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20
Oct, 2018
2
May, 2018
Social Media’s Immersive Memories and the Paranormal
30
Apr, 2018
We Need You!!!
The Data Age…
We live in a time where data has never been so important to us, it’s literally a time where everything in our lives has link to some kind of data or algorithms to comprehend what we want.
Think about that for second. I am sure there are examples you could provide that seem like they have no influence from some form of data, but do they?
Its certainly a strange concept to get your head around that a lot of what we do is likely to be because the choices we are most likely to engage with have been presented to us. Conspiracy theorist have a field day with this kind of area and the concept of being constantly watched isn’t a new. The book 1984 suggested a world monitored by CCTV for example many decades ago now. Oddly the UK is dubbed one of the most monitored countries in the world when it comes to CCTV. The recent TV series Hunted shows how hard it is to avoid the CCTV once dropped in the centre of a city. Head out into the country and even though camera coverage is more sparse, ‘big brother’ will still find you!
This disturbing fact is one aspect of information and data that is captured in huge quantities on a daily basis, where you are and what you’re doing. Now if you think it would take thousands of hours for a person to sift through any footage to track your movements individually, then you would be right. However this isn’t the case and also where the data aspect falls into this. There is now excellent software that runs facial recognition and number plate recognition, the authorities can track you through a number of systems using this. In fact the systems do all the work and simply alert when you pop up so to speak.
Wait, what, now…
Lost? Wondering why I am rambling on about CCTV instead of the paranormal? Well it’s simple really, many of us utilise audio and video as a primary tool for attempting to capture probable ‘evidence’ of the paranormal. However these are equally tools which can help us document our environments of investigation more fully. At some point, I couldn’t tell you when I stopped reviewing every piece of footage on my CCTV system post investigation. This wasn’t because I got a tag lazy, but because I soon realised whatever I found would have no meaning without additional sources to support it. So, I allowed those other source to present themselves and to utilise the CCTV to a) back those sources up and b) identify the locations of the team. The latter wasn’t because I didn’t trust my team, but actually because our memories are not quite the best at actually recalling information about an event.We needed to back our own timeline up if we were to become able to present to the academics. More information and data.
The other thing I discovered was that in order to prove what we thought we were experiencing we needed a lot of data to support that. A couple of our favourite cases with a vague comprehension of what happened with no hard evidence would never be enough. This lead me to come to the conclusion that we would need at least a couple of hundred main cases to study and they would need to be geographically and chronologically spread, but what I really wanted to include was an abundance of up to date recent cases too. Especially as these recent cases from investigators out there today doing the work may constitute current activity we could investigate further.
Which is how I came to want to seek so much data or information within the paranormal field.
Hello ‘Big Data’…
The easiest way to comprehend this and to explain how these day in our everyday life we encounter this ‘big data’ and the collection and use of it, is to bring in one thing that often seems to cause issue within the ghost hunter community. I am of course referring to the internet based social media platforms we now use day in day out. These particular system constantly gather information on what we search for, like and become interested in. Then that information is fed through algorithms that likes of Facebook and Google use in order to determine which advertisement would be best suited for us.
I have spoken about this previously, when I mentioned AI and machine learning, but now I am saying let’s take that approach of gather information and using it together to understand more about the field we all love. I totally understand that gather numbers and pieces of information isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and will never be more exciting than navigating a haunted location in the quiet of night, but whilst we do that on occasion we could grab a little information to get us going.
ParaSearch Radio interview on research…
Around this time last night (as I’m writing this post) I was talking to Kerry Greenaway on The Spirit Dimension radio show, one of Paraseach Radio’s many interesting shows about this very subject. In fact we put a call out to the Paranormal Investigators out there for assistance in gathering some of this data/information in order to add into our research and understand the Paranormal better perhaps. Links below:-
The Spirit Dimension – Research Project
ParaSearch Radio’s YouTube Channel – Subscribe for their latest
You can also gather the kind of information I am after using my Paranormal Investigators Journal. I have even created a simple form for capturing Paranormal Activity here too.
Please have a listen to my interview with Kerry as it explains what we are trying to achieve a little better, the link to YouTube is above.
If we are truly going to crack this field or at least made significant steps forward we need to start gathering huge amounts of data and information in one place so we can analyse its contents, search for significant patterns and cross match it for similarities. I hate to say it, but video, photographs and audio are always to a degree come under harsh evaluation. IT shouldn’t be a case of whether someone believes what they see in a picture or hear in an EVP, the evidence should speak for itself.
So, please join me in gathering all this data and information together from your investigations over the upcoming year to begin with and hopefully beyond. It doesn’t matter if you UK, US, German or Australian based, the more we can gather from all over the world the better. It equally doesn’t matter if it was the investigation you did last weekend, last year or a decade ago, if you have it documented I can use it.
