Ghosts and Demons: The Lost Things

By KyL Cobb

Ghosts and Demons: The Lost Things is the first step in a comprehensive study of the paranormal. Written as a training manual for new adventurers into the occult, this book takes an often irreverent look at the dogma that surrounds the today’s paranormal world. Relying on fresh research from contemporary sources, this book reconstructs the knowledge base that forms the foundation of our modern understanding of the paranormal.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Apr 2, 2016
• ISBN: 9781329156289

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Ghosts and Demons: The Lost Things

Ghosts and Demons: The Lost Things

Ghosts and Demons: The Lost Things

KyL T. Cobb, Jr.

Copyright © 2016 by Kyle T. Cobb, Jr.

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal. Any trademarks referenced within this work are the property of their respective owners. Any copyrighted materials are used under the Fair use doctrine and all rights are retained by their owners.

First eBook Printing: April, 2016

ISBN 978-1-329-15628-9

Last GASPS publishing

1643B Savannah Hwy, Suite 366

Charleston, SC 29407 USA

www.LastGasps com

Dedication

For my father, the late Senator Kyle T. Cobb and my mother Marian Tarpley Cobb, you gave me an impossibly great start…

For my hero brother Tonja P. Cobb, you were always saving people and fearlessly charging in where angels feared to tread…

For the first Team: Matt Organic Jones , Matthew Jones, and Lois R…

For Dr. Gayle Goodin, thank you for hammering into me an appreciation for ancient cultures…

For Amanda, because some things get lost…

and for all the others that I have lost along the way.

Acknowledgements

Nothing is ever done in a vacuum. There are a vast number of people that inspired me and helped me along the way.

Thank you to Chris Izso for being one of my first test readers.

Thank you to Jeffery Lewis for serving as one of my first peer reviewers.

Special thanks to Lois Rosendale for hours reading and editing the drafts of this work.

Special thanks to my mother, Marian Tarpley Cobb, for hours reading and editing the drafts of this work.

The Lost Things title was inspired by an amazing musician, Alice Peacock. Her song Some Things Get Lost is just about the best love song ever written. It has been a pleasure to know her.

Thank you to the Griffin, Georgia Historical Society for access to the Bailey-Tebault house. Special thanks to their former director, Kay Landham, for encouraging me to write the 3 Griffin history books. The research skills and the knowledge gained there have served me well.

Thanks to Ghost Hunt Weekends and Chad Morin for some great adventures.

Thank you to the City of Marietta, Georgia for the time in the cemetery.

Without Stephen McKelvey and Howard Shealy as university professors, I never would have become a student of the world. McKelvey showed me the door to international travel and adventure. Shealy instilled in me a love of history through his devotion to the languages and the writings of common people.

Neil Gaiman has been a lifelong inspiration. His writing has moved me and made me look at the world a little differently.

Chapter 1: Apocalypse

The revelation of thought takes men out of servitude into freedom.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Strawberries

It was a Friday morning in September. While many parts of the country had begun to cool, in the fields of rural Georgia, the sun held a firm, jealous grip. I remember by 10:00 A.M. it was already in the 80s and there was no sign of relief in sight.

As a seventeen-year-old, preparing to go to work in the grocery store where I had grown up working since age 12, it was just another day. Of course, for me, the countdown to college was already ticking away, and, in two weeks, I would be leaving the safety of home for the terrors of college in downtown Atlanta.

The fear of going away to college had been trumped that summer by the experience of watching my father wither away with cancer. My dad was a larger than life figure that had done the impossible. Growing up without a father as the seventh child of a poor share cropper family in Brooks, Georgia, my father watched as his brothers went away to fight in the Second World War. As they returned after the war, my 15-year-old father declared that he wouldn’t take orders from any one and then ran away to join the US Army. Returning from his service in Germany, my father spent tireless days making a life for himself and, eventually, for my mother.

Dad’s hard work bought him a tractor dealership, several constructions companies, some travel agencies and a real estate company. Eventually, he was honored to become a Georgia State Senator. Ironically, my father never graduated from Spalding High School.

I was fifteen when the cancer came into our lives. I honestly did not know how to deal with it. I remember being so scared. I wish I had been stronger and been there for my father.

