So many groups carry these little devices around, I’m sure to get flogged for the following, but, it’s based on fact, which is, after all, what the serious investigator is attempting to gather.

It is common knowledge that paranormal activity can generate those proverbial “cold spots”. Reigning theory being an “entity” is absorbing energy from the atmosphere, which in turn has an effect on the medium (no pun intended) in which it is targeting to attain this energy.  It it’s your batteries, they go dead.  If it’s the air itself, a marked temperature drop is noticed, tactically and instrumentally. Therein lies the problem.

A non-contact IR thermometer uses an Infra Red beam to calculate the temperature of a *surface* it is aimed at.  It has been tested time and time again, by many inquisitive investigators, myself included, and these devices do NOT measure the temperature of the air unless there is no target to land on, which usually means straight up into an empty sky.  In these rare instances, they give an unreliable reading that is an ever-changing average, because they are not designed to measure ambient air.  If a surface is not targeted, they freak out.  These devices have a very long range, so it’s almost impossible to aim and not hit a surface, unless you have a very long sight distance (mountain range?), or are aiming into the open sky.  The plain ol’ truth – IR NC Thermometers simply do not detect ambient air temperature, or changes thereof.  If you aim for a “cold spot” 5 feet in front of you in open space, the temperature reading you receive will actually be the wall, counter, window, or whatever surface is directly in your line of fire past the intended target.  The cold spot will not equate into the reported temperature at all, even if you hit it dead-center.  To prove the presence of a cold spot, they are almost useless.  I won’t go into how they work technically (unless you ask me), but the surface heat radiation of the IR beams target quickly negates any other temperatures they pass through on the way TO the target.

They are designed like this for a reason.  They are used to measure hard-to-get temperatures from objects like moving conveyors, live electrical contacts, steam releases, in-use CPUs, and other dangerous or hard to reach places.  I myself use one routinely to check for computer processor overheating.  A technician using an IR doesn’t have to subtract for ambient air, or take it into account at all, because it only reports the surface infra rad radiation of the target.  If you want a more in-depth look at how IR Thermometers work, take a look here – “All About IR Thermometers”.

So, should you throw this device out of your gear bag?  By no means.  I have still found many legitimate uses during an investigation.  Since they are designed for, and excel at, reporting the surface temperature of almost anything, I find them quite useful checking for drafts (via cold surfaces caused by the air entry / exit point), window vs. wall temperature, and other “control” uses, and even to sustain that a cold spot (detected with, what you should use, an ambient air thermometer) is not caused by some surrounding colder surface or object.  I have come to think of mine as the “poor man’s FLIR”.  I don’t have 10 grand to buy a true thermal imaging system, but used correctly, the IR NC Thermometer can provide a somewhat similar function.  Just not as cool.  I’m still on the prowl for an affordable FLIR cam, though.  I’m not crazy, you know.

So, I shot down one of your favorite toys.  “What do I use then?”  I use a couple of different ambient air thermometers which are extremely quick, very portable, and even have probes so you can get *very* specific on where you probe.  Take my word for it…get one.  Or three.  You will actually enjoy using these devices much more after incorporating into your routine.  There’s nothing like outlining a cold spot instantly, removing all the guess work.  Come on…you know you had your doubts before when using your IR NC.  “Am I really getting the air temperature, or that bucket my laser pointer is illuminating over there?  How can I be sure?”.  Now, you can.

Here are a couple I use (they’re cheaper than an IR, too…):

http://store.ghost-mart.com/ir12.html

http://www.tequipment.net/Extech392085.asp?gclid=CPva4JaY1pYCFRlRagodpSZ23A

There are even models that store data and can be retrieved or handed off directly to a computer via USB port.   How cool is that?

The IR Non-contact surface thermometer will always be a first-line tool of the non-serious investigator who simply like to find cold spots all over the place, ignoring the fact that the temperature change is due to the difference in a wall vs. window or metal surface, even an AC vent, and not actually due to “Uncle Ned’s return from beyond”.  Be a responsible investigator.  Use the device, but use it correctly.

