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the Bent Spoon Magazine

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Scoop

If the small handful of people who actually read this blog have been wondering why there's been a lack of posting going on, know that my spare time has been reassigned to a new, upcoming project.
Spoiler alert:

Beings from another dimension!

  This premise conjures up images from 1950s B movies, but seems to be quickly climbing the ranks in the paranormal community.  Originally postulated as a proposed explanation for the sporadic behavior of UFOs, most notably supported by Jaques Vallee and J. Allen Hynek as an alternative "hypothesis" to the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis. Hypothesis being a loose term and not intended in the scientific definition, being that the inter-dimensional hypothesis is not falsifiable or testable though experiment.
(Note: for more information on the continous misuse of scientific terms by the paranormal field, see Pork Rhine's article)


   This concept has been adopted by paranormal investigators, seeking a possible explanation for what they classify as Intelligent Hauntings and more commonly Shadow People. The classification of intelligent haunting refers to an interactive entity, such as a poltergeist or a demonic entity. Unlike the residual haunting, these beings are fully aware and cognizant. Shadow people (shadow men/ shadow beings/ shadow figures) are featureless silhouettes ans are typically considered "evil entities". The archetypal shadow person experience is reported at night, after waking or seen in fleeting visions in the witness' peripheral vision.  While this phenomena could be easily explained by sleep paralysis or hypnagogia, pareidolia, and even retinal detachment, paranormal investigators propose that these are living entities, entering our bedrooms at night through inter- dimensional portals or vortices. This notion, they feel, is supported by string theory, there-by making the inter- dimensional hypothesis scientific. What they fail to understand is that even if these extra dimensions exist ( there are no experiments capable of confirming these dimensions and are purely hypothetical) they are thought to be extremely small, as in possibly below the scale of quarks and strings. 
  
 I believe this misunderstanding lies in the term dimension itself, being confused for a parallel world instead of the measure of spacial extent, because if you consider it in the light of the correct definition, it literally makes no sense. 


   In conclusion, while it may sound pedantic, learn your terms or you won't be taken seriously.

the Water tape theory, thanks for the memory.

   Like the stone tape theory, the basic idea of the water tape theory is that  neighboring bodies of water absorb the emotional crisis energy of a traumatic event, imprinting the event in the body of water and spontaneously playing it back on repeat. While it seems possible the piezoelectric effect may be responsible for the attribution of mystical properties of crystals which may have lead to the foundation of the stone tape concept, the property of water memory is based solely on bad science.
   Originally proposed by Jacques Benveniste in 1988, Benveniste, a proponent of homeopathy, sought to explain a foundational mechanism of the practice. In an experiment involving human antibodies being diluted out of existence in water, Benveniste reported that human basophils responded as if reacting to the actual antibodies.
He is quoted stating  "It's like agitating a car key in the river, going miles downstream, extracting a few drops of water, and then starting one's car with the water." 
It should be known that these results were only found in the solution that was violently shaken during dilution.
The Results were submitted to the scientific journal Nature and were the subject of some controversy. In the following issue, a follow-up investigation was conducted by Nature editor  John Maddox and renowned skeptic James Randi. The results were found to be non repeatable, though Benveniste refused to retract the article stating that the protocol in the following investigations were not identical to his own.


Another proponent of magical water properties is Dr. Maseru Emoto who claims that thoughts or emotion can directly effect water droplets resulting in noticeable differences when the droplets are frozen, being deemed "beautiful" or "ugly". His methods and protocol are highly criticized, though Emoto openly admits that he is not a scientist.


   There are countless other pseudoscientific claims revolving around water that I could rattle off, but they most likely wouldn't bring us any closer to the the origin of the water tape theory and it's relation to residual hauntings. 
If I were to speculate, I would assume that it is merely a modification of the stone tape theory, bolstered by conformation bias. Being that water is even more abundant than quartz or limestone, finding a body of water near an alleged residual haunting if far more likely, creating an unfounded causal relationship between the two. This logical fallacy is know also as Post hoc ergo propter hoc (latin for after this, therefore because of this) and is nearly as abundant in the paranormal community as bodies of water and limestone are to tragic events. 


  Lets consider the concept. If water were capable of retaining the emotional energies produced by traumatic events, the world we live in would be cluttered by these projected playbacks. Water is run through all of our cities and houses through plumbing, there is water in the air, and the human body is 61.8% by weight. Think of it, we'd be sneezing ghosts! 


