Ghost Hunters

Ghost were people too. ~The Atlantic Paranormal Society

Blogthings.com has a miscellany of inane tests which no one cares to take a look except those who have nothing better to do. “What’s your hidden talent”…“What’s your power colour”… “How weird are you?”… I know I’m going to offend lots of people but – nah, those are rubbish, rubbish, rubbish! Blogger calls such things add-ons? Bah!

One day, though, I joined the ranks of those whom I arrogantly call “seriously bored people” and tried out a pointless test at Blogthings to find out my religious philosophy. Oh, I’m an atheist, I found out. Duh! As if I need any confirmation on that!

Last Halloween, ChoicesUK carried out a survey to find out the general belief of Britons. Surprise, surprise! 68% out of 2,012 people surveyed believed in the existence of ghosts and spirits, compared to 55% who believed in the existence of god.

Queer though it sounds, while my feeble mind fails to conceive the idea of some higher power pulling on our strings, I don’t reject the existence of ghosts. Neither do I believe in their existence. I’m just a sceptic. Now that Halloween is over, I feel more comfortable to voice my opinion on this subject, which to some people, is a taboo to even discuss about.

Believe it or not, there is an organisation in America which dedicates itself to the investigation of paranormal activities. Every now and then, The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) receives phone calls from members of the public seeking help in verifying the paranormal activities which they allegedly witness. Of course, TAPS volunteers are more than glad to look into the claims, collect evidence and draw conclusions objectively based on the analyses of the data acquired. Some of the intriguing investigations are aired on Star World and I’ve been following a few episodes of Ghost Hunters now.

Some of the usual procedures TAPS follows during an investigation is to test for EMF fluctuations, sudden temperature drops, take EVP’s and record video footage for analyses.

EMF stands for electromagnetic field. There are EMFs all around us – power cables, power supplies, electrical appliances. Basically, the theory is, sometimes when you get very high EMF readings but can’t pinpoint any possible source for the fluctuations, it probably comes from a paranormal being. Scientists just can’t explain the phenomenon. That’s why we call them paranormal activities in the first place.

Also, when a paranormal being tries to manifest itself, it needs to draw energy from the surrounding, hence resulting in a sharp drop in temperature. This explains why witnesses reportedly feel cold when they supposedly see a ghost around. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a fiction story, “The Land of Mist” which narrates the experience of young Malone who joined the spiritualists as a sceptic initially. The spiritualists claimed that the human spirit takes on a new form of life after death. However, it is possible for paranormal beings to take on physical forms by feeding on a kind of energy known as ectoplasm. With the help of a medium, the being can manifest itself in a séance. The theory extends that a place with frequent activities has a strong medium residing in the area.

Unfortunately, if you’re trying to convince sceptics about the existence of paranormal beings, EMF and temperature readings just aren’t enough. You need solid evidence. That’s where EVP’S (electronic voice phenomena) come in. These TAPS investigators walk around the place holding a tape recorder to record electronic voice – sounds which our ears are not sensitive enough to hear. The recordings have to be amplified using computer software to the audible range before they can be analysed. Interestingly, TAPS actually managed to get some EVP’S in the more fruitful investigations. They even make it available on their website so that sceptics can hear for themselves and decide.

Once, they were called in to investigate a haunted house in Pennsylvania. A lady claimed that there were four beings in her house – a man, a woman, a boy and a girl. The investigators actually recorded the voice of the “boy” and the “girl”! One was, “Can I come in?” and the other was a rasp whisper, “They don’t want us here.” TAPS confirmed that the voices did not come from “anyone” in the house. Creepy, no?

Of course, most people would prefer “visual evidence”. That’s why they have video footage.

Race Rock Lighthouse was allegedly haunted by the ghost of a keeper. The coast guards who went there once in a couple of weeks to check the lights reportedly had an uneasy feeling when they were inside the lighthouse. Then, plus those many ships that sunk nearby, voila! You have a perfect seafarers’ ghost story! TAPS spent a night in the lighthouse. One of the investigators sat in the attic to “get a feel of the place”. He later left the stifling attic using the only entrance, leaving behind a chair and a camera set up in the room. Moments later, it was caught on video that the chair shifted! There were certainly no extension wires nor anyone else in the attic. Something moved the chair alright but it doesn’t prove there was a ghost.

Although TAPS try to be objective in its investigations, sometimes, they rely on the sixth sense. It’s easy to say that a place has a “heavy feeling” or that “somebody is watching me”, but how can that be convincing? Besides, if you did see an apparition but have no evidence of it whatsoever, how are you going to prove it?

Take, for example, their case in Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia. One of the investigators and a cameraman took a walk in the long, dark corridor. Suddenly, they screamed and ran away from it like headless chickens. They claimed to have seen a shadow when the cameraman was taking a photo. It sounds creepy alright, but I don’t count that as a solid evidence. The lead investigator and another guy reportedly saw dark shadows too when they went to investigate but again, none of those were caught on video. Interestingly, however, an apparition was recorded moving towards the camera in the corridor and later retreated. Unfortunately, it was quite blurry since the video was taken in the dark.

So, when it comes to the existence of ghosts, I remain a sceptic. Man shall always be curious and fearful of the unknown. But, regardless of that, he will never stop trying to seek an explanation. Sigh, how I hope I am not such a scaredy-cat.

Addendum: Some evidence can be found on the TAPS website –videos, pictures, EVP’s. Unfortunately, these days, I don’t trust too much on visual evidence too. Remember the Thai horror movie, Shutter? They reportedly have a collection of genuine photographs of paranormal beings. My classmate caught an apparition on film too during an outing but it didn’t take the Ghostbusters to figure out it was actually a glitch in the digicam. Perhaps, I’ll come back to this some other time.