The Home of the ParaHunter

Steve Edwards, a fellow paranormal investigator, sent me an article from the website Skeptoid, a skepticism website devoted to "Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena." In episode #81 the site attacks "Ghost Hunting Tools of the Trade". The episode actually was posted in January of 2008, but until now I was unaware of it. You can access the episode here, and I recommend that you do since I will be referencing it, directly to counter some of the claims by the article.

The host of Skeptoid, Brian Dunning, starts the article with a decent introduction, slamming the gear brought to bear against the paranormal, specifically ghosts. He makes a very valid point stating, "If ghosts did exist and were detectable, you can bet that there would be huge industries behind [detecting them.]" For the most part I agree with that claim, except for the "If ghosts exist...", since no one has been able to prove-the-negative that they don't, we can see he's already biased in his criticisms, as most skeptics are. Also,there isn't a paranormal investigator in the field who would swear that any tool we use to detect anomalies that may be associated with ghosts, is proven and factual, but right now, the tools we do employ are the best that science can provide. More on that later.

Dunning goes on, breaking down several common tools employed by ghost hunters in an attempt to catch evidence or detect a ghost in the environment. First on the list; Infrared Thermometers. Here I agree with Brian, 100%. These thermometers shoot a laser across an area, peg a surface, and fire back, measuring temperature as they do. Unless the ghost is leaning against the wall, these thermometers are worthless. What Dunning fails to mention is the k-probe, (No, that's not something your doctor uses on you after you turn 40.) A k-prove is a device that attaches to infrared thermometers and will measure ambient, or air temperature, in an approximate 3 foot radius around the device. This type of thermometer can detect temperature variations floating within the air, not just reflected off a surface. Caution still must be used when bringing such thermometers to bear, however, since heating ducts and air conditioning can cause temperature fluctuations several feet away from vents and openings.

Next on the list; Infrared motion detectors. Again I agree with MOST of what Mr. Dunning is criticizing here. These detectors will not detect invisible movement, but the application he is criticizing is not quite spot-on for what an experienced paranormal investigator will use this device for. It's not that we're trying to detect invisible, walking entities. Instead what an investigator will do is aim the device at an object known, or suspected, to move or be moved by the ghost investigated; a rocking chair or toy that may spontaneously move on it's own, for instance. For the most part Dunning's attack is valid, but he's attacking the wrong kind of application of the tool.

Particle detectors are rapid-fire debunked next. In his attack against particle detectors, or Geiger counters, Brian states, "For a ghost to emit ionizing radiation, it would have to be an awfully sick ghost; or be composed largely of unstable radioactive metals. Ionizing particles don't just appear out of thin air, they are emitted by the decay of unstable isotopes that are typically heavy and have significant mass." Well, um, since we don't know what a ghost is actually made out of, this makes since. I doubt they get sick but if we know "Ionizing particles don't just appear out of thin air..." than this makes a perfect case in using such a device, potentially. If an anomaly is detected, then that anomaly very much could be a hint of paranormal activity!

Dunning makes some really good criticism's against EMF meters. He points out that most meters measure in three axis' and most newbie investigators will wave the meters around too fast for them to calibrate to the environment to give an accurate reading. He also points out that electromagnetism will indeed be cast off by any other electronic devices in the area quite easily, which will lead to false positives. What he misses is the fact that EMF comes in two types of current, direct and applied (AC/DC, BACK IN BLACK, BABY!!), and that wave-form oscillation is very important to watch out for as well. In a perfect world, paranormal investigators would use oscilloscopes to monitor each and every EMF 'hit' detected to see if they are really paranormal in origin, but such is quite technical and expensive.  Where Brian really fails is when he states, "...ghosts emit electromagnetism..." as the belief of ghost hunters. No, Brian, ghosts don't emit electromagnetism. That is not the commonly accepted belief by paranormal investigators. They (ghosts) however may be able to employ or affect fields of electromagnetism. This is what we are trying to detect. Think of it this way; you're standing in a pool of water 3 feet deep by 50 feet in diameter. Somewhere in that pool is a shark, and the only way you can detect the shark is by the ripples on the surface of the water. The shark's not emitting the water, but he's affecting it as he moves through it. We're trying to detect these ripples...a variation in the environment that may give us a clue that a ghost, if one is present, is affecting the environment itself.

