Ghost Hunting

Some of us wouldn't dare watch a scary movie alone. Some of us hate walking around our homes at night. Some of us wouldn't go within a hundred feet of a Ouija board.

Then there are some of us out there who live for that sort of stuff. Having the hair on the back of the neck stand on end is part of the thrill for a ghost hunter.

A ghost hunter is a person who attempts to collect evidence of paranormal activity during a ghost investigation. The purpose of the investigation is to prove or disprove the existence of paranormal activity at a certain location and to help those living or working at the location to understand what is going on and what are their options.

For the most part, ghost hunters have a strong belief that life exists after death and they seek to prove this to the world. More often than not, the ghost hunters are met with resistance from skeptics and critics who call them practitioners of a pseudoscience which has no true basis or any means to prove their claims.

Ghost hunters use various forms of technology to capture evidence of paranormal activity from video footage, still camera footage, temperature recording devices, audio recording devices, etc. Ghost hunters believe that orbs of light and other shadowy figures on film represent the presence of ghosts, while strong drops in temperature represent their presence near temperature measuring devices. The drop in temperature is related to the belief that a ghost will soak up all of the energy (heat) in a room in order to manifest a presence or make its presence known.

Audio recording devices seem to yield the best results (if they are real) of paranormal activity because of the responses which they elicit. There have been multiple occasions when an audio recorder was turned on during an investigation and captured voices and sounds that were not heard in real time. Another method of using audio recorders is to set the recorder in a room or area of a location that is believed to be haunted and asking general questions into the air, being sure to leave enough time for a possible response. The response will usually not be heard in real time, but will be heard during the pauses on the sound recording. Most responses which manifest themselves seem to be scratchy and distant voices that produce sounds which mimic words and match perfectly with the subject matter of the question asked. Possible questions could be, "Are you out there?", "How did you die?", or even "What's your name?"

After an investigation it is exciting to review the evidence found because (for the believer) it confirms that there is more to life and less to fear about death. In this way, this is the contribution which ghost hunters make to society. Through their efforts, they show that death does not have to be a final end of anything.

Sources:

Ghost Hunting 101. The Shadowlands.

T.A.P.S. The Atlantic Paranormal Society.

Death and the Afterlife. International Ghost Hunters Society.