Here are some of our thoughts on certain aspects of paranormal research.

Please keep in mind that it would not be possible for us to put all of our thoughts, beliefs, and theories on one page so if you are curious about learning more please drop into one of our meetings or special events.

It is not meant to be an end all and will evolve as technology and the field of paranormal studies evolves and grows.

The IPRG Staff

Orbs:
The downside to capturing an orb on film is that there can be many other explanations for this. Reflected light, water spots, dust, etc... can all cause orbs to appear. It is for this reason that the IPRG looks for other factors that occur during an investigation before they will consider an orb as being spirit activity.

Ghost Hunting Conditions:
You can go ghost hunting any time of day, however, there are some conditions that are much better than others to do this in when you are looking at an outdoor investigation. An indoor investigation can be done at any time. For outdoor investigations we suggest warm, dry weather. Cold or damp weather can cause anomalies in your photos that you may mistake for orbs, ecto, etc

When to go ghost hunting:
Why anytime of course. However, there are some times that may prove more beneficial than others. The theory is that the best time of year for ghost hunting is in the autumn time. The hours of midnight to 3 AM have been said to be best as these are the psychic hours and are said to have the most psychic energy. We have also had reports that a lot of activity occurs during electrical storms and on stormy nights. As far as we are concerned, we think you should go anytime the need arises. We do however prefer the nighttime or psychic hours when conducting an investigation.

Cameras:
This has been a greatly debated subject in years past. Should you use a digital camera, film, both? Up until recently the digital camera did not take very clear pictures and it was very easy to tamper with the pictures that were taken. Unlike film there were no negatives to compare the printed version of your photo with and this is where the great debate came into play. The newer, more advanced digital cameras now have the equivalent to a negative stamped into the “hard-drive” of the camera itself. You will have to check your owners’ manual to see if yours has this capability and if not I would suggest that you think about upgrading your camera. They are fairly inexpensive now.

As far as the results that have been obtained with film verses the digital camera, we have seen that the results are the same. We have not gotten more anomalies off of one than the other. One is just a lot less expensive in the long run if you consider buying film and the developing. We do use up at least one roll of 35MM film at each investigation to use as a comparison.

There are some things that you can do that may help you learn more about the way your camera operates and to assure that you are taking the best possible pictures that you can. These are some of the very same things that the IPRG does on a regular basis and we have found it very helpful.

1- Read your owners manual and be familiar with the operations of your camera.

2- Conduct controlled experiments. See how your pictures look when you are taking pictures of dust, hair, lint, how the light may reflect off of a mirror, etc These are all great experiments to run and then you will not find yourself getting excited over a picture you were sure was an apparition only to be told by a professional photographer that it is a mouse hair. Well you get the idea. This will also help you rule out any mechanical issue the equipment may be having.

3- Make sure to clean your lens often with a lint free cloth. These can be purchased at any eye glass store for a minimal cost. We all hate dust orbs.

4- When you are using a 35MM camera, we recommend a high speed film. 400 is great but anything faster is better.

5- When taking pictures make sure that no one close by is smoking. If you are in an area with a lot of dust, stop what you are doing and give the dust time to settle before you begin taking you pictures. In this field you need lots of patience.

Ghost Hunting on Private Property:
You should always be sure to ask permission before entering private property. This will protect you from getting a fine or worse, jail time, for trespassing and this is just the polite thing to do. Ghost hunting should be fun and having to pay a hefty fine takes all of that away.

Ouija Boards:
We do not feel that this should be used or sold as a toy and would prefer that you not use them. They are not just a game to be taken lightly.

Theories by Greg:
Day Investigations vs. Night Investigations:

During the day there is a lot more going on, we all have our daily activities that tend to preoccupy our sense of what’s going on around us, from road construction to our kid’s daily needs. Because of this, we tend to not notice sounds, voices, movement and if we do notice it, we are able to debunk what we just saw as normal daily activity. This is the same for us investigators, while we will do whatever we can to help our clients and if that means a day investigation we will do our best to gather as much evidence as we can, however we prefer doing investigations at night because they really allow us to have the atmosphere that we need to perform a thorough investigation and conduct it in a scientific manner.

