! We moved into town and now live two blocks from the very heart of Gettysburg--Lincoln Square.
Nothing has gone smoothly with this move and we were beginning to contemplate the possibility that the universe, our ancestors, or something out there was trying to tell us we had made the wrong decision-- Starting with the last night in our house. We had packed 90% of our possessions into the moving truck and it was 1:00 AM when we finally decided it was time to go to bed. So we laid out our sleeping bags on the floor of our bedroom. We were filthy and miserable because the buyers of our house were angry we weren't out yet, although we were doing the best we could. Roy and I lay on the floor of our room, staring up at the vaulted ceiling for the last time. We had built that house. We knew better than anyone what lay behind the sheetrock, and where the carpet hid areas of spilled paint. We loved that house. It was in our bones like no other house ever would be. We may build again, but it will never be like the first time.
The house was my inheritance. My father had died in the room across the hall. We had lost three cats and two goldfish in that house, and watched my stepson and nephew grow to adulthood. We had lost our faith and everyone attached to it. We had watched ourselves die to a former life and be born again to something we could never have anticipated.
Although it broke our hearts, it was time to say goodbye to the house and all it represented. It was time to move on, even though we didn't know what the future would bring. We stared up at the ceiling of the master bedroom, which no longer belonged to us. We contemplated its five acres between the Deschutes and Crooked Rivers and listened to the silence that we had loved so much. We knew it would be a long time till we experienced the same peace and quiet. Our voices became choked as we remembered the joys and grief the house had experienced. Death and rebirth. I wondered aloud if my father was aware we were selling the house he had willed to me.
We lay in the semi-darkness, lit only by the full moon, when the light in the master bath turned on spontaneously. Our conversation froze. The knots in our hearts plummeted to our stomachs as we lay very still, wondering if we were in the presence of a paranormal event. A message from the other side--possibly my father?
"Did that light just turn on all by itself?" I said from my supine position on the bedroom floor.
"Yes, I think it did," said Roy.
"Has it ever done that before?" I asked.
"Not that I can remember," said Roy.
Then my cynical pragmatist took over and I said dismissively, "The switch was probably not fully engaged. It was probably halfway between on and off."
So Roy got up to investigate. "Nope," he said. "It is fully on. Not halfway at all." Then he tried to get the switch to stick between on and off to see if it was possible. He couldn't do it. It was a newer switch with a wide, flat surface and, apparently, they don't stick as easily as the old ones did. Roy turned the light off and lay down again. Soon afterward we fell asleep, only to wake up four hours later and start a long day that would end in Burns, Oregon at 3:00 AM the following day.
As I contemplate the last five months in Gettysburg, we have had a period of adjustment and there were some moments where I wondered if I had made a huge mistake. Although I miss my house and the gourmet kitchen, it was time to move on. If I could have brought the house with me, I would have. But that is not possible. I have every confidence the people who bought it will take good care of it. They seemed to love it as much as we did.
We are grateful to be in Gettysburg and excited to be embarking on our next adventure. And as for the light anomaly on our last night in the house--I think the house was saying goodbye.
 After a long hiatus we are reemerging from our crypt of inactivity. The frustrating situation in Baker City, OR and the arrival of winter effectively curtailed our investigative energies. We spent the winter planning for our move to Gettysburg, PA. We put the house on the market in May and sold it in less than two months.
The whole selling and moving situation was stressful to the extreme. But we made it to our destination with no one dying...except for our Expedition, which chose to go belly-up in Rawlins, Wyoming. The picture here is the last night we spent with our SUV in Fort Bridger, WY. It was sad to see it go but we found someone who took it as trade-in for a 2003 Chevy Silverado, which happily managed to get us to our destination without too many difficulties.
We are living in a townhouse in Bonneauville, PA (5 miles from Gettysburg) while we look for a house to buy. I have been hankering to go on an investigation since we got here, but the stress of the move left us all sick. I did go out onto the old Evergreen Cemetery in Gettysburg to do some EVP since I had such good luck there last year. But I neglected to push record on the recorder (yeah, I'm that rusty) and didn't notice it until after I had walked around for 10-15 minutes. Stupid, stupid, stupid! I would be really upset if my time here was limited, but I can go back anytime.
