Ghosts in the Machine

The other night I was watching a rerun of a certain paranormal TV show and they claimed to capture an EVP that supposedly was the moan of a murdered woman . Well, what I heard was a cat yowl. As a cat person, I know sounds cats make and I am certain it was a cat, not a ghost. This took place in an abandoned building with broken windows and all sorts of other possible access points for cats (and other noisy critters). This is not the first time I heard something entirely different than what the show presented. One "EVP" (which was also audible to them at the time) was of an old woman screaming. I heard a fox. Being the location is near a vast wilderness area teeming with foxes, and I've actually seen foxes near the location, I'm confident that I'm right. On yet another episode, they heard and recorded, "children's" voices. But I instead heard the yipping of coyotes, a sound I have become quite familiar with from living in a rural area. That episode of their show was also filmed in a rural area and known coyote habitat.

There was a time when kids went camping - real camping - in the great outdoors. They would learn to identify sounds from the native wildlife. People still camp, but increasingly, it's luxury camping: inside an RV or common camp ground and "plugged in" to TV, radios, iPods, handheld electronic games, smart phones, etc. The natural sounds of the night are drowned out.

The same can be said in our own habitats. We are so used to having the TV or radio on, or having iTunes running on our computer as we surf the web. We are surrounded by mechanical noise: the hum of the refrigerator, the hot water heater, the furnace, etc. Outside is the drone of traffic or nearby industry. How do we know what the true sounds of our dwelling may be if we can't hear them? Wind can sound like whispers. Rain hitting the roof can sound like footsteps. A loose rain gutter can sound like knocking. Acoustics can be tricky as vents and pipes carry sounds to other rooms.

One time, several years ago, I was staying at my parents' house. They had bought a new refrigerator since my last visit. That night, while in bed, was awakened by a frightening sound: someone (thing) was breathing above me. It scared me half to death! Turned out it was the new fridge's icemaker. The refrigerator is located in the kitchen - under a register. My bed was also located under a register and the sound carried to right above me.

The very first day I moved into our current home, I heard someone say "Hello" right behind me, in the hall. I figured my husband came home early and looked out the front door. Nope. I looked around for someone in the front or back yard. No one there. Because I was so busy, I really didn't have time to stress over it. But a few weeks later, we had a repairman working on the furnace. I was working in the hallway removing old wallpaper. He came to me, looking a bit shaken, and asked if my husband came home. He hadn't, so I asked why. He said he heard someone talking right behind him. Because he looked genuinely scared, (and I needed the new furnace to be installed) I said it must have been the radio. A month or so later, we had an alarm system installed and once again, one of the workers asked if anyone else was home because he heard someone talking right behind him. So I was beginning to wonder if we had a spectoral housemate. Late one night I was awakened to a dog yipping. It sounded like it was in the house, but didn't sound like my dog. I went downstairs to find my dog sleeping soundly. I went back to bed and again, heard a dog's high pitched bark. So I went back downstairs, where my dog was still asleep. Then I clearly heard my neighbor's voice telling the dog to shush. It turns out we have a culvert in front of the house, and pipes leading to to water main. It acts just like a speaking tube, and if my neighbors are in the right place, their voices carry right into our basement. Because the basement is a big cement rectangle, it acts like a resonance box. Had I not persisted in finding the cause, I could have easily believed my house is haunted.

Today, many people aren't aware of how household appliances function. At one time, more schools offered basic shop classes and people didn't have to rely on calling in plumbers and electricians for minor repairs because they could do it themselves. As for me, I have no clue how to fix most of the technology I use on a daily basis. If this computer goes kaput, I will have to call a tech. If my clothes dryer dies, I will have to call in a repair man. My auto mechanic skills are limited to adding windshield wiper fluid and checking the oil level. (Or more accurately, asking my husband do it, ha ha). My point is, when odd things happen in our tech-saturated environment, it's ridiculous to conclude it they paranormal without taking time to analyze and better understand our surroundings.

