Paranormal Investigation has become very popular in today’s society. When the practice first began it was largely from the point of view of the skeptical community. I remember reading the Parapsychologist Handbook in the 1980's and it was very dry and scientific. I think it's best to approach actual findings from a skeptics perspective, trying to debunk possible evidence is also part our jobs. If you want to be taken seriously using the right equipment and clinical presentation are essential to presenting your evidence. The presentation is often very different from the actual experience. When you go to a location you will often find yourself in abandoned buildings, basements, ancient houses, 'lunatic asylum's,' attics, mines, ghost towns, the middle of bum fucking nowhere. You need to be aware of your own safety issues in a very mortal way. I live in an area where moose and bear do as well so being smart about wildlife is extremely important. More frightening than the dead are the living, knowing your locations and what element of humanity use a location you want to investigate is key to your own safety. Once you get past all the mortal
dangers that might befall you, it's time to try and draw the ghosts out! This process has many varying methods of trying to capture evidence. It would take someone with nerves of steel to NOT react to the things you have to do
and the ghosts you have to interact with.
You have your equipment ready, your team, you've done your research, your interviews and you have finally arrived at your location. Next you need to pick where you want to spend your time. Night time is a much
more quiet time with fewer living folks around which is why most investigations are done at night. When you're going for interaction with an intelligent spirit recreating the conditions of when they are most active can increase likelihood of capturing evidence. This means, lights off. If you're easily frightened, this is not the job for you, your evp and camera evidence will be tainted with the screams of you running away like the Ghostbusters from the library.
(WHAT NOT TO DO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kj2bF8dDNs)
Your observations and classifications will be important to how you present your evidence. I have several classifications that I use. RESIDUAL ENERGY: This form of energy is an imprint to the location you're investigation.
Locations where violent deaths and horrible abuse or torture occurred very often hold the echoes of the past. These echoes can be held in the building material like wood or stone, just as humans have 'muscle memory,' buildings
can hold negative energy like an imprint. At a molecular level atoms are filled with vast regions of empty space. We exchange energy with everything we touch and are near at this microscopic level. The fury of violence echoes through the victims, the families, the criminals, why not the earthen ground or stone? When these sort of echoes are recorded, there is no intelligent interaction between the investigator and the energy captured on paranormal investigation equipment. Energy such as long term patterns can be captured as well, it doesn't have to be anything unpleasant. It could be someone did the same thing every morning for forty years and you're catching the residual energy from their daily routine. Houses, battlefields, hospitals hold memories,
just as we do.
INTELLIGENT SPIRIT classification. Benevolent Spirits are well meaning. Many times they may be family that has passed too soon or that may just be staying to watch over their loved ones. When I was a girl we inherited my grandmothers cat when she passed on. The night after the cat had passed away, I was laying in bed crying and clear as day I heard him meow right next to my bed. Another experience I had was the night my step-father died, my
mother and I had the exact same dream of him coming to visit us and say goodbye before he moved on. I found these experiences comforting and from reports that I've seen and read many others with similar stories have too. While life after death tends to be a belief, even with paranormal evidence, I believe that we have a choice when we pass to move on quickly or remain earthbound.
There is also the belief that when a soul violently leaves this world they are trapped until the perpetrator has been brought to justice. I happen to disagree with that assessment due to an extremely personal life experience.
2002 was the worst year of my life and I attempted to take my own life. I did actually die for several minutes, but returned. I learned many many things from this experience, but these are the experiences that are related to my
conclusion about this particular type of haunting. When I started to fade I remember leaving my body and being extremely happy about it. What remained was something out of a nightmare that I only learned about through others after many days and years. When they brought me into the emergency room, I was told, it took 6 men to restrain me. At the time before the restraints were applied one of the orderlies lost control of my arm and I was on top of him, beating him as hard as I possibly could. I truly have no memory of this to this day. (I did get to apologize to guy later and he was alright) Five days after I attempted suicide is when I can begin to recollect being aware of my surroundings. At that time, I referred to it as when I actually
came back to my body.
