Before I start this blog I want to ask all you Paranormal ninjas a question. 

Who do you think was the first person to hear and EVP? I think the answer is Thomas Watson. Watson was the one who heard "Watson come here I need you on Bell's telephone machine.

 It seems like it is almost monthly that a new piece of equipment comes out that it is a must have for Investigation teams. I see these items on the various paranormal equipment sites and wonder which of the TV ghost hunting shows will be the first to preview this item, which in turn will make it a must have item.

 According to the "world wide web" the earliest formal examination into apparitions and haunting began in the mid 19th century primarily in England. One of the first groups formed in Western society was the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) which was founded in London, England in the late 1880s (which still exist today). The founders of the SPR, the first organization to undertake the controlled study of the subject, began their investigation with data collection. They analyzed an enormous amount of material, mainly relating to crisis apparitions (reports of interactions from people dying or in life-threatening situations). One of the most important results of these early investigations was the book Phantasms of the Living, by Edmund Gurney, Frederic Myers and Frank Podmore, published in 1886. It presented several hundreds of thoroughly researched cases. The addition of carefully investigated first-hand testimonies and experimental results provided a body of evidence which is difficult to dismiss. Their main "tools" at the time were mostly séances and psychics. They often used a still camera to document the events.

 We have come a long way since then, I mean a long way. As paranormal investigators we use equipment such as digital cameras, digital recorders, laser grids, night vision cameras, and emf detectors. I am sure that there are a lot more pieces of equipment out there that other investigators use. So do we really need to have all this "high Tech" stuff to complete a paranormal investigation. I know that we use this equipment mostly to document activity when it happens and to speak with entities and spirits. This documentation helps us to explain activity to whomever we need to. 

 If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it does it make a sound? I think the same would go for paranormal investigations. If you go into an investigation with no equipment, except for a pad of paper, and a pencil to write down any events that may happen and then produce that evidence to somebody would they think you had caught activity. Just because you didn't record it on a video or audio recorder does not mean you did see or hear or feel something. Do we depend on our equipment to much? I think we do sometimes. I think that sometimes we depend on it so much we lose sight of the overall picture of the investigation. I really do believe that the best equipment that you could ever have as a paranormal investigator is the one between your ears. Especially because you don't have to put batteries in it. Don't lose sight of the big picture and always remember the reason you became a Paranormal Investigator. ~Tracy