Ion detectors are next in Mr. Dunning's sights. He makes the claim at the end of the paragraph that for ghosts to be detected by an ion detector you should be able to see it scuffling it's shoes across the carpet. Interesting enough, another investigator, Steve in fact, stated to me his hypothesis that a ghost may be comprised of static electricity, so maybe an ion detector isn't such a bad idea. Despite what Dunning claims, he, himself, doesn't know if a ghost is actually comprised of static electricity or not. He does mention that ion detectors are excellent at picking up trace decay of radon in an area. Another reason for a ghost hunter to have one in his arsenal since such poison can cause people in the area to become very sick, even to the point of death, and one of our jobs as investigators is to warn people of such things (radon, black mold, etc..) if detect during our investigations.

Cameras. Again Dunning goes here to debunk the false concept that we use IR lights on our cameras to detect something invisible in the IR spectrum. Although it's a nice hypothesis, I, myself, have seen zero evidence of such being true. However the real reason why these lights are brought to bare is to detect movement in low-light or no-light conditions. Once more, Brian's attacking the wrong application of the tool. He does attack orbs, and yeah, he's preaching to the choir on that one. I agree with his criticisms against dust/moisture/particles that make up so-called spirit orbs.

Dowsing rods...Brian, I couldn't agree with you more on slamming these 'tools'. Next time, however, hit pendulums, mirrors, and talking boards, too.

Audio recording gear. Here Dunning promises to go into more detail of EVP in the future. He may have, considering the age of the post, but I've not tracked it down on his site, yet. Suffice it to say he criticises the claims of ghost hunters that ghosts 'speak' into audio recorders, then change the frequency into a more audible range for the benefit of us human listeners. I agree that this concept is ridiculous. I also believe that the concept of these recorders picking up errant CB radio, airplane, police, or radio chatter as being the origin of such phenomena is also ridiculous. These devices are shielded just for such a purpose. Okay, he didn't make that age-old skeptical argument, probably because Brian knows better. Dunning is also avoiding the elephant in the room, the one that states the fact that EVP are still detected and still picked up with no sourcing. He offers no explanation for this. I'm not saying the ghosts alter frequencies, although we (this includes you, Brian) don't know if that's within their capability or not, but I am saying that the voices and sounds I've picked up during some of my EVP sessions are not radio nor cellphone transmissions that drifted into my recorder. Brian's doing a lot of speculation about what EVP are not, but not what they are.

In the end most of Brian's attacks fall far short of validity regarding what we actually use these devices for.  As I pointed out some of his criticisms are indeed valid and need to be considered in our investigations. My point is this, the detection devices such as ion and EMF meters, are used specifically to measure what they were intended to measure; environmental changes, not ghosts. There's not a device in the world that can measure a ghost. Surely you know this, but our hope is that a ghost can manipulate its environment and leave a tell-tale trace of it's presence. That is what we're hoping to pick up, and that is what we're hoping to record on our cameras and audio gear. Any paranormal investigator worth his or her metal knows what these devices are intended for, and we want them to detect and record specifically as they were designed. In fact, we keep upgrading our gear to devices that are more and more sensitive for just such a purpose...recorders that are sharper, record in 360 degrees with far better sound quality, for example. We employ the natural trifield meter in a still, standing position because we understand how it works. Yeah, at the end Brian criticizes the TV shows and I agree, they've degraded to crap, but where he really shines is avoiding the root cause of the paranormal investigation itself......the claim by the client or the experience of the witness.

Shoot higher, next time, Brian, or better yet, actually speak to a paranormal investigator as to why we're using these devices. Don't just watch the crappy TV shows and make leaps in logic. That's a dangerous thing to do.