“Clothes Maketh the Man”

So goes the old saying, but when it comes to paranormal investigators it could argued that “Equipment maketh the man”. The worth of any ghost hunter seems to be directly proportional to the quantity of gadgets owned.
No self-respecting paranormal investigation team can resist the lure of advertising every item of Ghosthunting gadgetry to their peers via the internet. An assortment of cameras, camcorders, audio recorders are proudly listed, along with the ubiquitous EMF meter and dowsing rods. Extra ego points are scored for having a ghost gadget designed and built by the group’s technical guru, especially if they succeed in giving it a weird acronym or scientific sounding name. Of course the lay public need to be impressed should they encounter the ghost team’s website and it is essential that all the equipment is labelled as being ‘Scientific’. The science label can be very broadly interpreted it seems, looking over a few paranormal groups internet sites we discover that Ouija boards, dowsing pendulums and even a couple of Mediums are listed as being part of a groups arsenal of scientific equipment.

The first thing that must be stated and stated clearly, is that to date and despite a great deal of time, money and technical wizardry being employed in the hunt for ghosts and spirits NO substantial evidence exists that is able to demonstrate or indeed disprove their existence. The problem doesn’t lie with the existence or otherwise of ghosts and spirits but with the definite non-existence of equipment that is capable of objectively measuring them. Some equipment is perhaps capable of providing useful evidence that anomalies, possibly paranormal, do from time to time take place and a lot of valuable information can be obtained by the use of instrumentation and gadgetry during a paranormal investigation. A great deal of what we do find can be explained in terms of rare or uncommon physical phenomenon or interactions between the environment and the human witness. Anomalies and inexplicable events do however occur and have been objectively measured by paranormal researchers.
Gadgets have become a vital and indispensible component of every paranormal investigation (although some with psychic abilities may disagree) and permit objective observation and measurements to be made. Just how useful is the equipment currently being employed in the search for ghosts and apparitions?

