Investigation Techniques
 

Group Equipment

For a paranormal investigation after dark all you absolutely must have is your trusty team and one reliable torch, preferably with a spare set of batteries.

After that there are a number of things that I would list as a must have set of equipment. The very top of my list would be gear that you can use to record things that may happen in your investigation. Once again there is the simple approach an A4 pad and a reliable pen is a must have, so that you can note down the time, who is where, what they are doing and any significant events. Even if you have some of the other gear I am about to discuss, you still need the pad and pen and a designated scribe from your team, who will also need a small torch to see what they are doing.

The nice to haves are one or more Digital Still Cameras with a good flash, Night Vision Video Cameras, with a reasonably good Infrared capability and some kind of audio recorder, digital ones with a lot of memory are best. Your kit bag will not be complete without the almost mandatory EMF meter.

Digital Still Cameras

Almost any type will do, the best advice is keep it simple you need something where you can just press the shutter, but you will need at least 4 megapixels to get a good sharp image.

An SLR is ok, but you will not want to change lenses much during an investigation, use either a standard 50mm or a wide to mid zoom, 28 – 70 is a good range for general use.

You may also want a wide angle lens (19 - 21 mm) if you follow the CaSPIR method for baselines which involves photographing every room from all angles.

Night Vision Video Camera

These can be bought from as little as a couple of hundred pounds, but the infrared lighting on the cheaper ones at least is questionable, usually stated as 3 to 4 metres and that is in a normal living room type of environment. Anything bigger or further away and you have had it.

You can get around this deficiency though with a Sony Night Vision Extender at around £80, but this only does what the more expensive cameras do.

Personally I use a cheap digital tape camera with an extender then if I trip over something in the darkness and do the camera in, then its not too great a loss albeit annoying.

Audio Recorder

The use of these is two fold. Firstly its handy to have a record of what is said, particularly by sensitive/psychics etc during your investigation. Secondly you can listen out for EVP’s. For more on this subject have  look at our EVP workshop for an in depth discussion of this subject.

Despite what you may read about the deficiencies of Digital Audio Recorders, they are nevertheless the best bet. It is surprising just how noisy the motors in the tape types of recorder are in a quiet room, even when an external microphone is used you can still hear the noise.

The only important thing to remember when buying a digital recorder is buy one with plenty of memory. If you have a lot of memory then you can record on the setting that uses the minimal compression setting, it is the high degree of compression used to squeeze the maximum storage that is the problem with these types of recorders so avoid using high compression.

The other important thing is to buy a good make, CaSPIR members have all chosen to use Olympus, whose units are good quality and no larger than an average mobile phone. On the subject of mobile phones, some of these can record sound, but they almost all use a high compression ration, which removes all but the 1 to 8 Khz range of frequencies. What you in fact have is a device that is recording what you would get at the other end of a BT landline phone, which is not much use for EVP recording purposes.

One other thing that you may want to buy is a separate microphone for your recorder. I use a really cheap boundary microphone which has a near 360 degree receiving capability, so if you are in the room, stand absolutely still if you are doing EVP's.

EMF Meter

An EMF meter is vital piece of equipment for the serious investigator. EMF or to give it its full title Electro Magnetic Field Meter are an important aid to understanding your alleged haunted location.

All electrical and electronic devices give off EMF and this can have an effect on humans in moderate doses including the feeling of being watched, uneasiness and in some people at higher levels delusions.

For the stated reasons alone it is necessary to be able to eliminate background EMF as a contributing factor in any serious investigation. There is no value in expending hours of your time in an area if the reason for the problem is a faulty Fluorescent Light fitting, Refrigerator, Computer or other such equipment. You will still need to do an investigation, but the problem needs fixing first.

It is also alleged that Ghosts/Spirits both use and give off EMF although there is no concrete (scientific) evidence either way on this point.

When buying an EMF meter look carefully at the specification, some meters are very sensitive to mains electrics, generally the cheaper ones. These are ok as long as you understand that mains cables and powered equipment can set them off.

Others are much less sensitive, but tend to be more expensive, some are so sensitive that they can detect human electric fields from nerve impulses. These highly sensitive units are of no use where you have investigators present in the area where they are in use, but they can be used to good effect to guard a trigger object as long as your guarding camera is sufficiently far away or the meter is resistant to 50 Hz frequency.

That’s the basics covered, but there are some more things that are in my book pretty essential, but that you can do without when your group starts out

The most important of the extra items is an EMF meter, a thermometer, laser or as part of a multipurpose meter the latter including a Relative Humidity meter, Infrared beams, data loggers, remote monitored cameras.

I am not going to discuss most of these items here in any great depth; they are already adequately discussed in our equipment pages to which the reader is directed.

Multipurpose meter

CaSPIR use this to gather a set of baseline measures prior to starting our vigils. This gives us a reference set of temperature, humidity and sound levels present, which we use during vigils as a basis for establishing any unusual changes.

If we get a change during the vigil we can recheck the rest of the area and use the overall change to show up anomalies.

Laser Thermometers

These should be used with very great care, they have significant advantages, but are a real liability for the unwary. The big question with these is always what are you measuring and that to a large degree depends to a great extent on the distance to spot ratio.

Lets say that the distance to the target is 8 feet away from the thermometer, the measuring spot is 1 foot in diameter. Lets put a sheet of glass in the way an then ask what are you measuring, the answer is not where the dot falls but rather the temperature of the glass in between.

The same is to some extent true of the air between unit and target, although this “should” not have a significant effect, although in extreme conditions it can.

Infrared Beams

These are easy to get hold of and relatively cheap these days. They also have a number of uses for the paranormal investigator. You can set the beam up to guard a door, room, staircase etc for example, but there is no guarantee that a ghost or sprit can set off the alarm.

What the beams are useful for is to guard trigger objects or alert you to an intruder bent on trickery seeking to disrupt your investigation or create false events, e.g. rattling a door handle, footsteps etc.

Having been on the receiving end of such malicious attempts I find these devices very handy. The group can call on five sets of these as well as  number of infrared body heat detectors that can be used for the same purpose, but that guard an area rather than just an access point.

Remote Night Vision Cameras

This equipment was until recently a very expensive luxury for paranormal investigators, requiring a significant investment. The security industry has developed a need for such devices which has now spread down to smaller businesses with smaller budgets, not unlike our own. This has made such equipment more widely available, just look in your local Maplin store and you will see what I mean, with a wider market comes a more reasonable price.

These devices are still a significant investment for a group starting out, but at least they are available within a more reachable budget.

CaSPIR use two types of remote camera equipment, 4 IP cameras that use two laptop computers and two large external hard drives to store up to 12 hours of video.

We also have 4 video security cameras that link into a Digital Video Recorder containing a large hard disk drive, also capable of recording for 12 hours.

All of our cameras have Infrared Night Vision and all have either built in microphones or the ability to have microphones attached. This means that we can monitor areas of a site under investigation, while the team concentrate on other specific areas. The downside, there always is one, is that someone has to watch hours of riveting video images looking for some small detail of interest. Needless to say this is not a popular job. At least with the DVR system we can watch 4 sets of video at the same time and two other people can look through the IP footage.

We hope this gives you some insight into what is essential and what is useful and allows you to prioritise the purchase of equipment.

Good Luck!

 

© County Society for Paranormal Investigation and Research - 2008


Last Updated 27/07/2008