I wasn’t.

I was a terrified teenager not knowing what to hold onto as the edges of our wonderful life began to fray. For weeks, my father would be in the hospital. My mother was torn between being with him at Emory Hospital and trying to take care of my brother and me. Somehow she managed to always be in two places at once.

The fifth of September was just another summer day for me. There were fresh strawberries from our garden along with tomatoes sitting on the kitchen counter. If nothing else, my father always insisted on a large garden to feed our extended family and neighbors throughout the growing season. What we didn’t eat was either canned or given away throughout the community. So today, it was strawberries.

As I was getting ready to make the drive into Griffin, my father surprised me coming in the door from the hospital. It was unexpected but then the trips between the hospital and home were so frequent, I could no longer keep track.

I remember as I started to leave, my father gave me a solid hug. For a seventeen-year-old boy, that is always awkward but I wouldn’t trade the world for that now.

I had been at work less than an hour when a frantic call came from an uncle telling me to come home.

I made the twenty-minute drive in record time. Knowing but not really knowing what was going on, I approached our property. For half a mile away from the house, all that I could see were flashing lights. Police… Fire trucks… ambulances… even a few military types… It was a bit more than I could process at the time. It still is more than I can deal with so many years later.

After I had left, my father sent my mother out of the house to deliver strawberries to my Uncle Sam.

What I did not know at the time was Emory Hospital had sent my father home that day to die.

Not wanting to take orders from anyone, my father went upstairs to his room and shot himself.

My mother found him. I can’t image what she saw or how she found the strength to deal with it. I know she called my uncle and he called the police.

The call went out that Senator Cobb had been shot.

So many first responders heard the call and dropped everything to help my father. I am grateful to each and every one.

The death of my father was one of those traumatic life changing events that we all must face. It had taken my relatively simple life and turned it upside down. I had been raised a Southern Baptist and every Sunday my family attended New Salem Baptist Church. Even my kindergarten was run as an arm of the church.

Watching the slow and sudden death of my father brought the entire concept of God into question. How could a just and loving God allow so much suffering? How could this God punish good people? Were all the words spoken on Sundays about God’s love, simply lies to calm the souls of poor scared Christians?

In the midst of this turmoil, I made a decision. No matter where it would lead me, I had to know the truth.

What follows is part of my path to find that truth. I am as surprised by the road to the truth as any one. Along the way I have spent time studying so many religions and meeting so many amazing people. I have been lucky enough to explore so many countries and cultures. Honestly, I have had the chance to do some of the most amazing things.

This book is about exploring the unknown. I don’t pretend to be a great writer or an exceptionally insightful guru. I will leave that to better people than me. This book will wander a bit as I try to give you many of the things that I haven’t been able to easily find myself in the many books I have read. It is my hope that this book will be a foundation, a single stone in a long road of discoveries that lead humanity to a better understanding of the truth.

So the first confession I will make, to you dear reader, is to confess that I do not know the answers yet. I probably never will. Even so, here are a few lost things that I have picked up along the way.

Willing to Believe You?

Fate moves in strange ways. Sometimes opportunity doesn’t just knock; it kicks the door in and shakes you until you know exactly what it wants.

Suddenly, there is a moment when you realize that you have spent your whole life just preparing for the challenge in front of you. For a single shiny moment, all your experiences and dreams converge into a crystal clear path.

Of course, there are times when you are sitting in a dark, haunted house and looking for a demon that you question your direction. No matter what television tells you, nothing prepares you for the smell of a house that was deserted in the middle of the night with only the dog left behind.

A decade ago, I never would have dreamed that I would be a paranormal investigator. In fact, even as I sit looking for the red-eyed demon in this stale air, I still don’t know if I believe.

Back in September 2006, I had never even seen a ghost hunt TV show. I remember the day I met Jason and Grant from TAPS, I didn’t even know what they did. They were just two really nice guys that had a new show on the Sci-Fi channel. There was something about them that I really liked. They felt genuine. Therefore, after the interview was done, I made it a point to buy their DVDs and to see what I was missing. What made their show different was they, more often than not, proved that places weren’t haunted (well, at least for the first few years).

For most people, this is the point where the fascination ends and I become just another fan of the show. In a saner universe, that is what happened.

