Are cameras, EMF meters, thermo scanners, tape recorders, and gadgets necessary?

Question

When investigating for ghosts or paranormal phenomena?

My opinion is no that we our bodies and the mind is really the only tool we need. But I no longer investigate to "prove" and "document" evidence of ghosts. My reason now is personal and to learn of life after death.

Team I am interested in hearing from you on this one. Thanks in advance

Answer 1

I agree they are a waste of money.

Answer 2

Only if you want to catch evidence that a haunting

is real. Otherwise, I would say a tape recorder

and a camera is all you need. Are you trying to

prove that the spirit lives on after the body dies?

That depends on your beliefs.

Answer 3

It depends. If your purpose is to document and provide evidence then some documentation is required. If the reasons are personal and to have an experience then only you are needed.

Many authors record the experiences of people without trying to prove or disprove the experience in an objective manner but rather treat it as a human experience. Although they often write down and tape record the story for more accurate reporting in their stories/books.

Also, if one is attempting to find correlations between say atmospheric conditions and reported haunting phenomena then measurements and recording them is required.

Answer 4

I am definitely with you on this one.  These gadgets you mention, perhaps with the exception of video recording, are nothing more than a distraction.

There is nothing, beyond creative theorizing, which gives any indication at all that fluctuations in temperature or EMFs indicates anything paranormal.

Answer 5

You know I don't know anything about this. I just want to say LOL...teamhunt outdid psiexplorer by a mile!!!!

I know that I didn't have any "equipment" with me when things happened to me. Maybe if I had ..I could have seen who was talking to me. I think if that had happened I would have screamed at the top of my lungs and ran as fast as I could. Isn't that strange...that if you "hear" them you don't get scared. But, if you see them ..you do. I wonder if I would scream and run if I saw any of you (or vice versa). Ok...what if someone is astral traveling and you see them. ? I wonder if you'd be scared then....or think they were a ghost. We should write a new song called "I Wonder". Remember this one??..I wa wa wander ...who wrote the book of LOVE ".(.only we could put "Ghosts" instead of "LOVE".) (Maybe I have the "Spirit" of Christmas tonight)

EDIT..Wiccan...(on a personal note)...Did you see on CNN today (12/19/07) about that chemical plant exploding? That's close to where I live. (but not dangerously close).

Answer 6

Those are just used to document the findings...after all...you can't prove a feeling you are having.

An open mind can see more than any of those items.

Answer 7

In my opinion to the following Wiccan Rider :) Thanks for thinking of me ;)  Get Ready for some reading

I trully think a case cannot be legitly disproved or proven without the necessary equipment because an investigator approaches a case with a open mind and takes the homeowners claims and tries to disprove them , to sum that up you cannot believe the homeowner's claims 100% you have to go by what you capture in the investigation and how can you disprove what they are saying and if you walked out with just word of mouth with out substantial evidence from the case not many would believe you without "PROOF"

"EMF Meters" : But for starters it did help disprove a case because our meter read 20 in the closet where a hot water heater was *keep in mind this was an apartment and no one else except them experienced this and the activity only happened by the bedroom or down the hall* , various claims of activity were mentioned " report/claims on my site" we ended up to disprove them after hours of research on HIGH EMF as hallucinations because we've read others research in the past and scientific research on emf , so i do believe they come in handy once in awhile but my team uses them on every investigation :)

well on my site i listed an article :

Everyone who is a Paranormal Investigator knows what an EMF does. It is from an  rectangular form to weird geometric shape electronic device with it has the ability to obtain EMF Level readings in an area; readings for paranormal activity it is between 2.0 and 8.0. Above this is usually man-made EMF Substances. Alot of people don't strongly suggest EMF's and use dowsing rods ("On dowsing rods one must know they are manipulation of the hands and i don't have enough proof to believe in them)  But i beg to differ with the use of EMFS.  EMFS are a tool to read the 'electro magnetic field; When it spikes into a certain reading from .5 - 2.0 you gotta be aware of your surrondings because alot of electronical devices could trigger your device to go "Nutso" This is why it is good to do a EMF sweep and each room and document each reading you aqquire . Make sure you hold your EMF steady and know each term of milligaus reading read back to the beggining 2.0 and 8.0 in theory is usally paranormal; Don't get me wrong there are some hyper senstive EMFS out there trust me i've been there and will give you some inaccurate occurrences and you just need to know what your dealing with. One thing i find a problem with are cell phones which go off with the EMF and so does some of your equipment such as the infrared cameras and digital recorders plus sometimes the mini dv. Yet, its all theoritical now EMF Meters being able to capture readings to label certain things paranormal you never know the paranormal field is always changing and developing new theories who knows. Its one of the best things right now since sliced bread lol! When you get into the causes studies have been reporting which include: headaches, anxiety, suicide and depression, nausea, fatigue, and even hallucinations which contain - feeling of being watched, Hearing Voices, touched physically. Well Now alot of people clain their house is haunted but it could be just a typical high EMF. Keep in mind high EMF notations on investigation could come in handy in your conclusion.

Thermo Scanners: They've come in handy on previous cases there are so many possibilities of why temp drops can happen (a/c, Heaters, windows etc.) but when that stuff isn't occuring and you drop from 70 degrees to 50 you might have something out of the ordinary so yes they come in handy :)

Tape Recorder/Digital Recorders : i truthfully think they are important as well , I use adobe audition to analyze my E.V.P.'s,  i question each class (A,B,or C Type) or sound and check the frequency on each possible one usally under 300 it is researched it is usally a spirit voiced , though sometimes you cannot use them as legit evidence depending on your enviorment because alot of the background noise willl effect your recording!

Next we do video - this might capture some substantial proof of apparitions, anomalies etc. Stuff that we could back up on video such as personal experiences etc.

Photography- probably the most commonly faked evidence of paranormal alot of people now a days have programs such as corel , photoshop where they can fake these! I can't tell how many sites i go to where orb phenomena or matrixed photographs are largely accounted for faked that is why i use a program to see others photos and say hey this is faked , i also use a program to produce negatives to tell is there something there or not! We use a 3 mega pixel camera or lower usally the higher the megapixel drowns out spirit formation and may once again  cause Matrixes *which is what many people Misinterpret certain things in photos to be evidence of paranormal*

but don't get me wrong alot of these pieces of equipment have functions where they can be faked and evidence then should be seriously looked at ! That is why alot of groups spend loads of time out there analyzing evidence ! the human mind is a powerful thing and power of suggestions does occur and things cannot always be trusted this is where debunking comes in,  but that is why i suggest the use of equipment because these things can be backed up through the naked eye and science when they are substantially  captured on these devices. you can't go by Oh" johnny saw this apparition or Sally heard this noise, I turn and look and say where is the proof that is a personal experience anyone can walk out of a home , cemetery i don't care where :)  and say they saw something, heard something.... where is the proof , that is why as investigators we go in and scientifically record what we can to verify if there is activity or not !

We Cannot go by personal experiences only ! :)

*My opinion*

Ryan ~Paranormal Investigator/Researcher~

www.theprosonline.com