by Alex Matsuo
Again, I don't know who makes the rules for the afterlife, but we shouldn't be surprised when this happens despite all efforts to keep attachments at bay. While there is no guarantee that these techniques will work, the best thing to do is be mindful of how you conduct yourself during an investigation and start your self-care routine before you leave for the ghost hunt.
Before Walking in Your Home
One of my psychic friends, Rommel Lozano, literally shakes off any attachments at the doorstep of his residence before he goes in. It was a curious thing to observe but he said it was effective and helped keep those attachments at bay.
Ultimately, you need to do whatever feels comfortable for you. If you are concerned with bringing something home with you, there are countless resources available and you can make your own decision. Ultimately, you want to do what works for you and what you believe in. Most paranormal protection practices are based on faith. This doesn't mean it has to have a religious aspect. Faith could mean believing in yourself and empowering yourself. But what happens if something follows you home and it won't go away?
You have a few options to explore. You can try to take care of it yourself with sage, salt, and a good clearing and cleansing of your space. If you decide to do this, remember to open up all of your doors, windows, drawers, cabinets, basically anything that opens and closes. You'll want to smudge and say an empowering statement like, "Only love and light remain here."
Now, if this doesn't work, then you will want to look into having an outsider come in and assist you in clearing the foreign energy from your space. Sometimes having that extra "oomph" can help whatever is there to move on.
But here's something to keep in mind: When my team and I work on residential cases, we will work with the client and help them be more assertive and "take back" their home, so to speak. This can range from setting boundaries, like staying away from children and pets. Or it can be a full out, "You need to leave" type of situation. We could certainly do this for the clients, but it is usually not as effective because the clients are the ones who live in the house. After all, why would an entity listen to someone who doesn’t live there? What say do we have in another person’s home? The home’s residents are the ones who have to live in the home after we leave. We will be there for emotional support and to help "tie the bow" on their paranormal experience with blessings, cleansings, and more. This is why I will heavily disregard any sort of provocation. Even if we're not getting any sort of response, resorting to provocation only means that the client will be the one who suffers the consequences after we leave.
If you find yourself in this situation, you can try to deal with it on your own by being assertive and setting your boundaries. Then, do a cleansing of your choice to get rid of any negative energy that might be hanging around. After that, I recommend getting stones like rose quartz for love, hematite to absorb negative energy, citrine, and black tourmaline. Try to get four of each. You can either bury these stones at the four corners of your home or set them in the four corners of your home if you live in an apartment or duplex. This creates a grid of protection and absorbs negative energy. Usually, I find that this takes care of the issue. If it persists, then consider reaching out to a solutions-based paranormal team, a psychic medium who can help with a resolution, or a religious official. You want to do what is most comfortable for you since you're the one who is living in the space.
I do hope that this chapter, while brief, is helpful to you and help you build confidence as you go on your ghost hunting adventure. Keep in mind that you are interacting with people, and these people can get lonely at times. When you make that one special connection with a spirit, they might crave your attention and will want to follow you home so that they can feel alive once again. Just remember to set your boundaries and don't be afraid to keep the night light on at bedtime if it helps you get some rest.
CHAPTER NINE:
HOW TO TALK TO GHOSTS
Your first ghost hunt is often met with excited anticipation. Whether the person came to ghost hunting from personal experience with the paranormal or their only brush with it is on TV, first-time hunters seem to have a similar reaction to their first hunt -- it’s not what they expected. The disconnect comes from the basic ideas of reality television -- producers take hours of footage -- days, even -- and edit it down to the most exciting parts for the viewer. The reality is, we are usually the ones who spend days leaning over technology and sensing even the tiniest changes in the area.
For people who had a personal experience, they usually describe an encounter that happened while they were doing something else. Few of us set hours aside to search for and seek out paranormal experiences. Once you do, though, if you’re like me, you’ll be hooked!
Keep in mind that these shows are showing the best 30-45 minutes of an investigation that lasted for hours. Think of it as showing an abridged version of the investigation. After you get through the introduction, background, eyewitness testimony, etc. There might be 15-25 minutes of actual investigation footage before we move on to the closure. The paranormal reality television world has a goal of not only entertaining people but doing so in such a way that ratings will be boosted and hold steady. I don't fault the entertainment industry for this. Television is a business, and production companies must make money. You may know people who watch reality shows and take all of the content at face value and believe it with their whole heart. I remember a time when that was me. I was 16 years old and on my first venture into ghost hunting when I realized how an investigation really goes.
Be prepared to be bored at times. Ghost hunting in real life can sometimes feel a little stagnant, similar to the practice of "Hurry up and wait." Be prepared to talk about random topics with your party. Also, be prepared to be in the dark with a lot of silence. Either of these extremes can be a little intimidating but hang in there. Chances are, your companions feel just as weird as you do unless they’ve done it a lot before.
