The Witches' Book of the Dead (24 page)

Still other hauntings involve
earthbound souls
, the ghosts of those who got stuck in their transition to the afterlife. Sometimes they died suddenly and do not even know they are dead. Or they have unfinished business and somehow were able to remain behind, but are stuck in a twilight world between the living and the dead. Earthbounds can also interact with the living, and sometimes ask for help moving on.

Finally, there are those souls who freely choose to travel back and forth between the planes of spirit and the world of the living. These souls are not bound to the Earth, but, like guardian angels, they are able to intercede in our lives much like the Saints of the Church. It is these spirits that are called on most at your altar of the dead and in rituals of necromancy.

How Hauntings Happen

Hauntings can arise simply from what the living leave behind. Many hauntings are created by emotionally charged events, especially unhappy ones such as accidents, murders, suicides, natural disasters, wars, and so on. Some hauntings are related to neutral or happy events, such as taverns that are haunted by the ghosts of their prior patrons, but negative emotions account for most recorded paranormal phenomena. Still other hauntings are tied to legends that have become embellished over time.

Any place can be haunted: houses, buildings, landscapes, places in nature. Houses do not have to be old to be haunted. A new house can have paranormal activity. The spiritual residues of the dead can linger in psychic space or even within the land itself.

Hauntings are not always permanent. It is possible that the interest and attention of the living can perpetuate hauntings by acting as an energy source. The phenomena often respond to certain individuals: some people stir up activity unconsciously wherever they go, especially those who are eccentric, outlandish, or larger than life. As Kelly and I demonstrated during the filming of
Ghost Adventures
, sometimes you can stir that activity through ritual.

What Ghosts Do and Where to Find Them

The kinds of phenomena you are likely to experience in a haunted place include being touched by invisible presences; weird smells; unexplained sounds and noises; hearing voices; seeing apparitions that seem either filmy
or solid; movements of objects; lights and even appliances going on and off by themselves; equipment failing; and batteries suddenly draining. How do you know if a place is haunted? Repeated phenomena such as described above, for which
no natural explanation can be found
, indicate that a place is occupied by residues, ghosts, or other spiritual entities. Of course, seeing an apparition is the best evidence of all. Some are both filmy and transparent; others seem solid as though they are living people; others are dark and shadowy. A dark spirit form is not necessarily bad or evil—it is just the way it chooses to manifest.

We stress the importance of eliminating natural explanations first, which we discuss in more detail in
chapter 5
. Too often, people eager for paranormal experiences misinterpret mundane events and see them as evidence for spirit activity where there is none.

Most casual ghost hunters go for a thrill, to gain proof of the afterlife, or to collect evidence that ghosts are present in a particular location. The messages that the spirits are trying to communicate usually take a secondary role. Some ghost hunters, on the other hand, seek specific information from the dead, especially pertaining to the future.

As I discussed in
chapter 7
, restless ghosts can often be quick to provide you with information. However, as I've also discussed, I rarely work with the spirits of the unquiet dead as they can be unpredictable, mischievous, and dishonest. I only do so when trying to gather evidence in ghost hunting or while investigating a murder or other crime. While this method of paranormal investigation can be effective, it should also be done with much care and protection.

Spirits of the dead can be found anywhere, not just in graveyards or haunted houses. Research sites before you visit them for ghost hunting. Try cemeteries, battlefields, and places where tragic deaths have occurred, especially places known to be haunted by specific personalities. Try other, more benign haunted places for comparison. And look in your own home.

Wherever you go, obey access restrictions and do not trespass. Most cemeteries and battlefields have hours of public access. Do not deface monuments,
tombs, crypts, and headstones. Use modern equipment and methods described below.

The Role of Spirit Mediums and Witches

Some paranormal groups arm themselves to the teeth with ghost-hunting equipment and avoid the use of mediums and psychics—insisting that they are trying to be “scientific.” Others prefer to bring a Witch or psychic medium along. I believe in the latter. The perception of ghosts is mostly a subjective experience—much of what can be found on record are anecdotal accounts rather than photos, videos, and recordings. As our technology advances, that is changing, but there remain phenomena that science simply cannot measure as of yet. To rely solely upon equipment means you would likely miss 90 percent of the action.

Psychic mediums, and especially Witches, have a great deal to offer, because they can fill in many blanks that equipment cannot. They can often detect phenomena more easily than equipment, and instruct those using it where to direct their work to record the phenomena. My favorite example of this happened during a ghost tour in the French Quarter of New Orleans with my dear friend and magical teacher Bloody Mary, who is a Voodoo priestess, psychic medium, and paranormal investigator who inspired me to write this book. Mary brought our group to the infamous LaLaurie mansion, one of America's most haunted houses and site of the alleged torture of numerous slaves on the part of their mistress, the Madame Delphine LaLaurie. Mary was looking up at a corner of the mansion and said, “I see two spirits up there. Let me see if I can catch them.” She whipped out the digital camera, snapped the picture, and, sure enough, there were two distinct energy formations captured on film. Bloody Mary is one of the most powerfully spirit-connected people I have ever known, and she is the perfect type of person to bring on a ghost hunt. Such seers save those with the equipment a lot of time by letting them know just where to look for spirits!

Witches and mediums can also get impressions and information about history, events, names, dates, activities, and so on. In some cases, the information can then be validated through research of historical records or by interviewing people. This can often make the process of documenting the evidence of a site take far less time as well.

Your own mediumistic ability—and everyone has some—is going to come into play in ghost hunting. You learned about mediumship in
chapter 7
, and you'll want to practice your gifts regularly if you want to play the role of seer on a ghost hunt. You are attempting to experience the unseen and unheard, and those phenomena are going to register on your subtle senses. The more you participate in paranormal investigations, the sharper your own psychic ability becomes. I have heard many a “scientific” ghost hunter say they have no psychic ability, but this is not the case; they are just not acknowledging it. Yes, just like some have a greater aptitude for singing or mathematics, there are some who have a greater natural ability to be psychic, but every one of us has at least a little bit of the second sight.

