I am working on something here and I have one question, why do you use EMF meters while ghost hunting? I may no longer use them on investigations anymore except only to see if there are high readings that could cause magnetic hallucinations. I’m curious to see what other people say.

well I am sure you have heard the theory that when ghosts manifest they draw from the energy around them, thus creating higher electromagnetic frequencies in a more condensed area, which is why some people use them, to see if they are able to "follow" the reading from room to room, used generally in conjunction with temperature change or any other anomaly

There are also theories that there is more activity in places with high electromagnetic frequencies because the sprits have plenty of energy to help them to manifest.

And yet another theory that a ghost can manipulate an EMF detector to go off in response to questions so it can be used as a trigger.

But as you said, it is super important to first determine if there is something man made causing the high EMF readings, to determine if people are EMF Sensitive and that is causing the "paranormal activity"

i just believe that people use them because if you think of an entitie that can create a cold spot in a really warm place and it moves around and you can't explain or find out the cause of the cold spot, since the thought is that they are energy and draw energy around them which causes cold spots since energy is heat, and since everything that has energy, everything has an electro-magnetic field, it causes fluxuations in the field becasue of the rising of the EMF from energy drawn around them.

***edited***

well said

thank you, a little bit of physics never hurts anyone and apply it to a bit of knowledge and listening to TAPS lol
it was funny i never saw your post but we must been posting at the same time and you got done with yours before i got done with mine and said like the same thing LOL

that is why i said "well said" - great minds think alike

yeup yeup LOL ^.^

What would you consider and considerable spike or fluxuation.

"Some" teams think they can find a ghost using an EMF Detector when that is not what it is intended for. An EMF Detector is a device to detect The Electromagnetic Field. Ghost Hunters are supposed to be using them to find "false positives". ( In Theory ) Entities or Spirits when present or manifest need an energy source. EMF is a source of energy. You just can't see it. High EMF Fields can give off different variations of sickness or illness. Such as hallucinations, dizziness, nausea, the feeling of being watched, and sometimes rashes. That's what EMF Detectors are supposed to be used for. But as I said, ( In Theory ) when an Entity or Spirit is present it can effect a change in our atmosphere. I agree with the OP. I find EMF Detectors to become more useless than an advantage. However, there are times an Entity or Spirit can communicate with investigators using the device. ( That has been proven on a few Episodes of Ghost Hunters ). Though I am sure that is a rare thing. You are very lucky & fortunate if you have that happen on an investigation. To me that is a sign of an intelligent Entity or Spirit. There are many "Pro's and Con's" with the many tools and devices Ghost Hunters use. Because our field is based mostly on theory and hasn't been proven 100%, that is why.

Obviously if you have a high EMF Field in the establishment you are investigating, the tool then becomes useless. Then you have to rely on audio, video and personal experiences long as you can back it up with proper data. Then you have to be the judge: If you have a high EMF Field, is that the cause of your clients claims? Unless you can get other reliable evidence to validate your clients claims.

Hope that is helpful?

It's interesting when you hear someone say that, in a particular area of a room, they feel like they're being watched and in this area the EMF goes crazy. This can be down to other reasons other than the paranormal, thus debunking the reason you feel watched as paranormal. Conversely, you can feel watched or weird in a room and EMF tell you there are no unusual spikes, so in this instance it could be something paranormal to watch out for, or a place of interest in your investigation.

Edit: Welcome to UM Myghostnetwork, nice to have you around.

Reg

Here's a good question? Is our ghost hunting tools doing a sufficient enough job? Should we be using better technology? If so, what kind of technology do you think could help improve recording data and helping us study paranormal activity?

Lets stick with what we have. There is no proof that what we even use works, so no way of saying that anything else will. No point of spending more money than we have to.

As for EMF Detectors, we just moreless use it to see if there are dangerous levels of high emf around. Each team in the group has all the equipment necessary for an investigation including an EMF detector but I never enforce the use of the EMF detector.

and....



Pretty bold statement considering NOTHING we do is proven.

My point is: if "Nothing is Proven" than we should be improving somewhere? Whether it be improving technology or methods?

Everything costs money. But if the current data, and evidence isn't good enough to prove anything... there has to be room for improving. There's always "Room for Improvement" because nothing and nobody is perfect or an expert in our community.

Well considering nobody is an expert in this field there is no room for expansion because we don't even know if what we are doing is correct. Maybe once something is proven even in the slightest bit we can advance and say well, based on certain physics, this is reliable, or this is plausible because A mixing with B elements produces C results. Perhaps expanding on current ideas but implementing various new devices thinking perhaps they may work is like sticking an antenna on your head, your finger in a light socket and trying to receive radio signals.

Like I tell my group, baby steps. With time comes answers, if not, you will eventually find out for yourself.

Since nothing is being proven, I think its time for a change in our field regarding improvement on technology and methods. It doesn't hurt to make improvements if our current methods and technology isn't giving us much to go on.

Reg.,

My problem with all this is that why should how somebody "feels" have anything to do with it?

I've had goosebumps raised over perfectly explainable phenomena that, for a second, I didn't know the explanation for.

Does my "feeling" still count?

