What is a ghost?
One of my favorite books is also my favorite source of ghost hunting information. This book is full of ideas and references that come in so handy on any case. We use this book as a field guide for both investigating and training. The book is “PICTURE YOURSELF GHOST HUNTING” and was written by Christopher Balzano. I'm telling you this because a chapter in this book made me wonder how many different definitions or ideas are out there on what a ghost is. Myself, I am undecided as to the answer to this question. I tend to lean towards the theory of ghosts being energy that has left someone’s body after death, but I am open minded and willing to learn and expand my knowledge. So, I decided to show you some of the definitions that Christopher has come across and printed in his book, I would like to here what your definitions might be as well.
Please read these definitions from his book and tell me what yours are, there's no right or wrong answers here. Send your opinions to .
“a ghost is the disembodied essence of someone. Short, to the point, and encompassing as many of the kinds of spirits as are out there.”
Christopher Balzano
author of PICTURE YOURSELF GHOST HUNTING
“The disincarnate personality of a once living human being whose energy and personality is able to exist beyond the human body.”
Shawn Blaschka
WPRS
“... a ghost or haunting is something left over from a life, an echo.”
Brian J. Cano
The SCARED! Crew
“ A ghost is a disembodied spirit of a once living person that hasn't quite made the transition from this world to the next often due to an untimely, sudden or violent death.”
Dale Kaczmarek
Ghost Research Society
“ I believe ghosts are either emotional imprints in time and space, replaying themselves over and over until they finally fade out, or at times they are souls that choose to stay on Earth for one reason or another. Maybe because they don't realize they're dead or they have unfinished business that needs to be taken care of.”
Kathleen Popola, Blue Moon
Paranormal Investigations
“ To me a ghost is the life force of someone whom has died. They then try to interact with the living for whatever reason. Some people say they have unfinished business or just come back from wherever they were to contact someone special.”
Nicole Ardolino,
Northeast Paranormal Investigations
“ I believe that every living thing is made up of energy, and while our outer shell may die, the energy lives on. Most times it crosses over to the next realm of existence and sometimes it stays retaining the same emotions and experiences it had when it was in a body.”
Tina Carlson,
Las Vegas Society of Supernatural Investigations
“ ...someone or thing that is no longer of our present time frame, and will always remain within the fabric of time until it has decided to move on gto where it needs to go.”
Bruce J. Duarte, S.C.P.I.
Poltergeists
Poltergeist, the movie, everyone's seen it. This movie had a couple of great sequels, its became a classic for everyone who loves scary movies. With all of the strange things, the floating furniture, the classic neighborhood built on the old cemetery. It just screams EVIL Spirits!
I don't think that any movie has sent more paranormal investigators the wrong messages. Well, until Paranormal Activity any way.
Actually, poltergeist activity tends to be more auditory, heard more with knocks on the wall or footsteps in the hallway. You will not hear them by voice, they will not talk, whisper or be caught on an EVP. They also tend to be more intelligent, wanting to communicate. They can also manipulate electronic devices and solid objects. It is well accepted that this is a skill that other ghosts can't preform. However, like in the movie, the thing that poltergeists seem to do best, is create havoc in a household. They tend to pick one or two members in the home and harass them, possibly getting physical.
There are newer studies out now that seem to think that poltergeists aren't even ghosts at all. Some reports seem to show that the activity we would usually associate with a poltergeist are pointing towards members in the home. It suggests that a child, usually female, who is entering the age of puberty tends to create a poltergeist subconsciously. One of the strange things with this is that the person being abused can also be the one causing the poltergeist itself. The energy that can accompany a poltergeist is not fully understood either. Some believe that it falls into the telekinetic arena and the added stress' from the activity can feed even more energy into the situation. This added energy is focused on the objects that move or are thrown across the room, sometimes with enough force to throw an adult.
Hollywood can create a great ghost story, but it's up to the real paranormal investigators to make sure that people get the true information and leave the imagination to the movie makers.