Just as a spirit medium is important to ghost hunting, so too is the Witch, and often the same person plays both roles. Practitioners of the ancient craft understand the powers of protection magic, banishing, and exorcism, and are able to raise the energy necessary to keep angry or hateful spirits from causing harm. Ghost hunting can be spiritually dangerous, and as you learn the techniques in this book, you may just find yourself very valuable to your local ghost hunters. Just as noted paranormal expert Hans Holzer long worked with famed Witch and psychic Sybil Leek, the paranormal investigation groups of today could benefit from having a Witch onboard!

Ghost-Hunting Gadgets

The very best piece of equipment you can bring to a ghost hunt is yourself, for your senses, including your psychic awareness, do most of the work. However, it is helpful to use at least some technical equipment. Ghost hunting really didn't develop as a pastime or even a professional pursuit until
the late nineteenth century, when attention was focused on evidence for survival after death. People wanted to experience and study mediums and haunted places, and societies of experts formed dedicated to those activities. The Society of Psychical Research in London and the American Society for Psychical Research in New York City are the most prominent of these.

In the early days people had little in the way of equipment, and ghost hunting was largely based on personal observations. People had film cameras and magnetic tape recorders. Sometimes they brought along thermometers, for rapid and extreme changes in temperatures are characteristic of many haunted places. They often spread flour or talcum powder on floors to try to capture ghostly footprints. For the most part, early ghost hunting consisted of doing a vigil in the dark, waiting for something unusual to happen.

Some of that still holds today. There's much more gear, but after it is set up, you will probably still have to wait hours in the dark for things to happen. Sometimes you'll be rewarded and sometimes you'll go home with little to show.

Today, the average person can buy an astonishing array of equipment for a modest investment of money. Websites tout “must-have” gear, and the various ghost hunters on reality shows are often so outfitted with gadgets that they end up looking like the men from the film
Ghostbusters
. While the spectacle probably makes for entertaining television, perhaps we can credit these ghost shows for increasing the kinds of equipment available, since the shows have inspired an entire subculture of ghost hunters across the world. However, you do not need to arm yourself to the gills or outfit a van to do good ghost hunting.

What Gadgets Should You Get?

Good digital cameras and video cams are important, and so are digital recorders. Some ghost hunters prefer film cameras and magnetic tape recorders, but the digital ones will give you good results and are much easier to deal with in files that can be uploaded to your computer or the Internet. Some investigators experiment with infrared and ultraviolet photography,
and there are filters, film, lights, and internal modifications that can be done to cameras to suit those purposes. Bloody Mary has always told me that an 800-speed disposable camera can do the trick quite well in a pinch—and I've seen some pretty amazing spirit photos captured that way.

Thermometers are effective but not essential. If you experience sudden drops or spikes in temperature, you must be able to rule out
all
possible natural explanations to have useful data.

EMF meters are very popular and relatively inexpensive ghost-hunting tools, but not really necessary when starting out. EMF stands for “electromagnetic fields.” An EMF meter measures electromagnetic energy present. It is a popular belief among ghost hunters that high readings, or especially spikes in energy levels, indicate ghostly presences. However, these devices will pick up any source of electromagnetic energy, such as electrical wiring behind walls and outside sources. The meter can also be set off by cell phones and walkie-talkies, so you want to be very careful about how you use one. No one gadget is going to measure everything you need to know, so it is always best to test phenomena with more than just one. I rarely use my EMF meter, and feel it's probably something you can save for when you're working as part of a larger investigative team.

Thermal cameras that register either heat or cold are also popular with ghost-hunting teams, but most of them are quite expensive, so make sure that this is something you're really serious about before grabbing one of those. I personally wouldn't use one. They look great on TV, but they are not practical in the field. Heat signatures of the living can linger quite a while in a place, so determining the source of a reading can be difficult. For example, if you press your hand against a wall, some heat traces of that can still be picked up long after you are gone. There have definitely been some interesting videos out there of unexplained masses registering on thermal cams, but their overall practicality, weighed against their cost, makes them nonessential for most ghost-hunting adventures.

See how easy it is? A couple of cameras and a digital recorder, and you're good to go! If you decide to go deeper into paranormal investigation, you
can always add more gear later—preferably after you have had a chance to see it in action with others and evaluate its practicality. Rosemary Ellen Guiley keeps her gear to a minimum: cameras, recorders, and a fascinating device called a “ghost box,” similar to the one the
Ghost Adventures
team used when I filmed with them and one we will discuss later on in the section on electronic voice phenomena. Rosemary uses her own psychic sensitivity and always welcomes the input of psychics and mediums, which is essentially how we became friends. She asked me to use my own psychic ability to help her investigate a house.

You may get evidence quickly, or you may have to take hundreds of photographs and spend many long hours recording in order to get something truly “unexplained.” Beware of fuzzy round balls in your digital photos. These are called “orbs,” and some people believe them to be spirits. Orbs are usually explainable: most are objects such as dust, moisture, bugs, and so on that were very close to the camera lens. We can't rule out a possible paranormal orb, of course, but don't put too much weight on them. Sometimes people will show me orbs in digital photographs that turn out to be nothing more than JPG compression artifacts, something I'm familiar with as I was a professional Web developer and designer for many years. If you're going to use a digital camera, please set your camera's JPG quality to the highest setting so that it compresses the image as little as possible and you don't get those pesky artifacts. When ghost hunting, I typically set my camera to “Raw” file format, so there is no chance of them.