  This "theory", like most others attempting to describe the mechanisms of spirits, quickly falls apart with very little thought put to it. Let's continue to think before we "theorize".

Shadow of an Origin

In it's infancy, Shadow of a Doubt was intended to be a public access TV show, featuring paranormal clips from TV and Youtube and possible explanations plus brief bits of the history surrounding each phenomenon. I was barely begining the project when I stumbled onto Patrick H T Doyle's Haunted Hoax web series.

The project was abandoned.
Only the opening credits and two short teasers remain, the raw footage was lost in a move.

Restligeists and Stone Tapes

In the lexicon of your average ghost hunter, you'll typically find between three and five classifications of hauntings. These range from the more sensational demonic and poltergeist types to the less violent, yet still interactive intelligent hauntings and shadow people and finally, the "residual haunting" or restligeist  (essentially "residual ghost"). This type is described as a non interactive scene from the past, played on loop, like a skipping record and can be represented by visual and auditory phenomena. The mechanism suggested to support this phenomena is localized minerals such as limestone and quartz act as a recording medium capturing the emotional energy resulting from a traumatic event, typically involving death. This conjecture presumes the existence of the non-conventional emotional energy despite no evidence supporting it and no known method of measuring or detecting it. While this fact invalidates the postulate outright, I want to delve a little further into the subject in order to discover the the possible rationale behind it. 
The second factor in the stone tape hypothesis rests upon the presence of quartz and limestone, the recording medium for the "energy" to be captured and replayed. Quartz is the most common mineral found in soil and limestone is prevalent many types of architecture and is also quite common. That properties do they have in common? The presence of silica is the only relation I'm aware of beyond the fact that quartz can be found in natural cavities of limestone. Between the two, quartz seems like a likely choice due to the new age fascination with crystals. Though crystals are thought to have paranormal qualities, one true property may be the source of the mystical misconception. Crystals are known to be piezoelectric, meaning that when the crystal is compressed, it's crystal lattice deforms and disturbs the charge balance.  When the lattice is changed slightly, the charge imbalance creates a potential difference, essentially producing electricity. While this property is fascinating, it lends no credence nor supports in any way the idea that it can record moments in time.
In typical fashion of paranormal theories, this concept has been copy/ pasted so many times over that it's become unclear where it originated, but it was likely born from the 1961 book Ghost and Ghoul by Thomas Lethbridge or Peter Sasdy's teleplay the Stone Tape, the latter being responsible for the name, at least.
Since ideas such as these have been passed back and forth so frequently and been adopted and promoted by television personalities, it's very unlikely that they will be abandoned, eternally being played in loop within the closed system of the paranormal community, a stone tape itself. A parting word of advice to paranormal investigators; If you want to be taken seriously by science, take science seriously. 

Photographic trickery part 2

Apparently I need to address a comment I made in my last post in which I gave the general public too much credit. On the topic of orbs, I said,

I've been over these before in my post about spirit photography and most people wouldn't give any credence to them anyway, so I think I can skip these.

In a recent conversation with Bryan Bonner of Rocky Mountain Paranormal, he informed me of the dismaying fact that orb photos are making a come back. Now, I can explain what causes these anomalies, but the likely reply would be that the photographer can tell the difference between dust motes and a "real" spirit orb. So let me offer this; In the real world, no form of energy floats around in blobs or spheres and the only energy you might find escaping a dead person is heat. So what are these things, if not bugs, dust or moisture? Any other explanation should be considered special pleading. Some non- falsifiable idea that someone made up to perpetuate whatever belief they've created to make themselves feel good and special.

Anyway...
Suppose you've come across a picture that doesn't quite fit into the aforementioned categories, what can you do? First off, whatever your gut might say about it "not looking right" or if you can " just tell" carries no more weight than any paranormal proponent boasting "I know what I saw". You might not be able to identify whether a picture is legitimate or not, but there are a few tips for judging the pictures source.

First of all, be aware that any paranormal group touting that they use the scientific method in their investigative process is committing a fallacious appeal to authority and is inadvertently revealing their misunderstanding of science. This claim does not add credibility to any form of "evidence" they might offer. Remember, in order for their investigation to be a legitimate experiment, they must first form a falsifiable hypothesis. Is the existence or presence of ghosts falsifiable? No. That house of cards falls apart faster than it's being built.

