Ghost Science
EMF METERS (Electro Magnetic Field)
The assumption is that paranormal activity can be registered as spirit energy harnesses electro-magnetic energy and therefore EMF meters have come into play.
There are degrees of refinement and field ranges in the models available and some models are especially tailored towards the paranormal investigator by having backlights and covering the specific EMF fields most relevant to paranormal activity.
Side Note - If there is a group of you it is not necessary for everyone to have an EMF meter, it’s distracting having multiple meters registering fluctuations in vigil conditions.
You will use one like this for your investigation
You will use one like this for your investigation
Ghost Adventure Meter Specs:
- Easy to read LED Display
- 50 & 60 Hz operation
- Five level milliGauss ranges
- For indoor and outdoor use
- Durable plastic case
- Operates for months on a single 9V battery
- Detects the ELF range (50 to 1,000Hz) & VLF range (1,000 to 20,000Hz)
A SAMPLE OF PARANORMAL TERMINOLOGY
ORB
An orb is a glowing ball of light hovering in mid-air. Many paranormal investigators believe this is a human spirit represented as pure energy. Orbs may be visible to your camera but not always seen by the human eye. Believers insist that an orb or two, brightly lit from within, give us “evidence” of paranormal energy visiting a property or a person, or even an object. Differently colored orbs are said to signify the temperament of the spirit present. A bluer hue may indicate an angelic spirit; a reddish tint could be telling you “I’m not real nice”.
Orbs often appear in photos taken at the same time that an EMF meter blinks, or a member of the group feels a cold chill or an unexpected physical change. We suggest you make note of any dizziness, nausea, or tingling to see if photos reveal any orbs or other corresponding paranormal activity. Some orbs captured on video often move in various directions before disappearing altogether. Many believe this proves an intelligence or awareness can be attributed to this energy.
Orbs remain somewhat controversial within the field, as many investigators say moisture in the air and dust particles floating close to the camera lens can create the same effect.
We encourage the use of digital cameras on our tours for just this reason. Taking a sequence of five or six quick photos can reveal the movement of an orb’s arrival, its sudden appearance and disappearance, and even determine its brightness frame to frame. And, of course, most digital cameras have plenty of storage. It beats having only 25 shots available for the night!
RIBBON
A ribbon is a streak of light which appears in a photo, yet no source of the light is apparent. Shaky hands, quick camera movement, a couple-too-many beers, or a true light source (car headlights, another camera’s flash, etc) speeding past could cause lights to appear on film as tracers or streaks. Ribbons, on the other hand, often appear to have moved in two or three different directions, which may debunk the camera movement, and confirm that the bottle of booze WASN’T the only spirit present.
Paranormal researchers believe a ribbon is actually an orb in sudden motion, sometimes referred to as a spirit trail. Others believe a ribbon represents paranormal energy, but it is actually creating a disturbance WITHIN the camera. As this entity seeks an energy source to aid with its manifestation, it causes a bizarre light leakage that is usually explained away inadvertently as a camera defect.
ECTOPLASM
A REAL term used by paranormal investigators, but totally ABUSED by Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and all the gang in the movie “Ghost Busters”. Thanks guys. Great film, but the word is now dead to us.
Ectoplasm is not supposed to be gooey and green and slimy or dumped on you by a burping ghost as if you were Ben Stiller getting doused at the latest Nickelodeon TV awards show. No, ectoplasm is a misty vapor that seems to be coming out of a person’s mouth, nose, or even their eyes in a photograph, and is said to reveal a living human becoming a “host” for spirit energy at that precise moment. Carnival barkers and vaudevillian style “ghost encounters” using oozy liquid in the early 1900’s may also have tarnished the word long before Harold Ramis’ movie script besmirched it once again in the mid-80’s.
For our purposes - and because we don’t want people to associate our investigations with classic comedy – we won’t say the word. Let’s refer to “ectoplasm” as a sub-category of “smoke”.
GHOST
A person who has died, but is still present at a location. Many paranormal investigators believe a ghost is an imprint of energy, not an intelligent haunting. A traumatic event, a sudden death, or even a moment of great anguish in someone’s life could be “replaying” over and over. This would explain why those who have seen a ghost haven’t been able to interact with it — or it with them. This might also explain how a ghost could walk through a wall. The wall may have been built long after the death of the person whose energy is still present. This does NOT explain a lot of those Scooby Doo episodes, but the “Scooby Snacks” might.
