My wife Denise and I took a 3-hour tour/class in ghost hunting. Led by the gentleman who leads the Cape Cod Paranormal Research Society, we visited a haunted jail and a cemetery, heard stories of ghosts and tried to detect and record their presence.
It seems that there are two primary ways that ghost hunters detect and record the presence of a ghost. One way is to look for electromagnetic fields that are out of the ordinary. Ghosts generate such fields. So do all animals. You have to make sure that your EMF Sensor, which you can buy on Amazon for $30, is picking up a deceased person and not a squirrel or your cat wanting a treat.
The other way is to use recording equipment to capture electronic voice phenomenon (EVP) of ghosts speaking (and apparently humming and singing). You can use your iPhone voice recognition capability. Our guide showed us a recording of a ghost singing. It was not clear what song was being sung but it looks to me like it was “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” or maybe “Hey Jude.”
Denise and I wandered through a darkened cemetery. We stood in front of some graves, turned on our EVP device and asked some questions to whatever ghosts were hanging out.
Being experienced, socially adept conversationalists, we served up some softball questions for the ghosts such as what is your name and what is your favorite color? After we asked the question, we paused for 5-10 seconds to see if our EVP recorder picked up ghosts’ answers.
We got silence. The ghosts in this cemetery apparently were not in the mood to be friendly.
At the end of the tour, we sat in the dark of the old jail of Barnstable and waited for a ghost to show up. Our host called out to the ghosts letting them know that we were here and exhorting them to show themselves.
He may not have much clout in the ghost community, or the ghosts may have been busy watching the NBA playoffs. Regardless, no ghost showed up.
Perhaps that is just as well. Below is an excerpt from the tour pamphlet:
“If you do make contact with a spirit, do not taunt or provoke it in any way. Be open and courteous, and keep your questions simple, and definitely don’t offer any personal information to it. The encounter won’t last long, so make the most of it.”
“The chances of encountering a malevolent spirit are small, but if you do, you will have about five seconds to escape horrific death. Have a ready escape plan if you ever feel uneasy. Keep watch for signs of hostility, like loud thudding noises, sudden wind gusts, or mysterious glass shattering.”
If you know someone who wants a barely used EMF Sensor, let me know.