The first sweep (as I call it) is simply to gather location details, when the event occurred, what happened and whom. I also need the source if possible, as that can help me return to that case for more details later. Any event passed onto will be logged in the sheet with that person beside it. It also doesn’t matter if four different teams send me the same piece of activity for the same location at different or even the same times. It’s all important data we can use.
So please get in contact, send me some information, use the form on my website, contact Kerry at ParaSearch; it really doesn’t matter how as long as we share this information.
WE NEED YOU!!
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17
Mar, 2018
Do You Seek Evidence or Experience ?
What are you looking for?
As many of us know that pass up on sleep in order to try and gain an understanding of those elusive haunted locations around the world, often we head home with more questions than we first arrived with. The paranormal field for me has always done this and each time I feel I find an answer, ten more questions come to mind off the back of the discovery of that one answer. However this may be the very thing that keeps us fuelled on energy drinks and giving up that all important nights sleep. The problem is though that there often becomes a point where you come to a conclusion that the approach may not be benefiting your progress after all. At least that’s something I came to realise over the years.
It’s at this point that generally we begin to question exactly what we may be looking for and why!
A particular term (and I’ve mentioned this before I know) that I am beginning to hear more and more recently is; that many ghost hunters out there just appear to be doing the same old that they’ve been doing for years and in fact; things in the field haven’t really moved forward since the Victorian era. As much as this may be correct it couldn’t be more from the truth and oddly is only based within the ghost hunter community itself. Perhaps within the spiritual field too.
This is really where as an individual and to an extent a team you must begin to ask what it is exactly you are looking for whilst you are giving up you hours of sleep?
Let me explain a little from my own perspective. When I first began to do overnight investigations I started from an understanding that I would aim to debunk in order to leave anything unknown as anomalous phenomena. What happened though was that whilst debunking I found more questions along the way. Part of this approach was to gather ‘evidence’ or at least what we called ‘evidence’ back then. I am of course referring to audio, video and photographic captures, which is something that has become common place representation of ‘evidence’ especially thanks to the boom in paranormal reality TV shows.
In fact it was these three types of ‘evidence’ that helped me to see that as a matter of fact they are far from categorical evidence of the paranormal at all. You see I managed to capture two things during some of my investigations; 1) crystal clear audio or EVP, and 2) video of a moving object. Both of these communicate as being fantastic proof of Paranormal activity by todays comprehension of the ghost hunting approach we have been made all so familiar of thanks to those reality TV shows. The problem was something I hadn’t been expecting at that time, but comprehend much better now. Both elements were rigorously questioned and alternatives were presented which placed the ‘evidence’ I had into question, in fact it highlighted them as being very weak evidence of the paranormal. Now I am sure there maybe individuals or teams out there reading this thinking that perhaps they may be able to provide better ‘evidence’ to support the paranormal in the form of audio, photographic or video. However let me just say, what you know about a piece of ‘evidence’ needs to be beyond doubt when it is comprehended by others that were not present when the said ‘evidence’ was captured. I guarantee that those not present will always have more questions and will be less likely to accept what you have captured, which in reality is how it should be.
This for me, this presented the question ‘what are you looking for exactly?’
A personal experience is okay too…
Over the years one thing I have realised is that although I enjoy the research and searching for solid answers, from time to time I do enjoy a good old fashioned ghost hunt. Now I often approach these in a couple of ways, which is often defined by whether its my investigation or an investigation ran by a friend where they wish to obtain good data; or its an event someone else is running.
I often like to just join a group or head out on a Paranormal event to visit a public location that has had reports of various paranormal activity over the years. It is actually these such events which may lead to me returning to a location to conduct my own more in depth investigation later on. These kind of events are excellent for allowing yourself to simply immerse yourself in the location and its potential haunting. This is usually the time where experience is the more likely result rather than something a little more solid. That said personally, and this is only a personal choice, I still like to jot down a few notes in my journal.
Anomalous experiences after all are where Paranormal research and investigation may begin, understanding what someone believes had occurred somewhere and then looking deeper into that occurrence to gain a better understanding is where my research once began.
The problem I find and this is perhaps a personal thing too being I do love a bit of data, is that often those personal experiences are not documented properly and remain events in memory alone. Alternatively only part of the experience is documented leaving out fundamental details, which when questioned often end up discounting the experience.
Remember its those experiences that if they are documented and analysed properly could help us understand a locations activity or even activity as a whole. Which is why it’s so important to gather some information, if you do experience something.
I know that if your aim is an experience and you’re not really concerned with an understanding or even documenting then that is absolutely fine. At the end of the day we spend our lives having experiences and learning new things, so if that is your approach then to be quite frank that life.
