Do it yourself: Paranormal Investigating

By Cassy Pabst

Ever watch those T.V. shows where groups are investigating places and it seems so easy and exciting? And you want to capture some of that excitement and discovery for yourself? You can!

You don’t need fancy equipment or even a whole lot of members to investigate some where. You can do it yourself in your own house if you wanted to!

First learn all you can about the paranormal and how to investigate. Whether this means you go on the internet and read all you can, read books or contact a local paranormal group and see if they can help you out on information. Learning about it before you go do it is often very helpful! Be careful though when searching the internet. There are places out there that say they can “certify” you as a paranormal investigator. There is no such thing! Experience and the ability to call yourself a professional investigator comes from practice and time in the field as well as your level of knowledge. There are lectures given by people in the paranormal field that are a small cost and sometimes free. Those are beneficial as long as they aren’t claiming to be able to “certify” you. Be careful of scams!

Here’s all you need to investigate when you start off:

1.       Pen and Paper- so that if something memorable happens you can write it down so that you will never forget it!

2.       Flashlight/Head-lamp/Cap-lamp- Paranormal Investigating usually happens in low light places so it’s best to have flash light so you can see if you need to. Headlamps or cap lamps serve the same purpose just make it easier for you to do other things with your hands and still be able to see.  I recommend one that has Red LED on it too so that you’re not blinding anyone else and you can still see.

3.       Your brain- Logically if your cat knocks something over- it’s not paranormal, it’s your cat!

Even though a lot of groups use tons of different kinds of equipment- first starting out it’s worthwhile to just investigate with no equipment really and see if you get any response. To get a response without any equipment  is priceless!

If you still want to dive deeper after doing this investigation on your own. Next you need to decide if you want to start your own group or join an established group. Starting your own group is often harder than joining another group but it all depends on what you want.

If you are starting your own group I would then recommend buying some equipment such as:

1.       A digital camera- take as many pictures as you can on investigations- you never know what you can get!

2.       An Audio recorder- for EVP sessions you could capture a voice that you didn’t hear with your ears.

3.       A camcorder- You can capture moving figures on your camcorder. This is where low light situations are ideal. We have captured figures that have a white outline- if they all look that way then it makes sense that it’s easier to see them against a black background.

4.       EMF Meter/KII Meter- These both do the same thing. I would recommend the Mel Meter if you go with an EMF meter because of it’s multi-functions. It is an EMF meter/Ambient Temp reader and flashlight. And it is definitely more convenient to have those 3 tools combined into one device than to have them all separate. Sometimes you just don’t have enough hands! An EMF meter is definitely needed to take baseline readings- which are EMF readings you take at the interview with the client and again before you start the investigation. That way if there is an EMF spike you can compare it to the baseline readings.

5.       Dowsing Rods/Pendulum- These tools tend to add to the credibility of an experience. Dowsing rods spin when there is high energy and you can get yes and no answers as well as ask them to point to where the spirit is in the room. Pendulums can get yes and no answers as well. Say you have an EMF spike and then the dowsing rods start spinning and both people with these tools are standing in the same area. This makes the experience really cool that two devices were able to confirm something paranormal is going on!

This is all you really need to conduct an investigation. If you decide to start your own group or join another group the above equipment is still very useful in either situation. In most cases when you join another group they have all the equipment above and it’s really only necessary for you to buy the equipment that you enjoy working with, for yourself to use.  And then as a group you make up all the equipment necessary.

If you’re looking into getting some more tools other than what’s above I recommend:

1.       Motion Detectors:  These are useful in sensing when something is moving even when you can’t see anything moving. What we do at GHG is to place a motion detector any where we stick a camcorder. That way if something moves it will set off the motion detector and it will all be caught on camera, hopefully showing what set it off too!

2.       2 way radios: If you ever have a big building to do and need to separate into more than one group. It helps to have this tool so that if you hear a noise you can radio the other group and ask if they made the noise. Or you can use it to signal that you all need to meet up at the base.

3.       Glow Stick Jar: Just screw a glow stick to the cap of a glass jar and close the jar. So that way the glow stick dangles inside the glass jar without touching the sides. That way in your EVP sessions you can ask the ghost to move the glow stick. Because it glows you’ll be able to see it move in the dark and wind can’t make the glow stick move.

4.       Van de Graaf Static Electricity Generator: The generator works by the rubbing or "frictional charge" of 2 different insulated materials together. The generator pushes negatively charged ions into the air and they will be attracted to all that is positively charged. When the positive and negative ions meet they produce a glow that can be seen under a blacklight. Our goal here is to create static electricity to help ghosts manifest better and make it easier for our cameras to catch a glimpse.

Any other type of creative equipment you think would work – go for it! No idea is every stupid. Try everything because you never know what will work!

Most importantly:

Be safe!

Never Trespass!- It is illegal and will look bad for you and your group! Reputation is important in this field and you can ruin it by trespassing. Not to mention it’s dangerous!

Good luck!

-Cassy Pabst

Ghost Hunters Guild Founder