So you have your EMF meter, motion detectors, infrared thermometer and infrared flashlight, right? What else could you possibly need for a successful ghost hunt? Plenty, really.

All of the aforementioned gadgets are great and useful in and of themselves, but they will be of little use if you don’t have any way to capture and record anything they might pick up on. That is where the following equipment comes in.

Picking up a digital voice recorder is a good idea. Voice recorders are often used in paranormal investigations to check for EVPs, or Electronic Voice Phenomenon. If you are unfamiliar with what an EVP is, it is a voice or sound that is picked up by a recorder that was not heard at the time the recording was made. These spirit voices have been recorded talking of their own accord, and often will speak in reply to questions asked by investigators during a hunt. As an example, the video clip below contains three good quality EVPs obtained during an investigation of the Villisca Axe Murder House in Villisca, Iowa. Eight people (two adults and six children) were brutally murdered in the house in 1912 and their killer was never caught.

Creepy, eh? Of course you can use a tape recorder with a high quality tape as well, but the digital ones are nice because their voice activation mode saves you from having to listen to a lot of blank tape later, plus it time stamps the recordings, so you will have an accurate record of when it happened and can compare it to other records to be sure the voice cannot be accounted for by other means.

Then, naturally, there are the cameras.

Video cameras are great to have during an investigation, not only because they may capture ghostly images and orbs on film, but also because they can help account for strange thumps and whatnot that might accidently get interpreted as phenomenon when it was really just someone accidently bumping a side table in the dark. Many of them, like the one pictured here above, come with night vision features, the quality of which can be improved with a little illumination by either one of those infrared flashlights mentioned in the last post, or by a flashlight covered with a red lens.

Digital and 35mm cameras are also great tools. Feel like something is watching you? Snap a pic and see what shows up. Ecto mists and orbs are sometimes the result! Both types of cameras work well in investigations, but the digital camera has the added bonus of allowing you to see the picture immediately. For instant gratification fans like me, that’s a must have feature!

Finally, for the die hard hunters with a chunk of change to spare, I give you the thermal imager. These come in many shapes and sizes and with all kinds of different features, but the point of them is that they can read heat signatures from well below freezing to well over a hundred degrees, and can show heat signatures from things not visible to the naked eye. Many come with memory cards that can capture pictures from the imager for later review. A very cool toy indeed.

I don’t know how many of us out there have the spare cash to have all of these nifty gadgets along when we visit creepy places, but at least now you know your options, and you should at least have a better understanding of what investigators are doing on all of those t.v. shows. If you do decide to go out there and try to capture something on film or on tape, do remember to get permission first and don’t do anything naughty like trespass. Research the 101 of ghost hunting and make sure you are smart and above all safe!

Yours in this life and the next!

GhOsTwRiTeR KiM