I guess for me I am always thinking about various elements of the paranormal, so even an experience is documented to help with that comprehension of how it all works. Which is why I tend to keep notes on my investigations and experiences on a regular basis.
Searching for evidence and meaning…
Of course if you’re looking for a little more than a random experience that if you’re like me leaves you with a tonne more questions than when you started out, then you are probably trying to find some evidence or meaning in the Paranormal.
Let’s return to that earlier statement about approaches not having moved on since the Victorian era. This is actually extremely far from the truth. Ghost Hunters utilise all kinds of tech these days in order to discover elements of the paranormal, where back in the day the approaches were relatively limited. However the approaches adopted by modern day ghost hunters are on the surface appearing a little stagnant these days.
One of the problems is something I am going to call; ‘the reality TV format mirror approach’! Basically this means that the team or organisation approach their ghost hunt from the perspective similar to that of a TV show. They walk the location discussing its history and activity, then they setup equipment, conduct vigils and then pack up and conclude. This isn’t a bad approach in reality, personally back in the day my investigations followed a very similar structure and it was one that many were happy with. However if change is to occur then perhaps these approaches need to be evaluated and new ones proposed.
Whilst looking for good data and understating within an investigation, one approach that I adopted at smaller locations (especially free ones) was to focus the investigation in one area/room for the night or even bring in approaches such as seances to bridge the gap between the spiritual and the science. These more focused approaches would make documenting the location and events more easier too. Especially as you can cover off the variables in a small area easier and keep an eye on one room much easier.
The problem is cost in regards to most of the locations many of us seek to investigate, you simply couldn’t justify paying for a location and only focussing on one room. Which is a shame, but we understand why the places charge as they do. Well in most cases we do as its to assist with the upkeep and maintenance of a historic location, which we are lucky enough to explore in quiet of night. Granted there may be some out there that the intentions for their high changes may fall into question, but the simple answer is if you don’t like or cant afford it, don’t pay it!
Sometimes the answers aren’t in the dark…
I would like to finish this particular post by highlighting a place that has provided me with more information on the subject of the paranormal than any overnight investigation ever. I am of course referring to the library and the extensive amount of resources that are out there available to those with an interest in the field of the Paranormal.
These days, a little like the odd tech a modern day ghost hunter may have, a library isn’t just a building in the centre of your town governed over by a stern librarian that peers over her glasses at you as you head towards the Paranormal section. Our local libraries are much more interactive and modernised, there is a tonne of online information if you search beyond Wikipedia and there are many academic resources that provide access to some very interesting information.
For example; back in the late 1800 the SPR conducted a census of hallucinations in order to gain a better understanding of anomalous phenomena. Bearing in mind that their use of the term ‘hallucinations’ didn’t mean that people were seeing things due to mental illness as we often associate it today, but more along gathering information on the things people had seen which were not physically present. ‘Phantasms of the Living’ was published around this time by the SPR and discussed more than 600 cases of apparitions probably linked to telepathy. Think about that for a second, 600 cases discussed in one place. That as a resource to build on nowadays is fantastic.
The point I am trying to make here is simple; if you wish to progress the field then you need to build on what has actually already been achieved. Those achievements are not by the popular TV shows, although they have brought more to the field which is great. The advancements were made by the giants of science, the fellows of the SPR and Ghost Club alike as they built the foundations of the field and research approaches. However that has now been picked up by more and more universities pushing the boundaries of research into the field of psi. I remember the day I read my first Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, I immediately thought I had to up my game and do so much more in order to become published in such a journal.
So, as you investigate in a darkened historic location, simply ask; what do you truly seek?
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25
Feb, 2018
20 of the Most Haunted Locations in the World
Tell me your top 5…
Often as investigators we are asked; ‘what is your top five most haunted locations’ or ‘if you could investigate anywhere in the world, where would you pick?’ These are often questions asked on Paranormal radio shows and sometimes by bloggers like me when interviewing someone for a blog piece. The results provide an interesting insight into the individual, but also spur on the classic; ‘oh god yeah, that’s an awesome choice’ from fellow investigators. Talking about locations we have investigated or would like to investigate is common place in the field. Everyone has their bucket lists, investigators generally have theirs too, but the difference being that the places we want to visit may not be considered potential holiday locations. That’s not even mentioning the small fact that we would probably prefer to visit them overnight too.
I often engage in such conversations with others in the field and last night was no different. Thanks to the wonders of the internet I found myself talking to a couple of great friends and fellow paranormal enthusiasts just last night, Kerry Greenaway and Carl Hutchinson. Suffice to say at some point in our six hour (yes six hour) skype conversation, the subject switched to our Paranormal bucket lists and this got me thinking of an idea for a little blog series.
I done something a little similar a couple of years back when I wrote about My Top Ten Most Haunted Locations in UK, but the difference with them was that I had already investigated those locations.