Second, you should question their scrutiny of their own evidence. Many groups claim to take their photos to experts for analysis and return with what looks like a Warhol print of "photoshop detecting filters". When the picture inevitably passes this test, they can then claim that it "baffles the experts!".
 Here is an example: http://www.lakelureghost.com/Proofing_the_Picture.html
You might recognize this as the motion blur picture from my previous post. This effect was created in-camera, so even if the mentioned "photoshop detecting filters" were in any way affective, they wouldn't apply to this case.
Here I have taken a Photoshopped image and run it through the same process, which is really only adjusting the levels and curves, and in no frame is it more apparent that the image was altered.

These people are trying to up- sell their evidence through lies and manipulation, appealing to so called experts, thinking that they will gain credibility, it would seem. The more people become aware of these tricks, the less they will work.

Spotting photographic and video trickery (without the technical knowledge) part 1

  First and foremost, when attempting to identify gaffed media, remember that you typically cannot prove definitively that it is a hoax without all of the information. That being said, The first step one should take is getting familiar with the main offenders. These are the most commonly presented forms of paranormal evidence.

A Fool's Gambit

Like the rest of the paranormal "theories" pertaining to ghosts that I have heard, the explanation invoking the first law of thermodynamics has been regurgitated so often in the paranormal echo- chamber that I cannot trace it's origins. I have to wonder how that misappropriated notion has survived so long. Did our nation's public school fail us or is it simply a bluff given with the idea that if it sounds scientific, it's good enough?

The first law of thermodynamics or conservation of energy is often given as a possible explanation of what comprises a ghost and how it came to be. Whether this misunderstanding is what led many investigators to believe ghosts are made of "energy" or that it was given as a supportive hypothesis of the former in unknown to me and, most likely, to the claimant as well. Though the underlying concept is a pretty common one. It's the general misinterpretation of energy itself.

What is energy really? Energy is a scalar, that is, a quantity of a system's ability to produce changes or do work. In this sense, some one saying "Ghosts are just energy" would be equivalent to saying "Ghosts are just length" or any other measurable quantity. To those making the claim, are human bodies like a jar of fireflies, buzzing with a swarm of glowing, free-floating energy that escapes the moment we die?

If that were the case, then I think they'd most likely speaking of energy in the metaphysical sense. Life force, ki, prana, kundalini, or spirit is the ever-present force connecting all things, giving life, creating auras, and the base of most alternative medicine. It's also a handy reference to explain anything paranormal. While many cultures believe in some form of a life force or another, this "energy" of the body is not detectable in any way beyond the claims of self proclaimed sensitives. And why should it be? It is not energy in the physical sense, so the laws of physics need not govern it, right? If that is indeed the case, then conservation of energy would not apply and that "theory" is busted.

At this point, some might still ask, "What happens to our body's energy when we die, then?"

This is pretty simple to explain. Being that the body is dead, it no longer needs to take in any energy in the form of food. The remaining energy in the body is radiated off as heat and the rest of the chemical energy stored in our tissues is consumed by the body's environment.

I think that pretty well dismisses the idea of spirits lingering due to the first law of thermodynamics, but be warned. After raising these points in a discussion with a believer, be prepared for the guaranteed "Science doesn't understand everything." response.

The Burden of Proof

More and more skeptical themed websites and blogs are popping up now-a-days. While I appreciate this trend, it's also producing more dilemmas for the skeptical community. I have been seeing more and more "debunking" of photos and videos lately and it has me thinking, just because someone has created a more plausible explanation doesn't automatically deem the subject debunked. The explanation might just be as much bunk as the original claim. For instance, I have seen several videos debunking the video of the Savanna cemetery ghost. While it could have been spanish moss or a deliberate hoax, both concepts are pure speculation. There's nothing wrong with coming up with alternate suggestions, but substantial proof is still necessary. It's a double edged sword.
Same with this photo that's been making the rounds on the paranormal forums.

While it could has been created with photoshop, it also could have been created by shooting through a pane of glass, or just a lousy picture taken in a poorly lit environment. If we skeptics demand solid proof, I think we owe it to the rest of the crowd to give the same. As for this photo, There are many ways it could be duplicated, but I cannot make any claims about it. I don't have enough information.

We skeptics are supposed to be the rational ones. Let's try and set an example.

