When “Ghost Hunters” Forget Their Objective –
Tools Are Only As Good as the Users!
I enjoy watching the “Ghost Hunters” on TV. They are entertaining, amusing at times, offer some good
insights occasionally and offer some reminders of how not to screw up in others.
Yes, it is true, I go crazy every time I see them waving their hands in the air and saying, “Do you feel that
cold spot?” For crying out loud, you have three kinds of non-contact thermometers hanging off your
belt… Use one! If anything my real frustration with the program is their wealth of technical gear and
their failure to fully use them.
In my group, we have to buy our own gear at the moment. We don’t have a TV network or group
sponsor to buy us a $10,000 thermal imaging deck and camera, so we get by with what we can afford
ourselves. On average, each member is probably in the hole for a $500 or more, between personal
cameras, digital records, GPS systems, EMF devices and non-contact thermometers. Not everyone has
everything they need, so we have to share. Some equipment is owned by the ASUP, like the two way
radios and portable weather station gear, and in the end, we always have what we need to do the job
safely and completely. Sure, we’d like to have more, we are saving up for that nifty wireless remote IR
camera deck and cameras, but until then, we make do.
That being the case, you can see my frustration when the big money guys pull out a priceless piece of
equipment and then fail to use it properly or to it potential. When you have gear, any gear, the place to
practice is home, not in a field investigation. To their credit, when TAPS for instance, blows it with their
gear, they admit it…. Usually! But reading your own heat signature with a thermal imaging camera is an
embarrassment, right up there with running away from an apparition. Paranormal investigators are like
firefighters, they run into fires, not away from them. You don’t back off from an entity once you have it in
your viewfinder, you get closer, that is why you are there, remember?
But failing to use the equipment at all is a bigger mistake than using it incorrectly. Yes, high tech does
require an understanding of equipment and the physics involved. You never shoot a heat sensing
camera back in the direction you just walked over, unless you want to see your own footprints and heat
signature…. Every cop in the country knows that, there are thousands of these cameras being used by
police departments all over the place successfully to locate fleeing felons. The camera will also identify a
fleeing apparition, but you have to know what you are looking for in the first place.
I could go on and one about specific pieces of gear, the range and ever broadening path of a common
non-contact thermometer or where and when not to use that nifty EMF detector, but you all can read
about that at your leisure. My point is much more basic, if you are going to own or use your tools of the
trade, know how they work before you go out into the field. This is just as big a part of your job as any!
Tools Are Only As Good as the Users!
I enjoy watching the “Ghost Hunters” on TV. They are entertaining, amusing at times, offer some good
insights occasionally and offer some reminders of how not to screw up in others.
Yes, it is true, I go crazy every time I see them waving their hands in the air and saying, “Do you feel that
cold spot?” For crying out loud, you have three kinds of non-contact thermometers hanging off your
belt… Use one! If anything my real frustration with the program is their wealth of technical gear and
their failure to fully use them.
In my group, we have to buy our own gear at the moment. We don’t have a TV network or group
sponsor to buy us a $10,000 thermal imaging deck and camera, so we get by with what we can afford
ourselves. On average, each member is probably in the hole for a $500 or more, between personal
cameras, digital records, GPS systems, EMF devices and non-contact thermometers. Not everyone has
everything they need, so we have to share. Some equipment is owned by the ASUP, like the two way
radios and portable weather station gear, and in the end, we always have what we need to do the job
safely and completely. Sure, we’d like to have more, we are saving up for that nifty wireless remote IR
camera deck and cameras, but until then, we make do.
That being the case, you can see my frustration when the big money guys pull out a priceless piece of
equipment and then fail to use it properly or to it potential. When you have gear, any gear, the place to
practice is home, not in a field investigation. To their credit, when TAPS for instance, blows it with their
gear, they admit it…. Usually! But reading your own heat signature with a thermal imaging camera is an
embarrassment, right up there with running away from an apparition. Paranormal investigators are like
firefighters, they run into fires, not away from them. You don’t back off from an entity once you have it in
your viewfinder, you get closer, that is why you are there, remember?
But failing to use the equipment at all is a bigger mistake than using it incorrectly. Yes, high tech does
require an understanding of equipment and the physics involved. You never shoot a heat sensing
camera back in the direction you just walked over, unless you want to see your own footprints and heat
signature…. Every cop in the country knows that, there are thousands of these cameras being used by
police departments all over the place successfully to locate fleeing felons. The camera will also identify a
fleeing apparition, but you have to know what you are looking for in the first place.
I could go on and one about specific pieces of gear, the range and ever broadening path of a common
non-contact thermometer or where and when not to use that nifty EMF detector, but you all can read
about that at your leisure. My point is much more basic, if you are going to own or use your tools of the
trade, know how they work before you go out into the field. This is just as big a part of your job as any!
