Paranormal investigations?

Question

Im part of paranormal investigation group, and ive lately become very skeptical and amateur parapsychologist

Can anybody give me any information about what baseline tests i should be doing before everyone starts?

Answer 1

For all new members we have a very structured program.  First they must fill out a detailed application.  It helps us weed out people who think this will be "GhostHunters" like they see on TV.  It's a lot more work than they can condense in that 60 minute show, and it requires a lot of dedication and attention to detail.

We then conduct an orientation meeting, which is mandatory for all new applicants.  Through the first 2 steps we usually lose 1/2 of the "interested" canidates.  BUT...it helps us find who really has a passion for the paranormal and who really wants to be involved.  

After we conduct a training session on each piece of equipment, then they do a mock investigation at our own home.  *We do have some paranormal activity.  

Then we take them on actual investigations.  Though they are not "cut free" from training until we feel they are fully competent at the procedures we use.

All in all-- I find in a single month- we're getting 20 people who are interested.  10 will send back the application, 5 will come to orientation, and 2-3 will become involved seriously if we're lucky.

I'd think of setting up an actual training program prior to allowing them on investigations.  It really has helped us.

Answer 2

It greatly depends on what procedures you are following.

What I suggest is that you have a carefully written set of protocols that everyone is aware of, trained in and follows.

For example if you wish to use EMF detectors it is not enough to go from room to room and look for fluctuations in the readings.

One should have done a baseline reading of all the rooms at the very start of the investigation. When the readings fluctuate all the time or a consistently high reading is present that is not a sign of paranormal activity but usually poor and unshielded electrical current. Thus, if the source can be traced you have a normal explanation for your readings.

However, this could also be a normal cause of a persons experiences like auditory hallucinations (hearing ones name called when no one is home).

I have provided links for you below for two very basic books (one is a young readers book) that I required my investigators to read before they went on any investigation. I also have very carefully written protocols to conduct hauting investigations in a blind controlled manner.

Naturally as you experiment with actual investigations you will be able to come up with better and better procedures.

Psi

Answer 3

It's great you have become skeptical. Skepticism is inherent in the scientific method itself, so you can't do a legitimate scientific investigation without taking a skeptical approach to your subject of study. So, nice job on that :)   I'd love to see more of this with paranormal investigators.

You don't give enough details to understand exactly what kind of investigations you're doing, so my answer can't get into specifics. What I can say, however, is whenever you're doing any designed experiments, always include a control. Always always!  The control is what gives you the baseline which you can compare your data against. For example, perhaps you want to see if there is any correlation between EMF readings and spirit activity in houses. To get your baseline, you should visit a number of houses that have no reports of hauntings to establish what an average non-haunted baseline EMF would be. You can then compare your haunted-house EMF readings against it to see if there is a statistically significant difference. (That's a very simple example, but I offer it for illustration. I caution to add, the use of EMF to detect spirits is not based on scientific data but current ghost-hunter lore).

Regarding equipment, of course you already know to calibrate your equipment before every use.

If you can give more details on the tests you will be doing, I can talk a little more about baseline measurements you should do.

Good luck!

Answer 4

I hesitate to proceed with an answer because in order to take baseline measurements you need to be measuring something.  So the question is, what are you measuring?  It's unrealistic to expect a team to measure everything that can possibly be measured--temperature, magnetic fields, radioactive activity, humidity, light, moon phase, ambient sound, voltage of the house, number of electronic devices, number of humans present, personality types, etc.  So you have to narrow down what you measure.

Now, since decisions have to be made you must as yourself, what criteria will I be using to determine what data are useful in investigating paranormal claims?  I don't know if this can be answered since, lacking a specimen, we don't know what ghosts are.  If we don't know what they are (or, rather, what comprises them), then how do we know if one is present?  You don't use a Geiger counter to find cockroaches, so how does anyone know what sort of measurements to take in order to find a ghost?

Ultimately it comes down to measuring everything and trying to create a database of environmental or atmospheric data in a haunted house.  The control would be the same body of data for a house not claimed to be haunted.  But this isn't a good control because you don't know if that control house is haunted too.

That is why when investigating I spend less time gathering such information and more time addressing the individual claim and trying to find possible natural explanations.  This method isn't by any means a scientific approach, but I have found it yields the same results.

Sorry for such a long non-answer.

Answer 5

Skepticism is good for an investigator. You have to have your wits about you and be in a sound mental state in order to make sense of anything unusual that you have experienced. Your group may be too fanatical and call every speck of dust and weird orb pic as being proof of a spirit. E-mail some of the more professional groups or check their pages, hopefuly they can point you in a better direction than you're facing now.

Scientist will tell you how hard it is to get results, that's why they're skeptical of the paranormal.

Answer 6

If you are looking to go more into research rather than amateur investigation, you may want to consider doing some different kinds of quasi-experiments. Record every thing you can from moon phase, temperature (use a thermocouple to measure actual air temperature), precipitation, humidity, geomagnetic fields, etc... and then over time you'll be able to track paranormal activity and see if it is related to any of these factors. That is a bit more scientific and you may find some interesting correlations. You may also want to experiment with new technologies; some paranormal researchers have been experimenting with things like Frank's boxes, black light screens, thermal imaging, etc. There are plenty of ways to bring in a more scientific mindset!

Answer 7

Basic Investigation Procedures, Basic Terms, Indication of Evp, video and photo and equipment introduction also research skills make them look up certain things and put it into their own words.  For my group i don't list anyone on my website untill they go through basic training and know their stuff.  My Advice is put them through historic sites and take them to cemeteries to see how they do with hands on experience before ever taking them into a home or business for an investigation.

Ryan ~Paranormal Investigator/Researcher~

www.theprosonline.com

Answer 8

Be cautious, not very serious /magiciens and spirits  like jokes/, learn concentration and scientific explanations/ till now/ of phenomena in what you are interested.