Food for thought
Have you noticed how you can’t change the channel on your TV without finding another show on ghost hunting? It used to be hard to find someone to talk to if you had a problem or question involving ghosts or anything paranormal. Now ghost hunting is main stream and everywhere. Does this mean that anyone can help you find the answers that you are seeking? Not really. Its more like when you want to buy a used car. The 1st thing to remember when you’re looking for help is what kind of help do you need? Do your research to see if the group that you’re talking to is knowledgeable in the area that you need help in. Do you think that you may have a ghost in your home? Or maybe you think that you have seen a UFO? The term “PARANORMAL” actually covers a broad spectrum and not all groups are knowledgeable in all areas. Check them out, their web sites and newspaper/magazine articles, anything that you can find on them. You can learn a lot about a group by their web image.
A reliable group will have an up front web page, meaning, you wont be hit with a bunch of pop-ups when you visit them. You should also be able to see photos of the group or of some of their own investigations. They should also offer you a site that is easy to navigate so you will be able to find some answers to your questions without actually contacting them. Some groups will offer you help for free and others might ask for a fee or reimbursement of expenses. This doesn’t mean that they are a scam, but remember, you might not get your moneys worth so be careful on what they are selling. The biggest thing to remember is this...
Paranormal Research is a new science and mostly comprised of THEORY. Make sure that you remember that, especially when you are talking with someone. If they are making promises like they can rid your home of ghosts using a special gadget that they have invented or something like that, you need to go elsewhere for the answers you seek.
When seeking help, it is a good idea to look at groups that are in it for the science and not the money or fame. To find one of these groups, you need to look for things like:
What type of friends have they linked to?
Do they use a grading system for their collected evidence?
Do they make claims or accusations that they can’t prove?
Does everything they investigate seem to be haunted?
When looking at a groups web page, look to see if they have a “links” page. What type of groups are they advertising for? Are there a lot of sites that are trying to sell something? Do some of these groups grade their evidence in a similar fashion? Remember, you’re dealing with theory, and if others are using the same theories then they are more likely to be a bit more credible.
I have heard of a group from the west coast that claims to have the technology to come to your home and capture a ghost in a trap, than take the ghost to their base and place the ghost into their containment system. Sounds to me like somebody has watched the movie “Ghostbusters” one to many times. The scary part is they are actually finding clients. Other groups will come in to your home with a bottle of supposedly holy water, spray it around a few times and chant a few words then tell you that they have cleansed your home and run to the bank to cash your check. It doesn’t work that way! Don’t be fooled by scam artists.
A group that is really trying to help you will go through a list of steps that they will follow every time they start a new case. They will start with an interview, some will even have forms for you to sign that say you have requested there services. They should offer you liability waivers and publishing permissions. You should see these things up front and you should READ them completely and understand them before you sign anything! Most of these forms are to protect you as well as the investigating group. Then they will explain the procedures of what they intend to do in your case and you should make sure you understand and agree with them before you let them into your home or business, supervised or not. You are their client, don’t be misled or bullied into something that you are not sure of. After they have done their investigation, don’t ask about the results because they need to go through a lot of info and see what they can explain away. This doesn’t mean that you cant ask how it went, if they had any personal experiences or things like that, it might give everyone a little more info to go on as they sift through the material.
It has been our experience that most things can be logically explained. We have found that some things will take longer to figure out and some we may never figure out. As a general rule, for us that is, when you find something unusual, you do everything that you can possibly do to debunk it. Some groups will find an “orb” in a photo and say the place is haunted, without even looking at the obvious things like dust and moisture. With all of the “Hollywood Hunters” out there trying to make as much of every investigation to show the most ghosts and get the best rating, it can get confusing sorting out the facts. Remember, if its on TV or in the movies its Hollywood and its meant to get ratings and make money so it’s got to be haunted! Real life ghost hunting isn’t quite that exciting... well, most of the time anyway.
If you’re looking for help with a paranormal problem then I hope this gives you a little more information to aid in your search. Please contact us if you would like more help in finding the right information for your needs.
Shadow Men: What are they?
