See Ghosts
Although there are no special glasses that help you see the spirits of the restless dead, you can learn to train yourself to look in the right ways. If you can find a place where the spirits are active, you can plan an expedition to start hunting for ghosts, recording your progress, and staying safe while you commune with the dead. It can be an unforgettable and spooky experience. See Step 1 for more information.
Contents
Steps
Finding the Right Place
- Go where the ghosts are. Find a place with history, a place that's seen its fair share of ups and downs, traumas and triumphs. Houses that have housed lots of generations, old hospitals and public buildings, battleships and boardinghouses, and other historical sites are places in which you might reliably see ghosts. Places like Paris, London, New Orleans and Japan are known as particularly haunted areas because they've seen a lot of history.
- Places without history like shopping malls or brand new housing developments are unlikely to be haunted, because they lack the kinds of traces of psychic activity that older locations that have seen more history. You want places that have psychic resonance, with the echoes of what's come before.
- Look for local haunted spots. Most of the time, you shouldn't have to travel very far to find a ghost. Every town has a store of local haunts to check out. Go to your local library to look for books about local history and seek out spooky sites, talk to a librarian or sign up for a ghost tour if you live somewhere that has one. Find a list of places to check out later, when it gets dark.
- If you live in a rural area, many hauntings revolve around particular crossroads, rail crossings, or abandoned bridges, as well as old cemeteries and murder sites.
- Check out the famous American hauntings. If you live in the US, consider making a ghost pilgrimage to:
- The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Co, whose haunted Room 217 provided the basis for Stephen King's classic creepfest The Shining.
- Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop in New Orleans, LA, where you can sidle up to the bar for a cold one and hope to spot a dead pirate or two.
- Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, PA. In the city of Brotherly Love, this once-packed prison is now closed, but supposedly run by its former inhabitants.
- Check out some of the more famous hauntings worldwide. From Japan's Aokigahara forest, also known as the Suicide Forest, where over 500 people have died since the 1950s, to the Tower of London, England's notorious medieval prison, the world is full of famously haunted locales for you to visit. Check out:
- The Beechworth Lunatic Asylum in Victoria Australia, where some 9,000 patients died during the history of the facility, from 1867-1995.
- The Hell fire Club in Montpelier Hill, Ireland was originally built as a hunting lodge but has a long history of being used for demon worship and other ghost-conjuring history.
- The Borley Rectory in Sudbury, UK has got everything. A tragic romance between monk and nun? Check. A creepy monastery built on an ancient druid burial ground? Check. This ruin is reportedly the most haunted house in all England.
- Rose Hall in Jamaica is reportedly haunted by a dead voodoo priestess who makes bloodstains appear and disappear on the walls, and you can still stay there. If you want to sleep in the same place in which a woman tortured three husbands and committed human sacrifice.
- Check out places in which great trauma has occurred. You don't have to plan a big trip to find ghosts. Look for places with lots of psychic trauma, places that spirits might have reasons to linger. Research murder sites, prisons, and other history of areas you're interested in checking out to find spooky legends you might investigate yourself.
- Go to a graveyard.
Hunting for Ghosts
- Plan a trip for the witching hour. If you've got a good location in mind and you'd like to spend some time checking for spooks, set out on your expedition during the hours between 9pm and 6am. This is the period of time during which most ghost activity is reported.
- Try to explore the area some in the daylight, mapping out the locations you'd like to visit while you can still see everything easily. If you're going to a place that's not on your property, make sure you have permission to be there.
- Bring the right supplies for seeing ghosts. Make sure you pack appropriately for the weather and that you bring all the necessary ghost hunting gear. Being out in the middle of the woods at 3am isn't the right time to remember you don't have any batteries. You'll want to bring:
- Clothes appropriate to the weather
- A map or schematic of the area, if you don't know it well
- Digital camera
- Sturdy flashlight
- Some way to tell the time
- Journal, or something to write in
- Cell phone
- Extra batteries and phone chargers
- Be calm, respectful, and quiet. When you're first out looking for ghosts, it can be a rush of different sorts of emotions. You might be really scared, or might be really giggly. Either way, you need to learn to calm down and control your thoughts and emotions. This isn't the time to goof off or play games, because you need to behave in a respectful way when dealing with the supernatural. You also don't want to miss any ghosts because you were talking about something else.
- Slow your eye movements and scan the room slowly. Center yourself and your visual field, and starting getting some sense of the presence, keeping your eyes relaxed and receptive.
- Look with your whole body. You may not see ghosts so much as feel them. Pay attention to any odd sensations or experiences while you're looking for ghosts.