Unfortunately, my life has never been normal. Prior to my encounter with TAPS, I spent the prior two decades exploring the religions and the ruins of the ancient world. Crawling through tombs, scaling pyramids and watching magic ceremonies had simply been waypoints along the way to enlightenment. The adventures cost me a bit of my health and a bit of my soul but the price I paid for the revelations was clearly equivalent exchange.

Not stopping with watching a few television shows, I dived into the literature on the subject like a dehydrated man into a watering hole. No book was too dry or too complex on the subject. I would often read poorly written tourist books just to find only the one line in the book that added dimension to my understanding. From Old English to Latin to Egyptian, wherever I could find knowledge, I searched.

Imagine my surprise when I received the call in mid-April 2010 asking if I could meet with a 23-year-old young lady to discuss the haunting she was experiencing. I told my friend that ghost hunting was not something I was experienced enough to do but she insisted that the meeting take place.

I had become a victim of my own local overexposure. Because of my stories and thanks to my website, many of my friends had kept track of my odysseys over the years. They had heard stories of witch-women healing me or death rituals. They had seen photos of me crawling through tombs or praying in sacred locations.

Now that one of my friends had encountered a young lady that was terrified of a ghost and afraid it would hurt her son, they called me for help.

At that particular point in my life, the idea of hunting ghosts was the farthest thing from my reality. True, much earlier in life I had faced a demon. I had also experienced healing magic that defies western knowledge. I knew the pain of a curse for violating a tomb. Frankly, ghosts were not real to me.

Even though I had read dozens of books on the subject, this was only an intellectual exercise. None of the research was conducted with the idea of acting on the information. I was simply working to become enlightened.

As I begin to relate the next story, I will be deliberately vague to protect the client’s identity. What she experienced is both very personal and very traumatic. When she wants to make her side public, it will be under her terms. For now, I will do my best to relate the background as faithfully as I can. For ease of reference, I am going to call this client AJ.

Beyond the particular details of the case, the most important thing that I carried away from my first discussion with AJ was that she was both sincerely scared for herself and her child. Whether or not there was supernatural involvement became secondary to remedying the fear.

My reporter days ensured I had a notepad to take notes as AJ related her tale. I was shocked at the activity she presented.

I was in way over my head. Nevertheless, I told AJ that I would find her professionals to help her and I would personally make sure the cost would be covered.

I spent the next 4 days researching various ghost hunting groups in the Atlanta area. Almost all of them had negative reputations. Some of the clubs charged fees. Many of the organizations, including the national group affiliates, also ran ghost tours businesses. At least two of the groups in the past had presented photos of thumbs, bugs and dust clouds at comic book conventions claiming to have captured ghosts on film. Most of the websites hadn’t been updated in years.

In short, no one seemed non-profit, scientific and credible enough to help AJ.

The decision was simple enough. If I couldn’t find a team to help her, I would make one.

Five thousand dollars and a week later, I had convinced my two best friends to accompany me on the kind of road trip that you only see in the movies. Equipped with video cameras, energy detectors and digital audio recorders, we counted down the days until the event.

Unfortunately, the events at the Perkerson House were running on their own schedule.

If I were to continue at this junction, I would be doing you a great disservice. As you may have noticed earlier, I failed to tell you the story that AJ related to me

AJ’s tale began innocently enough. She was a single mother in her early twenties. Her son was two when the curtain first rises on the story.

AJ attended a small party held by one of her friends. At some point after a great deal of alcohol had been consumed, the host brought out their Ouija board. The host was a self-professed witch and claimed to have her own personal spirit that she would speak with through the board.

Now, before I continue let me firmly state that a Ouija board is simply a hundred-year-old toy made by Hasbro or any number of fine toy manufacturers. It is based on a thousand-year-old tradition of planchette writing used for divination. But let me also tell you, ask any occultist, paranormal investigator or Catholic priest and they will tell you to stay away from the witch boards.

On this night, AJ did not heed the warning.

Less than an hour after talking with the board, AJ’s two-year-old son (Insert outrage here that a two-year-old was at a drinking party!) kept walking to the glass door and pointing at the tree just outside. Repeatedly, he kept looking at the tree and saying, Man.