So, whilst chatting away at my desk last night around 1am to both Kerry and Carl, I decided to start a ‘kind of’ bucket list of my own. I have started with a nice simple twenty locations, but who knows perhaps as I begin to write and receive suggestions from my readers, then I may expand the list slightly.
The top twenty most haunted locations in the world…
Here they are and in no particular order. As I write them up I will add a link below and tie them all together.
However I don’t want it to be just about these twenty locations, as the world has far more places than this and I would like to add them not only to my blog, but to a kind of database too. If I ever get the chance to travel the world investigating haunted locations then I will certainly be using this list. It’s a little like a paranormal travel guide!
Here goes then, the first twenty locations:-
Waverley Hills Sanatorium, USA
Corvin Castle, Romania
Mary Kings Close, Scotland
Alcatraz, USA
Aradale Asylum, Australia
Devils Pool, Australia
Salem, USA
Eastern State Penitentiary, USA
Poveglia, Italy
Tower of London, England
Akershus Fortress, Norway
The Queen Mary Hotel, USA
The White House, USA
The Houses Of Parliament, England
The Winchester Mystery House, USA
Lizzie Borden House, USA
The Stanley Hotel, USA
Castle of Good Hope, South Africa
The Catacombs, France
Gettysburg Battlefield, USA
Less heard of locations…
I know this particular series of posts is focussing on the most haunted locations, but I would be happy to add in many more moving forward to expand the series and also the database of locations. After all its more data and I do love a bit of data!
So, please if you have any particular locations that you know of or have investigated then I would be happy to write about them too. If you have an online write up about the location I may even add a link to that too.
The concept of a haunted location…
In a few previous posts I have often discussed the concept of a haunted location and various theories that may surround it and explain it. The most well known theory being that of the Stone Tape Theory of course, but I have equally questioned the acceptance of locations as being haunted. After all without a proper comprehensive understanding of what ‘haunted’ means we are still beginning to understand what it means. Granted there could be ghosts and spirits wandering the corridors of various historical locations around the world, but equally their existence could simply be in our minds and there could be a more interesting reason for their existence.
All that said, many individuals around the world do appear to have these paranormal experience more so at these specific locations. Does that mean they’re haunted with the spirits of individuals that passed away there or something else? I mean what the heck is a haunting anyway?
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19
Feb, 2018
Ghost Hunting with CCTV
Ghost captured on CCTV…
I remember when I got into the overnight Paranormal investigating part of what I do well over ten years ago now, when Ghost Hunters was dominating the paranormal TV show slot, everyone had a CCTV system of some kind or another. At that point in time it seemed very much like we were all scrambling around to set up as many night vision CCTV cameras as we could. All with the intention of capturing that holy grail of evidence ‘a ghost’.
Back then it seemed so easy with our limited gadgetry, rock up to the location with your ten flight cases and spend your first hour and half setting up kit like CCTV. Then you would investigate for around seven hours, moving around your location holding vigils all over the place, as you try to connect with probable entities supposedly haunting the place. Once you finish those vigils, you pack up your kit into your car and drive home on energy drinks. After you’ve caught up on the sleep you lost from a nights investigation, then you set about reviewing your footage. The likes of Ghost Hunters made the review part seem so very simple, but TV does have a way of doing this doesn’t it? In reality reviewing footage from your CCTV alone could take hours and hours; bearing in mind if you watch footage for each individual camera for the entire investigation then you would be looking at around seven times the number of cameras you had been running through the night. Forget the next day, you would be reviewing footage in your spare time for the following week.
After all that the likelihood that you may even catch something paranormal is pretty much slim to none. In fact in all my years investigating haunted locations I don’t think I have ever captured compelling footage on my CCTV systems.
However there did seem a time where CCTV was almost as popular as a black polo shirt with your teams logo on the front.
Don’t get me wrong I have heard of a few capturing some oddities on their systems and there were of course the various TV shows out there using them that often appeared to capture ‘evidence’ !
Rethinking the purpose of CCTV…
Over the years I’ve gradually re-evaluated how and when I utilise a CCTV system within a paranormal investigation. As odd as it sounds trying to focus its use on capturing paranormal activity is actually a complete waste of something that could really help you to understand the structure of your investigation.
I know, I know! You’re probably scratching your heads right now confused at what I’ve just said, right? Surely the CCTV system is perfect for capturing activity! Well of course it is, but there are major issues with this. One video image caught via one camera with little or no other supporting data, just won’t cut it as evidence.
Let me highlight this with a brief example. You set up your CCTV around a location at various ‘hotspots’. In one room where you have a CCTV camera you have a trigger object on a table. The camera monitors what’s on the table, but to do so you loose the whole table. The object moves in shot of the camera. You’ve captured a moving object with one camera. This is where the problem arises; as you’ve got areas out of shot here the validity of the video comes into question and rightly so too. As you can hopefully see with this simple example, the CCTV systems can be flawed when it comes to establishing captured video as ‘evidence’.