Tomorrow ends our first week in Gettysburg, which will begin the longest amount of time we have ever spent here. So far, all we have done is wander around shops and drink a lot of beer. There are worse ways to spend a week!
We have taken a small sabbatical from our hobby of ghost hunting. The month of October was extremely busy. So much so, in fact, that our college classes were suffering and we had to work hard to get our grades up. Fall term has now officially ended and we have a few weeks before the beginning of winter term. I am using this time to finish reviewing the evidence from six weeks ago.
The weekend following Halloween we decided to drive a few hours away from our home to an old mining town in eastern Oregon—Baker City. I have always wanted to visit Baker City and see the Oregon Trail Interpretive museum and the deep ruts left from countless covered wagons.
It wasn’t just history that inspired us to drive 220 miles, however. The local hotel was reputed to be haunted and a weekend of ghost hunting was arranged for anyone with a few hundred dollars to spend. A group of paranormal investigators out of Boise, Idaho hosted the event.
Upon arriving at The Geyser Grand Hotel in Baker City, we checked into our large and luxuriant room. I felt like I had stepped back into a film from the silver screen era. I tried to imagine the cast of “Paint Your Wagon” (one of my favorite movies!) staying in the rooms while they filmed in the nearby hills.
The first night, Trevor and I got to investigate an old brothel. This was the equivalent of a paranormal wet dream for me. I have always been fascinated by brothels and prostitution and imagine I must have been a prostitute in a previous life. We also investigated The Geyser Grand and another, higher class, brothel the following night.
I learned something interesting that weekend—ghost hunting is not a team sport. Nor are all ghost hunters created equal. I have hours of recorded data and zero evidence. Too many cooks in the kitchen spoil the pudding, and too many ghost hunters spoil the investigation.
As an introvert, I am perfectly content to go off with my camera and digital recorder, by myself, where I know I can control my environment. Any evidence I collect is real evidence because I am the only one present and I know my own voice well enough to know when a sound is me or not. In a room full of 10, 15, 20 people out for a lark the possibility of collecting anything genuine is impossible because there’s no way of knowing if the sounds are spectral or human. Since our policy is ‘When in doubt throw it out,’ it was a wasted weekend when it comes to evidence.
I also learned another valuable lesson—I don’t play well with others. I wanted to investigate. I didn’t want to talk. I didn’t care what someone had for dinner or what they thought of their rooms. I wanted silence so I could listen! We weren’t permitted to go off by ourselves but were required to stay with the assigned team leader—shackled to them as children on a field trip. These team leaders would get shifty if I just went into another room.
Their OCD way of controlling the investigation ended there, however. Controlling the living was of greater importance than gathering quality evidence. Question after question was fired off with only a few seconds in-between: “What’s your name?” “Did you like being a prostitute?” “What was your favorite color?” “What was your favorite food?” “Will I get pregnant again?” etc, etc, etc. It became more of a game of who could think of the most original question rather than a desire to hear responses.
And that’s the other thing, if I was a spirit and a bunch of total strangers invaded my space and started demanding answers from me I would likely be insulted. I am beginning to realize, more and more, that resident entities don’t like to perform. On the last night we were there, I waited till everyone else was in bed (sometime after 3am) and snuck out of the room to investigate some of the locations on my own. I spent an hour ducking the night clerk and trying to contact whatever resident spirits wandered the halls.
Flapper girls have been seen on the second floor balcony. A little girl has been seen on the third floor. And a bell hop who was decapitated by a dumb-waiter has been seen in the basement.
I didn’t get any evidence on my solo excursion. I wondered if the spirits had gotten tired of the constant harassment! The best evidence I have collected in my varied ghost hunts has been in surprising places, unfrequented by the paranormally obsessed crowds.
The weekend in Baker City ended rather disastrously when I had a confrontation with the manager of the paranormal group. I was tired of being told where I could and could not go. I couldn’t even stand out on the sidewalk of a deserted town without being chewed out. I felt like I was dealing with someone who had major control issues! Her minions would jump at her every appearance and defer to her in every situation. When I suggested an organized coup at dinner, one of the investigators admitted to being kicked out of the group when she chose to disagree with the manager. I believe in organization, but there is a difference between organization and tyranny.
