Brian Leffler

Scrutiny of evidence

March 10, 2007 |  6 comments
Image Credit: iStockPhoto I am sure that most of us will agree that evidence presentation to anyone can take the development of a very thick skin. Everyone must expect to get shot down every now and then because they thought they had something but as it turns out, it was really nothing more than a piece of dust or a case of Matrixing. The problem that arises where evidence is concerned is that there are many, many groups out there that are either too excited to get that great evidence out that they don't scrutinize or they simply don't know how to scrutinize their evidence. I firmly believe that almost everyone want their evidence to be good. Of course you have some that just don't care because they "investigate" ghosts simply for the thrill of it and not for the research behind it. This leads me to believe that the latter is the case most of the time. After all, if you surf the net, you will find a majority of websites that have evidence on them that pretty much everyone agrees is bogus at best.

As most of us know, the only way to come to a conclusion of an anomaly being paranormal is through the process of elimination. You have to eliminate the possibility of the mundane before you can say you have captured something paranormal.

The Northern Minnesota Paranormal Investigators prides itself on the fact that tough scrutiny is what we are all about. In fact, I have made many people mad at myself because their evidence that I have scrutinized was never really checked before I got my hands on it. They "had a feeling" about the photograph, EVP or video and didn't use any real methods of scrutiny to truly evaluate the evidence. It may sound strange but we are much tougher on our own evidence than we are about that of other people.

Below are some pointers I would like to share with anyone that doesn't scrutinize their work and puts it out there. Come on, you know who you are or the novice just starting out, I hope these are helpful to you.

1. Dump the digital stuff. When you use it, due to the many issues with it including manipulated photos every time you snap a photo, you cannot eliminate the mundane. This is aside from the fact that there is nothing tangible that can be scrutinized. Use a good 35mm camera; this will also eliminate about 99% of the dust orbs you are seeing on the digital. Oh yeah, one more thing...did you know that digital cameras are not admissible as evidence in America's courtrooms? If it is not admissible as evidence there, whey then would it be acceptable as evidence where the paranormal is concerned?2. Orbs are very difficult to photograph and scrutinize at best. Most of them that are captured on still camera are dust, moisture, pollen, etc. By most I mean a solid 98% and perhaps even higher. When you capture an orb on digital, it should simply be discarded. Since the digital camera creates them, you cannot ever conclude it as being paranormal since that possibility is always there. When you capture them on film, an orb will appear solid and three dimensional, not thin, wispy and it will never have a ring around it. If it has a ring around it, it is always a dust orb and should not be considered. Orbs captured on video must show signs of directional and/or speed changes and will defy the air currents in that area that you are filming.

3. Use a tripod for your video cameras. Let's face it, a video that is panning around and zooming in and out makes for very poor evidence. Even if you capture something on the camera, the camera movement will destroy the evidence because it could always be a result of camera movement that causes the anomaly. A tripod is a smell investment to make to preserve good evidence.

4. Keep tight control of your situation while investigating. You cannot run around all Helter Skelter snapping five thousand photos and when you get something strange call it paranormal. If you don't know the circumstances of the surroundings at the time, your evidence is no good. Make sure that the area you are investigating is closed off, there are no other individuals there other than the people that belong there. The people that are supposed to be at the location need to know where each other is at all times. Eliminate the mundane before it even has a chance to happen!

5. Never whisper while recording EVP. I see that all the time on shows and hear it when evidence is presented. You never know if it is real EVP or just someone whispering. This is one of the cardinal rules with N.M.P.I. We tell all clients that are at the investigation the same thing, "Never whisper."

6. Don't break the law to get into a place to investigate. Make sure you ALWAYS have permission to be there. If you will break the law to investigate, that means that you are not an upstanding and trustworthy person. How can I take any stock in what you are saying? If you will break the law to conduct an investigation, you will manipulate your evidence without thinking twice about it, so, as far as I am concerned your evidence is worthless.

I know this isn't everything and I will write out some more later on. I hope that these tips will be helpful and someday we will all be able to get closer to being on the same page. Being on the same page will be of great help, I believe, to help convince a few more skeptics that what we do isn't a waste of time and energy!
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