Technology is all around us, firmly entrenched in our daily lives. We tend to forget that it is prone to glitches. Lights flickering most likely are due to a wiring issue. It's a good idea to call an electrician, instead of an exorcist. TVs and radios have alarms or preprogrammed settings that sometime inadvertently get set and cause the device to seem like it has mind of it's own when it turns on or off by itself. Older TV remotes (like those still found in some hotels) operate on radio frequencies, so if a TV turns on or off in your hotel room, it doesn't necessarily mean it's haunted. People don't take the time to understand how their cameras work and what causes common artifacts like lens flares, orbs, and light streaks. Pretty much everyone has a cell phone these days. They also come with quirks. Sometimes they call or text programmed contacts "by themselves". While this is a common glitch (it happened with one of my first cell phones) which can occur for different reasons, there are people who still jump to the conclusion a ghost is involved.

Then there is a byproduct of some of our technology: electromagnetic fields. As I've discussed before, there are studies suggesting that EMFs can cause Experience Inducing Fields, can produce auditory, visual and tactile hallucinations, and even the feeling of a "presence".

Increasingly, it seems like a lot of people, including the cast of that paranormal show, are becoming unfamiliar with natural sounds from wildlife and buildings as well as those created by our surrounding technology. So when lights flicker or a noise that seems out of place is heard, they jump to the conclusion that something paranormal is going on. Before we look for answers about the supernatural realm, we should strive to have a better understanding of the natural one first.

Closed Minds Need Not Apply

Sometimes, even with the best intentions, we can get so distracted on a journey that we don't even notice we've strayed off our original path, and find ourselves wandering down a different road. While this often can be a good thing, it is still important to check our compass and map once in a while so we know where we are.

I, as well as many others, are committed to raising the standards in paranormal research. We focus a lot of our energy educating others about things that are commonly mistaken for paranormal activity. We campaign for stricter protocols and procedures to prevent false positives. We support those who expose fraud. For me, this will not change anytime soon. However, once in a while something happens that reenergizes my passion I had for investigating in the first place.

I admit there was a time I took claims at face value. I wanted to believe in ghosts so badly to validate some of my personal experiences and beliefs. If someone said they sensed a presence of a little girl, I ate it up as fact. I didn't question orbs. "Experts" said they were spirt energy, so I happily accepted this. But there came a point where I wanted to do more than read books and watch investigators on TV. I wanted to DO it. However - I wanted to do it right. So I got to work researching all that I could about paranormal investigating. I went to TAPS Paralab events and various public ghost hunts. Might not have been perfect, but it certainly was a better starting point than just watching shows, ordering the same gear and then calling myself an investigator.

Eventually I searched for and found legitimate resources to learn from, started to get some field experience, joined a great group and my outlook began to change. Gradually I moved away from accepting most claims as valid paranormal experiences to where now I am questioning - even doubting - most claims being paranormal at all. I embrace science, all but disowning my former attraction to the metaphysical aspect of paranormal investigating. I happen to like finding solutions to puzzles.

Recently, I have found my enthusiasm for field investigating waning a little. For most of the things we experience, we soon find rational answers and most of the rest is subjective, so we can't present it for peer review. Somewhere along the way my focus shifted to pure debunking instead of looking for ALL possible explanations, including the paranormal. Consequently, some of the excitement has been taken out of it, like that first Christmas I knew Santa wasn't real.

Our last investigation started the same way. We were told the basic claims and looked into the history and geography of the location. When we arrived, we interviewed witnesses and did our EMF sweeps and control shots. We heard the usual stories: objects moving, shadows, doors opening and closing and footsteps. I was almost bored as I listened to a woman tell me how terrified she had been the night before when she saw, right in front of her, a man push a woman into a cooler and then they both vanished. I mechanically asked her to describe them, what she had been doing prior to the experience, blah, blah, blah. When the other investigators arrived, those of us on the walkthrough withheld details of the claims, something we commonly do to avoid influencing their impressions of the place.