When you hear about activity happening in a location you normally hear about things happening in the evening hours. I believe this is because we are all unwinding from our jobs, the kids are heading to bed, and in general we tend to be spending more time just relaxing and at home. Because of this people tend to notice more activity. There is no outside interference causing issues with the investigation. It’s quite, and because of that we are able to experience activity that may be Paranormal in origin in a scientific manner.

Negative provoking why we don’t do it!

In general the theory behind provoking is pretty simple; we want to provoke a spirit into communicating with us. It is believed that an entity is just like you or I, there is only one difference… we have a body and they do not. So it is believed that they have feelings just like we do.
Negative provoking in the opinion of IPRG is uncalled for. Some investigators tend to try and work up activity by coming into a location and throwing profanities at an entity that may or may not be haunting a location. They do this to provoke an entity into moving something, showing itself, touching one of us and last but not least saying something that can hear with our own ears or with our digital recorders at a later point in time when doing review. Now think of it this way, if I came into your home and started hurling insults at you, what would you do? Not only would your feeling be hurt but you would be so upset that you would A: knock me out of my boots or B: kick me out of your home or business. Not only is this not safe for the investigator but it is not safe for the owner of the home either. The last thing an investigator wants is a negative encounter with something they can’t see and the client has to live with the aftermath of those choices. It’s much simpler to be polite and respectful.

Quartz Crystal and Lime Stone:

The theory behind this is that if homes is built on or around a lot of limestone deposits or Quartz deposits that it has the ability to actually record an event in time which can sometimes be a residual haunt.

Residual Haunting:

A residual haunt is something that repeats it’s self in the same manner every time it’s heard, felt, smelt, and seen. For example at 2:35AM you hear a baby cry for a few seconds but there is no infants in the home. It’s like a tape recorder it plays its self over and over and over again. It doesn’t have to happen every night but when it does happen it’s the same every time. This is also true with an entity, you may see a woman walk through a specific wall every time you see her, but she doesn’t pay any attention to you or maybe walks right through you and it doesn’t even pay any attention to you. That’s because it can’t see you it’s just replaying a specific moment in time.

EMF (Electro Magnetic Field) behind the Detector:

It is believed when an entity manifests it uses energy to do so. When doing an investigation we use an Electro Magnetic Field detector or EMF detector for short. An EMF detector it is believed that an EMF detector will pick up those spikes in activity. You have to be careful though because a lot of natural things can cause this. Alarm Clocks, Light Switches, Computers, Electrical Outlets and Refrigerators just to name a few. Basically anything that has a strong electrical current. It is also believed that a spirit can use the Electromagnetic Field to manifest as well. Also why people may get battery drains.

Cold Spots and Hot Spots:

It is believed that when an entity manifests itself or is trying to communicate it draws energy from the air. When drawing energy from what’s around you an entity can cause a cold spot. I believe that this is caused by the slowing of positive atoms in the air. When they slow down it cools the air around where you may be experiencing the cold spot.
Hot spots are much like cold spots the only difference is that when a cold spot may mean the slowing down of atoms in the air a hot spot is speeding up the atoms in the air. All around us we have positive and negative atoms in the air which cause friction when those atoms are sped up they cause the air around them to warm up.

What there are no spider webs around here?!

Ever wonder around a building and get the sudden feeling you just walked through cobwebs and when you look there are no webs around you nor is there a place where a spider could make a web? This is believed to be a phenomena that occurs when you have encountered and entity that has touched you or brushed by you. This of course is not always the case but when investigating a place where there is supposed activity you may have just encountered something that could be Paranormal.

So what is Electronic Voice Phenomena? Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP for short), is capturing a sound that may not be heard at the time by a piece of equipment such as a digital Voice recorder. Paranormal Investigators believe that when doing Paranormal research using a Digital Voice Recorder can capture the sound of something trying to communicate with us. This sometimes happens when asking direct questions to see if there is a response. However Scientific Paranormal Investigators will often make it apparent that just because they capture voice on an recorder it doesn't mean that its a spirit. This has never been proven. Its just above the norm.

