The Haunting Hour

I've always been baffled by the idea of a specific time of night when ghosts emerge. It's widely believed that if you want the best chance of capturing evidence, you have to conduct your investigation in the dead of night.

Why?

Do hauntings only occur from midnight to 3:00 a.m.?

I don't think so.

I've experienced unexplained activity in broad daylight and in the early hours of the morning. So why do so many investigators choose midnight to wander around abandoned hospitals in search of a ghost willing to play the game?

I have a theory.

For starters, I think most ghost hunters, whether they want to admit it or not, enjoy the adrenaline rush. And honestly, who can blame them? What scenario is scarier than walking through a reportedly haunted building at midnight? Add in the fact that you can barely see the room around you, and you've got enough adrenaline to restart a heart.

Sounds fun, right?

It is.

I just don't think it does much for the investigation. Unless, of course, you're researching the effects of fear on the body.

Some investigators believe the sky, and the room for some reason, have to be pitch black before you'll capture that million-dollar piece of evidence.

I've never understood that.

Do ghosts hide from the light?

Why would they?

Take a second and really think about it. If ghosts exist, what reason would they have to disappear during the day? I've never believed paranormal activity keeps office hours.

So why do we wait until the "haunting hour?"

Personally, I think it has more to do with us than it does with ghosts.

Night investigations have become the standard because that's what we've always been taught. People will tell you their equipment works better at night, and in some cases that's true. Night vision cameras, infrared lights, and other equipment were designed with darkness in mind.

Pro tip.

You don't need most of it.

So when is the best time to investigate?

There isn't one.

It depends entirely on the location.

If a homeowner tells you footsteps happen every afternoon around three o'clock, why would you show up at midnight?

That doesn't make much sense to me.

One of the first questions I ask isn't just what happened.

It's when it happened.

More often than not, you'll start noticing patterns.

And patterns are everything.

Once you've established when activity is most commonly reported, you can plan your investigation around that instead of around a clock.

Remember to keep your crew small, avoid whispering, and conduct your EVP sessions while everyone is sitting still.

Those little things matter.

At the end of the day, ghost hunting isn't about proving a place is haunted.

It's about ruling out every normal explanation you can think of.

In my experience, you'll probably explain away 95 to 99 percent of what you find.

That last one percent...

That's the part that keeps me coming back.

Evidence Contamination

Evidence contamination is one of the most frustrating things you can discover after an investigation.

It renders any evidence you may have collected completely useless. Once you realize one piece of evidence is contaminated, you start questioning everything else. As painful as it is, sometimes the only option is to throw it all out and start over.

I know exactly how that feels.

I once drove more than ten hours to investigate a location, only to discover later that noise interference had ruined every second of audio I recorded. It almost hurts to delete something you know you may never be able to replace.

Learn from my mistake.

Here are a few ways to avoid contaminating your hard-earned evidence.

Tip #1: Keep your group small.

I know it's tempting to bring everyone along for the adventure, but resist the urge.

The more people you have with you, the less control you have over the investigation. More people means more talking, more footsteps, and more opportunities to mistake your own group for paranormal activity.

One of the biggest culprits is whispering.

A whispered conversation can sound surprisingly similar to an EVP during playback. Before you know it, you've spent an hour getting excited over your own teammate.

If you need to speak, speak clearly and loudly enough that everyone knows it's a living person talking.

Personally, I think three or four investigators is the sweet spot.

Tip #2: Sit still during EVP sessions.

Modern digital recorders are incredibly sensitive.

They'll happily record every shuffle, jacket zipper, cough, stomach growl, and squeaky floorboard in the room.

Find a place to sit, get comfortable, and stay as still as possible.

Before you begin recording, announce where you are, the date and time, and who's present. That way, if someone does speak, you'll have a much easier time identifying who it was later.

Tip #3: Know your surroundings.

Is there a highway nearby?

An airport?

Train tracks?

A neighborhood full of barking dogs?

These little details seem insignificant until you're reviewing evidence at two in the morning wondering why someone keeps whispering "whoooo."

The most valuable tool an investigator has isn't an EMF detector.

It's skepticism.

Finding something you can't immediately explain is exciting.

Ruling out every ordinary explanation first is even more exciting.

That's when you know you're onto something worth paying attention to.

Tip #4: Leave your photos alone.

This one is simple.

Don't use filters.

Don't brighten them until faces magically appear.

Don't add contrast hoping an orb becomes more interesting.

If your photograph genuinely contains something unusual, it should stand on its own.

The moment you start editing, you've also given skeptics a perfectly reasonable explanation for dismissing it.

It's just not worth it.

Tip #5: Be skeptical of the location.

This might be the hardest one.

You've been looking forward to this investigation all week.

You've heard the stories.

You've watched the videos.

You've convinced yourself this place has to be haunted.

That's exactly when you need to slow yourself down.

If you're already on edge before you walk through the door, every creak, cold draft, and shadow starts feeling paranormal.

Whether you believe your body can sense something unusual or not, it's difficult to trust your instincts if you've already convinced yourself you're about to experience a haunting.

Go into every investigation expecting to debunk it.

Look for the natural explanation first.

Once you've peeled away everything ordinary, whatever remains becomes much more interesting.

I'm not trying to discourage anyone from investigating.

Quite the opposite.

I simply hope more investigators put aside the need for excitement and focus instead on finding the truth, whatever that truth happens to be.

To me, that's what makes paranormal investigation fascinating.

Not proving a place is haunted.

Discovering whether it is.