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Ghosts and the Dark


Alisdair.MacDonald

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My question is, and I open this up to believers and skeptics alike..

If you are on an investigation to find ghosts, why do you always turn out all the lights?

You would think they would be easier to see with the lights on.

Edited by Mider
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I've heard that ghosts are 24 hour occurances, but you get better viewing of them at night and with a night vision camera. My fiance saw a ghost at night, on a roman road, she was glowing white and carrying an old lantern. He says it wasn't the street lights that lit her up but he could see her because she glowed white and was solid.

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My question is, and I open this up to believers and skeptics alike..

If you are on an investigation to find ghosts, why do you always turn out all the lights?

You would think they would be easier to see with the lights on.

For entertainment purposes. It's no fun to film a daylight investigation for TV. And why only one night? Because it's too expensive to waste film on several days. Because then they can use good drama equipment like night vision and heat scanners, and it shows up better for the audience. Drama.

Most people that are more serious and less TV orientated tend to agree that a better investigation is done during multiple times of day, preferably more than one day. Because haunting can happen any time. Even a specifically night time phenomena can get some clues shed on in during the day.

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Don't forget some places are still in use. Some people get to do investigations at businesses and the business owners wouldn't want to have the stigma of ghost hunters in the middle of their business during the day or just running around causing a ruckus so you would have to go at night. At an inn I did way back didn't care we were there since they invited us to do it(so we did as much as we could during the day) They just didn't want to disturb their guests at night so we had to turn off the lights. Sometimes its just as simple as that.

Oh can't forget when people do it illegally it only makes sense to turn off the lights and go at night because of the cops(Disclaimer not saying go out and do it illegally)

Edited by Jinxdom
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I personally feel that most ghost hunts are done at night for two main reasons 1) hunting in the dark makes the whole experience creepier, more suggestive, and henceforth more fun for the hunters involved. And 2) because night vision settings on my cameras create video artifacts that are more likely to be tagged as unexplained phenomenon due to shadows, and IR illumination.

There is no evidence that ghost hunting at night gives you better results. Its purely psychological. Its also scientifically invalid operating procedure in lots of cases because in many cases the original reports of activity occur during daylight hours.

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Yeah,the entire night vision thing is annoying sometimes . The one actual ghost I've seen ,was at like 3 pm .

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I think you are all correct. I think there are a number of different reasons.

To be perfectly honest, people ghost hunt for entertainment for the most part. It is simply more entertaining and heart racing to go out to creepy places at night. That, i think is at the core of why they do it. There are reasons this may be ingrained in our minds however, besides our natural fear of the dark.

The Sun is widely believed by most ancient cultures to be the giver of life, as a matter of fact..this is even backed up by science as we all know. So, if the Sun and daylight represent life, then so must the night and the Moon represent the time of death and dying. This is why it is believed that the dead walk the earth at night.

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Some believe they can't manifest in artificial light, that it blocks them out for whatever reason. All those stories of people swearing there was someone standing in their room but vanish once they turn on the light.

A friend of my claims to have seen a girl standing in a dark room with only moonlight illuminating her. When he turns on his flashlight on her, he swears the light went right thru her like nothing was there but you could see the rest of the body around the light from his flashlight.

Also some believe the ghost phenomenon are but beings that use the shadows to hide/live in and travel in darkness.

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  • 2 weeks later...

A few topics on this....

As I said in the others, all of the entertainment only shows such as Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures, etc....

The " witnesses " 9 out of 10 times give claims of ghosts during tours, working, cooking dinner, things with their kids, etc.

All of them happening with lights on while happening, or day time.

It makes no sense for any type of investigation to not try to duplicate the environment / situation.

Going from lights on / day time to a night investigation is about as far away as one can get.

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One big problem with daylight hunting is reflection. I've looked at pictures taken during the day and noticed a million little things shining that I had not seen initially. I've got a great example of this with a cemetery photo that features a hazy spot in the middle. If you look closely though you can see it's caused by a piece of metal far in the background.

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One big problem with daylight hunting is reflection. I've looked at pictures taken during the day and noticed a million little things shining that I had not seen initially. I've got a great example of this with a cemetery photo that features a hazy spot in the middle. If you look closely though you can see it's caused by a piece of metal far in the background.

Reflections in the daytime, shadows at night. lol

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Reflections in the daytime, shadows at night. lol

All just excuses of why no one can catch that " evidence " everyone wants so bad.....

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All just excuses of why no one can catch that " evidence " everyone wants so bad.....

Eh, I wouldn't go that far, but it does mean you have to be absolutely sure.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ghosts are supposed to be more active around 3am. Paranormal investigators have actually dubbed this time of night "dead time" because it does seem that a very large proportion of ghosts sightings appear around that time. So it seems that they tend to haunt more at that time. Investigators aren't sure why this is the case. One theory is..... dew. It has been discovered that spirits seems to like dampness. It appears to help them manifest. It is around 3am that there is often a lot of dew on the ground.

