Ghost Hunters--Do you Beleive?

Today is Halloween, October 31, 2008. I was off work today, while at home, I tuned on my TV. The TV channel was on the SCIFI channel, which on Dish Network is channel 122. My son loves this channel so it was no surprise that the TV turned right onto this channel. The show that was airing was called Ghost Hunters. Ghost Hunters is a TV show, where a group of investigators go around the United States and investigates locations that the owners, employees or customers claim are hunted. These locations are any location from family homes, businesses, historical sites to Military Bases.

This group of investigators refer to themselves as TAPS (The Atlantic Paranormal Society). This group is contacted by anyone who wants to find concrete evidence to back up their claim or get some answers to what is going on with the strange activities that they have encountered.

Upon TAPS arrival to the site that they will investigate, they meet with the person that contacted them, so they can go through the dwelling to learn what noises are being heard, what smells are being smelt and to get a description of what the ghostly figures look like. TAPS, will then set up their equipment, which they have a lot of, once the equipment is set up TAPS turns off all lights and they begin their investigation. Some of the equipment and their descriptions that the TAPS team use is listed below.

Digital Audio-A small digital sound recorder.
Digital Infrared Camera-Captures images invisible to people.
EMF-(Electromagnetic Field) -A force given off by electric charges; found in anything that uses electricity. Theory is that spirits are made from magnetic forces.
EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena)-Disembodied voices and sounds picked up by recording devices. HI-8-Portable video-tape camcorders.
K-2 Meter-A device that measures magnetic fields. Some believe it can be used to train a spirit to intensify its magnetic field as a form of communication.
Mini-DV-A small digital video recorder that records.
Digital Thermometer-Reads Ambient Temperature, 15-60 degrees cooler than the regular room temp indicates that a spirit may be present.
Thermal Imaging Digital Camera-Records images of long wavelength infrared radiation, sometimes referred to as heat, which is invisible to people. This allows the capture of images in even total darkness, or through smoke or fog.

As I’m watching the Ghost Hunters Marathon today, one episodes really stuck out and crept me out. The episode took the TAPS crew to Beverly Hills, CA. They were going to the neighborhood where actress Sharon Tate and hair stylist Jay Sebring were murdered. YES, I am talking about the Charles Manson murders. The house where the murders took place is no longer standing but there is a house down the street that the owner claims is haunted by Sharon and Jay. This is the place the TAPS crew set up their cameras and their equipment. During this episode the team did hear tons of noises through out the house. They Didn’t actually see any ghosts while there. However, they started using the EMF and found that in one of the guest room of this house the EMF was extremely high so they then brought in the digital thermometer reader and area’s of the room were cooler than the rest of the room. So ,the team asked the spirit in the room to lower the temperature from 70 degrees to 62 degrees as you watch the temp goes from 70 to 62 within a few minutes. Then, they bring in some crazy devise (can remember it’s name) that they claim the spirits can light up when they are communicating. The team uses this devise, now that they have found something in the room that can lower the temp. As the team is in the guest room with this spirit it asks the spirit to answer some questions. If the answer is yes they ask the spirit to make the devise light up twice, if the answer if no they tell the spirit to make the devise light up once. They start off by asking if there is a spirit in the room, the devise lights up twice. The following are additional questions the team asked

1. Are there more than one spirit in this house?
2. Are you a victim of murder?
3. Is the other spirit a victim of murder?
4. Are you Jay Sebring?
4. Is the other spirit Sharon Tate?

The devise did flash twice for each question indicating that the team was communicating with Charles Manson’s murder victims. The team also pick up voices and noises through out the house using their equipment that appeared to be a woman’s voice.

At the end of the teams investigation they always meet back up with the person who asked them to come and investigate, so the team can provide them with some answers.

While watching the rest of the episodes today the TAPS team would come up with some answers to things that are going on such at the dwelling, such as a structure settling, or dust in the air that they end up catching on their camera.

Not every episode will the team find as much information like they did in the episode described above but at least in every episode there was always something that they could not explain. There were two other episodes that they found crazy things going on and did capture figures that move and resembles a humans.

Also, the SCIFI channel and Ghost Hunters also air some of their investigations Live. A investigation takes about 7 hours. A live investigation does air tonight from 5:00 PM-12:00AM with the findings and conclusions to the live investigation airing on Wednesday, November 5, 2008.

Are you a believer??