An insignificant moment... a point in time that at any other place, with any other circumstances would have been just another meaningless rambling toddler. Instead, this moment became the start of something far more sinister.

The next few months seemed uneventful. Sure, there was a strange open cabinet here and there. Maybe there was a door or two that were closed before bed and now were mysteriously open. Things like that often happen when there is a child in the house.

How many months had passed since the party when the feeling that someone was watching started? Of course, there was no one in the house. Just in case, better make sure the doors and windows are locked tight.

When did the whispering start in the night? Were there the sounds of a crying baby? Maybe it was only a dream but then why was there whispering when she was awake?

Did her son Chandler hear it too? He was always talking to his new imaginary friend. They seemed to always be playing together. He talked about the man with red eyes frequently. Still, every child has imaginary friends that can be as fantastical as anything on the television.

Why did she stay in the house the first time she was sleeping alone and felt someone rollover in the bed beside her? Or had lack of sleep from the bed vibrating night after night dulled her to the shock?

It was April and he was in her car. He was sitting there in her rear view mirror.

AJ needed help and we were assembled.

In the tick of a clock or the beat of a heart, things can change. Life is funny sometimes. We plan for A and then B happens totally derailing our plans. The Wednesday before our investigation was to begin, I got a telephone call.

27 April, 3 days before the investigation, 1:30am

The girl at the other end was speaking a million miles an hour and crying as she spoke.

AJ arrived at home to meet her boyfriend. His car was parked in the driveway. As she pulled up to park, she observed her boyfriend holding back the curtain in the living room of the house to greet her.

There was this guy… only there wasn’t this guy…, she blasted forward. He was looking out the window when I got home. I was meeting…, and she must have rambled on for a minute or two indiscernibly. And, his car was in the drive-way, so I assumed he was in the house, only as I got out of my car, he got out of his… So, the man looking out of the window could only be a burglar. My boyfriend ran to the door, unlocked it and searched the house.

Clearly, there was a thief!

No one was there. The house was completely locked.

That statement hung there for a moment in much the same way that a whale dropped from a passing airplane would hang above you. I jumped into the conversation to try to catch her and slow her down a bit. Splat! Suddenly, I was knee deep in paranormal blubber.

Then we sat down, she continued. We tried to calm down by watching TV and…

There may have been mention of other methods of calming down… and if this were an R-rated movie or an HBO show, those methods may get mentioned, but for now simply wrap your mind around the idea that they were relaxing.

So we sat on the couch watching this movie with every light in the house on. Then suddenly, a series of clicking noises and the house was dark. My boyfriend stood up and moved toward the breaker boxes… {A series of clicks} and the lights were on again. Then more clicks and we were in darkness. BOOM! Every door in the house slammed. We dropped everything and ran out of the house.

Needless to say, the events scared the couple so badly that they dropped everything when they fled. In fear, they had literally left cigarettes burning and a dog in the garage.

The next morning AJ started apartment hunting with six months on the current lease.

So Friday, 1st May, I find myself standing in the front yard talking to a very nervous young lady telling me the latest events. This was her first time back at the house since fleeing.

She is clearly agitated and definitely afraid. Even so, I convince her that she is safe and persuade her to give me a tour of the Perkerson house.

The smell of rotting, uneaten food and dog urine are almost incapacitating as we enter the house. The dog had been retrieved the day prior but he had left a mark on the house that even a spirit would have a hard time enduring. Fighting back my gag reflex, I struggled to maintain my composure as we walked through the 1950s ranch-style house. With three bedrooms at one side of the house and a converted garage playroom at the other, the dwelling was gigantic for the small rent AJ was paying.

Having completed the tour, AJ left just in time for the arrival of my three recruits. This first team consisted of my best friend Matt, his fifteen-year-old son Matthew and Lois. All three of them knew the risks and all three charged forward.

The first time we set up took hours and it was only by divine intervention that we assembled all the components in the dark.

30 April, 22:45 (10:45pm) The hunt begins.

The thing that television completely fails to teach about ghost hunting is the sheer volume of time that you sit talking to yourself in the dark. The hunt is not the few minutes that the television edits present. Much like fishing, the art of ghost hunting is talking to spirits that may or may not be there for hours.

