3/12/05 store investigation -- Matt's impressions
This also is not our official report. And Katie covered most of the bases, but I wanted to take what I learned from this first investigation and give a "do's and don'ts of ghost hunting" to help other people starting in this field.
Though I thought everybody in our group conducted themselves well (no touching, no moving things around without the owner's permission, etc.), we just brought too many people along. The store we investigated was fairly big -- big enough that 11 people could divide into 4 groups, and each could be assigned to their own zone. But I learned from this investigation that a site has to be HUGE for you to have 11 people.
I went down in the basement with my group, which consisted of Mara, and Phil, and me, hoping to capture some EVPs with my digital voice recorder. But there were so many feet stomping around on the floor above us that I didn't even bother. We learned that, when you're doing an investigation and you have 3 floors like we had, you should leave the middle floor empty.
We also learned that, when trying to capture EVPs, if you talk or make any noise you should identify yourself and always speak at your normal volume. You should never whisper. Some of us thought that by placing the recorder down and then going in the other room to whisper, our voices wouldn't drown out any EVPs we might catch. And they didn't...but now we have a different problem. Now, because everybody was whispering that night, we can't identify who was talking when we're at home later listening for EVPs. We can't discern what's an EVP and what's a human voice. So on our next ghost hunt, we'll have to try to keep it quiet, but if anybody has something to say, they should talk at normal volume.
Personally, I won't believe what I have is an actual EVP unless I was holding the recorder in my hand when it was captured (so that I know it wasn't manipulated by someone else), the voice is distinctly not one of us, and it answers one of my questions directly. There is a theory among skeptics that when you catch an EVP, you are just picking up someone talking on a CB radio.
You must also take a notepad with you and record everything, like what room you were in and when, so you can compare notes later. This is something most of us did do, but a few did not.
We are actually going to go back to this store for a second hunt, this time with fewer people. After that, then we will post an official report here.
Though I thought everybody in our group conducted themselves well (no touching, no moving things around without the owner's permission, etc.), we just brought too many people along. The store we investigated was fairly big -- big enough that 11 people could divide into 4 groups, and each could be assigned to their own zone. But I learned from this investigation that a site has to be HUGE for you to have 11 people.
I went down in the basement with my group, which consisted of Mara, and Phil, and me, hoping to capture some EVPs with my digital voice recorder. But there were so many feet stomping around on the floor above us that I didn't even bother. We learned that, when you're doing an investigation and you have 3 floors like we had, you should leave the middle floor empty.
We also learned that, when trying to capture EVPs, if you talk or make any noise you should identify yourself and always speak at your normal volume. You should never whisper. Some of us thought that by placing the recorder down and then going in the other room to whisper, our voices wouldn't drown out any EVPs we might catch. And they didn't...but now we have a different problem. Now, because everybody was whispering that night, we can't identify who was talking when we're at home later listening for EVPs. We can't discern what's an EVP and what's a human voice. So on our next ghost hunt, we'll have to try to keep it quiet, but if anybody has something to say, they should talk at normal volume.
Personally, I won't believe what I have is an actual EVP unless I was holding the recorder in my hand when it was captured (so that I know it wasn't manipulated by someone else), the voice is distinctly not one of us, and it answers one of my questions directly. There is a theory among skeptics that when you catch an EVP, you are just picking up someone talking on a CB radio.
You must also take a notepad with you and record everything, like what room you were in and when, so you can compare notes later. This is something most of us did do, but a few did not.
We are actually going to go back to this store for a second hunt, this time with fewer people. After that, then we will post an official report here.
posted by Midwest Preternatural Research at 5:33 PM
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