OT: those ghost hunting shows and their technology

Justice C. Bigler

Justice C. Bigler

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Jan 11, 2011
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www.justicebigler.com
This is a way off topic post. Has anyone watched any of the 13 bazillion ghost hunting shows on SciFi, Discovery, Travel or History channels?

My wife's family watches every one one of these shows. They drive me nuts with their supposed "technology" for finding and capturing video and audio recordings of various ghosts and spirits.

Now, your belief in an afterlife and whether it manifests itself as a digital recording on a hard drive not with standing; Does anyone have any objective scientific opinions on what these people are capturing on their digital recorders? I know that mic preamps can do some funny things when you turn them all the way up, but I'm not enough of an electrical engineer to know what exactly is happening with they supposedly record some out of body voice that they swear wasn't there when they were in a particular room.

Can any of you electrical engineer types educate me on what might be happening electrically or electronically in such a case?
 
Re: OT: those ghost hunting shows and their technology

JR is the person most qualified to answer this question.
And he nailed the answer.
 
Re: OT: those ghost hunting shows and their technology

I had to move from my apartment after about 7 years, and I already miss my ghosts. I had "The Gambler" and "Cowboy" who paid infrequent visits. The Gambler would usually be seen at the top of my front stairs and Cowboy would be in my kitchen or back bedroom. I never got pictures or audio recordings (never tried) of them so I can't comment on technology.

Both ghosts made several visits while I was packing and moving; one of my helpers saw The Gambler. That neighborhood is one of the 'most haunted' in Wichita. Atchison, Kansas, has the distinction of being the most haunted in Kansas (it's the oldest settlement in the state, too).

Tim "homeless, with money in the bank and credit score of 800" Mc
 
Re: OT: those ghost hunting shows and their technology

if you ever see a picture of an orb, it is a piece of dust just in front of the lens that was illuminated by the flash. I can make one of those pictures right now if you wanted. There are also many effects that can be done with long exposures to make "unnatural" things appear.

Any high impedance multi-meter will read a voltage when the probes are in the air. It could be caused by anything from nearby AC lines to RF energy in the air. You're essentially measuring the universe, and there's quite a bit going on out there. Also scopes give some interesting patterns when left in x/y mode connected to antennas of differing frequencies.

Also if you have a recorder with a high impedance input connected to a piece of wire, with the gain turned all the way up, it could be receiving any number of signals, from police to CB to god knows what.
 
Re: OT: those ghost hunting shows and their technology

So, if one were to go about designing and setting up a series of scientific experiments to demonstrate electrical, RF, or other problems that would cause these sorts of "ghost voices" or what these ghost hunting wackos call "EVP" (electronic voice phenomena); how would one do that?

Lets say that I start out with a handheld digital recorder, like any of the Zoom H series of recorders. Maybe a common, but not super cheap microphone like and SM57 and a cable. What kinds of things can I do to induce extra noise and pick up of weak RF and distant audio sources?
 
Re: OT: those ghost hunting shows and their technology

John Roberts said:
Buy an early Mackie mixer... :)

JR
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I was working a small community theatre gig several years ago using their fairly -um- budget priced equipment. The Radio Shack wireless systems weren't getting very good reception back at FOH, so I moved them up on stage, ran the unbalanced output into a Radio Shack barrel transformer and then about 50' of XLR into the Mackie SR24-4 back at FOH. Cued up the channel and had solid reception...of the local AM radio station. D'oh!
 
Re: OT: those ghost hunting shows and their technology

Adam Whetham said:
Ask them how every ghost they encounter speaks English. That blows my mind every time.
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On Ghost Hunters International, they speak whatever language the Ghost Hunters know.

On the US Ghost Hunters show, the ghosts definitely sound like they speak with accents. You could tell they were from different locations like Texas, Louisiana, New England, or the Bronx. There was even a really old ghost who was visiting from England. You could tell because he didn't rely on EVP's. He preferred to just rattle some chains. :)
 
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Re: OT: those ghost hunting shows and their technology

Justice C. Bigler said:
What kinds of things can I do to induce extra noise and pick up of weak RF and distant audio sources?
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Here is one that I have seen the Ghost Hunters all agree on (and you probably have too). Go to any location where the soil content is rich in limestone and you are bound to have more ghastly activity. I don't know if there is anything remotely feasible about that on a physics level, or if the ghosts just feel more "at home" with limestone.

Here is the scene that is permanently burned into my memory from these types of shows:
"Bill, did you just tug on my shirt?"
"No, Ted. I am across the room."
"Bill, did you just see that??"
(in unison): "HOLY CRAP!!"
[break to commercial]
 
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Re: OT: those ghost hunting shows and their technology

I do have one of those Tri-Field meters they use on those shows, however it is a lot more useful tool in troubleshooting electromagnetic field interference in sound systems than hunting for spooks.
 
Re: OT: those ghost hunting shows and their technology

Arthur Skudra said:
I do have one of those Tri-Field meters they use on those shows, however it is a lot more useful tool in troubleshooting electromagnetic field interference in sound systems than hunting for spooks.
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Ok, see, this is what I'm talking about. Is it possible for whatever EMI signals they are picking up to produce some random sound that just happens to be interpreted by the human ear as a voice of some kind? Is there anyway to test that kind of thing? I don't doubt that they are picking up residual energy from bad wiring, radio frequencies, the air or ground, or very distant audio sounds. I just don't think they are picking up what they seem to want to call ghosts or spirits.

How do I go about disproving them? (If I can set up an experiment, then yeah, I'll post it on Youtube, and maybe I can get my own cheap ass reality TV show on late night cable.)
 
Justice C. Bigler said:
How do I go about disproving them? (If I can set up an experiment, then yeah, I'll post it on Youtube, and maybe I can get my own cheap ass reality TV show on late night cable.)
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Unfortunately you are trying to disprove a near religeon, and no ammount of scientific evidence, logic or reasoning can disprove that.

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL
 
Re: OT: those ghost hunting shows and their technology

Justice C. Bigler said:
Ok, see, this is what I'm talking about. Is it possible for whatever EMI signals they are picking up to produce some random sound that just happens to be interpreted by the human ear as a voice of some kind? Is there anyway to test that kind of thing? I don't doubt that they are picking up residual energy from bad wiring, radio frequencies, the air or ground, or very distant audio sounds. I just don't think they are picking up what they seem to want to call ghosts or spirits.

How do I go about disproving them? (If I can set up an experiment, then yeah, I'll post it on Youtube, and maybe I can get my own cheap ass reality TV show on late night cable.)
Click to expand...
Not sure about the randomness of it all, I guess you can crank up the sensitivity real high and pick up all kinds of things moving around a room. It's kinda like those induction probe testers used to trace cables, just a lot more sensitive, and picks up a wider range of frequencies.
 
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