Harte

I don't know Harte, if you get the feeling you're being watched and get goosebumps does it mean 1) you're in a space with a high EMF reading, 2) there is some paranormal occurance going on or 3) nothing, it's meaningless.

We should do a poll, it would be interesting. However, I've read that some people believe it to be the case that sometimes the "feeling of being watched" we're talking about, is due to really high EMF readings, I think TAPS believe this to be the case too. Don't know if I can find that documented or not, but it's what I've read, heard and seen on TV.

But how do we know the direction in which to take? We can't improve on something when what you are trying to improve on wasn't working in the first place, or better yet....isn't proven to work.

Yeah it would be nice to progress with new technology and theories, but you can always throw out theories, but they are just that theories until you prove that they are something else other than theory.

Without direction you are walking blindly and walking blindly can result in failure. Not to be taken literally.

I think a poll is a great idea Reg!

I for one think EMF meters should only be used to detect if the residence has high EMF’s. To me there are too many items that you have to consider that may be giving you your readings i.e. televisions, computers, microwaves, circuit box, refrigerators, and electric ovens. Also you have to consider what wires are in the walls and under the flooring. Florescent light bulbs, power lines, cell phones, clocks, when you boil water, if you shake a filing cabinet or anything made of metal it can give you a reading even just a accidental slip of the hand. You have to factor in buildings close by and the iron in the ground.
As for the communication my team and I recently tried this experiment. We set the EMF meter in a room where sightings occurred and asked questions. A couple members started to ask questions and the meter started to go crazy spiking from 0.04 to 2.5 and back down. I admit I got a little happy or excited thinking man maybe this does work. We didn’t mention it to the home owners and came back the next week, which was last night, and I went back into the bedroom and placed the meter in the same spot and watched without asking questions and the same results occurred. IMO it is obviously some wires in the floor giving off small readings, nothing paranormal. EMF’s travel as well so just because you get a quick spike of 3.01 in a spot with a base reading of 0.06 to 1.00 doesn’t really mean anything, it could be dozens of things giving you the reading.

Since this field is entirely based on theories, that's all we have to go on. We can't prove that a spirit can manipulate or create an electro magnetic field so we use all kinds of instruments to document it. But we also cant disprove it so I think it's good to have all kinds of different tools to test these theories.

It is rare these days to be somewhere without power sources at all. What if you were, say on a haunted battlefield, miles from any electricity and you have reports of "the feeling" (hehe) and rediculously high EMF readings, what would you think in that situation?? Would you give the readings more credance?

Pluto: I will get round to that poll.

What if all you had was a high EMF reading, but nothing else? No audio and no video, would you still consider it paranormal?


To answer your question, without any other data to back it up, no I wouldn’t. If I am standing in a battle field and my meter starts to get insanely high reading outside and then I go back home and check my audio and you can hear a battle going on, I would probably say there may be something to it.

That's the problem though: Everything is "IF". That's why I think technology and methods need to improve. Whether it costs money, or skeptics find it irrelevant its a fact that all areas in our field need improving.

Every investigation try out a new piece of equipment.... Thats what i say...But there are still limmited tools to do this .... I wonder what will be the tools of the future. But i can't accept much emf readings. naturally occuring around our whole planet. When a magnetic band is bent back( like the aurora) doesn't it ground out anyway twards the crust. this would certainly cause emf fluctuations right?
not to mention all the power and appliances and things of that nature in houses to change emf readings

Then again everything around us is energy and has a form of energy, i've often thought that if you can stand still in one spot that has a low reading and hangs low, then boom something happens that you cant explain and the EMF device spikes by a high number then instantly drops back down, your gonna look for an explination and track around the room and if you cannot seem to track this event, then obviously how else are you doing to explain it you know?


I honestly think it's not really a waste of money if it's something that could help us in proving a theory, like wise with many other scientists that have been dead for long time, how did they prove their theories? only by research and developing new devices that could help them to prove a theory.



I think what reg was saynig that if you go into a room, and the room runs a high EMF reading and you get the feeling of being watched, that the explination is obvious it's some device in there that is giving that high field and causing someone to feel paranoid at the time while they are stationed in the room ya know?

i've read a lot, i've shared what i thought, but i honestly think it's something that could help debunk some things people think is paranormal and help to explain a change in which the EMF fluxes. cause again, everything that has energy has an EMF.

What we need is one of these:

Proton Pack I think they're called, they seem to do the trick

Click to view attachment

yes true appliance that constantly are running on a power supply, microwaves, tv's, computers, sound systems, etc. they all have continuous runs, and when you draw near them the numbers go up but each put out a low EMF field, there are often connectors and splitters and big cable lines that give off higher readings, especially if you have grounded power lines.

LOL yes that could do the trick, draw them out, we need ghost bait!!!!!

remember electromagnetic frequencies occur in nature as well, there are plenty of locations in the middle of nowhere in the desert that give off super high electromagnetic frields. so honestly i wouldnt give those readings any more credance.