With an understanding in the utilisation of my CCTV changed over the years now, I tend to use the system in a different way perhaps these days.
Don’t get me wrong when approaching a new case I still may focus a camera or two on a possibly active location, but this is aimed to analyse that hotspot to see if there is anything to the claim. Pretty much as we always have. The difference is that more often than not I will use other triggers to check the footage at the same time for a cross reference of activity.
However these days I often utilise my CCTV systems more for clarification of things like the Investigators location during an investigation. The movement of the team during an investigation is actually quite an important element of the data we should look to capture. The amount of times I’ve spoken to team members following a particularly interesting part of the investigation and they have provided various pieces of information, which they believe to be correct, but actually their understanding of the time line is not quite right.
This isn’t about Investigators falsifying information to sensationalise them, it’s a simple fact that out memories aren’t quite as reliable as we would hope. This is what is often referred to as false memory. Hence the need for things to help us establish those events correctly.
Hence in any investigation establishing a time line is essential in order to comprehend when things occurred and who may have been present for those events. This is where CCTV can help you immensely, as most systems will run with a running clock giving you that time link.
Granted you may not be able to place a CCTV camera absolutely everywhere, but you can place what you have in key locations to cover your teams movement around that location. Doorways, stairways and hallways are all great locations that cover a teams movement.
Let the tech do the work…
These days CCTV systems are a bit more clever than the systems I first started using all those years ago. They can do all sorts of cool stuff, including recording only if they detect movement or generating a log of movement. Which means we can use them to gather data useful to the construction of our investigation timeline.
My own system does something similar where it creates a clever log of the recording time frame and any movement too. It doesn’t end there though as these systems can also be interconnected with other sensory systems too.
As my good friend Carl Hutchinson would agree get to know your technology and get the most out of it in order to capture good investigation data, which can be used to cross reference other data. It’s in multiple streams of data that support a single anomaly that we will find truly compelling evidence of the paranormal.
In fact when I spoke to Carl about CCTV he told me the following:-
Being a little bit of an equipment geek, sometimes I get asked by people what type of equipment I use and the reasons behind this. Ashley came to me the other day and asked me about CCTV systems, so here goes and I hope this helps.
My CCTV set is based around the Swann 1080 16 Channel DVR system with a 16 camera setup (standard 8 indoor and 8 outdoor cameras), all the cameras have motion and heat active sensors; and night vision up to 40 meters in ambient light. The system has a 2TB hard drive and also can be remotely accessed using a smart phone or tablet, so you can view the camera’s from anywhere that has a wi-fi signal. The system has been upgrade so I can connect both wi-fi and cabled camera’s. The main reason for this was to give me the flexibility, as some location you can’t cable the cameras due to the amount of cable required. The only draw back of wifi cameras is that they have to be contacted to a power supply to be able to work. Which is great when you have a location that has power plugs all over the place, but not very helpful when your in a dungeon or tunnels.
I also have the following additional camera’s that boost my capacity to cover all possible requirements that a location might kick up.
3 x Swabb Pro – 1080 FLD 1080 Micro Dome Cameras with Audio
6 x Swann wifi 1080p security cameras
1 x Swann 1080p pan and tilf zoom dome security camera
All my cameras have a great 80 degree viewing angle, both horizontally and vertically. The cable I use is standard BNC cable and I have roles of cables at different lengths because there is nothing worse than only needing 30 meters and all you have is a 100 meter roll!
There are cheaper or more expensive systems and cameras for sale. However I would suggest to anyone thinking about buying a system; do your research first and work out what you want out of it, plus how your going to use it. Most importantly stick to your budget.
Lastly one other bit of advice is about set up. Make sure this is done first when you get to a location and have it recording as soon as possible. And if you have a reported hot spot of activity then try and cover all angles, but keep in mind the IR glare. And if your setting up an area for trigger object, try and make sure you are covering all the room. So if it’s on a table make sure the camera covers all of the legs. The more camera angles you have the more chance you have of being able to debunk things and the more chance you have of capturing activity.
Thank you Carl, my Paranormal tech guru. It’s always good to obtain other perspectives in how we investigate as we can often fall into a pattern of doing the same old thing over and over again.
If you’re interested in a similar CCTV System to the one mentioned by Carl, follow this link..
So, when you next setup your CCTV or even camcorders, don’t just set them up with the hope of capturing activity; utilise them to establish good data of your investigations time line too.
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18
Feb, 2018
Identifying Intelligent Communication
The Classical Two…
Over my years of investigation I have read about and heard from others what I will now class as the classical two, when it comes to communication or indeed encounters during a haunting. There are other variations, but these are probably the two most utilised forms used when describing; a) communication with an entity; and b) a haunting of some kind.
