Getting Started Ghost Hunting 101

Hello and Welcome to Hauntings Research forum. So your looking to become a paranormal investigator? First off - Anyone who is serious in investigating is not called a Ghostbuster. Investigating is a strictly scientific methodology and a serious terminology for this scientist is a Parnormal Investigator. There are alot of Mom and Pop teams of investigators in the Pittsburgh area - hundreds in fact. What makes Hauntings Research head and shoulders above most is the fact that we look upon all evidence as normal - always trying to debunk any bump in the night with a perfectly normal explanation. Credibility is every thing and ones reputation is solely based on Scientific, factual, Recording/documentation of evidence. Ok enough of what makes a research team great and onto what items are necessary to start out investigating. First off, a decent camera is a must. You dont need a $1000.00 camera to capture a spirit. Always buy within your budget and a little resarch on equipment or a question to me will help with the vast choices of equipment out there. The second item that is a must is a decent digital recorder. I personally prefer olympus. i have had great success with my recorder and will stay with a winner. The third and final piece of equipment is a decent EMF meter. A good choice for this is a K2. It is relatively inexpensive and is easy to read the intensity of the surrounding field via the set of green,yellow and red lights on the front. Now that we have our three main pieces of equipment Ill give a quick synopsis of investigating. After interviewing a perspective haunting and setting up a time/date you should arrive a few minutes early to check your equipment /batteries. Batteries should be charged/new prior to each investigation. Rechargeable batteries are more costly up front but save alot in the long run. A common occurrence is the draining of perfectly charged batteries around a ghost. When entering a location you should immediately have your recorder going as you will find out the spirits might just tell you to "GET OUT" and if your recorder is not on you would have missed this friendly common welcome. When the investigation fully begins and each group is designated an area to cover. Each person should get temperature and EMF baseline reading of the area to be investigated. A change in temperature could indicate spritual presence and a fluctuating EMF field is a possibly the indication of a spirit trying to manifest itself. When you start to get changes - inform others in the group to start taking pictures. The nice thing about technology now as from when I started 17 years ago is now you have cards inside the camera and can see the pictures on the screen of the camera. When I started - you had film which was very costly whether you got an apppariton or just a plain wall. I can not say this enough - Take hundreds of pictures as they are free and you greatly increase your chance of capturing that ellusive full body apparition.My final advice is when you are doing EVPs always talk in the same voice. DO NOT WHISPER as this could be construed as a spirit talking and a whisper is hard to pinpoint to a particular person as it has no tone. Always verbally mark - Say:So and so is walking,a member sighing,a member coughed, or any other natural contamination should be verbally noted during an EVP session) I hope this helps and if you have any questions - Im Rick V. Member of Hauntings Research.