SPIRIT
A person who has died, but is returning as an intelligent energy. Many paranormal researchers believe a spirit will visit a certain person, hang out at a favorite location, or linger near an object.
How many of us kneel down to pray and request the guidance of a loved one who has passed? How many of us pat little Suzy on the head and assure her that “Grandma Josephine” is watching over her? If we seem to agree this is somehow possible, then it seems to make sense there would be some way to detect this arrival.
EVIDENCE
An orb is said by many to be evidence of spirit energy, revealed as a ball of light in a photo when nothing was visible to the naked eye. A cold chill, a slight touch on the shoulder, even the movement of an object could be a tangible sign of paranormal activity. Quick changes in EMF readings can be considered evidence; many experts presume that a spirit requires a tremendous amount of energy in order to reveal itself to the living and, since we are operating on “full power”, are often oblivious to a spirit’s relatively tiny amount of energy. Some believe this energy boost is obtained through an electronic device, such as your camera, your TV set — even your fridge. This might explain flickering lights being considered a sign from the after-life.
This might also explain why so much money has been made by so many willing to manipulate “evidence” to chase the almighty dollar. Watch your wallet. It’s okay to be skeptical. And it’s likely to save you money in the long run, too.
Get to Know Your Haunts - INTELLIGENT HAUNT
In this style of haunting the entity or entities are aware of their surroundings. Most of the time you will find that these spirits are not confined to one spot, they can move around freely. Also, they will acknowledge the existence of human beings and even try to communicate in certain ways.
They are limited in what they can do. Most of the time they only move very light objects but they have been known to move objects up to around 10lbs. They are looking for people to notice them but they end up scaring people a great deal instead.
Usually, between the hours of 11pm and 4am are the times that the entities can more efficiently manifest themselves, due to this time period being the darkest hours of the night. Most of the time are not strong enough to show themselves during the daylight because it takes too much energy to make themselves visible. Think of it like this, if you were to turn on a flashlight during the daytime you would hardly notice the light, but if you were to turn it on in the dead of night, the light would be clearly visible. This is how spirits work as well. If they use too much energy during the day they will be too weak to show themselves at night.
These spirits can be benevolent or mischievous, depending on the reason that they are haunting a location, and there are several reasons. They may be haunting it because it was once their home and they want you to leave. They may be there because they’ve found that a child is able to see them so they feel noticed and are willing to stay around for this fact. There may be some kind of artifact that they are staying with and following due to some emotional bond with it. They also may be looking for something or someone. They may even not be willing to except that they have died. Whatever the reason may be, they are there and they do not want to leave.
Now comes the hard part, ridding a house of them. They are not inhuman entities which we will get to, so religious provocation will not be effective to rid the area they are in. You are, as they are, limited to what you can do.
- Jason (TAPS)
Get to Know Your Ghosts – GOOD OR BAD?
The first questions people ask themselves when they are confronted with paranormal activity is “Is it good or evil?”. Subconciously and often too frequently the answer they give themselves is “Of course it’s evil, it just slammed a door!!”
This is usually an unfounded and biased decision based on dozens of scary movies, ghost stories around the fire and society’s general lack of knowledge on the subject. Just because it’s ghostly does not mean it’s evil.
First off, typically you’ll be confronted by what we call a “human spirit”. This is the spirit of someone who was once alive, as you and I are alive. They were born on earth, they had a job, most likely a family, a dog, and most importantly, they died. For various reasons they are still hanging around. Now, because they were once alive they each have different personalities as you and I do. So, these spirits can be good or bad BUT NOT NECESSARILY EVIL. Fortunately the majority of us tend to be rather decent folks, but not all of us. The same goes for spirits. One spirit could have been a loving grandmother who is looking for her husband, or one could be a teen-aged punk who may be getting a kick out of scaring you.
Then there are the not-so-common type of spirits we call “non-human spirits”. This is a spirit that never lived on the earth and is ALWAYS bad news and generally dangerous. The disturbing thing is that this type of spirit is brought to our realm through people who are meddling where they shouldn’t (ouija boards, seances, curses, devil worship, etc.)
Now that we know that there are only two general types and we know their mentalities, we can better identify them. Here’s a quick breakdown:
Typical Human Spirit Activity
- Noises
- Appearance of seemingly random objects (flashlights, rocks, money)
- An illuminated figure or part of a figure
Typical Non-Human Spirit Activity
- Whispering Voices – black shadowy figures
- Violent acts against you (being hit, thrown, etc.)
