The Shady Science of Ghost Hunting
By Benjamin Radford
27 October 2006 10:05 am ET
The supposed links between ghosts and electromagnetic fields, low temperatures, radiation, odd photographic images, and so on are based on nothing more than guesses, unproven theories, and wild conjecture. If a device could reliably determine the presence or absence of ghosts, then by definition, ghosts would be proven to exist. I own an EMF meter, but since it’s useless for ghost investigations—it finds not spirits but red herrings—I use it in my lectures and seminars as an example of pseudoscience. The most important tools in this or any investigation are a questioning mind and a solid understanding of scientific principles.
The ghost hunters’ anti-scientific illogic is clear: if one area of a home is colder than another, that may indicate a ghost; if an EMF meter detects a field, that too may be a ghost; if dowsing rods cross, that might be a ghost. Just about any “anomaly,” anything that anyone considers odd for any reason, from an undetermined sound to a “bad feeling” to a blurry photo, can be (and has been) considered evidence of ghosts.
Read Full article here…
My little friend shows up….(these only appear when someone or the cat are in the room it seems).
Setting the scene:
* My biggest point of confusion here is that the IR light from the extender, which was sitting on the bookshelf to the right, starts to fall down slowly to the right, then it somehow swings back to the left hard and far enough to hit the tripod, which was about 2 feet away from the bookshelf, on the lefthand side. It’s as if something threw it.
This is 28:55 into the recording, so it took a half hour to decide to fall for no apparent reason. The camera was left alone all night in this room with the door completely shut and we were both in bed at the back of the house. Notice the unexplained noises at the beginning of the video also.
I came in the next morning and the extender was laying on the floor to the left of the tripod, I could not recreate this unless I swiped at the extender pretty hard towards the tripod. Also the extender was turned off and the batteries are still going strong. You have to physically pull down a notched switch on the extender to turn it off. A fall doesn’t turn the light off. The extender itself was propped up against a large candle holder and also had tape underneath it, to keep it from moving.
I’m not going to say this is conclusively paranormal, but, it wouldn’t suprise me a bit if it was.
News article on local TAPS Investigation to be aired in new season, starting in March. Complete with cheesey/cliche “who you gonna call” reference.
By Seamus O’Connor – Staff writer
Posted : Monday Jan 14, 2008 6:28:40 EST
The Air Force is technologically capable of dominating air, space and cyberspace. But when it comes to the paranormal, who you gonna call?
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, has had reports of supernatural activity for years, so they called in The Atlantic Paranormal Society, host of the SciFi Channel show “Ghost Hunters.” The team starts today on a week of investigations into three possibly haunted buildings on base, which will air as an episode during the season starting in March.
One of the buildings is the Arnold House, the former residence of Gen. Henry “Hap” Arnold himself, which dates from the 19th century, base spokeswoman Rachel Castle said.
“People have heard footsteps when they’re the only person in the house,” Castle said. “The interesting thing about that is there’s a buzzer system in the house, so if someone wants in, they have to buzz in. So if you’re the only one in there, you know you’re the only one in there, and they continue to hear the footsteps on the stairs.”
Children’s laughter has also been heard in the house when no children were present, but no one has seen the ghost of Arnold himself, Castle said.
Two office buildings, buildings 219 and 70, are also known for strange occurrences. Both were built in the World War II era, Castle said, and 219 was originally a hospital and pediatric clinic. Now a little boy’s ghost is known to run laughing through the corridors and basement, while doors slam, lights go on and off and the elevator runs — all by themselves, Castle said.
In Building 70, “People have heard their names called when they were here on the weekend by themselves,” Castle said. The building is now partly a warehouse where aluminum sheets are stacked. Engineers have said they heard stacks crashing down, she said, only to find nothing disturbed in the warehouse.
I decided to run my video camera overnight last evening from 12:30am to about 4:30am for kicks, here in the front, active room of the Newport home where we live.
We were in bed sleeping soundly during this in the back of the house, and the room was sealed-off and closed up the entire time, no one else was in the house the entire night.
See the video below for the patched together files. Turn up the volume to hear everything as you should.
You can download the file itself here, or watch the streaming file below: (give it a minute to load up)