Swamp monster duplicity

Although I'm getting a little sick of it, more evidence has come to light.

This picture has been making the rounds and most sources point to this thread on archerytalk.com.

Sources provided a screen cap of the post, too.

Also provided were the alleged original files:

What's nice about having the original files is that you can examine the EXIF data. Unfortunately, these were not the original files and have both been edited. However, the pixel size of these pictures do not correspond with each other, which suggests manipulation.



So, we're relatively sure that the monster image has been manipulated. The next step is searching for traces of it.

One odd thing I noted is that every leaf and twig seem to be in the exact position in the two photos, as can be seen in this superimposition:

What's odd about that is that, according to the time stamps, these pictures were taken nine days apart. You would expect to see some change. Though, this image proves that the deer photo was not the original photo. The only detectable trace of manipulation I could find is the dark "halo" around the monsters head. Originally I thought that it could have been a shadow, but the IR light cast from the camera originates in the center and this dark area stretches to the left (center). This seems to indicate that the smudge tool was used to blend the foreign object (the monster) into the background image.

None of this evidence supports or denies the claims made that this is a part of a viral marketing campaign of any sort, However it does support the fact that this is a digitally manipulated image.

Now taking requests

Shadow of a Doubt has expanded and is now taking submissions. This new service offers professional analysis and interpretation of alleged evidence of the paranormal.

Shadow of a Doubt Consulting Supernatural Claims Investigations

Swamp Monster addendum

Update: Playstationlifestyle.net postulates that the swamp monster photo is part of a viral marketing campaign for the upcoming Resistance 3. Insomniac games' tweeted

Whoops… looks like one got out. If you see a Grim on the loose… please return to Insomniac Games, Burbank, CA: http://bit.ly/fqGoXX

.
The "Grim" is a new strain of the Chimera enemy that first appeared in Resistance 2.


I make no claims to the accuracy of this report.

Newer update:
More internet speculation. According to Movieweb.com, this image is Super 8 viral marketing that began on a hunting supply site's Facebook page and wended its way to mainstream media:

It first appeared on Wildgame Innovation's Facebook page. It is a picture reportedly snapped by a deer hunter on a reserve in Berwick, near Morgan City, Louisianna [sic]. It was originally being passed off as real, but now inside sources close to the production say its actually a viral image from Super 8 (the Steven Spielberg-produced and J.J. Abrams-directed alien flick ). There is even video from a young Weirton, West Virginia extra called "Crying Girl", who talks about having a run in with this creature in the movie.

I'm going to maintain the position that this is just a simple hoax for now.

Swamp Monster caught on trail cam

Let's nip this in the bud.

This story is popping up on all of the blogs I read and thankfully, most people agree that it's fake. However, the fact that it made the news is sad.

Ok, yeah, it looks pretty fake, but the submitter claims "this is not a hoax!". Really? Was it a hoax the previous time you submitted it to a trail cam forum?

Hmm, something fishy going on here... Did you see it?

Oops.

Soviet Saucer

This is going to be a quick one.

There has been some buzz about an alleged UFO photo emerging from an old Russian Air Force retiree. He claims that the photographed this UFO at an air force base in Shpitzbergen.

the news of this allegedly originated from POPMECH.RU, but I have had some difficulty finding it.

It's pretty obvious that this is a hoax at first glance, but I felt it necessary to do the 2 minutes of google searching to find the original photo.

Case closed.

There are other ways of knowing that this was a hoax without locating the original photo. The most obvious to me is that the photographer didn't center the UFO in the picture. What was he taking a picture of, the Mig or the UFO? Also, the Plane is at the focal point, meaning the UFO should appear significantly blurred, which it is not. The colors seem a bit off, being that this photo was allegedly taken in the 1950s as well, though I'm not expert on that subject.

The fact that this was taken seriously by anyone is a serious problem. Especially that it was considered news.

Spirit photography

As defined on Wikipedia, Spirit photography is a type of photography whose primary attempt is to capture images of ghosts and other spiritual entities, especially in ghost hunting. It was first used by William H. Mumler in the 1860s. Mumler discovered the technique by accident, after he discovered a second person in a photograph he took of himself, which he found was actually a double exposure. Seeing there was a market for it, Mumler started working as a medium, taking people's pictures and doctoring the negatives to add lost loved ones into them (mostly using other photographs as basis). Mumler's fraud was discovered after he put identifiable living Boston residents in the photos as spirits.