Far worse, is that your speech cannot be free flowed. Rather, the speech is very direct and controlled to solicit specific short responses. Is anyone here? Can you speak to us? Will you knock 2 times? Can you touch or hit Lois?

The speech is simple and slow to allow the spirit a chance to gather the energy needed to respond.

So we sit in teams of two or three in the dark.

23:27 (11:23pm)

As Matt and I sit working the living room, a light without a light source moves from AJ’s bedroom into the second bedroom. It moves with the speed of a bird between the rooms.

23:52 (11:52pm)

As the night drags on, the darkness starts to play tricks on you. The shadows start to dance around. Your eyes start experiencing pareidolia and random shadows transform into familiar objects. Even if there is a particular extra dark shadow in the corner seeming to move and stare at you, you can’t be certain.

Talking to yourself without a response also makes you want to get a response… any response… even a negative one. At one point, I shout, Do you want us to leave? And the temperature drops 10 degrees around me.

00:07 (12:07am)

Matt and I keep trying to talk to ourselves without asking questions regarding our own sanity. Suddenly, for the first time, the EMF energy detector starts reacting solidly to a presence and the audio records capture the sound of something exhaling hard into it. For a minute, the EMF detector stays active and then the phenomenon passes. Once again there is a bright flash of light from AJ’s bedroom but secondary cameras show no external causality. Matthew asks the spirit to make the EMF detector light up to show how many spirits are in the house. One solid light. After a pause, he asks again. One solid light in response.

00:38 (12:38am)

Lois enters the house as a ghost hunter for the first time. Because she is clearly nervous about the experience, she starts impulsively cleaning the coffee table in the living room. Immediately, the EMF detector reacts with a strong energy signature for almost a minute.

01:07 (01:07am)

Matt realizes that one of the digital video recorders with a 6-hour battery has suddenly been drained after only 45 minutes. Matt changes the battery while giving his son a pep-talk before the session. What Matt doesn’t know is that a few moments after the camera is back to recording, one of the audio recorders picks an unknown male voice in that room saying Watch or Watch this.

01:14 (01:14am)

As part of the camera design for the house, most cameras watch each other’s approach to prevent tampering. At 01:14, the camera watching the doorways to the three bedrooms shows the light in the guest bedroom going out. The assumption is the low-light digital camera in that room has a low battery and, therefore, terminated operations. This event goes unnoticed by investigators in the house at the time.

What no one could guess is the camera is experiencing our first direct contact with an event. While the room was dark to the outside, the view from the off-line camera would later prove different. Unbeknownst to the team, a shadowy object approaches and shakes the camera for several seconds and then moves away from the camera. Following the event, the camera returns to normal operations.

01:27 (1:27am)

AJ’s room has the sound of movement coming from it. A careful inspection reveals nothing. Suddenly, the EMF detector reacts to a strong energy presence for two minutes. Then, nothing. For 45 minutes, not a single response is registered. The long process of packing the equipment begins.

03:00 (3:00am)

By this point, the team is tired but we are so excited from a successful hunt that we are standing outside the house still talking. In mid-speech, Matt stutters and Lois shrieks. Something just lifted the blinds up in AJ’s bedroom in the now locked house.

Rushing back inside, all four of us are standing in the doorway of her bedroom looking for a logical cause.

BOOM… BOOM… BOOM… comes a pounding on the closed door of the child’s room behind us…

I am not betraying any secrets when I say I think I caught a whiff of human urine as Matthew and Lois bolted to the front door. As for me, I can tell you even a broken heart can skip a beat or two.

Behind the little boy’s door, absolutely nothing awaited us. We searched for a good ten minutes for some answers. There weren’t any to be found.

At around 04:30, I got a call from AJ. She and her boyfriend were coming to the house to get some clothes. By that point, I was miles away but assured her she would be safe to enter the house.

Fifteen minutes later a hysterically screaming woman called to say, There’s someone pounding on my baby’s door!

AJ never went back into the Perkerson house. And for almost a year, she lived quietly. One day, the man with the red eyes showed up again. But that is a tale for another day.

Chapter 2: Back off, we’re scientists…

Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing.