Ghost hunting is a personal experience. We all have our reason for doing it. For me, I want that proof of the afterlife and maybe talk to my mom. Whatever your reason for trying it, you will want to remember your goal when the task gets long or difficult.
Some may call the investigation boring or uneventful. You may feel like you're talking to a dark void most of the time if the activity isn't there. Using equipment that is interactive can give you something to focus your energy on as you investigate. Ghost hunting can be satisfying without any equipment at all, but you are more likely to find yourself in the quiet darkness often. When this scenario happens, you will be completely dependent on your senses and intuition. Most likely you will find yourself more open to the environment and fully focused.
Whether you’re using equipment or not, the act of ghost hunting has some unfortunate side effects, like being hyper-aware and so tense that any noise might cause you to feel alarmed. Or you might find your body cramping up from sitting still in one place for so long. If you have any conditions where moving is difficult after sitting still for a bit, I'd suggest avoiding sitting on the floor where you'll need a lot of energy to get up. You might even find yourself falling asleep at times. I've seen it happen. Some people sleep better in haunted places than at home. Ironic, right?
With all of this in mind, you're probably wondering if all the prep, the research, the work, and the sitting around is worth it. From the bottom of my heart, I promise you that it is. When you have that moment of engagement, when you hear that response to your question, and you feel the emotions of the dearly departed standing with you, all of the work is worthwhile. For many, ghost hunting is good for the soul. When you have that experience that you can't explain, you hear that noise you can't find the source for, or you get touched by something that isn't physically there, then that experience makes it all worth the wait.
Different Types of Communication
Whatever your personal reason for wanting to go on a ghost hunt, the ultimate goal is to encounter the unknown. For t
hose who are feeling exceptionally brave, they might want to talk directly to a ghost. But oftentimes, people will freeze up once communication starts. Sometimes, ghosts might be trying to communicate with us, and we don't even realize it! In order to talk to ghosts, we need to understand the different ways they can communicate.
Physical Manifestation: This could mean a variety of different things. You might see a full-body apparition, an orb you can see with your naked eye (not photos or video), the form of a shadow, or a partial-body apparition. Granted, this sort of manifestation takes an extraordinary amount of energy. Full-body apparitions don't happen often. In fact, I find them to be rare. Several reasons might lead to why a ghost might want to fully manifest to you. Perhaps they trust you enough to show you their true selves. Or, they want to show you something about them so you can help them. In some situations, they want to scare you with a gruesome version of themselves.
Touch: I would argue that this is one of the most popular ways for ghosts to communicate. Granted, this is harder to tease out since the phenomenon can sometimes be explained by the fact that you're sitting still, and your senses are heightened. In this anticipatory sate, you might be picking up on very small changes, like bugs crawling on your skin, temperature fluctuations, and or even your nerves tingling that make you think that you're being touched. When a ghost is reaching out to you, the touch feels very deliberate with no question about its intent. You might feel your hair being pulled, clothes being tugged, or parts of your body grabbed. If you're investigating a location that has an unhappy or evil entity present, the idea of physical touch can be quite negative. Scratching is a very real problem in the paranormal world for a few reasons. I have seen scratches occur on a person where it was impossible for them to do it to themselves in the pattern they were found. (On the other hand, a lot of scratching can be explained--usually the person inadvertently did it to themselves without realizing it. I typically see these self-inflicted scratches in places like the rib cage, arms, neck, legs, and hips. Most of them are red like you pressed too hard on your skin.) The paranormal scratches I've seen happen on the back in a way that the person would have to twist their body at an impossible angle. Also, paranormal scratches are true injuries that draw blood and usually look like they were made with claws. Of course, the type of entity that causes this sort of injury is far from your friendly neighborhood ghost.
Projection: When I say projection, I don't mean the ghost is projecting themselves onto a wall or showing themselves in a full-body apparition. Projection is a popular way that ghosts will communicate and is done by projecting their feelings onto another person. This could mean a few different things. Some ghosts will want to show someone how they were feeling when they died. This could be the physical sensation of an injury or an emotional state. Some ghosts can only communicate by sharing how they’re feeling. As you can probably guess, people who experience projection often report feeling very overwhelmed when it happens. On these occasions, I recommend that they step outside and collect themselves before making the decision to resume the investigation.
Smell: This one can be humorous but also fascinating. If you visit the Gettysburg battlefield, you might smell lavender in the air, especially at night. Many believe that this is a residual phenomenon from a time after the battle when families were wandering the fields, hoping to find and to claim the bodies of their loved ones. But the battle happened in the middle of summer, which meant it was hot. Plus, it rained after the battle, so everything got wet. Hot, wet corpses definitely didn't smell good. To remedy this, families would put lavender oil on handkerchiefs so that they were smelling something pleasant while dealing with their heartbreaking task.