- Look with your eyes and ears, listening closely for any whispering, rustling, or other noises that might suggest activity. You might consider bringing along a digital recorder to record any attempts at communication you might attempt to conduct with a ghost. You might not hear it at time, but the recorder might pick up evidence of something you'll be able to hear later.
- Also feel around, using all your senses. Feel for warm or cold spots, common signs of supernatural phenomena. Pay attention to any sensations, subtle or otherwise, that you experience during the time that you're hunting ghosts.
- Pay attention to your feelings as well. Be aware of any feelings of apprehension, or feelings that you're being watched. If you experience these things, begin recording the event, even if you're not "seeing" anything in particular. You're still having an experience.
- Take video. It's a common practice to video tape the ghost hunt with some kind of digital recording device, camera, cellphone, or otherwise. It's best to have a high-quality for examining later. Cellphone camera quality might not be up to snuff.
- You might consider using a night-vision function on the camera, or using the natural light of your flashlights and other local lighting to give the footage a more realistic documentation. It's up to you.
- You might consider assigning different tasks to different members of your group. If you're on video duty, who's going to be taking pictures? Who's going to be recording the events in the notebook? Who's going to be trying to ask questions to the room and communicate?
- Snap lots of pictures. You should always be taking pictures with a good quality digital camera. Again, especially in the dark, there's a lot of opportunity for you to miss things because you're emotional and distracted while you're out looking for ghosts. But, the camera won't lie. The camera also has the ability to give you the kind of incontrovertible evidence that you seek.
- After you're done, examine your photos closely for any abnormalities, shades, or orbs you see floating in the photograph that you don't remember (or maybe do) from the occasion.
Staying Safe
- Never go ghost hunting alone. Assemble a crew of like-minded thrill seekers and ghost hunters with which to form a spook-finding posse. Assign different tasks to each member and let everyone's family know where you went and what you're doing in case you run into trouble.
- Prepare yourself mentally and spiritually. Start the hunt and end the hunt by introducing yourself to the ghosts. It may sound silly, especially if you're skeptical, but it'll help ease the tension and make the possibility of experiencing phenomena much more possible if you're relaxed and at ease.
- Let any human spirits you might encounter know that you come in peace and harmony, and that they remain in this place after you leave and not follow you home. Say a brief prayer if you'd like, or other short centering ritual you can perform with your group that'll keep everyone at ease and will reassure any spirits of your good intentions.
- Watch for no-trespassing signs. Don't wander onto someone's private property and run afoul of angry spirits in the here-and-now. The last thing you need when you're on hyper-aware ghost patrol is some angry homeowner to rack a shotgun in your ear.
- Only attempt to communicate responsibly. If you're going to Try to communicate with any ghosts that you might encounter, be extremely careful and come from a place of intellectual curiosity and innocence. The spiritual world will see through the externals, so your intentions must be good if you're going to Try to speak with the dead.
- If you're going to go ghost hunting, take it seriously. Messing with matters of life and death is nothing to joke about, even if you're somewhat skeptical. Lots of immature ghost hunters mask their initial fear with jokes and mock confidence. Don't let these fake ghost hunters sway you.
- Consider joining a formal ghost hunting organization. If you want to take your ghost-spotting hobby more seriously and gain access to more advanced techniques and equipment, hook up with some experts.
- With serious groups, like The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS), located on the East Coast, you'll typically have to apply and undergo a rigorous trial period to test your skills and your dedication.
- Find a local group that holds regular events and inquire about joining up. Check out the database of regional ghost hunting societies here: http://www.paranormalsocieties.com/find_a_society.cfm
Tips
- Keep an open mind. If you do not believe in the supernatural and if you are not willing to see a ghost then you will most likely not see one.
- YouTube and some other sites are filled with lots of dubious information about spells and incantations that allow you to "see" ghosts, by doing something like looking at the sun and chanting. What you're more likely seeing is tracers or floaters, visual phenomena that everyone experiences. Don't damage your eyes trying to see ghosts.
- When going to abandoned property, asked the owner or estate agent for permission as you don't want to have trouble for trespassing.
- Have a sound recorder and thermal camera. Ghosts are invisible but they leave a thermal trace and sound which only these devices can catch.
- If you see a ghost, keep calm and brave as panic and nervousness catch the attention of ghost. Don't show fear as ghosts often do all the haunting to scare living beings.
Warnings
- Evil spirits can be mimicking more innocent spirits to attach themselves to a physical being.
- If the spirit is nice don't start saying some rude things and getting it all mad, this will cause the spirit to be mean and try to attack you. You just have to stay calm and try to buy a Ouija Board to communicate with it.
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