Let's think about this for a moment. The idea is taking a photograph of something we, as humans, cannot see with the naked eye. What special property do cameras posses that our eyes lack?

Let's briefly explore how a camera works .

A camera allows light to enter the lens by opening the shutter, the light refracts when entering the lens and converges at a focal point. The photo emlusive film reacts to the light focused on it, creating an image on the film. This is essentially how our eyes work as well. Just replace the film with our retinas.

For this to apply to ghosts, they would need to be able to either emit light or reflect natural light. Meaning, we would see them! Some have claimed that they exist outside of the visual spectrum.

First, we can throw out the idea that they're emitting this energy, because they would have to somehow collect or ingest energy first to transfer radiant energy.

Now, let's begin at the low energy end and work up. Cameras would be very useless if they could "see" radio or microwaves, being that the air is full of them. Not only from space, but radio stations, cellphone towers, satellite transmissions.

Infrared, or IR, is detectable by specific types of cameras. It's essentially heat energy. If heat were being reflected off of a ghost, the ghost in turn would be heated, you could imagine. I can point out that this is contrary to the descriptions made by ghost hunters, claiming ghost create cold spots.

After the IR comes the visible spectrum followed by Ultraviolet. Most ultraviolet rays are blocked by ozone, and those that aren't can be dangerous to humans. Typically, you don't hear of ghost hunters getting melanoma from haunted houses.

Next are X-rays. Prolonged exposure to x-rays can be very dangerous and even more so in the case of Gamma rays, which can destroy cells. These harmful rays are blocked by Earth's atmosphere anyway.

Where do ghost fit in? They don't. Photographic evidence of ghosts will never exist because it simply is impossible.

"But, wait!", you say. I have seen pictures of something that was not visible at the time, but appeared on film.

ORBS, or sometimes "spirit lights", have been a trend in the paranormal community since the mid-eighties. Thankfully, it seems that most people are catching on to the reality behind this phenomenon, but some still cling to the paranormal explanation.

To put this as simply as possible, orbs are particles near the the camera, but out of the focus region, that are illuminated by the camera's flash. The end.

Some paranormalists believe that there are true orbs among the misidentified ones (typically, there own orb photos) and that they can distinguish the two easily. Others say that orbs are not spirits at all, but energy being transfered from batteries and power-lines to the ghost, allowing it to manifest. This idea is easily shot down by the fact that energy travels in the path of least resistance. Traveling down a conductive wire and then exiting through an insulated coating then traveling through the air in a globular form truly breaks the laws of physics. Sorry.

So, having established the fact that spirit photography is impossible, how do I reconcile all of the photographs of ghosts being taken everyday?

There's an app for that.

Fact or Faked

Fact or Faked is a fairly new show from the Syfy network described as the following (from the official website):
"Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files revolutionizes paranormal programming by investigating the evidence witnesses post on the Internet every day. Have you ever seen a photo or video online and wondered, "Is this real?" This is the show that will answer that question.

Heading up the Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files team is Ben Hansen, a former FBI agent with a life-long fascination with the paranormal. Now, having left the agency, he leads a young team of intrepid investigators who will convene to dissect the latest unusual images and decide whether they merit further investigation. Grainy videos will be brought to life as the team conducts thorough and elaborate experiments in an attempt to recreate the phenomena, and Ben will make the final choice which cases will require a trip into the field.

Once an investigation is underway, the team will talk to witnesses, carry out experiments using the latest in high tech detection devices, collect physical samples, and determine whether a case should be debunked, or whether it's a baffling paranormal mystery that might even put the team in danger. It's all in a day's work for the dogged investigators of Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files."

I like the concept of this show. however, they seem to apply the same method of thinking as the rest of the paranormal shows, If A=3 and B=5 and the equation before you is A+B=X, and you cannot solve it….one should not assume that X does not exist and maybe you should just solve for Y.

A fine example of this was their mid-season finale in which they investigate a video submitted by an amateur ghost hunter of an alleged apparition.



(please excuse the video quality)

Here are some stills of the "ghost train"

...it's a spider.

This fact goes unnoticed as the team comes up with much more elaborate explanations in an effort to "debunk" the video:

Guys, it's a spider.

Driving ATVs through a graveyard is awesome, though.