I personally don't see anything wrong with experimenting with things, who knows maybe you will figure something out, but like someone said earlier in the thread this field is based primarily on theories, there is nothing wrong with creating theories of your own. it doesn't mean that it is going to work, or do any good, but that is what trying to take a scientific approach to this field is all about. Theory - test - theory - test....

some day i would love to share with you my theory on using a theremin in ghost hunting.... i still can't get my hands on a theremin

I have to agree, you can not prove or disprove feelings, they should not be taken into account on an investigation.

true true, as i did say too, they can cause people to often feel that way due to a steady constant one high field in the room, like i say i get these feelings in my basement but i plan to get an EMF to see what readings i get in my basement.

Just in terms of experimentation, here is something my team and I have been talking about and trying to put into practice lately concerning EMF meters and their ability to detect paranormal activity or not...

It requires at least 3 people and is just based off the "good cop/bad cop" routine. In any particular room where claims of activity have been reported, we have two people have an "argument" on whether or not there is any spirits in the house or room. The third person sits motionless with an EMF meter to look for spikes or weird fluctuations that don't jive with the base reading of the area.

We've had minimum to moderate success with it, sometimes seeming to get reactions when a particular level of anger is reached or our language gets rough. Nothing, of course, that would truly suggest we are riling anything up, but an interesting experiment to try nonetheless.

I have seen a couple people mention TAPS. I don’t recall ever seeing an episode when they showed any type evidence at a reveal regarding EMF’s, if they have it has only been maybe 2 or 3 times.

They actually have, they've even had strange ones which seemed to come and go and flux in strange ways. Which makes it interesting but truely it's hard to track them when they come, of course they dont use them to say a place is haunted, but they do use it as a possibility because they cant debunk it, the ones i've seen atleast.

I quit watching that show when the theory of "energy" being "stored" in the crystalline structure of the nearby bedrock was proposed as a reason for a place supposedly (or possibly) being haunted.

Don't get me wrong, I respect the fact that the leaders (at least) of that group go in with the mindset of debunking the claim.

But it was just too much of a reach when somebody mentioned that "there is a lot of limestone in the area" as a possible reason for "lingering" paranormal "energies" or whatever you want to call it.

First of all, there are many forms of bedrock that contain far more, purer, and better-defined crystals than limestone - take granite, for instance.

Secondly, anyone care to estimate how far any given place anywhere on Earth is from the "nearest" limestone, granite, or other bedrock formation?

Please. With that criterion, every place on Earth could be seen as having lingering paranormal "energies" due to some nearby rock formation.

Harte

hell who knows, maybe you'd be surprised to find a little bit of some stone or thing in your backyard or around your house anywhere, someone proposed earlier on this forum about Sampling the Soil around the area which seems to have some form of activity. Who knows??? It's a possibility, at this point about anything is probable because it's all theories. Give em credit for coming up with a theory, its quiet a good Theory if you think about it, because everything around us has "Energy," also "Earthbound Spirits" often are bound to the earth due to the fact of something they cherished in life so they stay in an area or with something that they were attached to.
Thats just my thought.

Theories are good but they are so much better with tangible evidence. The thing is to test these thoeries. I wonder why progress is so slow. It sucks that most of these jumps in advancements we wont be around for. Hopefully there is conciousness after death then we will at least have knowledge of it! my thoughts!

well if theories had tangile evidence then it would no longer be a theory, it'd become a sort of Fact, i think progress isnt slow at all, i believe the high tech stuff is developed, but the government and nasa who's creating these secret things arnt sharing this sooner, instead they wait a while before releasing some of this stuff, just what i honestly think. (i'm not a conspiricst, i just think such high technology exists but it's not being shared sooner).

I dunno, they're cool to have and all, and they can sort of help you corroborate evidence you've already captured, I guess. Like if an object moves by itself and there's an EMF spike at the same time, you could draw correlations between the two. However, if you've already captured video of the event in question, it's kind of pointless, because the evidence is the video of something moving on its own.

But what I see way more often is someone saying, "I've got a spike! 2.1, 2.2 2.6 3.0!!!!, 3.1!" etc. What was going on in the room while that was happening? I guess we won't know because he was busying watching the little numbers on the LCD They're completely distracted by the equipment. Even on Ghost Hunters, how often do you see Steve completely entralled by the EMF detector, almost in a state of technical ecstacy, when suddenly something happens and he jerks around trying to manipulate the camera with his free hand, never taking one eye off the EMF meter, and ends up just missing something he said happened right in front of him?

Personally, I think I'd rather have both eyes and hands free to capture evidence. I guess it's a trade off either way.

Exactly and if something is consistently going up, that is not a spike. I see it all the time, people walking around a room and they keep getting an increase of numbers and then it quickly dissipates, they think it’s a spike and start to consider it paranormal, when it most likely isn't. Chances are they were picking up some type of device or devices giving off an EMF and they have stepped out of range, and lost the reading.

true true, i havnt used an EMF meter but i'm keeping in mind the thought of spike and not spike

There is some science behind it. Not with limestone though.

Crystals can have Pyroelectricity or Piezoelectricity.

Pyroelectricity is when an electric charge is given off when a crystal is heated or cooled.
Piezoelectricity is when an electric charge is given off when a crytsal is put under pressure.

In either case limestone doesn't have the crystal structure needed.