Are you ready to start ghost hunting?
Have you watched a lot of TV shows such as Ghost Hunters and Ghost Adventures? Are you sure it’s a hobby you’d like to try?
If you have a good idea what’s involved in ghost hunting, and you’re eager to try it, you may be ready to explore a haunted location with other ghost enthusiasts.
Learn more about the subject, first. Get some hands-on experience with a team or someone who’s been ghost hunting for some time.
Don’t rush out to a “haunted” site in the middle of nowhere, thinking it will be fun. You might be scared (or bored) out of your mind, and wonder what you got yourself into. Sometimes it’s easy to get in your car and leave.
At other locations, especially if you’re in “lockdown,” it’s not so simple.
In addition, some isolated “haunted” sites are truly dangerous. (Those dangers usually come from the living more than the dead, but both are possible.)
Best ways to learn more about ghost hunting
- Watch ghost related TV shows. (If you’re using Roku or other streaming-to-TV devices, look for ghost-specific channels.)
- Watch ghost hunting videos on YouTube, etc.
- Read books by ghost hunters (and the stars of Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures, Paranormal State, and similar shows).
- Visits websites like mine www.moleopedia.com
- Read about haunted places in books, magazines, and newspapers, and online.
- Listen to ghost-related podcasts.
Be sure you understand the risks of ghost hunting. You can avoid most dangers if you know what to expect.
Most real investigations include waiting for hours while nothing happens. Even at reliably haunted sites, expect a lull as long as two hours. After that, the “haunting” may only be an unexplained sound or a brief shadow seen by one person, out the corner of his eye. That’s typical, and it may be disappointing.
Now and then, an investigation seems tame for the first 20 minutes or so. Then things turn chilling. You’ll have one eerie experience after another, for an hour or longer.
Learn some of the words. Know what to expect during investigations. Try some inexpensive ghost hunting tools like homemade dowsing rods.
Some people start with public, organized ghost hunts. Often, they’re advertised online, in newspapers, and on community bulletin boards.
Ghost hunting events attract dozens or even hundreds of people.
What to expect at a ghost hunting event
- You’ll usually hear a talk by one or more professional ghost hunters.
- Then, you’ll learn about the history and layout of the location you’re investigating.
- After that, the audience is usually divided into smaller groups. Each group will investigate one part of the location for a while.
- Then, you’ll swap places with another group, and see what happens there. You’ll continue the rotation until you’ve explored the entire site.
- Later, you’ll share your discoveries with others at the event, including some of the professional ghost hunters.
Tip: Most professional ghost hunters are eager to talk with people who share their interests.
Events show you what can happen during ghost hunts. You’ll meet people who are interested in ghosts. You’ll understand more about ghost hunting.
If this isn’t as much fun as you’d expected, it’s okay to quit ghost hunting. You didn’t spend much money. You didn’t commit to membership in any groups. You met some interesting people, and maybe a few celebrities. You have some stories to share with friends and family.
Did you enjoy the events you attended? Look for good ghost hunting groups in your area. See if you can go on a few investigations with them.
Explore with different groups
Go on investigations with several groups. Decide whether you’d like to join any of them.
No groups in your area, or none you’d like to join? That’s okay. Find a few friends with similar interests. Explore safe, popular haunted locations near you. Start your own group.
Never go ghost hunting by yourself. Even with friends, avoid isolated haunts.
Haunted cemeteries
Haunted cemeteries can be a good starting point. Often, you can learn about the cemetery’s ghosts, online. Almost every community has a haunted grave or cemetery.
Also, ask local residents what’s haunted. Read regional newspaper stories, especially around Halloween.
I like cemeteries for many reasons. For example, you can use information on headstones to research the real history of each ghost. (Many haunted houses and battlefields are far more difficult to research.)
Regional books can provide extra information about haunted cemeteries. Ask at the public library. That information can make research more interesting.
Starting a paranormal research group can be one of the most fun and exciting decisions you have made in your life, but it can also be one of the most difficult decisions. There are a lot of tasks that will need to be completed by a team with varying skill sets (IT, Marketing, Technical, Management, Clairvoyants, Research, etc.). It will also offer a great opportunity to grow as a leader, working with many different people, and also spiritually as you develop a greater understanding of the unseen world that surrounds us.
So what needs to be done to get going?