- Targeted paranormal activity (i.e. You hate clowns, so the spirit moves the clown from room to room. You get the idea)
These are not all of the things to look for, but some of the most obvious signs to help you identify what type of spirit you’re dealing with. If you’ve got a non-human spirit, GET OUT and call TAPS asap!
~ Grant (TAPS)
GHOSTS… WHY ARE THEY HERE?
WHAT EXACTLY IS A GHOST?
Before you can understand what an entity consists of you need to understand a bit about the human body of the living person. Everything you do, see, hear, taste, feel, etc. Is controlled by electrical impulses sent to your brain from your body’s different parts or from your brain to your different body parts.
For example… right now you are reading this webpage, an electrical impulse is going from your eyes to your brain carrying the information your eyes are seeing. As you scroll down this page your brain is sending electrical impulses to your hand to move your mouse, etc…
Since all these systems are controlled by electrical impulses the electricity has to go somewhere. It is a general law of physics that energy can not be destroyed, so where does the energy go when your body shuts down?
When a person dies their individual systems shut down independently, your kidneys fail, then your respitory system shuts down, then your heart stops beating and finally your brain stops functioning. Since all these systems are controlled by electrical impulses the electricity has to go somewhere. It is a general law of physics that energy can not be destroyed, so where does the energy go when your body shuts down? It is released into the atmosphere!
When a person dies a slow or natural death the energy is released more slowly and in a less concentrated state than if a person were to die a sudden or violent death. This is why I believe hospitals are not the most haunted places even though more deaths occur in them then anywhere else.
Another theory I have been tossing around for some time now is what makes certain locations more likely to have a ghost than others. I believe it all boils down to electromagnetic fields trapping the energy that is released at time of death.
For example…Everyone has heard of at least one haunted theatre in the area they live. Theatres are huge electromagnetic fields, they have high voltage electrical systems in them to support the sound and lighting equipment that is used for their shows. Theatres used to be very dangerous places to work at one time, it was very easy to have a lighting rig fall down on someone and kill them, it was also easy for someone to fall from a catwalk that is high above the stage. The ingredients were all there for a sudden and violent death. When that occurred from time to time the energy that was released from the victim’s body was trapped by the much stronger electromagnetic field and you now have a ghost.
One of the tools we use for paranormal research is an EMF meter. These meters are designed to measure changes in electromagnetic energy. Many times while investigating a haunting we have discovered very high levels of electromagnetic energy present. Alot of times this is caused by high voltage electrical systems or by old wiring. Both will create an electromagnetic field.
There is a strong possibility that despite the theories of some other researchers it is not the ghost that causes the electromagnetic energy, it is the electromagnetic energy that causes the ghost.
~ Rick (BCPA)
PhotoGraphic Analysis: MATRIXING
I love receiving tons of pictures of potential paranormal evidence every day in my email. The willingness of everyone to share what they have found is astonishing, and I am honored that they trust TAPS to offer an honest, objective analysis of their evidence.
In analyzing the evidence that is presented to us, we scrutinize every possibility before calling it possible evidence. In so doing, I have found that there is one major mistake made by both amateur and experienced paranormal investigators alike. I receive multiple promises of demonic faces, full apparitions, faces galore, only to open the email attachment and find a serious case of matrixing.
READ MORE »Photographic Analysis: ORBS
Lately, my email inbox has been inundated with mail from excited investigators, both experienced and amateur, who believe they have captured a paranormal anomaly on film. While their excitement is exhilarating, more often than not, I find when I open the attachment and look at the picture, I am immediately let down. It seems that recently, we have all become a little too eager to capture evidence on film and, in our haste to substantiate, we overlook some of the most basic factors when analyzing our own images.
So, it is in this light that we decided to run a series of articles based on how to debunk your own images so that when you present them to the public you are not only providing REAL evidence, you are also maintaining your credibility.
Photographic Analysis: ORBS – LENS FLARE
Flare has been the bane of photographers since the first days of photography. Reflection of light can create many circular flares. However, it isn’t light reflecting off an object, it is the reflection of light within the lens itself.