The Pseudoscience of Ghost Hunting part 3: "Going Dark"

I almost overlooked this, but it's a staple of every ghost hunting show on TV. Why paranormal investigators turn off the lights during investigations.

The answer might seem pretty obvious once you give it

a second of thought, but I didn't want to be too hasty, so I did a little searching. Although I did find more insight into this method than with the EMF meters, I didn't come across anything that I would call a theory.

First, there is the thought that if you deprive one of your senses, you will enhance the

rest. This is a pretty common idea, most likely stemming from the belief that blind people have hightened senses. Turns out, that's something of a myth.

A blind person's senses are no better developed than the average person's. Blind people do, however, tend to use their othe

r senses more effectively and with more awareness, out of necessity. This greater awareness is one of the

factors that has perpetuated the myth that becoming blind heightens the other senses.

Another source claimed that in the dark your eyes are more dialated, therefore ghosts will require less energy (photons) to manifest. If you don't think about it too hard, maybe that makes sense. However, you dont want to make it so easy for a ghost to manifest that they can do it without even existing.

So, is there a benifit to filming in nightvision?

Since this was going nowhere, I thought i'd look to the source. I found Ghost Hunters International's own Barry Fitzgerald and Dustin Pari's book, "The Complete Approach: A Scientific and Metaphysical Guide To The Paranormal". Given that they are stars of a ghost hunting TV show and they used the word "scientific" in the title of the book, I'd find some answers.

Instead, I found this quote:

"Infrared light feels like acid to ghosts in certain stages of manifestation. Ultraviolet light is similarly ghost-toxic."

I've humored this subject for far too long. Why do they turn off the lights? Because it's spooky. Consumer-grade video equipment doesn't work well in dim light, so the resultant grainy, digitally-distorted image will essentially be a Rorschach test. It's supposed to be scary.

The Pseudoscience of Ghost Hunting part 2: EMF

We've seen them on every ghost hunting show. They're marketed as ghost meters by many providers. EMF meters are widely believed to detect the presence of spirits, but where did this idea come from? Could ghosts actually produce an electromagnetic field? Or is the appeal stemmed from the famous PKE meter from the Ghostbusters movies?

I have exhausted all of my own resources trying to find the original thought behind ghosts and EMF. No one i can find seems to know why emf meters are used. I can only presume that most amateur groups are only emulating what they see on tv. My guess is, in the effort to sound scientific, ghost hunters will use any piece of fancy technology they can afford (being that the now less popular Geiger counters are so expensive) and attach scientific sounding techno- babble. Who's going to question it? Ask any ghost hunter about what electromagnetic fields are and how they're produced. I doubt you'll get a concise answer. It all sounds impressive, so people buy into it.
So, what is an electromagnetic field? Shortly, it's the combination of an electric field and a magnetic field . The electric field is produced by stationary charges and the magnetic field by moving charges (currents), these two are often described as the sources of the field.

Plugging a wire into an outlet creates electric fields in the air surrounding the appliance. The higher the voltage the stronger the field produced. Since the voltage can exist even when no current is flowing, the appliance does not have to be turned on for an electric field to exist in the room surrounding it.

Magnetic fields are created when the electric current flows. Magnetic fields and electric fields then exist together in the room environment. The greater the current the stronger the magnetic field. High voltages are used for the transmission and distribution of electricity whereas relatively low voltages are used in the home. Electric fields around the wire to an appliance only cease to exist when the appliance is unplugged or switched off at the wall. They will still exist around the cable behind the wall.

Of course, there are larger sources of EMF including the Earth itself. This is how compass' point north, but the types of EMF detected with "ghost meters" measure low frequency fields. Like that of a refrigerator, cell phone or a tv camera.

Another thing I’ve noticed is how many investigators hold and rotate the detector while taking measurements. This may or may not be an issue depending on the EMF detector. If it’s a single pole detector then it becomes a major issue, which the majority of EMF detectors being employed are of this type. The reason it’s such an issue is that single pole detectors are polarized, therefore changing orientation of the meter can change it’s ability to accurately measure the strength of an EM field.This can lead to the false conclusion that a field has died off when in reality the field hasn’t changed strength at all



Surprisingly, most ghost hunters know most of this, but they still continue to use them. Why would they do so? I wager that the only reason they use EMF detectors at all is because they so easily find "anomalies." Rather than think about the fact that they seem to find such anomalies everywhere they go, they declare each and everyone paranormal.