 The use of equipment for ghost hunting is not a new innovation. Over the past 150 years or so, a number of researchers have sought to objectively observe paranormal experiences and anomalies. In 1871, Physicist Sir William Crookes FRS published an account of his experiments with the medium D. D. Home in which he employed a range of specially designed apparatus such as a “delicately poised balance” to measure the forces manifested by the medium. In the 1920’s and 30’s Ghosthunter Harry Price designed and built a range of equipment both for the testing of mediums and also for obtaining evidence at haunted houses. He established the National Laboratory of Psychical Research in 1926 which contained chemistry and physics laboratories, a darkroom, workshop, séance room and offices. The equipment list was extensive and included “chemical balances, electroscopes, galvanometers, barographs, thermographs, X-ray equipment” and even several pounds of radioactive material to make luminous paint!
In the 1980’s the Society for Psychical Research developed SPIDER – ‘Spontaneous Incident Data Electronic Recorder.’ A computer controlled system that automatically measured sound, temperature, magnetic fluctuations and had the ability to also take infra-red video and still pictures. SPIDER was used on more than 100 investigations; it may not yet have captured proof of ghostly activity but it does prove that even the ‘professionals’ love a good acronym…
Essential these days for any ghost hunter who wishes to be taken seriously is equipment that cannot be described as gadgetry but must not be overlooked. The good ghost hunter normally sports the uniform of his trade. Like the traffic warden, car park attendant and other petty officials, a uniform adds gravitas to the person. The ghost hunters garb usually consists of a black fleece or hoodie emboldened with his group's name and logo. Sometimes the individual’s role within the group is also identified by a title prominently displayed. Normally this is often on the back of the garment; perhaps so that they may be more readily identified by their assailant as they flee in terror from a manifesting spook. The investigator’s head is to be found covered and protected by a black beanie or baseball cap, again adorned by the group logo. The fleece and hat provide essential warmth as ghost hunting by tradition takes place mainly at night and in some pretty cold and uncomfortable places. The hat also permits the savvier investigator to sneak some sleep by lowering it over closed eyes and hiding his altered consciousness state from colleagues. Given the often inclement surroundings that ghost hunters find themselves in I have often wondered why they haven’t as yet adopted thermal underwear with the appropriate group logos – unless Calvin Klein and Ann Summers are sponsoring paranormal investigations these days! Together with the branded clothing, several other items of important but low-tech equipment are to be found in use on many ghost hunts. The group branded mug, for drinking lots of strong coffee and branded pen with light up tip for the all important note taking and writing down the ramblings of the Ouija board are just two items that seem fairly essential . Some groups have developed a whole range of clothing, accessories and equipment that they offer to team members (hopefully at a special discount) and to members of the public. Although quite anyone might wish to wander around Morrison's on a damp Saturday afternoon sporting their allegiance to the local Ghostbuting team is beyond me!. Car stickers and T-shirts are popular, as are torches all with the group logo embossed, embroidered or painted on them. Best of all in terms of ego points are the handful of groups that offer special ghost hunting equipment for sale. Magnificently engineered by the team’s technical wizard and bearing a suitable acronym; such items available include EMF meters that are calibrated to measure only paranormal electromagnetism; EVP equipment that doesn’t record cell phones and passing taxicabs and a thing for ensuring that any Orbs caught on photographs or video are not one of those annoying dust created orb lookalikes that give the sceptics so much ammunition.
Radio amateurs have known for years that ‘home-brew’ equipment can be every bit as good and sometimes better than the off-the-shelf stuff. Often, it can also be a whole lot cheaper and can be tailored to do the things that you need it to do, rather than what the manufacturer decides you should be doing with it. There are a couple of issues that are worth pointing out here: Radio Hams are working within the known and well understood laws of physics, paranormal investigators usually aren’t. The second issue is one of calibration; homemade equipment may function perfectly well but for measurements to be considered meaningful they must be able to be compared to some acceptable standard. Having a homemade ghost gadget calibrated costs a fortune but without it any results obtained by the investigator will always just end up being described as “Interesting but inconclusive” by the spoilsport academic parapsychologists and assorted sceptics only to eager to trash the hard work of the poor ghost hunter.
Of course ghost hunting doesn't always require a high tech approach. The early investigator didn't have the arsenal of equipment and gadgetry that is available to his modern counterpart. What he lacked in technology was more than compensated for by his ingenuity. Chief amongst them was Harry Price who put together a portable ghost hunting kit that comprised such things as:

Felt Overshoes; Measuring tape; Electric bells, batteries, switches and wire; Ball of string and chalk; Notebook and drawing tools; Lead seals; Cameras; Basic first aid kit; Bowl of Mercury.

These days Mercury is no longer permitted under health and safety regulations and I doubt that felt overshoes or lead seals are readily to be found in the 21st century but some of Harry's kit is still relevant and useful today. Some investigators advocate flour, starch powder or icing sugar should be dusted or sprinkled about the location instead, which probably works just as well although it does mean some serious cleaning up might be required following the investigation. This method may not catch out a passing ghost but if any investigator is considering a sideline in the confectionery business then having a few of these items in their kit could be advantageous!
Some years ago I worked on a ghost investigation programme for Japanese television at a haunted hotel near London. As the week long filming went on the director became increasingly frustrated that nothing ghostly had been captured on film despite cameras being placed in almost every room. One afternoon toward the end of the week he locked himself in a large dining room said by staff to be regularly haunted by the apparition of an elderly man. After several hours I was summoned to the room and was met at the doorway by the director and crew who asked for my comments and thoughts on their 'new experiment” which they had set up inside. As I stepped into the room I was confronted by the sight of hundreds of strings suspended from the ceiling of the room, each with a ping-pong ball attached to the bottom. The director explained “This will allow us to see any movement that the ghost makes as it moves across the room because it will disturb the suspended balls and show up really well on camera, do you think it will work?” I can't remember my exact reply but I do recall that I used the word “balls” although in a slightly different context to that intended by the director. I also recall the fury of the hotel manager when he discovered hundreds of small holes in his ceiling where the pins securing the strings had been stuck.
String still seems to be a popular item for inclusion in the ghost hunter's kit, along with cotton and fishing line: Presumably it is important to select string or fishing line with a low breaking strain or else one risks tripping up or garrotting the poor person or spirit who strays into the secured area. Some readers may chuckle at the notion of a ghost being tripped up by an investigator but it has actually been reported by none other than one of the greatest ghost hunters of all; Harry Price, although to be fair he didn't achieve this feat with a bit of string. I’ll let him explain.....