Who was the Pioneer of the theory? Well believe it or not it was Thomas Edison back in the late 1880s. He created equipment with the soul purpose ( no pun intended ) to talk with those who had passed away. 7 years before he died in 1938 he reported getting voices on a phonograph machine.

Friedrich Jürgenson really did the science behind the EVP however. It all started when he was taping some birds singing when he played back the tape later on he heard distinct voices on his recording however he was the only one there at the time. This lead him to the writing of his book Rosterna fran Rymden or Voices from space. To this day Paranormal Investigators are using voice recorders to help further their research into the paranormal.

Class C: This is the most commonly caught EVP. Its very low, has to be listened to multiple times to understand, can be matrixed, and is mostly whispers that can be called many things but paranormal.

Class B: This one is much different. A class B EVP can be heard without headphones and can be loud and audible. Should be able to clearly hear at least 2 words of a sentence clearly.

Class A: This is like the holy grail of EVP's. They are very rare. They are able to be heard without headphones, Speak full sentences or phrases, and do not require any clearing up from a editor program such as Adobe Photoshop.

I get this asked a lot. There are few things to remember when doing EVP's. The most important is to make sure you are not waring any clothing that when rubbed together makes a ton of noise. Secondly you always want to leave at least 15 seconds in between questions or comments. Thirdly Avoid setting the recorder next to Fans, in pockets and ALWAYS remember to turn them off before going to the bathroom....

Ok so here I am going to explain how I do EVP's. Now I believe that you should always start out by stating the time, date, room your in and the investigators that are present for the EVP section. This time stamps everything.

After the initial time stamp. I require all investigators to introduce themselves. This not only is polite but it allows the person reviewing to distinguish who is who when doing EVP review. I then state that if there is something that wishes to communicate with us for them to speak clearly into the red light on the machine I am holding in my hand. Immediately followed up by letting anything there know we do not many any harm and the machines will not hurt anyone. We gotta remember that sometimes an entity may believe its some sort of flame or something that may hurt them.

Now I am gonna go into the questions section of the article to give you some ideas as to what kind of questions you can ask.

“Whats your name?”
“Is there more then one of you here?”
“How old are you?”
“Who is the president?”
“what year is it?”
“Do you visit other homes in the area?”
“Are you comfortable here?”
“Do you like it here?”
“Do you watch over the family here?”
“Do you have children?”
“Are you ok with us being here?”
“ Do you live here”
“Do you have something you want to say?”
“Can we help you with anything”
“Do you have a message for the family here?”
“Can you move something for me?”
“Can you knock for me?”

When you think there is children around make sure you aim questions so that a child would understand. Also if you know anything about the time period of the home you may want to take the into account so that you can address questions in away they might understand. Some examples may be..

“Do you like to play games?”
“What kind of games do you like?”
“I bet your good at hide and seek do you want to play?”
“Do you have other friends with you?”
“Do you like to skip rope?”
“Is your mommy or daddy with you?”
“Can you move something for me?”
“Can you make a sound for me?”
“Can you sing something for me?”
“Do you like to dance?”
“Do you like to play with toys?”
“Whats your favorite toy?”
“Do you know how to color?”
“Are you happy or Sad?”
“Do you have pets?”
“Do you like Dogs or Cats or maybe a bird?”
“Are you bored here?”

Always remember when ending an EVP session to make sure and thank them for answering any questions you had and let them know that if they have anything else to say that while they are there in the house they are free to come along. MAKE SURE TO NOT INVITE anything home with you. This is a huge no no. If you do not know how to deal with something like that happening it will be worse for you and the possible entity.

I hope this made things easier to understand. On the web there is tons of more information the subject lots of different views and ways people go about things. I just try and remember to treat them as if they were standing right there in front of me. Be respectful. Have fun.

What Causes Ghostly or Paranormal Activity?
Food for thought...

Albert Einstein said that energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only change from one form to another.

When we are alive we have electrical energy in our bodies. Our body is made up of chemical compounds but is powered by electrical impulses in the brain. What happens to the electrical componets in our bodies when we die?