Wernher von Braun

Hopefully, you have picked up this book because you have an interest in the paranormal. If you have no interest in the paranormal, then I suggest this as a coffee table book to impress your friends and family. Really, it works.

If you are truly interested in exploring the paranormal, then this is the book that will get you started on a journey of understanding.

The goal of this book is to provide an education where most other books on the subject fail. There has been a conscious attempt to explain the why paranormal investigators do things rather than just saying do this. As you read this book, you will hopefully see that a large amount of what appears on television is rubbish. Since many investigators base their work on television, the problem becomes self-apparent.

Basically, this book is divided up into three functional areas across nine chapters.

The second chapter is the science behind investigations. The goal here is to build a foundation that will allow a would be investigator to properly develop an arsenal of tools needed to investigate the paranormal.

The third chapter looks at standard hauntings. In this section, things like apparitions, poltergeist and residual haunting will be discussed. We will also discuss non-hauntings like orbs.

The chapter four focuses on a few allegedly haunted locations in Georgia. There was a temptation to give readers many, many more haunted locations but I limited the locations as a cheap ploy to get you to buy the next book.

The chapter five discusses demonic entities. This is a brief survey of the origin of the belief in demonic entities and the evolution of the understanding of the creatures. Chapters six and seven further split into the Western traditions as they relate to demons and the Eastern concepts.

Chapter eight contains a look at various forms of exorcisms.

Finally, chapter nine is an investigation of many famous exorcisms. Where possible I have gone back to source materials and then applied additional historical research to help unravel the truth behind the possession cases.

Any one of these sections could be a self-contained book. In fact, there are many great books out there on single topics that are addressed in this text. That is why this book is written as a starting point.

Just in the way of a warning, ideas are dangerous. Once words are read, it is often hard to unread them. This is a journey of discovery into an area that many people feel uncomfortable entering. If you are offended by this book, you are encouraged to buy all the copies in your local bookstore and burn them. In fact, send out a press release saying that you are buying all the copies of this book so you can to burn and that this book should be banned.

So if you are not out purchasing gasoline, we will continue.

Before beginning an exploration of the world of the paranormal, it is important to set several agreed upon definitions. This is true because to a savage, even a television is magic.

Scientific Methods

Since the early 1900s, the role of science as it applies to the paranormal has been to disprove most of the proponents’ theories. Even the acclaimed Thomas Edison allowed himself to be drawn into the debate over the validity of paranormal research.

While this relationship has been adversarial, this does not have to necessarily be the case. Both modern science and paranormal investigations strive to understand the truth about the nature of the universe around them. Both sides in this debate embrace mythology defined by their practitioners over time.

For example, not so very long ago, modern science defined the universe as being static. That is to say, the size of the universe remained constant and, therefore, would never get any bigger. This assumption was even calculated by Einstein into his general theory of relativity. Then in 1929, Edwin Hubble observed that the characteristic colors, or spectral lines, emitted by the stars in the galaxies do not have exactly the same wavelengths. In fact, the light was shifted to longer wavelengths, toward the red end of the spectrum. Hubble believed that this shift, or Doppler Effect, proved that other galaxies were moving away from the Milky Way. The proof of increasing distance then suggests that instead of being static, the universe is expanding.[1]

Beginning with its American genesis in the 1840s, the fundamentals behind paranormal science have been constantly redefined and often subverted. Even in modern times, there still remain no uniformed standards and very little methodical research. While many dedicated investigators tirelessly work to discover evidence, often this evidence is never shared with peers or studied beyond the initial collection period.

In short, the only way that the study of paranormal events can ever move beyond being a television and cultural phenomena and into the realm of serious science, is for practitioners to start following even the most basic scientific methodologies. At its very best, like political science, paranormal investigations fundamentally lack the scientific standard of replication. Even so, whenever possible, it is the duty of an investigator to follow scientific methodology in the collection of data.

There are six key elements in the understanding of Scientific Methodology.

1. Ask a question.

2. Do background research.

3. Construct a hypothesis.

4. Test your hypothesis by doing an experiment.

5. Analyze your data and draw a conclusion.

6. Communicate your results.

Ask a Question

How we form the question impacts the validity of our answers. It is important that the question being researched can indeed be resolved or, at the least, researched in a methodical manner. When the question is formed it is important to avoid logic defects referred to as informal fallacies.

