Do
you believe in ghosts? You probably do or you wouldn't be reading
this. This section of the website, along with the others that follow
in the Ghost of the Prairie section called "How to Hunt
Ghosts", has the simple goal of trying to provide you with some
of the basic information that will assist you in ghost hunting. It
will hopefully both enlighten and entertain you and perhaps give you
some knowledge that you didn't have before.
Obviously,
I won't have all of the answers about ghosts until I am one myself but
I can give you some of the knowledge that I have learned through trial
and error and through the experience that I have gained over the last
several years. I have been active in paranormal research for nearly 20
years and by the time you read this, I will have been involved in over
hundreds of investigations of allegedly haunted places.
You
will notice that I say "allegedly" haunted places, because
not every place in which I have been called in to investigate is
haunted. In fact, far from it! I would say that 90% or more of the
cases that I have seen have a perfectly natural explanation behind the
reports of phenomena.
It is, of course, that other small percentage which keeps us coming
back for more.
What
if you have never seen a ghost...can you still be a ghost hunter?
Of course, because what most people don't realize is that seeing a
ghost is not the most common... "experiencing" a ghost is.
By this, I mean that ghosts are more commonly felt, sensed, smelled,
picked up on detection devices and photographed, than they are
actually seen. By opening your mind up to the possibility that ghosts
exist, you are very unlikely to someday experience one.
Remember
that just because you have never seen a ghost doesn't mean that they
don't exist. Belief has little or nothing to do with being able to see
them. When ghosts are seen, it is usually because they are "all
in the head" of the person who sees them.
This
doesn't mean that ghosts are a hallucination, however. We must
remember that one part of our perception uses our five senses and the
other part is the processing that is done by our brain. The brain only
allows us to see what it thinks we can handle.... it will add and
subtract information depending on what it is processing. Some people
are simply on a different "wavelength", so to speak, and
have the ability to see things that others don't.
So
are ghosts seen as they really are? The conscious spirits are not....
that's why photographs that have been taken of paranormal energy show
balls of light, globes and strange mists. These photos probably show
spirits as they really are.
But what about when people see ghosts wearing clothes? Residual
impressions are going to be wearing clothing because they are not
conscious spirits, merely an imprint left behind. Conscious spirits
will sometimes appear in clothing because the people who are sensitive
enough to see them can see the spirit as it once was. The spirit is
"making contact" with that person and the witness is seeing
the ghosts how it still sees itself... human-like and wearing the
clothing they wore in life.
So
how can we prove that ghosts exist? By definition, a ghost is a
disembodied personality or mind. Right now, we have no physical
evidence that the mind actually exists inside of our bodies... let
alone floating around out in the ether. We infer that the mind exists
by our observations.
With ghosts, the closest that we can come to proving they exist is by
gathering witness testimony, taking photographs and documenting all of
the details that we can about them.
We
have to realize that we are never going to be able to absolutely prove
that ghosts exist. Science is never going to accept paranormal
research as a legitimate science because they are afraid of anything
that they do not understand. To be able to prove something
scientifically requires being able to duplicate something over and
over again under strict conditions. The supernatural does not work
that way.... we can measure, document and record, but ghosts do not
perform on command. They will never be trapped in a laboratory. Drag
them out of the shadows and expose them to the harsh glare of science
and they tend to vanish.
So
why bother to be a ghost hunter? I believe that there are many things
out there, as most ghost hunters do, that are beyond our current
understandings. It may be up to those of us who believe in the
impossible to find some of the answers to open up those
understandings.
What's
the most important thing for a ghost hunter? Ghost hunting is like
anything else... it is only as good as what you put into it. A ghost
hunter certainly has to be armed with equipment, cameras, recorders
and various tools of the trade. He must know what he is looking for,
what types of phenomena to investigate, how to interview a witness,
what types of experiments to conduct at a location and much more.
However,
there is one tool that is most important and that is you, the ghost
hunter himself or herself. You must use your mind and your judgment
and your own powers of observation in a case. No gadgets, recorders or
handbooks are going to be able to help you in an investigation if you
are lacking in personal qualities or abilities.
Just
remember though, before you go out determined to become a ghost
hunter..... it often takes a long time to find that genuine case that
you will be looking for. Sometimes you will wonder if it will ever
come.
You
will discover that some people like to "pull your leg" out
there. You will also discover some very strange or very scared people
who have, for all sorts of reasons, come to erroneously believe that
their house is haunted. You will discover creaking floorboards,
banging water pipes and "haunted" microwaves....
It's easy to get discouraged, but keep your sense of humor and keep
investigating every case that you can. Eventually, you will find that
genuine case, so don't give up.
The ghosts are out there... so happy hunting.
©
Copyright 2004 by Troy Taylor. All Rights Reserved