The problem is the more I think about these pair the more I consider them not to be all that correct or perhaps not utilised in the correct manner.
I’m talking of course about Residual and Intelligent hauntings/communication.
Back in the day when I first started my journey into the paranormal, one thing that came up early on was the classification of hauntings or as it was explained to me, the types of hauntings. Now there are various versions out there defining the types, but the two that seem to remain a definitive constant throughout are the following:-
- Residual Haunting – these are very much like a video recording that are triggered by some external stimulus unknown to the observer. Often related to the Stone Tape Theory.
- Intelligent Haunting – these identify the entity as being aware of its surroundings and able to communicate with its observers.
However the problem is that although these particular terms have been around now for an extremely long time they are quite vague in how they should relate to that which someone may experience. Yet we all find ourselves utilising them to identify a paranormal experience or indeed define a haunting we may have investigated.
Of course that’s residual…
I have to admit and I am sure many of my fellow investigators out there will agree, there have been many an occasion whereas activity within an investigation has been quickly identified as being residual energy. Sometimes this claim would be swiftly followed by ‘that’s the Stone Tape Theory right there’.
Don’t get me wrong the Stone Tape Theory is great and does appear to help us to understand a lot of possible so called residual hauntings. However its only a theory, a very good one at that, but still unproven.
That said there has been scientific research into water which is pretty much in everything and everywhere; and that research has proven that water has memory in a way. I did read this research quite a while a go now, but its very interesting to say the least. Although it does seem to help the Stone Tape Theory, the research into water memory doesn’t look into the possibility of storing information to the level where you would witness a replay of an event.
There has also been research to counter the Stone Tape Theory suggesting that the energy required to imprint the information for a ‘video playback’ would need to be of ridiculously high amounts, from a physics point of view. However those of a more spiritual comprehension may suggest that emotional energy works differently from what we understand through materialistic science.
Years ago before I even ventured out to investigate overnight I read a book about one of the great UK paranormal investigators; although today many probably haven’t heard of him, Andrew Green. If memory serves me well (sometimes it doesn’t) I believe he once stumbled upon a case of a residual haunting, but what struck him as odd was the Haunting didn’t seem to be linked to a traumatic event as the research indicated. In fact the residual playback so to speak just appeared to be of normal activity in someone’s garden. In order to discover more about this he looked further into this and later discovered that the ‘ghosts’ on this occasion were the previous occupants of the house and the event was a normal day in the garden. However what made this particularly interesting was that the previous occupants were very much alive! Hence our comprehension of what a ghost maybe is thrown into question, especially if we are utilising the residual energy concept to identify it!
It has been conflicting research through the years, which has been compelling on both sides that has lead me to question the Stone Tape Theory or at least believe that we still have quite a bit of work to do on it. For example, most seem to comprehend the concept of residual energy being the answer as an actual thing repeating the same set of instructions over and over again there in front of their eyes, where they can see it. However these types of activity have been witnessed by one or more people at a time, but equally by one and not another in the same place. It’s been suggested that perhaps one person has the ability to see from their angle whilst another doesn’t or indeed has the ability to see a ghost whilst another doesn’t.
Confused? Well this is psi theory, so welcome to my head, lol!
For me, we have a few problems with seeing. Physical objects are seen by us all. So, I’m not sure that I am happy with seeing being selective. However, what if the manifestation isn’t in the physical environment, what if the manifestation occurs in our minds and overplayed the information we are receiving from the environment we are in. Then the possibilities of witnessing residual energy become more possible. However let’s drop the term residual energy and start calling it what it might be here, residual information.
Residual Information gives us a better explanation of why whilst you and I are stood in the same place, only one of us may see this recording. As individuals we consciously pick up on lots of things as we enter an environment from our standard senses, some of this information is discarded to our unconscious as not being required, whilst other parts are retained to be used for what we are currently doing. Perhaps we also obtain information beyond the standard senses, say telepathically too. Like a kind of telepathic google that obtains information from other sources like people or objects. Hence why one person may receive the information related to a past event and another may not. If we then experience that information in realtime as we observe what’s in front of us it may be overlaid the visual or audio information our senses are supplying, hence we see what is not there and hear what cannot be heard.
Like the Stone Tape Theory, its just a theory, an idea which needs further development and something I will work on in the background.
That’s intelligent for sure…
This brings me onto the intelligent hauntings or communications from spirit. Incidentally over the years these have also been utilised to define the difference between ghosts and spirits too. A ghost is residual whilst a spirit is intelligent.