I realize that one experience shouldn’t color my perspective of the entire paranormal community. But I must admit that the weekend took the wind from my sails and I haven’t really wanted to do any ghost hunting. It’s rather ironic really, last Halloween I had a bad experience with a dark, unseen energy, and this year it was the darkest entity I have ever experienced—of the human variety. I believe I will avoid large, publicized ghost hunts in the future.
Of course, there is always the possibility that all of this is the result of two immovable forces colliding. I typically prefer to be in control and I rarely encounter a situation in which control is taken away from me, especially by another woman. I will say, however, that I was extremely grateful for the full service bar in the lobby of the hotel and used its angst-drowning benefits on more than one occasion. Cheers, ghost hunters!
As paranormal investigators it is always exciting to find that little bit of evidence that makes the hunt worthwhile. Even more exciting is when evidence is backed up by the findings of others.
This last August we had the privilege of visiting Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (evidence can be found on investigation page or by clicking here). We collected only one EVP in the penitentiary of a particularly mad voice saying the name Michael.
A few short weeks ago we pulled out the episode of “Ghost Adventures” in which they investigated Eastern State Pen (Season 2, episode 6). Imagine our surprise when they told the story of Michael T. Doran (starting at 4 minutes 30 seconds) who was an officer of Eastern State in the 1830’s. He was beaten to death by an inmate who had apparently gone mad after spending too much time in solitary confinement.
Since Michael is a fairly common name we didn’t get too excited until later in the episode when Nick Groff is doing an investigation at the exact location at which the officer was killed. He catches a high-pitched voice saying, “Nick.” The voice says Nick’s name twice indicating an intelligent haunting rather than a residual energy (37m18s and 39m40s).
The voice that says “Nick” is the exact same voice we recorded saying, “Hey Michael.” However, we caught the voice in Cell Block 5, not at the location of the murder. Was Cell Block 5 where the murderer, Joseph, returned to his cell to take a nap? Earlier in the same episode they interviewed a man who reported catching a high-pitched voice on repeated occasions within the prison walls (11m00s).
We were very excited to not only receive corroboration of our evidence, but to validate the evidence of the Ghost Adventures crew.
 Many consider the holy grail of paranormal investigation a full bodied apparition captured on video or even in a nice clear photo. Now don’t get me wrong, that would be cool, I would love to get evidence like that myself one day. But for me a nice clear E.V.P. gets me excited every time. There is something about knowing that you are in actual communication with someone from the other side that is just more satisfying to me as a paranormal investigator. Even if it’s just a residual voice from some long gone era that is echoing through time and space I can’t help but think that when it comes to the paranormal, a picture isn’t worth a thousand words.
What are E.V.P’s? E.V.P. stands for “electronic voice phenomena.” Basically it is unexplained sounds, noises and, more often than not, words that are thought to be a recording of a “ghost voice.” Usually at the time the E.V.P. is recorded the person doing the recording does not hear the voice until later when they review it. The subject of E.V.P.’s is an article unto itself so I will save that discussion for a later time as this is more a nuts and bolts piece.
Really, E.V.P’s are the bread and butter of paranormal investigation. There’s a lot of equipment that can come in handy but none more than a digital recorder. And despite what you see on TV, you don’t need the fancy, multi-directional micro-phoned $300 recorders being toted around. Let me give you the low down on the basics of what you need and what you can expect to spend--it’s less painful than you think.
My Grand Dad used to tell me you get what you pay for, and that’s still true, but it doesn’t mean you have to buy the most expensive recorder there is to get one that will do a good job. Here are some things to consider when you go shopping for a recorder:
1. Choose a digital recorder over an analog recorder. Analog recorders often pick up the sounds of their own internal workings, which can easily be mistaken for EVPs. Some may disagree with this as they believe the internal noise aids in getting E.V.P.’s. I disagree. In my opinion there’s no substitution for a good clean recording.
2. Avoid voice-activated recorders, as they begin recording when sound is detected, they may clip off the first few seconds of sound, which may alter an E.V.P. or cut it off altogether. How frustrating would that be?
3. The recorder should be equipped with a USB port to make uploading of sound files to your computer easy and painless. This will make listening to the E.V.P.’s easier, and will allow you to import or export your files as needed.