Happy cold-spot hunting!

I know this was covered in the previous post “Intelligent Haunting Theory, Partial”, but hear me out. Let’s say the grandpa is “haunting” his childhood home, when in actuality he’s dreaming about past memories (same theory as mentioned before). The dream would go on like no one else was around, unless grandpa could sense someone’s presence in the house… and who’s to say he doesn’t feel as if this presence is haunting him? Beyond this, if you have a strong enough impact or a special connect with grandpa he might be able to feel your presence and ‘remember’ you in his dream. This way you are now apart of the entire experience, you are now communicating on some level with the “sleeping”.

Could the deceased be experiencing lucid dreaming influenced by our presence?

This makes me think about how people can communicate with the unconscious or people in comas. This could be thought of in a similar way. Even though the person is not physically there, they can still feel our presence and hear us
trying to communicate with them.

This is a rough idea, but what do you think?

Hang with me, and I’ll also be showing my spiritual roots here.

[1 Corinthians 15:]
21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

Some are dead/ASLEEP IN CHRIST, others asleep in the dust of the earth, and others know not any thing and are perished.

[1 Thessalonians 4:16] For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

We shall not all sleep means we shall not all die, so sleep is a term describing death.

[1 Corinthians 15:51] Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

The Old Testament saints who will awake to everlasting life, are not “dead in Christ” but sleep in the dust.

[Dan 12:2] And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Ok, thanks for hanging in there

My point is not to get into the obvious heated debate that posts like this always seem to bring, but rather to support the aformetioned theory:

This theory assumes that what I believe (God’s Word) and what I have experienced first hand (what we call “Ghosts”) are indeed reality. Arguing those points are not the issue, so please, don’t comment if that’s your counter point. Although it could be possible to talk me out of believing in ghosts as spirits of the deceased, you are not going to convince me there is no God. Pewiod.
This theory also assumes that what the Bible says about those that have passed is correct..and I digress: As children, we are taught that when we die, we go to heaven or hell. When someone we know passes on, we wonder…where are they? We tell our children “grandma is in heaven with the angels”. As God’s Word states, this is not actually the case. All that die are “asleep”, waiting for the return of Christ. In between the event of one’s death and the return of Christ, we are in a suspended state, asleep. The “Death” that the bible refers to is actually the death of the soul, the “second death” where the lost soul is cast into the lake of fire. Death, in the bible, is actually the permanent removal of the soul from God’s presence. It’s not the mortal bodys physical death we so associate the term with today.

So, let’s move along… There are many references in the Bible where death is referred to as “sleep”. In a nutshell, depending on the person and their life, different things happened at death. Of two (asleep in Christ / asleep in the dust), infer that consciousness has been put “on hold”. This is very synonymous with sleep. While asleep, you are alive…your body and soul live on, but your conscious minute-to-minute awareness are no present. But, even in this suspended state, we can all attest to a fact: even though we are, for the most part, physically paralyzed and not in a conscious mental state, we can have a full mental awareness apart from reality. Dreams. Now, we also have to make a leap and say that the purpose of dreams is not fully known, and (the leap part) not 100% involved in “off line processing”, or cleaning out the mental junk. I assume that dreams have more than a physical basis for existing.

If this activity crosses over to the “asleep” that is referred to as death, we could imagine that, while in this consciously suspended state, it may be possible to dream. It may not be exactly the same dreaming that we know and love/hate in our mortal bodies, but would refer to any mental activity sustained by a person who’s physical body has died.

With me so far? Good…now, being away from the physical body and it’s constraints, thinking or dreaming may take on a bit more reality. In our physical world, our bodies release certain neurotransmitters, the monoamines (norepinephrine, serotonin and histamine), which completely shut down during REM. This causes REM atonia, a state in which the motor neurons are not stimulated and thus the body’s muscles don’t move. Lack of such REM atonia causes REM Behavior Disorder; sufferers act out the movements occurring in their dreams. So, without a physical body, it’s safe to assume that one would have a tendency to “act out” what they are “dreaming”.