Oddly I don’t necessarily disagree with this definition, but personally I think we need to see it better clarified and utilised correctly. All too often I see teams jump to an intelligent spirit with little or no real supporting evidence other than their own determination to contact a spirit. I will put my hand up too, I’ve probable done it over the years. You get caught up in that excitement of the ghost hunt and all of a sudden after hours of nothing you get a reaction on your EMF Meter. Has to be an intelligent spirit trying to chat, right?
The truth of the matter is that there’s a lot ‘Paranormal red tape’ with this one. If you spend some time trying to find a logical reason behind the fluctuations or taps, if it is a spirit they may actually get bored and give up trying to communicate. However if you fail to properly establish that there is good evidence to support your reasoning that the communication is intelligent, then you’re leaving yourself open to scrutiny. In actuality you could be having a conversation with a totally normal effect, which you’ve missed.
Over the years I have been investigating this has actually happened on a few occasions to me. On one occasion we were investigating Arundle Jail (I think) and at one particular point we received a response on a KII meter. I’m not a massive fan of the KII, but on this occasion I think the reaction was also noticed on another EMF device too. We asked questions and received answers, well we asked questions and the KII flashed. Here lies the problem, perception of communication.
The problem was that we started by asking the standard questions, waiting and then the device would flash. Hence there was a response, something to work with. We would ask another question, again a flash. So, we tried a couple of control questions to determine if this was intelligent. The results were inconclusive, as in we received a flash on the KII, but shouldn’t have. However this was discussed and determined that our communicator maybe confused by our attempt to change things. Then one of the team noticed something fundamental to this little communication piece. Our responses were actually occurring in a timed pattern. Although their occurrence wasn’t at exactly the same time intervals, they were so close that there was an obvious pattern. Initially we had missed this because we were asking a question, pausing and receiving a response. Now we looked at it more closely the pattern was obvious.
Although on this occasion our intelligent communicator had now seemed to have acquired a pattern, we still had to determine source in order to ensure that it was not spirit. During those days of investigation we would either turn mobile phones off or switch them to flight mode and leave them in our bags. This was the case at Arundle and in the end we tracked the source down to a BlackBerry (possibly mine) that was in flight mode. The phone should have been totally offline, but it seems that even in flight mode it would check cell connection every ninety odd seconds (I think). This cell check fluctuated the KII at just the right moment to coincide with our questions, creating the appearance of a response.
Effectively we had a conversation with a mobile phone and not an intelligent spirit.
The reason I use this example is because with the advent of various apps, I see individuals using their mobile phones during an investigation these days. To be fair, I even use mine now for various things. Hence we have to be knowledgeable of the effect this may have and not jump to conclusions.
Another common piece of ‘evidence’ utilised to support that an intelligent conversation is actively taking place or has taken place with an intelligent spirit is that of EVP. After all if you ask a specific question and then record an audible response that appears to fit the questioning then that has to be intelligent right? The unfortunate thing here is that this is likely to be less of the case than we realise.
I have a couple of issues with EVP’S; the first is that often they are pieces of information that can lead to determine their content. Which basically means we capture the EVP, get excited and then forget to allow others to evaluate what they believe it to be, instead we tell them what we think we hear and then in a form of audio pareidolia they hear exactly that. The second issue is that there is a possibility that we are manifesting the EVPs on the devices ourselves. If you check out The Psychic Projection Experiment, this explains how you can attempt this with a group, but like most things Paranormal its not 100% repeatable. However I have seen this in action at Fort Horsted with Sage Paranormal and Brian J Cano, and to be honest it really got me thinking into the validity of EVP’s as evidence of communication with spirits. An EVP could actually be our unconscious minds or even our conscious minds projecting information onto the device and not a spirit chatting with us. For example, when we ask a question out loud into the darkness during an investigation, we also unconsciously contemplate the probable responses. If the circumstances are right we may be simply projecting those responses in our unconscious onto the device we are recording the EVP on.
Zoom out, see a bigger picture…
Often as individuals and within social groups we can easily get caught up in the moment and this can lead us to make assumptions based on that involvement. If we are out searching for ghosts then we can often believe that a response in its form is that which we seek. However as investigators we must remain objective and gather the information at the time in order to draw conclusions later.
I am not saying we should never engage in what we believe to be spirit communication, as it could be exactly that for all I know. However if you’re investigating in a team, why not have a part of the team continue with the communication gathering information on that, whilst another part of the team look into other possible causes for this communication. Balance your approach and gather all the available data you can, this will allow you to make a better judgement later on.
It’s also imperative to include your own team and yourself in that assessment too, as your presence at the location has influenced change there in various forms, but equally the teams will feel different things because they are there too. If activity does occur, try taking statements individually from those present without others in ear shot, that way you can cross reference to determine what actually occurred. Often our memories don’t recall the exact events that occur and our perceptions can provide very different conclusions.
