Electronic Gadgets Aid Ghost Hunting
Halloween is just a week away. Are you hearing things that go bump in the night? Think your house has a ghost infestation problem but nobody believes you?
Before you call Ghostbusters, visit RadioShack, Circuit City or the Web to buy an infrared temperature sensor, magnetometer, trifield meter, infrared camera, digital camera, motion sensor or a cassette recorder, the electronic gear of choice for professional and amateur ghost hunters coast to coast.
Ghost hunters contend digital cameras can record eerie images, cassette recorders can pick up spectral voices, thermometers can find odd cold spots, and magnetometers and trifield meters can detect unusual magnetic field fluctuations that they say might be caused by the supernatural.
"They do provide corroborating evidence," said Nancy Coplin, director of the Pennsylvania Ghost Hunters Society, Johnstown, Pa. (http://community.webtv.net/Fieldghost).
But skeptics abound, even in the free-thinking field of the paranormal. They say light can play tricks on digital cameras and photographic software such as Adobe Photoshop makes hoaxes easier to perpetrate. In addition, nearby computers or televisions can make electromagnetic meters go haywire.
Coplin said she agrees the instruments should be used in a controlled environment to prevent bad readings. But Coplin said she stands by her group's findings.
To back them up, Coplin points to the high electromagnetic readings and digital photos her club recorded of mysterious light orbs at a Victorian-era home in Johnstown this summer. Residents claim an apparition, an old, gray-haired man who wanders around dressed only in boxer shorts and a T-shirt, haunts the house.
Coplin said she believes the ghost is a previous owner who died from a heart attack in 1964. He probably doesn't realize he's dead and is looking for his clothes, she said.
Other ghost hunters report similar results using electronics.
A couple in Lancaster, Calif., recently complained a ghost was terrorizing them. A translucent apparition in the form of a young man would touch them, whisper unpleasant things in their daughter's ear and snatch bedcovers off at night.
They called Dr. Larry Montz at the International Society of Paranormal Research in Los Angeles (www.hauntings.com) for help. Montz, whose group works with Los Angeles police on unsolved crimes, took psychics to the home. One "saw" the ghost of a neighbor who recently committed suicide sitting on the daughter's bed.
Investigators snapped a photo of the bed using an infrared camera and found proof, Montz said. A glowing, blue, disembodied hand appeared in the photo. The blue color indicated the ghost was cold; hot images appear yellow, orange or red in infrared, he said.
"Temperature gauges are critical," Montz said. "An entity will usually generate a cold spot but we've also found hot spots."
Off-the-shelf gear
The gear ghost hunters use was not originally designed for spirit tracking.
Geologists and miners use magnetometers and trifield meters to detect underground gold and oil deposits that generate electromagnetic fields. Ghosts also can generate such fields, according to Montz.
A good magnetometer sells for $250 to $400, although less expensive but sometimes unreliable models are available, Montz said. Trifield meters, which sell for around $200, measure magnetic as well as electrical fields, radio and microwaves.
Ghost hunters prefer digital cameras because images can be examined instantly on built-in display screens, ending the anxious wait to develop film. Digital cameras also have a knack for picking up orbs.
According to ghost hunters, orbs are balls of light manifested by spirits. They usually are invisible to the naked eye.
Infrared thermometers, cameras and video cameras can measure the temperature of objects dozens of feet away.
Professional infrared thermometers can cost more than $600, although inexpensive hand-held, liquid crystal display thermometers can be bought at RadioShack for as little as $25. Infrared cameras and video cameras are expensive - many sell for more than $10,000 - but they can be rented for a few hundred dollars a day.
[It is very simple -- and cheap -- to modify most models of digital camera to record in IR. A simple test can quickly determine if yours is one of these. E-mail me if you require details on how... G-fs]
Ghost hunters said infrared gear also finds cold and hot spots that they claim is generated by ghosts.
Even an inexpensive cassette recorder can pick up ghostly voices. In August members of the Ghost Hunters of Southern Michigan (www.ghosm.com) investigated the Soop Cemetery in Belleville, Mich.
As dusk fell, the group sat in a circle, began talking and turned on the tape recorder. When they replayed the tape, a voice was in the background. It had a hollow sound, like a person speaking from the bottom of a well.
"Shut up," it said, according to members of the group.
A dose of skepticism
Montz, who claims to be one of a handful of Americans with a bona fide parapsychology degree, said ghost hunting electronics should be used with caution.
A simple electric fan, house alarm or electrical outlet can throw off readings from many magnetometers and trifield meters, Montz said. And amateur ghost hunters should be wary of buying homemade ghost-hunting gear on the Web because some of it is unreliable, he said.
Montz also tried to debunk the theory that digital cameras capture orbs.
"I would never use a digital camera because they have a glitch in them," he said. "That's where you get the orbs, from serious lens refraction."
• Story originally published by:
The Arizona Republic / Phoenix | Greg Wright - Gannett News Service - Oct 23.01
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