Ghost Hunt: Chilling Tales of the Unknown (24 page)

•   Have you seen anything in the room? What did it look like?

•   Where exactly did you see it?

•   Have there been any sounds or sightings in other parts of the house? Where?

The answers to these questions will tell you where to begin your investigation. They will tell you where the “hot spots” are—in other words, the places where spooky stuff happened.

If all the activity has been in Dana’s room, you will look over that room carefully. Later, that’s where you’ll want to put your cameras and recorders.

Sometimes the interview gives you a clue about why the spirit is there. Remember the Grandma Helen case? Miranda told us that her grandmother wanted something, and she was right.

Sometimes you can find a logical explanation of what is really happening. We once interviewed a woman who was seeing frightening dark shadows. In the interview we found that the woman was taking a new medicine. It turned out that the medicine was causing her see the dark shadows. We were able to make her feel better—not only by proving that her house wasn’t haunted but also by having her medicine changed. That case was a win!

Interviews can be very helpful for finding out if someone is not telling the truth. If you keep asking fact questions—like the ones in the list on the last page—and the answers keep changing, someone may be trying to trick you. Hey, it happens to all of us.

A
t T.A.P.S. we do most of our investigations at night. That’s because spirits seem to appear most often at night. Also, the evidence we find is shadowy or has a faint light. The best way to find these strange things is to get rid of all the light. Then we use special infrared cameras that can see in the dark.

Still, we always begin our investigation during the day with a complete tour of the site. If you see the place in daylight you are less likely to bump into something or stumble at night. Knowing where you are is the first step to a good night of ghost hunting.

But there’s another reason. We want to find logical explanations for the weird noises or events at the site. We call this the Sweep because we want to clear out things that seem like paranormal evidence—but aren’t.
We look for what we call false positives. That’s our expression for things that look paranormal but aren’t.

The daytime is a good time to look for debunking evidence. You don’t have to be plumbers like us to find reasons for “the unexplainable.” If you look closely, you will be able to debunk lots of claims. Debunking claims can be almost as much fun as finding paranormal activity! The members of T.A.P.S. certainly have a good time doing it.

Use this handy check list to help you when you walk through your site.

SITE SWEEP CHECKLIST

Be sure to look closely for these things:

•   
old pipes
can make scary noises

•   
radiators
can make steam and make whistling sounds

•   
water leaks
can cause noises and creepy dampness

•   
air ducts
can carry voices and create “woo” sounds

•   
a house settling
can make creaky sounds and can make floors uneven, which can result in falls or weird feelings

•   
natural expansion of wood or other building materials
can cause squeaks and groans

•   
mice, rats, raccoons, and other critters
—even termites in the walls—cause noise and scratching, and they can move in the dark

•   
cracks in windows
create drafts and drops in temperature

•   
blinds or shades that blow in the wind
can make banging noises

•   
bad insulation
can create a cold spot on a wall

B
efore we “go dark,” we have to set up. We put cameras and recorders in the hot spots (the places where strange sounds and sights have happened). We decide where each member of the team will be. And most important, we set up our
Central Command Center
.

The Central Command Center is where the team can meet and regroup during the night. On a T.A.P.S. investigation we set up monitors so the team members can check out the action in other parts of the house. We can also see where the other team members are.

Your Ghost Hunt isn’t going to be as complicated as ours, but it is still very important to set up a command center. Your team has to know where to go. They need to remember that they are part of a team. You don’t want them getting so interested in their own recordings or photos that they forget to focus on the team’s goal.

Y
ou’ve done your interview. You know the claims. You’ve toured the site. You’ve set up your command center. Now you’re ready to use your equipment to see if you can find some ghosts.

We use lots of cool equipment at T.A.P.S. But you can have a totally cool investigation if you have just these basic items:

audio recorder

video recorder

camera

compass

flashlight and lots of batteries

digital thermometer (Note: Use an ambient thermometer—one that measures the room temperature.)

But mostly you need your eyes, your ears, and your brain. There are some things that no piece of equipment can record. We have experienced phantom smells. We’ve had the feeling of being touched by a spirit. We felt a cool wind come up suddenly. These experiences have helped us learn what is paranormal. It has also taught us to understand the spirits themselves.

As we always say, ghosts are people, too, so they think like people. They think like you, because they
are
like you. That’s why no equipment will ever be as important as your brain and your senses.

GHOST HUNTING EQUIPMENT

The equipment T.A.P.S. uses are the same tools that scientists use.

GATHERING AUDIO EVIDENCE

It’s night and you’re ready to investigate. Your friend Justin has told you that he hears strange sounds in his house. He says it sounds like a woman crying. Sometimes he thinks he almost can make out words, but he isn’t sure. He has heard this sound upstairs—in a hallway and in the small guest room.