Over the years there have been very few examples of true intelligent communication within the paranormal field that could withstand the test of scrutiny. Examples such as the Cross Correspondence and The Scole Experiment are both fantastic, but still remain examples that are questioned. Regardless of the huge amount of supporting data for both. Which is why I am not a fan of the term ‘evidence’ being associated with many EVP’s, Photo’s and Video’s out there.
Remember above all we are all looking for that intelligent communication, the communication that will answer the hard question the Survival Hypothesis asks. In order to answer it we need more than belief, more than faith; we need lots and lots of data. Which is why I am interested in all of your investigations, your experiences and more. Which is why we need to document those investigations and experiences better and more so. We live in the Information Age, so lets put it to good use within the field and start to gather some fantastic data.
If you’ve enjoyed this post, please feel free to like, share and comment below…
10
Feb, 2018
Sporadic Eruption of Mental Images
Say what now…
Sometimes the inspiration for my blogs can come from the strangest of places, which could either be my own random thoughts on pretty much anything or simply something that someone says to me.
As much as I love the ideas I have myself, those sudden out of place nuggets of information that present themselves to me from others seem to evolve very differently. They seem to just appear in the middle of a conversation sometimes and often those conversations don’t even have to be remotely close to anything paranormal.
I have a friend that although we don’t speak or see each other often any more, when we do it’s like no time has past in between. Work, family and well life happens, which often means those friendships we make during our school years don’t stand the test of time. I’m lucky enough to have a few friends where that’s not the case. Regardless of what happens and how long the gap, our friendships continue as if they had been paused and nothing had changed.
The other night I received a random WhatsApp message from one such friend, which perhaps I should have reacted differently, but knowing him it didn’t really surprise me too much.
The message started like this…
And then continued with this…
I wasn’t expecting that…
I have to admit of all the messages I’ve received in the past from my friends, this might have been one of the oddest ones.
To begin with I had to rack my brains to remember who the annoyingly rude character was, but it didn’t take long. In fact the process picked up pace once my friend sent the second picture. Strange how that works.
As I’m always curious to where’s things like this come from and like to understand how these strange images came to be the first thing sent to me in a little while, I asked my friend.
His reply was one that triggered some inspirational thought processes of my own.
Sporadic eruption of mental images I thought I’d share !!
The very answer itself is something that weirdly just makes a lot of sense to me. Equally it’s something I could easily associate to the paranormal quite easily. You see not everything is spiritual communication or telepathic communication, it’s simply your own memories paying a little visit. The problem is it’s easy to forget what’s memory and what’s not. What’s truly relevant and that which actually has no relevance at all.
Sometimes it’s just a forgotten memory…
Memories are funny little things, well perhaps not so little, but certainly behaviour wise they appear to have a mind of their own. Yes, that was a pun and a particularly bad one at that.
I guess what I’m getting at is that we have so many memories that we don’t have a full understanding of each and everyone of those memories in any given moment. Oddly we often believe that given a certain scenario we would be able to recall all memories that could relate to that scenario in order to best deal with it, but even this appears to not to be the case on many occasions.
In fact our memories sometimes provide us with totally incorrect information or we simply recall them incorrectly. Helpful right?
Understanding our own memories and experiences in order to utilise them in any given situation is something that takes a little training or perhaps a little faith in what we believe.
There’s often a lot of confusion around memory; what’s a real memory and what’s information that’s come from somewhere beyond ourselves? When we are talking about the paranormal, especially when such information presents itself during an investigation, then it can be all to easy to constitute the source as being paranormal. However as we’ve discussed before fully understanding the true source is half the challenge in this. It’s equally a conclusion that is often made without complete thought on the manner by many in my opinion.
Perhaps some of the ‘spiritual communication’ that presents itself through mediums or that is interpreted through other means during an investigation is simply forgotten memories. Something worth exploring don’t you think?
So what’s sporadic eruption of mental images then?
That little phrase that my friend messaged me following some questionable images sparked and understanding, an explanation and a distinct possibility. I’m not saying in any shape or form that this is a sudden breakthrough in the field, but more of a food for thought scenario.
So here goes…
Sporadic eruption of mental images could be a probable explanation for anomalous interpretation of random information associated with spiritual communication.
I am not saying that this fully explains something like Mediumship, I’m simply presenting it as an additional possibility to explain the source of the information.
The question is; does memory randomly present itself into our consciousness or does it require a trigger to make its way there? Personally I would like to think there are probable triggers, at least there would be some causality then.
I’ve seen many investigation locations where there are many triggers within the environment that could spark an individual memory or at least be linked to something that most people would too. So, that possibility is certainly there I believe.
No matter what the cause may be, in order to continue to explore the paranormal to discover explanations for probable communication and activity, we should look to consider more possibilities just like this. It may even be a combination of elements, elements which could be equally spiritual and scientific.