True paranormal evidence is hard to come by. Lots of people think they have captured legitimate evidence when they really haven’t. There are some people who will even go and falsify evidence on purpose. The most important thing to know when it comes to paranormal evidence is that most “evidence” is anything but paranormal. Always try to find a logical explanation for an anomaly and be aware that there will always be people out there who fake evidence. Lets take a look at some pictures now and see some examples of some different types of paranormal evidence, and some fakes.
 Orbs are the weakest yet most common evidence that paranormal investigators collect. They are often confused with dust, moisture, lens flares, insects or other mundane causes. Due to the fact that orbs are so common (and easily explained 99% of the time) we do not really consider them to be good evidence. We will never post orb photos on our website because so many other groups do and it is just silly. A true orb does exist and it is a natural occurance and can exsist without paranormal activity. This natural gathering of energy will look like a ping pong ball being thrown across the frame. It will be solid, emit its own light, not cast a shadow, and show some signs of motion (such as a trail).  Vortices, or vortexes, are another impressive form of evidence although it is not actually evidence of the paranormal, more like evidence of the potential for paranormal activity. When the word vortex is mentioned people envision a bright white or jet black strip across the frame. These picture are never more than some sort of strap or material in front of the lens. We have noticed that these phenomena NEVER occur on our video cameras, because they dont' have straps. Even a black camera strap will appear white when the reflective nylon of the strap is illuminated by the flash of the camera. A true vortex is a gathering of natural energy into strips or "channels" or even just the amazingly rapid movement of a ball of energy. These occur in nature in such places as Brown Mountain in North Carolina where they are called "Plasma Lights". Once again, they can be present without paranormal activity. They just tend to be present around locales that report paranormal activity.  Mists are some of the most hard to verify anomalies. They can be created easily and by means that may not be known by the photographer. There could easily be someone smoking at the time and the photographer could not be thinking about it. Most commonly, though, it is the condensation of breath on a cool night. Even if you cannot see your own breath when breathing out, it can show up sometimes on film. Lets look at these two photos. At frist glance they might appear to be a paranormal mist, however we staged these photos. Why would we do something like that? We did it to show people how easy it is to mistake something like this for paranormal activity. If you are going to take pictures on your own to try and capture paranormal activity always remember that smoking while investigating is a bad idea because it taints possible evidence.  Here is the holy grail of paranormal evidence. These are as rare as they come. An apparition is hard to verify becaue they can look so much like a human, that is of course, because it is, in fact, the spirit of a person manifesting itself. So, it can be hard to tell an apparition from a real person. It is very easy for the mind to fall prey to matrixing when looking at most pictures. Matrixing is the minds tendancy to make sense of complex shapes and forms. A basic example of matrixing is looking at the clouds and seeing a car, or a person. The "man in the moon" is another good example of matrixing. Most apparitions turn out to be caused by matrixing, or they have been faked. Here we have two examples of fake apparitions.  Glowing Forms is a term we here at PPI use to describe something like this. These types of anomalies appear to be emitting their own light and are very bright. While this phenomenon does exist, most of the time it is not paranormal activity. Lets take a look at the pictures. The picture on the left was taken from the website of a very poor paranormal investigations group. They claim this picture is a partial apparition and tell their visitors that there is no other possible explanation for the image. Now take a look at the picture on the right. This picture was taken by Dan McCaulley, one of the founding members of PPI. This picture was taken the day Dan bought a new digital camera. He was testing some settings and was just snapping random photos to test the camera. This picture is of Dan’s foot. It appears to be glowing, does this mean that Dan’s foot is haunted?! The answer to that question should be obvious, no his foot is not haunted. The effect was caused by the camera flash, the lighting in the room and his pale feet. Now take a look at the picture on the left again. Does this seem like a “real ghost photo” to you? To us it looks like someone got their fingertip in front of the lense and the flash is reflecting off of the skin because it is so close to the camera. The most important thing to keep in mind when it comes to paranormal evidence is very simple; always try to debunk it. Most of the time paranormal evidence is actually anything but paranormal. When it comes to evidence there are several different types: Photographs, Audio, Video, Readings (temperature & EMF), and personal experiences. Lets take a look at each type and break them down. Personal Experiences: These are the least reliable sources of paranormal evidence. The problem with personal experiences is that there was no documentation of the event. Without some type of other evidence to go along with it a personal experience is not even evidence. Readings: EMF and temperature readings can indicate the presence of a ghost. The problem with these readings is that they are not reliable enough to prove that a location is haunted on their own. Old unshielded wiring can produce high EMF readings while a drafty window can affect a temperature reading. There is also always the possibility that a device is malfunctioning. Without a second device to verify the readings they are not totally reliable. Photographs: The most common type of photographic anomaly is the infamous “orb”. Please be aware that orbs are not ghosts. Most of the time orbs are actually just dust, bugs, or reflections. A true orb is actually just a collection of energy and while this can sometimes be a spirit it can also simply be a collection of natural energy. When it comes to other photographic anomalies like a vortex most of the time they turn out to be a camera strap or a strand of hair that is reflecting the camera flash. Unless you happen to capture a full-blown apparition in a photograph they aren’t too useful as evidence without other types of evidence to backup the photo. Audio: Doing EVP sweeps is important on all investigations. Capturing a voice that was not heard by the human ear is pretty good evidence to support the claim of a haunting, however there are a few things to take into consideration. Sometimes an EVP might actually be someone in another room talking softly or sometimes even someone in the same room, or even someone in the room with you. When reviewing evidence sometimes one forgets that they may have whispered something during the sweep and it can be mistaken for an EVP. Video: Video is by far the most impressive form of evidence. Capturing an object moving on its own, a door open or close by itself or even a full-blown apparition is pretty strong evidence to support the claim of a haunting. Like in photographs orbs are found in videos as well, and again… they are not ghosts! Most of the time they are dust or bugs that move past the camera and seem to glow due to the night vision. So what have we learned? Evidence needs to be looked at thoroughly, and always try to find a logical explanation. When you cannot find a logical explanation for something then you have to really study it. The less reliable individual sources of evidence like personal experiences and readings can be more impressive when they sync up. If someone sees someone out of the corner of their eye and at the same time someone is able to capture a temperature, EMF, or photographic anomaly or even an EVP then that personal experience is being somewhat validated, and therefore it becomes slightly stronger evidence. In the end when it comes to evidence the more you have the better, and when different types of evidence are captured for the same event they help validate each other and that is always the best evidence. |