A Little Background

The Lock Off experiment has long been a standard almost classical experiment that I have personally used from the very early days of investigating. It’s by no means my experiment and given the extent of its use I think I would be hard pressed to find its first use. Please feel free to research that if you may and let me know?

However this little gem has proved quite useful over the years and poses some interesting questions. You see essentially you’re leaving a room with perhaps a trigger object and seeing what happens without anyone present in the room. Without the investigation team present, do spirits then interact with a probable trigger object?

A great example of this experiment was used during these old cases:-

Llanthony Secunda Manor

What You Will Need

This straight forward little experiment shouldn’t be approached in too much of a complex manner. So, on this occasion I’m going to outline the simplest form that I have used in the past and think is an excellent place to start from. With that in mind here are a few things you’re going to need.

• Digital audio recorder
• Digital camera or camcorder
• Beam barriers or movement detectors (although these could even be left off for further simplicity)
• A trigger object (these seem to work better when they are associated in some way to the location)

That’s really it for the basic approach. However if you wanted to increase the tech additional options are as follows:-

• Multiple camcorders or a CCTV system
• A Data Logger for at least EMF and Temperature
• A device that visibly or audible shows change, like a KII or REM pod.

You can of course continue to add more as long as they are effective and relevant to the experiment.

The Method

Firstly pick an appropriate location for the experiment to be setup in. This could be a complete room (often best) or a particular area. As long as the experiment area can be contained and free from most audible and visible contamination. Hence why a single room that you can close off is best.

Its often a good idea to try this in a room that has been identified as possibly having greater physical activity in it. Although this isn’t essential, it just seems to help a bit.

So here’s what you do:-

1. Locate the best room for the experiment, remember that access to the room will be restricted during the experiment and whilst the experiment is under way you may wish to investigate as far away as possible. This should help in reducing audio and visual contamination.
2. Set up the trigger object ensuring that it’s not in a position where it might slip or fall over due to slight vibration of footsteps. If it moves you want to be sure that there will only be one explanation rather multiple logical ones.
3. Now we want to cover the trigger object in order to ensure any activity is recorded by all devices. With this in mind the devices shouldn’t be too far away from the trigger object, but not too close either.
4. Cover the trigger object with the camcorder to ensure that probable movement in any direction will be covered. If you have multiple camcorders (or CCTV) utilise them to cover the trigger object from various angles, each angle equally covering a part of the other. If you have the capacity completely cover some angles.
5. Place the digital audio recorder close enough to the trigger object that it should pick up any audio in the immediate area of the object.
6. At this point as the experiment in its basic form has been setup I would advise it would be a good time to photograph the area and the room as much as possible. This is a really simple way to document the initial setup of the experiment for comparisons should anything change. Although we often believe we can accurately remember things having documented proof is important.
7. Now its time to leave the room and close it off. If you have beam barriers or movement detectors use them to cover the trigger object and access to the room. The beam barriers are great for he access doors, whilst movement detectors can be used to cover the actual trigger object.
8. Once the room is closed off I would leave it in that state for at least a couple of hours to give it plenty of time to run. Ideally the longer the better.
9. When you return at the end of the experiment, firstly check the trigger objects position and compare it to the documented setup of the room. If indeed there has been obvious movement then you will need to check the footage and audio for this.
10. Break down the experiment.

Managing the Results

Once you’ve analysed any video footage and listened to tall the audio, you will then have a fair idea if you have indeed captured activity or not.

This will then be a case of time lining the experiment, documenting all the events as they have occurred throughout the session. Also, noting anything specific you hear or see, as well as changes to things like EMF or Temperature if there are devices of that nature running too.

Remember if you do pick anything up then I would be interested to see and/or hear it. Please feel free to contact me about it at info@ashleyknibb.com, I’m always happy to talk paranormal.

Once you’ve run through the experiment in this manner you can then start to mix it up a little, adding more devices, using different triggers and more.

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