There's a concept in Shamanism, called 'Soul Loss' that says when you experience a trauma in your life, you loose apart of yourself. It can be anything from a auto accident, the loss of a loved one, abuse, rape or even an over exuberant sneeze. The piece of your soul that fractions off from you is the part that experienced the trauma. This also helps explain how we block out memories of extreme trauma and abuse. It's my believe that people that loose
too many pieces of their soul will show the absence of one. Such as people like Jeffrey Dhamer, Charles Manson, and Aileen Wuornos, these are examples that I believe are very apparent just from looking at their eyes in photographs.
Shamanism states that in order to be a whole person, you need to retrieve the pieces of yourself that you lost.
When I made the attempt to end my life, it's my understanding that what remained behind was the fury and ultimate despair that led me to take such an action. The majority of my spirit that was ready to leave did so. My
recollections of the time I was away from my body are happy ones. The actions of my body and spirit left behind was all the ugliness that I didn't feel able to deal with at the time, all the trauma from the events leading up to the actual attempt stayed behind as I tried to move on from it. My essence didn't return for five days. This is what I believe is left behind by spirits that actually do die, which can sometimes be residual spirits, but are often violent malevolent spirits. It's why we can pick up on screams of the actual events where known murders or suicides have taken place. The victims often separate from the events, leading to soul loss, letting the part of themselves that was benevolent and beautiful move on. Unless they decide to stay, as I believe many do for a multiple of reasons such as to comfort family and let them know they're ok to stalking their killer in an attempt to seek justice. The part that experienced the
violence that stays behind may only be fury, anger, sadness. It doesn't mean that persons spirit is any of those things as a whole, but only what they were in the terrible moment that took their life. A fictional example that may help some wrap their head around the concept is the film, 'The Grudge.' The ghost left behind is a vindictive and vengeful entity and I see it as only the lost part of the woman that was abused and eventually murdered. As with most fictional representations it is widely exaggerated, but a good example none the less. Lost soul parts can be retrieved with the help of a trained Shaman. Shamanic practices may originate as early as the Paleolithic, predating all organized religions, and certainly as early as the Neolithic period.
The worst kind of ghosts are malevolent spirits. Often these are the spirit's of the most violent men and woman in our histories. They are either trapped or afraid to move on for fear of after life repercussions. If you died believing you're going to Hell, you might stick around too. Another for of this type of haunting spirit may never have been human at all. Just as many believe in protective and benevolent creatures that watch over them, the equal and opposite may also exist in many forms. Obviously I believe it, so when
observing and classifying certain things my terminology would reflect it.
Some paranormal investigators use provocation as a technique to obtaining evidence. The best example being 'Ghost Adventures', I love these guys to pieces, AND they have had to deal with backlash in their personal lives
from using this particular method themselves. Using provocation is not an activity for beginners and novices. There are consequences that you have to face for poking at the evil shit, if you don't know what you're doing, you're
young, inexperienced or any combination thereof just don't do it. Of course when I was all of those things I would have scoffed and done it anyway, so I know you're out there you little hooligans. You think you're invincible because
you're young, if you HAVE to be stupid try and least to be aware of you and your teams personal safety on all levels.
Having a paranormal experience for some might be thrilling, but really, in the moment, it's often frightening. Fear and carelessness can get you killed and the last thing you want when you go ghost hunting, is to become one
yourself out of sheer stupidity. Preparation and proper research will help you to be aware of the site's dangers. If it's possible to have someone that knows the building or the area you are in walk you through during the day it's extremely advisable to do so. If you can't find anyone, at least do a day walk through before venturing into the location before dark. In fact having everything set up before sundown will help you stay out of harmful situation.
When you encounter something that frightens out you may have little control over how you react, that's the fight or flight response to get your ass to safety. Knowing your location will keep accident's from happening, so be smart about it. If you have camera's set up, just keep telling yourself not to freak out and run off like a little baby man because the whole world may have the pleasure of
seeing it over and over and over and you will never live it down. But than, it is fairly amusing to watch!
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This video made by ABC re: suicide prevention: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1SbBw-JcQ4
Hanna McLean
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