Wee Ghosties - A Beginner's Guide to Ghost Hunting

~Intelligent hauntings
These types of ghosts are the ones in the movies. They attempt to interact with those around them, generally making themselves a nuisance by scaring the bananas out of people. Some of the things they seem to be able to do are:
- Whispering
- Slamming doors
- Temperature drops and moving the cold spots around
- Body contact (I've had my hair pulled)
- Smells (roses in January)
- Items turn up missing in the house only to reappear later in a completely different location

I do not believe that there are evil spirits, I do think that the personality of a ghost is set by how they were in life. If they were mean and nasty while living, don't expect that to change to cuddly and endearing after death.

Intelligent hauntings contain the energy of the person, that's why some people are able to gather intense feelings when confronted with a ghost. Sadness, anger and jealousy don't die. Some don't realize they're dead, children are especially unaware and often try to make contact for attention.

~Residual Hauntings
A typical haunted house (if there is such a thing). A residual haunting is a memory of an event that replays itself over and over. Sometimes it seems as if you've walked into a film, they are not aware of you but you are able to see what they're going through. Reports of ghosts walking through walls or missing half of their bodies because of changes in the house are common, you're witnessing a memory and not true spirit activity. Some of the ways to tell a residual haunting from an intelligent haunting are:
- Knockings
- Footfalls
- The aforementioned walking through walls

~Elementals
These are spirits of the earth such as pookas, fairies, banshees, etc.

~Poltergeists
If only it was as easy as that movie...
I think these are the least well understood part of the entire paranormal picture. Instead of nicely fitting into a category, these bad boys create havoc centering around an adolescent child (like they don't have enough to worry about already) or a young emotionally disturbed person. The most recent belief is that they are unknowingly able to move things by psychokinesis (the ability to move things by the energy of the brain). Some of these include:
- Small fires
- Rocks being thrown from nowhere
- Frogs raining from the sky

I'll say it again. You don't need a thousand dollars worth of stuff to carry around on an investigation, leave that to the TV groupies. If you join an investigative group, they may already have equipment to try out before you buy it so for now you will need:

- Notepad
- Pencil
- Watch
- Good flashlight with extra batteries (keep them in the car in case yours go out)
- Identification
- Cell phone
- Camera (this does not have to be hugely expensive, a cheap disposable works fine)
- Extra film and batteries

Nice to have:
- Walkie-talkies
- Tape recorder with external microphone (it can be difficult to hear the playback if your recorder's inner mechanisms are loud)
- Infra-red video recorders
- Digital camera
- Electromagnetic Field Meters. These are the current favorite toys of many investigators, I find them annoying, unreliable and not easy to get accurate readings from.
- Motion detectors. Fun to have, I have yet to see one actually work with a haunting. It does, however scare the pants off of people trying to use the bathroom with one in there.

Begin with visiting the area first in the daylight if you are planning a nighttime investigation. Make sure you have the owner's permission to be on the property if you are not doing an in-house hunt and set up your equipment.

If you are with a team, split up into groups. One group to interview the household and one to check for cold spots, reported activity spots, etc.

Some questions to ask:
- When and where did activity start?
- Is there a person more likely to have phenomenon begin when they are present?
- Is it more active during storms, certain times of day, anniversaries of deaths/births/weddings?
- Check to see if the area is close to a large water source; I've found many times this will draw in and keep activity.

Ask the household to keep a log of when and where it kicks up. Ask them to note the time, weather and who is present so they can see if a pattern forms.

Keep a close eye on the time. Write down in your notebook anytime you hear a noise, whisper, loud movement that your members make. These may be misconstrued as phenomena later otherwise. Then wait for floating heads. ;)

Thank your hosts, clean up completely and leave the premises in better shape than you found it. Tell the owners that you will be in touch after analysis but don't make any claims about what you've found. You will need to discuss with your team members later their experiences without bias or jumping to conclusions.

After meeting and comparing notes, determine if you did indeed discovered something worth looking into again. With the owners permission, follow up within a few weeks to see if you can catch the same or similar phenomena.

I've been researching and writing about ghosts for the past twenty years and have answered questions from around the globe regarding cases. Some are spooky, some not so spooky. If you have a ghost-related question on what's bumping around in your house or would like to ask more about ghost hunting in general, please email me at info-at-weeghosties.com. Questions and answers will be posted Ask a Ghost Hunter unless requested not to do so in the original email.

http://askaghosthunter.blogspot.com