The first step I would recommend is to create a website for your group. Not only do you need team members, but you also need an avenue to begin to line up clients. Once your website is online, you can begin to use it to recruit members to your team, and also look for individuals looking for help getting to the bottom of their haunting.
In order for potential team members, and clients to find your site, you need to be able to show up on google as a paranormal research group operating in your area. Since Google will rank web pages based on how much it trusts the website, you will need to jump through a few hoops to get recognized. I highly recommend hosting your own website, not just using a free web hosting site. Google tends to trust these websites less, and thus they turn up as listing 400 and never get looked at by anyone. Also, web hosting is only a few bucks a month, which is a very small price to pay for the amount of legitimacy you will add to your organization.
I recommend using Dreamhost for web hosting. Please use the quick start tutorial that I have provided to get going quickly, and smoothly.
Not only do you need to be able to show up as one of the top two listings on Google, you need to have a professional and trustworthy page. Remember, some of the people that will be contacting you will have been terrorized and humiliated by many of the people around them. They will only have a narrow window in which they will accept help from the outside world, and your site will need to appear legitimate for them to extend their trust to you.
I have created this template that can be used to get things up and going quickly. Please follow the tutorial to get a good working knowledge of how to customize, and use your new paranormal research site. Please leave the links in place to Hauntech.net, as we would like to continue to be a content provider to your site.
Once the site is up and running, it is important to make sure that all of the generic text is taken down, or changed to something fitting to your organization. You will need to come up with a name and a logo, and add them to your page. Remember to take 15 minutes every couple of days to add new content to the page. Also, as you are doing your research on other pages, leave thoughtful comments that include a link back to your page. This is critical in getting your site recognized by Google, and becoming one of the top few sites.
You may also want to consider having some tee shirts, or polo shirts made up so your team looks professional. I have used DesignAShirt.com with much success, and recommend using them for all of your promotional gear. It really isn’t worth the hassle of having some mom and pop shop create gear for you. You want it done right, quick, and simple.
Obviously, you will need some equipment to use to start investigating. You will want to buy a minimum amount of equipment in advance, so you can get used to it. It is a must to test and use the equipment in advance so you are very familiar with it before you get into the field. Believe my technical difficulties are not uncommon in this field, and it only gets worse when you add paranormal phenomena to the mix. The more prepared you are for the research event the better.
At a minimum you will need these items to get going:
1. Quality Flashlight (Mini Maglite)
You really don’t want to go cheap here, and there is a very good reason. For one, you will probably find yourself in some very creepy situations, and want to make sure you can see to get out. The flashlight can also dual as a spirit communication device. Simply set the flashlight to where it is barely off, and start talking to the spirits. You will find that some spirits can control the flashlight on and off in response to your questions.
2. K2 Meter
The K2 meter is used to measure electromagnetic fields and is generally accepted to indicate the presence of a spirit. They can also indicate the presence of standing radiowaves and a lot of other unseen disturbances. I recommend having one of these on hand, but you really can’t use it as proof that you have found something paranormal. In order to do that you need something with more intelligence, like a photo, video, or voice recording.
3. EVP Recorder
The EVP recorder is simply a handheld digital recorder. The voices from the other side don’t always fall into the frequency range that we hear with our ears. Our ears can only hear up to about 12 kHz, while the microphone on the digital recorder will operate up to around 20 kHz. This expanded usable frequency range allows the spirits of a wider band to communicate in and keeps a recording for later analysis.
4. Audio Spectrum Analyzer
Many times the spirit recordings will sound jumbled, and sometimes too quick to understand. I recommend downloading a free trial of WavePad from NCH Software. This software will allow you to snip the parts of the audio that are unimportant, easily slow down and process the audio.
5. Digital Video Camera (Infrared with Tripod)
You need to be able to record videos, and generally in the dark. There aren’t many options in this department, except an infrared camera.
6. Digital Camera (Point and Shoot)
Snapping still images can create some very good evidence, especially since cameras can sometimes reveal what couldn’t be seen by the naked eye.
7. Hand Held Thermometer
Since spirits have the capability to drop the temperature by a significant amount, you need to have a thermometer to measure these differences. Don’t use a laser thermometer, so those are only good for surfaces. If you want to measure in space, you will need a handheld thermometer with a LED backlit digital display.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH
STEVE RAMSEY