Preface
you may be somewhat experienced field investigators, some may have
a few investigations under your belt and are looking for information.
Some of you are fully immersed in the lore and “facts” of spirits and all
that pertains to them, and some of you may be just curious.
The fact that we cannot prove we are not just talking to an empty
building without a leap of faith should be disconcerting to an objective
investigator.
This book is primarily aimed at those of you that would actively seek
out proof of hauntings. It will also be useful to those seeking to engage
the population at large about the supernatural. It is going to question
some, much, or all of your basic beliefs. Not out of spite, but because
we need to re-evaluate what we believe every now and then, especially
if we are going to interact with both believers and non believers outside
our social groups. If you feel at any part of this book that you are getting
mad, or indignant, or are thinking “what the hell does this guy know?”,
take a deep breath and a step back. Ask yourself how much of what you
believe or disbelieve about ghosts and spirits can you objectively argue a
case for? Ask that question again at the end of this book.
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Peer agreement is not proof. The universe is not a democracy (sadly,
because lots of great things would be true). Personal experiences are
fine and may be proof to you, but are not proof to anyone else. This
book isn’t about attacking your beliefs, it’s about maybe finding ways
to refocus an investigator’s energy into actually trying to prove the
existence of ghosts in any measurable and objective way. It can also be
used as a guidebook for new ghost hunters on how to investigate, and
not just experience a supposedly haunted location. If you are going for
the experience, what could it hurt taking away some data in an objective
way? It’s still enjoyable.
There are some parts in this book , where I have taken the decision
that the scope of the topic is outside this books narrative. There are
mentions of experiments and theories, along with their methods and
conclusions as far as they pertain to what this book is about, and to
include all this information in detail would make this book an unwieldy
monster. I strongly recommend the reader to use the power of the
internet to probe deeper into some of these references to flesh out their
overall knowledge of the field at their leisure. However, be objective in
your research, there are many sites out there that have an agenda or an
emotional spin aimed at solving all of your spiritual questions. Try to
stick with factual representations, and avoid unsupported “opinion”
pieces.
Later in this book I’ll describe what is called the “No” camp, that is,
people who don’t believe in ghosts. It was a camp I was firmly a member
of because there was no scientific evidence of ghosts. The things ghosts
were reportedly doing made no logical sense to me. Then a good friend
of mine asked if I wanted to go on a ghost hunt at Edinburgh Manor in
Iowa, which I thought would be a fun night out as I had never done one.
I figured it would be like camping out in an abandoned building talking
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ghost stories. We didn’t have any equipment, we were just there.
And then it happened.
I was on the steps to the second floor with another buddy that didn’t
believe. No-one else was in the building. We heard children’s voices,
followed by giggling. I looked at him, he looked at me and we decided to
vacate the premises. I will never forget the jolt I got, or the look on my
buddy’s face, and to this day I can’t explain what I heard. So we formed
a group, got all the gear and did what you are were supposed to do in
this situation.
Go hunt ghosts.
Our group WTF Investigations does what everyone else does, we have a
web page (wtfinvestigations.com), a Youtube channel, a Facebook page,
and we post semi regularly. I am halfway to being a hypocrite because
some of the things we post I am not sure is strong evidence, but it is a
group effort and therefore a group consensus on whether or not to put
it out there. What I do try to do is ask people to make up their own mind
and hope I get some meaningful feedback on any piece of evidence..
After many investigations people say that, as a ghost hunter, I must
believe in ghosts. That’s a tricky one . Although I have experienced
many anomalies, to call any of them ghosts is a leap of faith without
hard corroborating evidence. which is what this book is all about.
The beginning of this book may come across as rather harsh to the many
groups that are out there doing investigations, especially those with
belief systems firmly in place. You may get the idea I’m a skeptic. Later
you will see I most definitely am not, just open minded to both sides of
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an argument.
The writing of this book is an attempt to stimulate a more logical and
deeper thought process and to reconnect the investigative part of the
paranormal community to the physical world. A world where physics is
real. To describe a ghost to objective people, we have to explain it in a
way that is objective, and grounded in measurable data. Anything else
is just preaching to the choir and not really investigating at all. This
doesn’t mean we can’t form new ideas and and make conclusions on
our observations, but without objective data it’s just another leap of
faith.
How many leaps of faith can we make until we become tellers of folklore
and no longer investigators?