As stated before, we do have to assume the former are true, and of course, if it weren’t I wouldn’t be going to Church or wasting time as a paranormal investigator in the first place. I bet you’ve already made the leap…if we can indeed “dream” while waiting on the End Times to pass, and we are not confined by a physical, paralyzed body while doing so, then it could be proposed that some intelligent, and even some “residual” hauntings could possibly be caused by the deceased persons dreams. Take some time. It may grow on you. It does help to explain some gnawing questions I’ve had. Why would someone passed on hang around a location for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of years? Some, at least it seems, don’t. During their “sleep”, we could suppose that, being a former earth-bound walkin-around physical person, they will mostly dream about physical places they went during their life. Now unbound by a body, it may be possible that instead of just dreaming the experience, as a mortal body would, they may, at least in part, become “present” in the physical place of which they are dreaming. They cease to be an “earth bound spirit” who is “doomed to walk the ground looking for [insert object here]“.

I’ve always had a problem with that earth bound, restless spirit thing. It just doesn’t make sense. If the spirit were fully aware of physical surroundings, it seems that their plight would be obvious. Why would the white lady be seen along the road “looking for her baby” for 100 years? To believe that the spirit is performing such an activity infers that total mental consciousness of it’s true situation is not present in the first place. It makes much more sense that the “white lady” is remembering (dreaming of) a particular event or place during their life, for whatever reason. Even if the driving factor is her “lost baby”, it makes more sense that she is dreaming of the tragedy, not physio-spiritually “bound” to the earth in that spot, carrying on a fruitless search for all eternity. Grandpa’s rocking chair starts rocking because grandpa is “remembering” sitting in the chair. If grandpa could sense your presence in part or in whole, you could possibly become a player in his dream. This opens the door for meaningful true interaction.

Intelligent hauntings, at least a percentage, could possibly be the deceased remembering a certain thing in a certain way while a living person is present. Of course, this begs many questions…does it have to be a particularly lucid dream to them to perceive you? Are they still bound enough by time to “meet” the living in the 4th dimension? Maybe we can address those issues in future posts. But for now, I’ll propose that some intelligent hauntings could be the dead mentally present, although “asleep” (therefore dreaming) of a geographical, earthly location. Under the right conditions, a human presence may be able to perceive this “dream”, and possibly become a part of it.

Residual hauntings, again at least in percentage, could also be caused by this same phenomena. If grandma is “dreaming” of how she loved working in the garden, and, for whatever reason, is not aware of your presence, this could be perceived as a residual haunting. There would be no interaction, but instead of a “movie” that has been recorded in the environment, there is a physical presence, but just not aware of your presence. In my last post, I went over the theory of density relating to hauntings, namely residual hauntings. I am not a tee-totalist. I would never propose that one theory can explain it all. There are many cases of residual-type hauntings that do not fit any of the density theory. This theory partially covers the holes in that theory, and also fits some of the intelligent haunting criteria. It also addresses some of the problems I and other investigators have had with the “earth bound spirit” theories. A spirit, as many think, wouldn’t have a physical address. Let’s face it, it the earth-bound theory is true, and a person is bound to their house or place of death, they then have a physical address, just as real as the one Pizza Hut delivers your fresh pepperoni pies to. It allows us to let go of the idea that a spirit is manifest in a house, partially or wholly, twenty-four/seven. They no long reside there, they just “remember” there.

Why would a spirit take up permanent residence in a place that obviously doesn’t make sense any more, now that their is no need for the very reason we have a house in the first place? Yes, I know some will answer “They loved that house”, “that place was really special to Maw-maw”. But, if a spirit had total mental capacity and self-situational awareness, why would it stick around at a now empty, dilapidated old house? None of the things that made it a “home” are present, in many cases. The family it knew has moved on; the place is in ruins, etc. “Remembering” and being partially or wholly present during the spirits “dream” session make much more sense. It explains why we may see a spirit interacting with something that isn’t there, but may also respond to a person or register on recording equipment.