But some believe that it ISN'T the case that ghosts apepar more at night but merely that our senses are more alert in the dark than they are in the light so we have a better chance of spotting them in the dark.

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I believe ghost's appear 24/7, why wouldn't they? whether or not they appear more often at night is a different matter.

1) As someone else noted night time has always been associated with death, spirits, witches etc. so it's only natural that some people believe they appear at night.

2) but it's also very hyped up by the media these days and used to create suspense in tv-shows.

3) someone else said it I think - but sometimes you go at night to avoid disturbing the residents or workers if your investigating a store, restuarent etc. or the other way around if it's a public place with a lot of visitors during the day, it might be easier to avoid too much interference if you go by night.

4) Most old ghost stories take place at night (at least in europe) I mean stories of old manors, castles, white ladies etc. so here it would be quite natural to go at night . If you're investigating newer sightings they are pretty much 50/50 between day and night and it'd make sense to try as best you can to go during the day if the sightings happened during the day.

Ghosts are supposed to be more active around 3am. Paranormal investigators have actually dubbed this time of night "dead time" because it does seem that a very large proportion of ghosts sightings appear around that time. So it seems that they tend to haunt more at that time.

For a very long time people believed that spirits, witches and warlocks etc. appeared or worked their magic around midnight.

-In Shakespeare's "Hamlet", "Macbeth" and "Julius Caesar" all the supernatural things happen around midnight and it's a recurring theme in folklore.

- In "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" from 1820 it's called the witching hour.

- In ancient Greece Hekate the goddess of sorcery and witchcraft along with ghost and ghouls appeared at night and the same is told in many other cultures, so ghosts=night is a cultural thing I believe.

The idea of 3am is from "The exorcism of Emily Rose" (2003) where it's said that 3am is the devil's hour because it's the opposite of 3pm where Jesus supposedly died. So it's a fairly new idea that for some reason have been widely accepted in the paranormal community as the most active time of day - (I haven't seen any earlier references to 3am, but if they exist I'd like to read more about it)

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Ghosts are supposed to be more active around 3am. Paranormal investigators have actually dubbed this time of night "dead time" because it does seem that a very large proportion of ghosts sightings appear around that time. So it seems that they tend to haunt more at that time. Investigators aren't sure why this is the case. One theory is..... dew. It has been discovered that spirits seems to like dampness. It appears to help them manifest. It is around 3am that there is often a lot of dew on the ground.

But some believe that it ISN'T the case that ghosts apepar more at night but merely that our senses are more alert in the dark than they are in the light so we have a better chance of spotting them in the dark.

I've heard this too. I went for a reading from a spiritualist medium years ago, I never told her that I woke up nearly every night at 2.50am. But she told me that I did and that a spirit was trying to connect with me. I never experience any contact but it went on for nearly a year, which was weird. Who know's!?

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The idea of 3am is from "The exorcism of Emily Rose" (2003) where it's said that 3am is the devil's hour because it's the opposite of 3pm where Jesus supposedly died. So it's a fairly new idea that for some reason have been widely accepted in the paranormal community as the most active time of day - (I haven't seen any earlier references to 3am, but if they exist I'd like to read more about it)

Not correct, an earlier film reference off the top of my head is the 1980 movie The Changeling featuring George C Scott which also used 3am as the "Witching Hour".

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Not correct, an earlier film reference off the top of my head is the 1980 movie The Changeling featuring George C Scott which also used 3am as the "Witching Hour".

And I've known about it for 16 years.

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Not correct, an earlier film reference off the top of my head is the 1980 movie The Changeling featuring George C Scott which also used 3am as the "Witching Hour".

Thank you I couldn't find any references when looking for "Devil's hour" - apparently I didn't look up "witches hour + 3am". I just found it curious that 0:00-1:00 have been the witching hour and allegedly most active time for several centuries and lately (well at least as early as 1980 apparently :P) people are starting to think it's 3am? But the term "devil's hour" is from "the exorcism of Emily Rose" or are there any earlier uses of it?

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Lol :)

As far as I recall it might have something to do with the fact that 3am is supposed to be the darkest time of night. I never thought of it really

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Daylight savings time?

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Not correct, an earlier film reference off the top of my head is the 1980 movie The Changeling featuring George C Scott which also used 3am as the "Witching Hour".

There are certain tidbits of 'Oral History' that is passed down, this is an example of that. I am fairly certain that Scott was a member of a few secret organizations. That is the most likely source of information like that.

Funny thing is..every now and then someone like G.C.S. spills the beans and puts it in a movie..lol

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