If light enters a lens at certain angles (these angles are dependent on the type of lens being used), it can bounce between the various elements of the lens instead of passing cleanly through them, causing bright spots we know as flare. The more complex the lens (for example, a zoom lens is more complex than a fixed focal length, or “prime” lens), the more lens elements it has. Some lenses can have eight or more elements within them. The more elements a lens has, the more potential it has for light to bounce around between the elements, causing flare. If the lens is well-manufactured, it will be less prone to flare than a cheaper, more poorly-manufactured lens.
Matrixing is a term we use here at TAPS to describe the human mind’s natural tendency to find familiar shapes in complex shapes or colors. In other words finding a face in the shapes and shadows of a collection of objects.
Ever sit back on the grass as a child and watch the clouds roll through the sky, pointing out the shapes of rabbits or dragons? How about the man in the moon? There isn’t really the face of a man on the moon. It is the complex pattern of craters and ravines that causes our mind to form a face. This is matrixing.
Matrixing can be deceiving but if it were not for this ability we wouldn’t be able to recognize each other. In fact it is due to the effects of matrixing that we are able to recognize varying types of fonts. If our minds weren’t able to distinguish the subtle nuances of each letter then, we would only be able to read one font. Unfortunately, it is also matrixing which causes people to see skulls and faces in tree branches, mirrors, shiny furniture, cluttered closets, etc.
So, Matrixing exists and is a big problem in the paranormal investigation field. What, then, can we do about it? Here are a few ways to identify it and eliminate it before someone else does, and ends up ruining your credibility.
- First, look at the type of photograph you are analyzing. Pictures of trees, fields, cluttered up closets, mirrors and glass are a few of the prime candidates for matrixing issues. They include very complex shapes and patterns and, therefore, a high potential for the mind to construct a face or body out of something that isn’t there.
- Second, look at the potential face or figure. If it is truly paranormal then, the face or figure would be made up of its own material, not the material that is comprising the picture. Let me explain; if the picture is of a forest, and your mind tells you that there is a face in it. Look to see if the face is made up of the branches and leaves from the trees in the picture, or if the face is separated from them and a completely separate material from the trees.
- Third, once you have eliminated the top two issues, look at the face or figure as a real face or figure. Look at the proportions of the face. Are they “cartoony” and disproportionate or are they realistic? I have art training and can easily determine if a face has realistic proportions or not. If you do not have this training, you can go to any art supply store and pick up a book that explains these proportions.
Once you have taken the above steps, you may have something worth looking at. Now you just have to determine if the picture is of a real entity or if it was faked. But that is another article that will be coming up later.
So, don’t succumb to the rising trend of matrixing an entity out of every picture that is taken. Take the time to scrutinize your own evidence before someone else does and comes to the conclusion that you’ve just got an over-active imagination. Please, consider matrixing before you present evidence to the world and help us all gain more respect for the field of paranormal investigation.
~ Grant (TAPS)
Ok, with that said, we will start off by talking about some basic things to look for when you are looking at a picture with an orb/globule in it. There are 4 possible causes for an orb to appear in your image and they are as follows:
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Refraction of a dust particle
Oftentimes the tiniest particle of dust will reflect the flash of your camera or the infrared light of a digital camera producing a stunning orb that most investigators would drool over. Now, the most popular excuse for claiming that it is not dust is; “But, all the other images had no orbs in it. Only this one”. Well, that is because it was only one particle of dust and it is most likely still there in the other photos but it is just not at the right position or angle to reflect the light of the camera flash again.
So, the question remains, how do we know when it is dust and when it is a true orb? Dust tends to refract in a perfect circle with little “noise” in it and no border. By this we mean that the orb does not look like a cell under a microscope. Its make-up is pretty much a solid color without a defined border to it. -
Refraction of moisture
This is a little bit easier to spot. An orb caused by moisture will tend to have angular sides to it and its make-up tends to fade from solid to transparent. Once again it has no border. And like the dust particle, moisture can appear in one photo and not in another that was taken immediately afterwards.
The larger the moisture the less angular it will look. A picture of rain drops will yield very little angularity at all. In fact it will produce small solid looking object that can easily be mistaken for orbs. A fine mist will produce angular sides. -
Reflection of an object
Ok, I must say that this is the most common mistake made and usually the easiest to spot. If you have an image with multiple orbs in it and one is more intense than the other, then, chances are, you have a reflection.
Here is why. When light reflects off of an object it produces many circular “flares” in an image. These vary in intensity and are usually located within a straight line emanating from the source, which is usually some small object in the background that is overlooked by the investigator when reviewing the image. The objects can range from a small ring on a nightstand to the varnish on a table or door.