I encourage all responses.

A theory in which I first started milling around in my head years ago is now being embraced by many of us ghost hunting types. The theory, in a nutshell, is that dense objects, be it a stone house, castle, building, rock quarry, mountain, or what have you, somehow records certain events that occur. It’s pure speculation as to what is actually recorded. A couple of suspects are emotionally charged events or actions that were performed over and over that became “burned into” the area. Under the right conditions, a person can perceive this “recording”. The real mystery is what are the “right conditions”?

As for how events become recorded, that doesn’t take to much of a stretch for me. In this day and age, we are well aware of magnetic media that reliably records information. Without it, you couldn’t have a computer, cell phone, or even a credit card. Every bit of data in the world boils down to two things; a “1″ or a “0″. On, or off. These series of 1′s and 0′s, in the right order, read by the right device, retains cohesive programs that, well, you are obviously using right now. Little ticks of “on or off” are made magnetically. Magnetism has the nature of being transmittable in nature. Take a magnet, take a needle. By simply rubbing the magnet against the needle, you’ve created another magnet. So how does this relate to solid structures and hauntings?

For this theory to hold water, you need some recording media. Enter the dense matter. We’ve already show a noticed correlation of residual hauntings to dense objects. So, for argument sake, let’s say that in some way, dense matter is able to become a recording device under the right circumstances. We have our hypothetical hard drive. Now, we just need a device that can record to that media. It is my impression this is fulfilled by the human mind itself. Our brainwaves are indeed physically existing, record-able elements. Ever had an EEG? The military is even experimenting with devices that allow pilots to operate aircraft by thought alone. Wow, all of a sudden, I’m not sounding as far-fetched as I thought I would. The question arises that, if this is possible, and mental activity can be recorded in some way by something that has enough of the right material and mass, why aren’t we seeing “movies” of ourselves when walking around downtown amidst all the concrete and iron of our modern urban jungles? I would venture to guess this is something akin to why your computer doesn’t read a CD when it’s obviously in the CD player, loaded with data that is just not being accessed. The instructions, or a certain chain of events, must transpire in order for you to access the information in a usable way. We tend to think this is a simple matter with all of our DVDs, Ipods, and mini-DVs of the modern age, but this is really a complex method that has been perfected over much trial and error. It seems simple to us. Just put your USB drive in the computer, and up pops your spreadsheet! As a computer professional, I know that it is much more complicated than it appears. This also goes for writing the information to media.

I think there are two key ways the human mind can record events into it environment. One – emotions. My belief is that emotionally charged life events, especially of loss and death, are “strong” enough (for lack of a better term) to imprint events into the atmosphere. This is further supported that most residual type activity is related to tragic events in human life. Finding the love of your life is thrilling, but losing the love of your life is a traumatic event that sends the mind into a spiral of overwhelming confusion and despair, and manifests some of our species strongest emotions. Two – repetitive events. In a residual haunting, many witnesses describe scenes in which an apparition walks through a door that is no longer there over and over; a woman walking through the same stretch of yard. It does make sense that, if trauma is strong enough to imprint into the environment, repetitive action could do the same thing over time. It is my theory that is it not the physical action of, say, a man kneeling at an alter, that becomes ingrained, but rather the emotional state of the person at the time. If Aunt Edna really enjoyed walking in the garden, and repeated this act many times during her life, the emotions, although not traumatic, could “burn” the event into the “dense memory” of the vicinity.

Now, all we need is a player to view the movie. Let’s see, my hard drives head recorded this sentence. My hard drives head also retrieved it for reading. So did yours. All we need to view our environmental movie is a similar device that recorded is in the first place; another human mind. Under the right circumstances, it seems that at least certain humans can detect and perceive these recorded past events. The not-so-obvious part: What determines the right circumstances for a human, or and electronic device, to review such episodes? Talk about an all new meaning to the term “re-run”.

Care to give your two cents? Post a reply. I’d love to hear your ideas.