Informal fallacies are counterfeit arguments that consist of premises and conclusions which are related. While there may indeed be a relationship between the premise and the conclusions, the two elements may not truly have a cause and effect relationship. Often, the connection is a psychological one masquerading as a logical relation between premises and conclusion in a particular argument.

For example, the basic questions for paranormal research could be:

Are there really phenomena occurring that are beyond the ability of explanations by modern science? If the above is true, can we gather credible, tangible evidence of it using scientific methods?

Narrowing the question to a specific investigation, the more limited questions for an investigator could be:

Is the location being investigated experiencing any phenomena that cannot be explained by modern science and/or natural causes? Can the phenomenon be documented by immutable documentation devices? Would an objective observer reach the same conclusions when reviewing the evidence?

Without a doubt, the standards set in an investigation directly impact the quality and quantity of the evidence discovered.

The background research

How does one conduct background research on paranormal phenomena?

As mentioned before, the spiritualist movement stretches back to the 1840s in the United States, but paranormal events are recorded as far back as the earliest stories (including the Gilgamesh). Many of the documented cases are written more for entertainment purposes than for historical record.

Ghost stories and even pseudo-science ghost books are seemingly published daily. A quick book search on the internet will find well over 100,000 books on the paranormal. For a serious researcher, this presents a problem. Whenever paranormal goes through the cycle of pop culture acceptance, there is usually an infusion of hundreds of books written to make a quick buck on the phenomena. At any given moment, there are always 5 or 6 of these books languishing in the purgatory of the bookstore bargain shelves.

Most of the books published are, in fact, ghost stories and not investigation results. And honestly, that is really what the general public wants. Very few people care what the visible spectrum of the human eye is or how mass impacts the amount of energy a spirit would need to move a ball.

People want to be scared. They want to hear the ghost stories from around the campfire. They want the blood coming down the walls. They want the familiar Raggedy Ann doll to turn and watch someone walking out the door.

Unfortunately, that is not the reality of paranormal investigations.

Of the few books dealing with investigations, there are two types: psychic investigations (90%) and scientific (5%).

Even the Scientific books tend to be written like a high school student is reading them and contain virtually no useable information.

Ironically, one of the best sources of instruction in how to do (or not do) paranormal investigations comes from the harshest critics, the skeptics. No one spends as much time analyzing methods and results as someone trying to disprove them. Magazine such as the Skeptical Inquirer and Skeptic Magazine are a treasure trove of valuable information.

Skeptical Inquirer is a personal favorite. Not only are the articles well researched, but they are well written. While this kind of alliance may seem odd, if the ultimate goal of a paranormal researcher is to learn the truth, then objectivity is an essential ingredient.

Before passing by the written word, one book of note is SPOOK by science writer Mary Roach. Where Roach’s prior book STIFF is a fascinating look at death and the use of dead bodies, SPOOK is an unbiased look at the paranormal. Covering everything from Mediums to poltergeist to things that go bump in the night, Roach takes the reader through a journey of discovery. This book is well worth the read.

Relying on television shows for an education in paranormal is much like expecting to watch a television show and then being able to construct a jet airplane.

Figure 1 Mary Roach book SPOOK

Simply stated, TV shows are designed as entertainment for the average American. In fully grasping that concept, it is import to understand they are expected to appeal to people that have most likely counted some high school as their highest level of education. Just looking at American voters, 7% believe the moon landing was faked.[2] In ethnic communities, the number is reported as high as 54% of the population believing the landing was faked.[3] Twenty-six percent of Americans do not understand that the Earth orbits the sun.[4]

So, is it of little doubt that once semi-credible media outlets now feature ghost shows where everything is haunted? The same networks feature shows where alien astronauts really did build the Statue of Liberty, because no one else is tall enough to do it. The audience knows this to be true because all of these shows used the same over-exposed pseudo-scientist with the fake tan and bad hair to confirm every alternative science theory.

Shows like Ghost Hunters have done a lot to encourage the current round of paranormal interest but they are simply the latest. Consider that Twilight Zone, Scooby-Doo Where are you?, the Peter Blatty book The Exorcists, Ghostbusters, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer had much the same impact in their times.