“The exact position as to where we would photograph the entity presented some difficulty. We were not quite sure what happened to it when it reached the hall, so we decided to an attempt at photographing it when it was ascending or descending the stairs. I stationed my friend on the seventh or eighth step and he held a lighted match which I accurately focused on the ground glass of my camera... It must have been nearly an hour before we heard anything...With our hearts beating wildly and with suppressed excitement we lay on the floor counting the slow measured thumps as they ascended the stairs. At the seventh thump I pressed the button and a most extraordinary thing happened. At the moment of the explosion the 'ghost' was so startled that it involuntarily stumbled on the stairs, as we could plainly hear and then there was silence. At the same moment there was a clattering down the stairs as if the spontaneous disintegration of the disturbing entity had taken place. The flash from the ignition of the powder was so vivid that even the morning room from which we were directing operations was lit up by the rays coming from under the door. It would be difficult to say who was more startled – the poltergeist or myself... After our astonishment had subsided somewhat we opened the door and found the hall filled with dense white smoke...The first thing we noticed was that the steps were shifted slightly out of square and the container holding the flash powder had been turned into a projectile which must have hit at about the spot where the entity was ascending.”

OK, Harry didn’t actually trip up the ghost; it might be more accurate to say that he blew the ghost up, either way you have to admit it's a great story worthy of re-telling here. Harry was at the time a teenager and this incident took place during his first ever ghost hunt; he seems to have learned much from that early discovery and went on the make a valuable contribution to ghost investigation.
Some items of low tech are certainly useful to the investigation process, a tape measure for instance is helpful when the investigator wishes to draw up location plans or measure the extent of some movement by an object. A useful tip when using any form of tape measure is to ensure that all the measurements are made using the same scale, I have seen several strangely drawn location plans caused by some of the investigation team using imperial measurements whilst others where happily mapping out the space using the metric scale. It's also worth pointing out too that whenever any measurements are made the actual units used should be noted somewhere prominent.

Candles have been used from the earliest days of ghost hunting although this was as a source of illumination rather than as a viable means of communication with spirits. It was also observed that candles do have an annoying propensity for flickering, flaring and going out with little warning, much to the delight of those who desire to claim such things are the work of spirits. Today, few ghost hunters are to found without at least one or two candles in their kit box. They may be useful as a last ditch form of lighting or for the basic detection of draughts and breezes from windows and door frames or as we have learned for communicating with spirits! Recently I saw advertised candles made from an edible type of wax which I guess would be handy to nibble on in the middle of long boring vigil. Candles do have one major drawback to their use on a ghost hunt however – the presence of a naked flame is a certain fire hazard and you are likely to have your group's insurance policy tested before too long.
A low tech approach to solving a problem can sometimes be the best one as my own experience may serve to demonstrate:
At a large manor house in North Wales it had been noted that a pair of heavy wooden doors were frequently reported by witnesses to be seen slowly swinging back and forth. Video cameras were set up and some movement was captured but we wanted to try and establish the range of movement too. After some experimentation it was found that by simply taping a pencil to the base of each door a line was drawn onto a sheet of paper fixed to the floor beneath the erstwhile doors. This simple approach allowed us to then quickly measure the distance through which each door had moved.
It should be pointed out that all of the methods described above are potentially damaging to the location. Remember the hotel manager who took offence at the pinholes in his dining room ceiling? The investigator should seek the consent of the owner before sprinkling sugar, talc or anything else liberally around or sticking anything to door and window frames. Often locations where ghosts are reported to be active also contain valuable and important pieces of furniture and in some cases ancient and cherished paintwork or flooring that doesn't react well to modern sticky tape, assorted types of string and thread or various condiments being used upon it.

© Steve Parsons  2012 www.parascience.org.uk