If you have Adobe PhotoShop, you can take an image like this, run its gamma to near max and you will see that the orb will have the same gamma signature as the object from which they are emanating. -
True paranormal energy
Now we’re talking. Once you have eliminated the above possibilities, it is time to take a good, long, close look at the orb itself. What you are looking for in “orb” activity is a solid object that emits its own light. It will usually show up on film looking like someone just threw a ping-pong ball across the screen. If the orb has signs of movement, such as a blurred trail behind it, then you’ve got some rather solid evidence.
The other characteristic of orb activity that we consider is the coloration of the orb. True orbs are colored in the “cool” end of the spectrum, namely white, blue, or green. Any orb activity that shows up as red, orange, or yellow, it typical of dust, light refraction, or processing error.
But remember, and orb is just a collection of energy not the manifestation of a ghost. While orbs are usually present during paranormal activity, you can have orbs show up without paranormal activity.
“Orbs” are a natural phenomenon and can be witnessed with little difficulty in parts of up-state New York as well as other regions around the globe.
So, next time you are flipping through your case pics and find a big white orb staring you down, take the time to really analyze the picture, find the orb’s true origins and then present it to the world and be confident that your credibility will remain intact.
~Grant (TAPS)
Expensive lenses are often made with low-dispersion glass and various types of coatings to reduce flare and other aberrations of light. This is why professional photographers are willing to pay high (even exorbitant) prices for high-quality lenses. The small-diameter lenses used in consumer and prosumer-grade cameras (both film and digital) are particularly vulnerable to flare despite having fewer elements than a professional lens. Because they have a smaller diameter, they can’t deal with light from certain angles as well as a large-diameter professional lens can.
Flare can appear as one or two spots, and they may not appear to be emanating from any particular source because the source may be outside the picture frame. Also, different lens elements add their own color to different flare spots within the same picture (usually blues, reds, oranges, yellows and greens). This is due to the composition of individual lens elements and/or impurities in them.
Flare often appears as semi-transparent, but can also appear as fairly solid. If the camera moves as the photo is being taken, a solid spot of flare can appear to have a blurred trail behind it like “someone just threw a ping-pong ball across the screen.” Whether flare appears solid or semi-transparent again depends on the type of lens and camera angle. Even the slightest shift in camera angle can make a flare disappear and reappear. That’s why “orbs” can appear in one shot and disappear in the next, even when the photographer doesn’t think he changed camera angles.
Dust can also appear to be orbs in photos with even a small amount of backlighting. The backlighting illuminates the dust, making it noticeable in the frame. Although dust particles are not round, they are always extremely out of focus, making them appear round. The “roundness” comes from the round aperture of the diaphragm, which controls the amount of light striking the focal plane from the lens. Interestingly, some video cameras have diamond-shaped or other odd-shaped diaphragms and can give dust or flare a diamond or odd-shaped appearance. I have seen many videos of purported UFOs with a flattened diamond shape that are obviously diaphragm images. Auto-focusing lenses are notorious for producing these images as they “hunt” back and forth trying to lock focus on a distant object. The flattened diamond shape really makes the object (often the sun, a star, or an aircraft) appear to have a “flying saucer” shape, although the points of the diamond never change their orientation (that’s the tipoff).
As far as orbs being “collections of energy,” I doubt that film or digital cameras can record energy other than visible light. If they can, then energy should appear in a lot of everyday photos since we’re surrounded by energy (electrical, solar, etc.). Unless modified, cameras can only record visible light. Visible light is actually a narrow band of energy on the electromagnetic spectrum. That spectrum includes infrared, ultraviolet, radio waves, microwaves, xrays, gamma rays and other cosmic rays. You have cameras that can detect infrared (heat) energy, but these are modified to record that type of energy. The same applies to radiotelescopes, xray radiography, and other devices that are specially-built to detect those types of energy. But regular cameras, like our eyes, can only detect the small band of energy in the visible light spectrum.
I hope this has added a little more to the knowledge of photographically-induced orbs. Bottom line is, I haven’t seen anything yet on your show that I haven’t seen in the hundreds of thousands (maybe even millions) of photos I’ve examined in my 32-year career. That does not mean, however, that we will never capture something of paranormal significance. Every photo contains a vast amount of data that can be analyzed. The trick is to know how to analyze the photo and recognize something “unusual.”
