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I bought a bunch of ghost hunting equipment and then my sister backed out of going ghost hunting with me. I wanna do it so bad, but not alone. Did you stop because of an experience you had or other reasons?
I quit mainly due to group drama, but experiences were getting a bit too much to deal with as well. The first group I was with would be the type to claim every dust speck in a picture was an orb. I was lucky enough to partner with a semi-professional group for a while who focused on pure evidence, debunking everything, and much more science based, but they were located out of state. I even created my own group that kept the science focus, but internal drama between some members dissolved that. Experiences were also giving me some personal conflict that started making me uncomfortable.
What experiences were giving you personal conflict?
Despite having a very scientific mindset to the paranormal, I considered myself to be a partial empath. I could feel when things were going to happen, or "energies" so to speak. A lot of times it was backed up by things like recordings or physical happenings like the time things were thrown at me. I had someone who was helping me develop those feelings and work on corroborating them with more evidence. There was an incident during a hunt where I felt and saw something speak directly to me, and it was NOT friendly. I was able to "communicate" with it and ask questions and I got replies. I didn't react, but I whispered to my partner who was helping me if they were feeling anything, and they agreed something felt off and not in a good way, and they pointed in the direction I was seeing this thing. At that exact moment, a friend's mom who had come, abruptly said she was tired and had to go and practically ran out. I later asked my friend why their mom left, and they said she felt an unbelievable bad feeling of evil they couldn't shake and felt that if they didn't get out of there, something bad was going to happen. That was her first and only hunt with us.
It sounds like something out of a movie, but the thing I was communicating with was an all black goat man sitting on an all black throne looking chair who called themselves "I am many, I am Legion" and said they were there to control us. Obviously this isn't logical, and being agnostic myself, I am torn about what the paranormal can be from a religious aspect. It's impossible to call it evidence, but, having 2 other people experience something at the same time with similar feelings like that was chilling. That experience was the last time I tried communicating with things and I actually stepped away from ghost hunting not long after.
This is what scares me about trying to ghost hunt. I feel pretty deeply and can pick up on emotion pretty strongly. However, I'm also used to creaky old houses, animals and pet noises, etc. so I figure a lot of these sounds investigators hear and attribute to spirits would be passed off as just an old house or a hot water system expanding and contracting with temp changes.
I'd love to hear more about your experiences. You mention before or after this reply that you got some good EVP recordings. I get with how shitty people and the internet are, not wanting to share videos, but would you share the most intriguing EVPs?
Don't be scared about logical explanations debunking everything. To be honest, 95% of all the evidence I've personally collected could be explained away. To me, it's only solid evidence if I can't come up with an alternative explanation. It's one of the reasons I stopped doing still photography on hunts, 100%, and I do mean 100%, could always be potentially dust, bugs, tricks of light, etc.. The video I spoke of on another comment that seems to be unexplained, I still have doubts due to someone walking by moments earlier with a flashlight, but my first team ran with it and claimed it was a ghost immediately. They also claimed many photos of "orbs" to be spirits, but it's just too easy to say it could be dust. In the years I hunted, I might have a grand total of 5 minutes of EVPs that I couldn't explain, or were at least in tandem with emf readings, questions, temp drops etc.. I never got conclusive video or photos. My best unexplainable evidence are my personal stories, but someone will always come along and say I made it up, or mental illness or whatever, I can't prove it to someone else.
I still had lots of fun, and I don't discourage anyone from doing it. My standards for hard evidence are very high and I believe everyone's should be. Every time I see someone online post a photo of orbs and claim they are ghosts really hurt the field in my opinion. Too many people go into the field being Mulder, and not enough are Scully. Be skeptical, explain as much away as possible. The stuff left over is what's interesting and worth studying.
As I stated on another comment the evidence I have up is tied to doxable information and I keep Lemmy separate from everything. I will work on stripping that info out and repost it at some point.
Interesting. How did you get into ghost hunting in the first place?
When I was a kid, I was in my bedroom with the door closed. I heard my doorknob turning and looked up to see it still turning real slow and opened. I was expecting to see a family member there checking in on me but no one was there. I jumped up and everyone in the family was just chilling in the living room. My door knob was the kind that even if the door just slipped open, the knob doesn't have to turn. Ever since then I've been interested in all kinds of paranormal.
That’s interesting. Besides the other stories you mentioned, do you have any other interesting ghost stories you could share? I know I’m asking a lot of questions here but I just find this stuff fascinating
No worries at all. I've had a fair amount of evps over the years that mostly held up to scrutiny. As far as photos and video, there was one video that was shot that did show some weird lights that sort of looked human shaped, but I couldn't say for certain it wasn't someone's flashlight that had passed by the frame shortly before. I actually stopped doing still photography as evidence simply because it was so hard to take anything in context, whereas video was much easier. In still shots, everything, and I mean everything can be explained away, so you aren't left with anything concrete. I did get a chance to go to a tuberculosis hospital, the location has actually been on a few TV shows. I did have things thrown at me there which was super weird and absolutely couldn't be explained rationally, and it felt like it was following me. I tended to attract the weird energy and one time I felt like something might have "stuck" to me and followed me back home, because weird stuff happened there like things moving. Many, many times nothing happens and you're bored, but when something interesting happens it's fun.
How long were strange events happening at your home after that visit?
Also, would you be willing to share some of those videos here?
A few times was a week or so, but there was once that actually lasted a few months. I had some items that moved around and I heard voices so distintly I would actually ask my wife to repeat herself, but she hadn't said anything.
I'd share the videos/evidence, but there is a high chance it could identify me and I keep Lemmy super detached from other profiles. I've considered redoing them, mainly to get them off channels I don't own that might go dark. I'll definitely send a link your way if I get them up.
Understandable. Do you know of any good ghost hunting evidence that isn’t tied to you that would be good to check out?
I know you Didn't ask me, but I watch a couple YT channels that have decent content. Twin Paranormal is a fun one cause of how close-knit the three are. Midwest Ghost Hunter has some of the best EVP encounters I've heard. And there was another, I can't remember the name, that had Mind something in the name, who had some crazy shit go down in places. The last group I mentioned has like three big, tatted dudes who do like UFO videos too. Those don't interest me, though. One of the best videos from them involved a member of their group, Tanner, who was basically grabbed, tripped, and pulled like 3-6 ft on the ground, on camera, and was so shook up from it he had to go outside and didn't really want to go back inside.
Thanks for the recommendations
One of the groups I worked with was led by this guy.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmPnsrwjvlfYyEcUB8-B-RQ
To be honest, it's been awhile since I've watched his stuff but a quick glance seems to feel he's still got the same mentality to the paranormal as back then. Basically, almost all paranormal things can be easily explained away, but there is that tiny fraction that can't, and that's the juicy part.
Interesting thanks for the link