Paranormal Investigation and the Like

EMF, Sleep Paralysis, Infrasound, and Pareidolia

Logical ghost hunting honestly is the only way to get anywhere, and that's why I feel it is important. For so many years, especially in the early 1900s, probably up until the 80s, it was all spiritual. They were more interested in parapsychology and things like that. Nothing very logical about parapsychology.

Anyway, simple explanations for alleged paranormal activity are often overlooked by investigators. Too often is something labeled paranormal, when in reality, it is caused by one or more of the following things.

EMF, or electro-magnetic field, detectors are very useful tools that are normally used by contractors and electricians. EMF detectors can be seen a lot on television shows (there are many different versions made by different companies). You'll usually see investigators sweeping a room with it by tracing the corners of the room, trying to get a "base reading" for later debunking. 

Other times, you'll see them place the EMF detector on the ground or some other surface, like a table. They will ask any spirits present to approach the device, after telling the spirit it is not harmful to them. If the spirit does get close to it, the device will go off, alarming the investigators. The theory behind this is that spirits are made up of electro-magnetic energy. Pretty much everyone in the paranormal community accepts and believes in this theory. 

But communicating with spirits is not the main application we like to use the knowledge of EMF for. We mainly use it as a means to debunk certain claims, and other groups should follow suit. If we know a large amount of EMF is present and that the client is exposed to it, we can shoot down so many claims of paranormal activity. This is because exposure to EMF has so many side effects.

Electrical appliances, the Earth, and even your own brain, give off electro-magnetic energy. Coming from the Earth, it is harmless, and isn't powerful enough to have an effect on you. The ones from appliances, however, can harm you. Exposure to EMF can cause severe headaches, overwhelming paranoia, a 'creepy' feeling, and even mild hallucinations. These are just the effects of exposure for just a few hours. (Long term exposure can have even deadly effects. That's why they say not to sleep with electronics nearby. EMF causes sleep disturbances, hearing loss, and some studies have actually linked it to cancer.)

Obviously, the short term exposure side effects are very often confused with paranormal activity. Say a client says they only have experiences in a certain back bedroom, and nowhere else in the house. The client says she has feelings of being watched and seeing shadow people.

The first step would be to whip out the handy-dandy EMF detector and get a "sweep" of the room. Under 2 milliGauss is a normal reading, with little to no effect on you. Anything above that will certainly be bad if spending a lot of time near it. In this back bedroom, investigators find extreme amounts of EMF around the perimeters of the room, so much that it even burries the needle from the center. This is what we call a "fear cage". Anyone spending a few hours or more in this room is bound to have at least one of the side effects. From this simple sweep of the room, investigators can already make an assumption about the validity of the paranormal claims. They most likely are not paranormal at all. 

Sleep paralysis probably aggravates me the most. I don't know how many times we will get calls from clients explaining to us that they were assaulted by a spirit while asleep. They claim they were held down by a ghost, were strangled by a ghost, or something like that.

The natural, logical, scientific explanation for this occurance is sleep paralysis. During sleep paralysis, which is a type of sleep disorder, you are awake and conscious but unable to move any muscle in your body, and you cannot speak. A heavy feeling will come over your chest, and you'll find it difficult to breathe. Some also experience hallucinations during this phenomenon. 

Sleep paralysis happens to a lot of people. I think I read that almost everyone will experience it at least once in their life. I can't explain the technicalities of it, but it basically has to do with your brain 'shutting down' for sleep before you are ready to fall asleep, and the REM cycle towards the end of sleep. I may be wrong. I admittedly do not know much about it. But I do know that it is too often mistaken for ghosts. 

Infrasound is a fairly new concept that has been researched over just the past couple of years. Well, it is not a new concept to science, but it has only recently been linked to claims of 'paranormal activity.

Without the whole scientific explanation, it's just a very low-frequency sound that is just below the frequency we as humans can hear. Infrasound is caused by many natural things, including earthquakes, waterfalls, and waves, just to name a few. It acts much like electro-magnetic energy does, in that it can create very bothersome effects for us if exposed for too long. These effects are things like paranoia and that 'creepy' feeling. Even being in the shower for too long can induce these feelings because the sound of the water hitting the floor is infrasonic.

There isn't any way for investigators to measure infrasonic activity like we can measure EMF. The group I am in has been working on a possible tool that doesn't measure, but detects infrasonic activity. It's a pretty simple idea. It is a wooden box with the outside of a speaker in the center. The speaker works like a parabolic microphone. Across the speaker are several guitar strings of different thickness, tied very tight. Resting in the speaker is one of our digital voice recorders. In theory, if there is infrasonic activity around the location, it will vibrate the guitar strings, making a noise that can be picked up on the recorder. We've tested it a few times, and it works pretty well.

Pareidolia is a funny word, isn't it? I think so. Anyway, I assume most people have heard of it and experienced it, but just don't know the name for it. It's basically seeing a cloud in the sky and thinking it reseambles a donkey, or thinking the face of Adolf Hitler formed in your spilled milk.

We've all seen the 'ghost' pictures where there's seemingly a face appearing out of something, whether it be shadows or smoke or water. I won't say that none of these are ghosts caught on camera. But I'll say that you are most likely victim of pareidolia 90% of the time. You can't help it. It is just something your brain does automatically, as it tries to look for a familar pattern amid visual chaos. 

It's not just visual chaos. Pareidolia can also occur with sounds, too. This is why you need to watch out when reviewing audio, and thinking you've caught a really good EVP saying something amazing. It could just be your brain trying to make sense of gibbrish and turning it into a valid sentence. Most groups generally follow the same rule, that a potential EVP should be listened to by everyone in the group and even some outside the group, before anyone decides on what it's saying.