That little bit of black you see whip around the corner, that glimpse out of the corner of your eye…a shadow person. Many have claimed to see fleeting glimpses of shadows along with many claims of fully formed shadow people right in front of them. Shadow people have been called many things including shadow folk or shadow beings. Some claim them to be a figment of our imagination, our minds playing a trick or something that our subconscious creates. Others feel as though they are from a different dimension and have come through to our dimension to observe and research our daily interactions. Others feel they are a dark energy that either brings or feeds off of negative energy and are a sign that either things are bad or something bad will occur. No one has an exact answer because claims of sightings range from small animal like shadows to small troll-like shadows, even all the way up to full size and giant human sized shadows. They are interesting and peak many an investigators interest. I know I have been studying up on them since my experience when I was younger.
My experience….I lived in a small house during my early years from birth to about 5 years old. I loved that house and wish I could go back again to check it out. It was a nice starter home for a small family and that was exactly what we were. It was my mom, dad, my brother and myself. My parent’s bedroom was in the basement. It wasn’t technically a bedroom; it had no windows and no doors, just a room off of the main basement living area. My bedroom was upstairs but as any parent knows, children often find their way to their parent’s room. On many occasions I would lay in my parents bed wide awake staring into the darkness. There were multiple times when I would see large outlines of men standing at the entrance of the room and some as close as the edge of the bed. I could not make out any detailed features. They were solid and very dark; I could make them out in the darkness because they were much darker than the unlit basement. They never really did anything besides stand and stare except one time one kept walking slowly towards the bed and I closed my eyes as soon as it got close to my edge of the bed, when I came up from under the covers they were gone. That was really the only experiences I had at that house but it definitely helped peak my interest in the paranormal.
Since no conclusive evidence has been found I feel as though we will continue to search the paranormal field to find out more about the odd happenings that occur in our world. Post any questions or comments to our site and we will gladly try to answer them for you! Also if you have experienced this phenomenon and would like us to investigate we would gladly review your case free of charge.
Article by Danielle Horvath, GRASPP
Why do Ghost Hunters usually hunt at night?
This is a question that I have been asked many times. I have been an investigator for about five years now, and I don’t know what the answer is. Our group, G.R.A.S.P.P., has done investigations at all hours of the day and we have found unusual things at different times. We have noticed that night time hunts usually provide more activity and I have heard a theory about this.
One of the theories out there that I’ve heard is that the nighttime air is naturally more charged, electrically, which allows spirits and ghost more energy to feed off of. Sounds good, sort of. We would like to add a few other facts to consider. If you go with the theory that ghosts need electrical energy to become active, then it stands to reason that the night would be the best time to collect that energy. More people are in their homes, at night, turning on lights, watching TV, on the computer, using all kinds of electronic devices – which create EMF’s (Electromagnetic Fields). Then you look at the fact that more people are in their homes, this means there is less chance for you to capture a passerby and mistake them as a paranormal event. If you are outside investigating and you know the area that you’re in is relatively open and away from EMF activity caused by those things, you theatrically are now the bait. The EMF’s that your equipment and your bodies are creating are also drawing any possible activity to you, hopefully, allowing you to capture some evidence. You also have an easier time with the lower amount of surrounding noise, but you still must remember that noise tends to travel farther at night.
Another suggests that we look at the earths Electromagnetic Field; you will see a stronger concentration of EMF on the sunny side of the planet, where it is needed to protect us from the sun’s radiation. The EMF on the night side of the planet is weaker simply because it is not as needed.
Most of the equipment we use in this field can be affected by the energy put out by light, causing things like reflections, improper EMF readings and such. Some also believe that by hunting at night you sharpen your other senses, something like the senses of a person who has lost their sight, their sense of smell, hearing and/or touch are usually improved.
Then you also have the “drama effect”, walking around at night, in a cemetery or home, with your camera and recorder, it all adds to the thrill of the investigation. Don’t be mislead, look at the case and determine when you should investigate by what is happening. It does no good to hunt at night, if all of the activity is happening during lunch.
These are a couple of reasons that we tend to do our investigations at night. I have even heard that the hours from 11 pm to 3 am are the best and most active times to investigate. I’m not sure that I agree. You really have to consider the area that you intend to hunt, and what times do the events you’re looking for seem to happen. Also, when are your wittiness’ experiencing these things? Whether your wittiness’ are experiencing the activity on their lunch break, or only when they are doing a particular thing, these are important clues to consider. Paranormal activity can and does happen at any time. The night time seems to be when it is easiest to find something, but not the only time.
By Bill Jones
|