4. While you most likely won’t ever do 1200 hours of recording, having plenty of storage space can be handy, just in case. Many recorders these days have upwards o f 2 to 4 gigs of memory which is way more than even the most zealous investigator will ever use.
Olympus and Sony both make good recorders that can be had for less than $50.00. And if you’re patient and like to play around with auctions you can get great deals on Ebay. Amazon is another great place to shop for a digital recorder. And yes, even that Mecca of all things red neck, Wal-Mart, has great deals on the afore-mentioned brands. There are those who say you need stereo microphones, high-sampling rates, 24 bit conversions, and on and on and on. Not true.
Let’s remember we are dealing with theories here. This is the paranormal. Electronic Voice Phenomenon works on the principle of EMF (Electro Magnetic Field) so it is not the actual recording or sensitivity of the device that matters, but rather the ability for any magnetic influences present that are not related to the sound to imprint themselves on the device. In fact, it has nothing to do with sound, as nearly all E.V.P.’s can’t be heard audibly at the time of recording. E.V.P.’s are not created in the same manner as a standard human voice recording.
I have seen good simple recorders get incredible E.V.P.’s too many times to be discounted as a solid tool. The digital recorder is by far the best bang for the buck when it comes to evidence collection. So don’t worry about laying down a lot of money for all the bells and whistles. Set a budget, read reviews, and happy hunting.
"If our personality survives, then it is strictly logical or scientific to assume that it retains memory, intellect, other faculties, and knowledge that we acquire on this Earth. Therefore ... if we can evolve an instrument so delicate as to be affected by our personality as it survives in the next life, such an instrument, when made available, ought to record something" Thomas Edison - to a reporter from American Magazine, 1920.
 Ghost captured at Bachelor Grove Cemetery, Chicago, IL Throughout history humankind has feared the unknown. Long before the written word stories were told of unseen forces, both good and evil, that lurked in the darkness. Humans have long tried to understand the other side, to understand the nature of death, what we become and where we go when we pass over. Fear of dying has long haunted us and for some a belief in some sort of survival after a physical death helps alleviate those fears. But what do we become? A ghost? A spirit? Are they one and the same thing? Let’s see.
Ghosts seem to have more of a negative connotation in the paranormal world that is not always deserved. Remember, we tell ghost stories to scare each other, not spirit stories. A ghost’s reputation tends to “haunt” where a spirit tends to “help.” In reality the true definition of a ghost is rather sad and tragic. Typically a ghost is the surviving energy of a person who has died suddenly and traumatically and in most cases they are unaware of their own tragic passing. A few may realize they have died but are confused about where they are and what they are supposed to do.
To put it simply ghosts can linger because they feel they have unfinished business or they are letting emotions such as guilt, love or revenge push them away from crossing over. These emotions keep them tied to the spot where they died and in some cases reliving the tragedy over and over again. It seems ghosts cannot reason that they are dead and that the replaying of their demise over and over has become an obsession. Not everyone who dies tragically or violently becomes a ghost. It depends a lot on the person and whether or not they accept their passing.
A spirit is someone who usually passes peacefully and accepts what is happening. They cross over fully and are aware and capable of a level of reasoning that the ghost is not. These are typically the so called “intelligent hauntings” as they are fully capable of intelligent interaction with the physical world. Spirits tend to be associated with beings who are helpers and guides. Spirits are capable of going back and forth between the physical world and the spiritual plane and are not tied to one side or the other.
Ghosts who are aware they are dead can be frustrated and act out in ways that are intentionally meant to get our attention. That’s when you hear activity such as the slamming of door, footsteps, and some kinds of EVP’s. We must remember that these might be people who are just as frightened as we are. Possibly unaware of their own death, they may be only looking for answers.
When many people hear the word “ghost,” they get nervous. In reality they deserve pity for the situation they may find themselves in having to relive the same tragic event over and over like a looped tape recorder. In most cases they can’t do much else and therefore can do little to harm the living.
Now let me end this article by saying when I use the word “spirit” I mean it in reference to humans who have passed on fully to the other side. There are many who use the word to reference angels, demons, etc. and that is something for another article.
There are no absolute definitions when it comes to the paranormal. What we know we know through experience, observance and deduction. Many have had both positive and negative experiences with ghosts and spirits. Once, they were all people, and like people, you get all kinds...even on the other side.
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