High Tech Effect?

Sometimes there is something to be said about longevity; it gives you insight into things that most folks take for granted. A good example of this happened just yesterday. A fellow investigator asked if I thought certain routinely used equipment could actually cause ghost to react, rather than just help us to observe their presence; in other words is the very presence of some of our equipment a provocation? A good question, that is more easily answered if you were in the field before the introduction of any of our commonly used gear was even dreamed about.

Assuming you are not suffering from Alzheimer’s and have been around long enough to recall it, there was a time when the only tool in our bag of tricks was a notebook, and I am not referring to the laptop! Could the introduction of “powered” equipment have a triggering effect on that which we hope to study? You could suggest that the introduction of any device with a battery might have an effect, following the theory that what you seek will draw energy from those batteries; but I note we still acknowledge that this is just a theory.  We have no proof that any such transference exists. Cold spots for example are thought to be the sign of a ghostly presence attempting to drain nearby energy in order to materialize or otherwise make something happen to let us know they are present. But such areas of cold (or heat) have been copiously noted for hundreds of years, long before any of our high tech gadgets existed. Did the Hamlet’s ghost draw energy from the burning taper in his hand? Why not, it is after all another form or energy.

The fact is that the greatest natural source of “energy” is probably the human body, but before anyone draws similarities from the question we ponder to the old question, “If a tree falls in the woods, and there is no one there to hear it, does it still make a noise?” I will add that it is strictly a matter of faith that without human intervention a ghost would want to materialize at all! That being said, I still believe that we all are the primary draw or irritant that causes “Spirits” to act.

So the real question, based on that hypothesis, is whether our gadgets cause a negative reaction in some situations and not if they cause the initial activity. We must accept that in fact the tree falling in the woods will make the noise, with or without an audience as well as that if a spirit is present, and wants to interact, it will do so with the energy at hand. But the larger question is if we are to assume that the spirit is a human spirit that has passed, then do we have to attribute it with human emotions and be subject to human reactions, i.e. happiness, sadness, rage, et al. I think this is really the question being asked by my fellow investigator; does some of our high tech gear trigger a negative response?

This returns us to the beginning of this musing. When I first entered this field of study, we had nothing but a notebook, later joined by a simple mercury filled thermometer in our tool kit and noted that some spirits seemed to let their presence be known through cold spots. That was years before Scott Rogo wrote about EVPs and EMF devices were only a dream, yet the spirits did come forth, displaying a full range of human emotions. Standing in a hallway of a 200 year old building, a portrait of the man whose spirit we were investigating came flying off the wall when I quipped that if he were a gentleman, he would have been there to greet his guests. That “spirit” did not need the power of a video camera to show his displeasure!
Thinking about it for a while, I have to admit that when you begin to string a thousand feet of camera cables in a house, you might tick off a resident ghost, but that spirit probably had a predisposition to being negative in the first place. Being honest, I was always of the opinion that most old buildings should harbor some spirits and while the additional “power” might give some of the weaker ones an edge, I tend to think that they would be there, and react in our presence, should they wish to.

We see cases all the time where the investigators go off loaded for bear, with every device available to modern technicians in the field, and fail to prove or disprove a paranormal event reported by multiple witnesses. On the other hand, I have also see cases where a team with minimal equipment will trip over an active spirit they did not expect to find. Our field is constantly tested by our inability to reproduce findings at will or under scientific conditions and no amount of electronics will change that, it would seem.

Are we actually “provoking” the paranormal with our ever expanding goodie bag? Well in some cases maybe, just as the attitude of the investigator or ghost hunter will provoke it. You do not have to vocalize your thoughts to get a reaction. But it might be good to also mention here that such spirits are not stupid. They will do what they want to do, when they wish to do it. You can be in the most haunted places on earth, with a truck load of high tech gear and enough power to light a small city, but if the spirit does not wish to reveal itself, it won’t and no amount of provocation will make it happen. If it were that simple, we would have figured out the secret of life a long time ago!

So, I guess my advice is to go forth with all your gear at hand, lights on or lights off, making your presence know as you go, and if the spirits wish, they will return the favor… and if they want to be left alone, you will fail to get what you were seeking.

But one additional word of wisdom, “Be careful what you wish for!”

 

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