At best, any researcher trying to obtain credible historical evidence or previous research is left to wander blindly through a vast maze of conflicting data and anecdotes. Whenever possible, accounts of paranormal events should be drawn from contemporary sources and should always be crosschecked with other sources.

A great example of the need for alternate evidence can be found in the exorcism case of Anneliese Michel which is covered later in this book and is the source for the movie The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel. If a researcher were only to read the most popular text on the case by Felicitas Goodman, the conclusion of the researcher would be that the exorcism was completely justified and the Anneliese was possessed. But if the research is extended to medical records or the transcripts of the court case that follows, the decision on the justification becomes less clear. If the same research had only contained the John M. Duffey book, Lessons Learned: The Anneliese Michel Exorcism, then there would be no question that the case of Anneliese Michel was a sad case of psychological illness and that Anneliese was brutally murdered by trusted priests and a misguided family.

The hypothesis

To begin any scientific endeavor, it is essential to clearly define and state the problem that the experiment is designed to investigate. In scientific terms, a hypothesis is an educated guess, based on research and observation, as to the cause of a particular phenomenon. The hypothesis also attempts to suggest a solution for an unexplained event that does not fit into currently accepted scientific theory.

A valid hypothesis should have no pre-determined outcome and be supported or refuted through observations and experimentations.

For example, a possible hypothesis used by paranormal investigators could be:

Using detection equipment slightly above and below the human range, investigators can obtain evidence related to reports of paranormal activity at a location.

Once the hypothesis is clearly defined, the investigator can work to assemble the elements needed to do the investigation.

The experiment

Since the study of paranormal events generally cannot be done in a laboratory setting, the experiments for most paranormal events take the form of field investigations. Like sociologist investigating less developed tribes in the wilds of South America, paranormal investigators must attempt to do their research in field conditions which often means carrying equipment and investigators into completely uncontrolled (and uncontrollable) locations. Investigations constantly run the risk of being contaminated by outside factors as well as careless investigators.

It is the responsibility of every investigator to assume that an unexplained event has a simple, common non-paranormal answer. Because the existence of paranormal phenomena is still unproven, the burden of proof remains against an unexplained event.

Because in modern society encountering ghosts, demons, and poltergeist is not a routine experience, one assumption is that detection of paranormal entities becomes easier when augmented by technology. As a result, many investigations arm themselves with cameras that see beyond the human spectrum or audio records that hear outside the human range.

When selecting equipment, an investigator must always bear in mind that the goal is to:

Use our equipment to obtain permanent, unalterable records of evidence from the investigation location.

Of course, just owning the equipment is not enough. There is inherently a burden for the investigator to thoroughly understand the equipment they are working with as well as the supporting principles behind each tool.

For instance, when using a digital camera, a less educated investigator may not understand the science behind how digital photography works. As result, when light reflects off of a bug at a much closer point than the primary focal point of the camera, the bright colored object in the photo could be mistaken for a paranormal event. Of course, an educated investigator that understands their equipment and the principles of digital cameras will quickly dismiss these false positives.

Because there is no magic bullet to avoiding contamination, the field investigator must also strive to document any contamination that may influence the eventual interpretation of any data gathered during the investigation.

Analysis and Conclusion

The hardest part of any investigation is reviewing the hundreds of hours of acquired evidence. More than any other area of paranormal investigation, this area is done the greatest injustice by popular media where hundreds of hours of work become a 10 second montage.

In attempting to obtain permanent, unalterable records most investigations presently utilize digital audio records as well as a variety of digital video devices.

In setting up the equipment, all the various devices need to be time synchronized to allow cross comparison of evidence. Every minute of audio has to be listened to attentively in quiet surrounding. Anomalies must be identified and cross checked against parallel devices. As will be discussed later, sound has a way of changing depending on distance and interference. Video has to be reviewed in real time to catch any minor shifts that could indicate a possible detection.

Any review relying on human interpretation should be done in short periods since human’s fatigue easily and become less attentive over time.

So if considering a relatively small investigation that is utilizing 11 video feeds and 10 audio recorders, for every hour of active investigation there will be 21 hours of evidence to