Cigar and cigarette smoke are also a popular smell when ghosts manifest. Whiskey is another popular smell. A few years after my mother died, I often smelled her perfume after my boyfriend moved in. Knowing my mother, she probably wasn't pleased that I was "shacking up" with a man. What was even more interesting was that my boyfriend was also smelling her perfume without realizing it was hers. When I had him smell her perfume bottle, he about lost his mind from the wonderment.
Hiding Objects: This is one of the more annoying methods of communication, and I don't care who is trying to talk to me. When ghosts decide to hide my keys, jewelry, or something important I need, I tend to get really annoyed. Depending on the severity of the situation, I might get downright angry. But to be fair, if you’re looking for a way to get my attention, hiding my car keys is definitely the way to do it. Often, I find myself demanding that the object be returned in exchange for having my full attention. If the spirit is benevolent, they will usually return the item with no issue at all. If the ghost is more malevolent, they are likely feeding off my stress and energy, which means they make a point to find out what will get a rise out of me.
Animals/Wildlife: You may hear quite a bit of lore involving the different ways that our loved ones will show themselves using nature. Some say that if you see a feather, that means that a deceased loved one is nearby. The same can be said for dragonflies and butterflies. This could be another way to communicate with our loved ones in the form of a sign. Usually, a conversation isn't required. Instead, these occurrences serve as a reminder that our loved one is watching over us.
Getting the Most from Your EVP Session
Knowing what questions to ask and how to conduct our end of a conversation with a ghost are specific skills. I have been on investigations with people who took their cues from what they saw on a paranormal reality show on television and go from there. When this happens, I'm not shocked at all that there is silence, if not a full-stop to any type of communication or action. Going off of television isn't a terrible start, but it isn't great either.
Typically, you might hear a question like, "Do you know you're dead?" or "Is there anyone here?" These questions make me cringe when I hear them. On pretty much every public ghost hunt I run or attend, I hear the same questions all the time. I've also heard more creative questions at times like, "Who is the President?" With some groups, I have seen the willingness to play "copycat" or "follow the leader" games in order to establish communication.
Whatever questions you’re asking, I have found that these strategies are best for getting results, especially for getting good data when you review the recordings later.
Wait 10-20 seconds in between each question to give the ghost time to answer. This also helps you hear a possible response if there is silence when you go over your audio data.
Don't whisper. If you whisper, it might get confused with a "ghost."
Tag all the sounds around you, including children, cars, bumps, stomach gurgles, etc. You would be amazed at how much everyday noise can sound paranormal if you put it in the right context.
Keep chit chat to a minimum. While it has been known for ghosts to chime in during side talk, it shouldn't be considered the standard.
Overall, these rules are good. They can create an environment that is positive for data collection. But what about the questions themselves? What will you say?
Avoid Stacking Questions
In general, we don’t want to ask multiple questions in the same breath. We do this often in our daily life. How often do we say, "Hey! How are you? How have you been?" Sometimes we are asking essentially the same question twice, and other times, we may be asking two different questions.
This goes the same way for ghosts. Just as we can get confused with a line of questioning, so can the deceased. I often hear even the most seasoned investigators say, "What is your name? Where are you from?" Depending on the energy levels of the entity at the time, they can only answer one question at a time. We have yet to pick up on a ghost saying a sentence longer than 3 words. We have yet to get the golden audio evidence that says, "Hello, my name is George and I grew up in New York. How about you?" If we're lucky, we'll get a simple, "George."
Introduce Yourself
I can't tell you how often I hear people just start diving into the ques
tions right off the bat. How many times has a person come up to you and just started talking? It reminds me of a friendly banter you might encounter in line at the bank or grocery store. Those interactions are brief and shallow. When ghost hunting, you're hoping to find a deeper connection. Something as simple as a name can make the difference between an active investigation and a stagnant night. An EVP session is a give and take situation. Just as we want to get information from the entity, we also need to give something of ourselves. No, I'm not talking about your soul. Tell the entity where you're from, why you're here, etc. In short, let them get to know you a bit! Don't be afraid to share details about your life.
Sharing stories of your life is important because it can establish a connection between you and the ghost. Telling the ghost that you are a parent can create a connection. I've seen military service members have experiences when we're on battlefields and ships because of that shared experience. If you're stuck behind a camera the entire night and not engaging with the ghosts, you shouldn't be surprised when they don't talk to you.
One of my most startling and fulfilling paranormal experiences happened on the USS Hornet, an aircraft carrier in California. The USS Hornet was used in World War II in the Pacific Ocean, in action against Japan.
My ghost-hunting companion and I were in the sickbay and trying to touch base with anything willing to talk to us. We had been on an exhausting ghost tour of the ship with a crowd of interested participants. The guide, who was clearly motivated to give us a good tour, had been priming and grooming the group to expect the classic USS Hornet experience. He let us know that people typically experienced the sensation of being touched and smelling roses. My friend and I were desperate to break away from the big group and have some quiet time with the spirits we were sure were aboard.