So later, when we were doing an EVP session in the area where the witness had her experience, and one of the uninformed investigators said he heard a man and a woman talking in the same location the witness had been standing, it piqued my interest. But it wasn't until he suddenly turned to me and asked if a man had pushed a woman into the cooler that I got goosebumps. He claimed he had a "flash" where he just "saw" it. I asked if the man had pushed the woman against the door, or actually inside the cooler. Just like the witness, he answered that the woman didn't go inside the cooler. Since none of us heard this claim until that day, and he wasn't around the witness, how did he come by this information? Lucky guess? Maybe. But I can't help think, maybe not.

At one point, three of us were in one room and the other two were in another room, watching the monitor. Suddenly we heard the other two talking - so I thought. I called out to them (annoyed, since we were trying to do an EVP session) and asked if they were talking. They said they were not. I know what the cynics out there are thinking: How do you KNOW they weren't talking? Did you have a camera trained on them? I would honestly wonder the same thing. Only, when I listened to my Zoom H2 recorder, I clearly heard my teammates and me react, and me asking the team if they were talking. But I never heard the voices that prompted that reaction. I rewound and reviewed several times, but no voices. I used two recorders in that room at that time. The second was a Sony PCM recorder. When I reviewed the same section on the Sony I clearly heard the anomalous voices. Sooooooo, if it was the other two teammates talking (or another source) why didn't their voices get picked up on the first recorder? And if I only thought I heard them, then why did the voices end up on the second recorder?

We have been on several locations where noises in the building can sound like footsteps. Usually, I don't really get too excited about them because we can't pinpoint the exact location of the noise or find other explanations. I am familiar with formant noise, audio matrixing, how changes in temperature and humidity can cause wood or metal to "pop", how air in ducts or pipes can create "bangs", water in pipes can create odd sounds, how outside noises can carry, how traffic can shift foundations, and animal activity can create weird sounds. Usually I can chalk up anomalous sounds to one or more of the above. This night was an exception. Three of us heard, right on the other side of the door behind us, distinct footsteps. Footsteps with definite weight. With direction, moving past us. With the floorboards creaking under the sound of the footfalls. As soon as I opened the door, it stopped. This happened a few times throughout the night. Since there were only five of us and we could see where the other team was, I don't know what caused those sounds. I do know when teammates walked down that hallway, it replicated the sound.

Again, I understand cynics will be second guessing me. I get it, because I do the very same thing. It is quite easy to sit behind a keyboard, with references at our fingertips, to be an armchair investigator. A lot of us bristle at the defense, "Well, you weren't there." And for good reason. We have offered plausible explanations that were brushed aside. For example, I know of cases where people took pictures of "phantom mists" and they claimed no one was smoking. Yet, in other shots, you clearly see people sucking on cigarettes or that candles were lit. There are cases of people swearing the light streaks they caught can't be from slow shutter speeds because they were taken in well-lit conditions, but the EXIF data on their photos tell a different story. And the list goes on. But sometimes that phrase has some merit. As one friend often says: just because something can be faked doesn't mean it was faked. When reporting to clients, I transpose this idea to: just because something might have another explanation, doesn't mean that is the explanation.

Although we all think we are smarter than other investigators (be honest, you know you do!) we do have to accept there are indeed competent investigators out there. People who are analytical thinkers, who take environmental and physiological factors into consideration, who look for rational explanations first and foremost. And we need to keep an open mind that once in while, things do happen that we can't readily explain away. Does it mean ghosts are roaming about? Not necessarily. But it is a reminder that science has yet to find all the answers to the our world that we share with each other and perhaps, with something else.

While accepting claims at face value is a disservice to paranormal research, I believe automatically dismissing claims is just as detrimental. We can't honestly claim we are looking for the truth if we refuse to at least consider the possibility of the paranormal. And this year I'm going to set out a plate of milk and cookies December 24th - just in case. ;)