The DIY approach

It’s not about how much gear you have, it’s what you do with it that counts.
When I began my ghost-hunting journey back in the early eighties, nobody had heard of broadband. There was no internet, email, or online networking. Back then, all we had to go with were books. I avidly read.

My Saturday mornings saw me walking (sometimes I would skateboard) about 10 kilometers to the local library to search more on the subject. Birthdays would mean book vouchers spent on more books. Buying ‘Unexplained’ magazines meant I had access to classified advertising containing further sources of gaining literature via mail order.

Audio recording began for me in 1978, when I bought an old reel-to-reel tape recorder from a second-hand store in Howick. A heavy metallic beast (complete with microphone!) I scored for about $10. Many weeks of saving and groveling.  I got it home on my bike.
Balancing it across the handlebars of my green Ten Speed, as I wobbled my way through heavy traffic, hills, and a main highway.

For me, ghost photography started with a small click camera that needed flash cubes and rolls of film.
An investigation would be expensive, with the lead-up and planning requiring saving for many packets of flashbulbs and rolls of 24 exposure film from the chemist. I found I had about a 10 percent success rate of any photos turning out clear. The majority would be underexposed, overexposed, or just out of focus. Out of 100 or so photos returned after developing, about 10 would be clear enough to see something.
That something usually a wall, door, empty room, my finger, or anything else but a ghost or something of a spiritual nature. Most frantic and excited bike bursts to the chemist to pick up my photos after 8 working days of waiting, ended in heaving sighs of disappointment as I got to the end of flipping through the pile.
As I got older and had access to a little more money, my equipment got a little flashier.

 

In 1980, My reel-to-reel was put aside for a brand new cassette deck which I got for my birthday. I used this for the first time on a couple of the houses being put into place at the newly created Howick Historical Village. This one used battery power, so I could take it out with me. Which I often did.

My camera also jumped a quality notch to one with a built-in flash.
Further years would see me hitting the digital age. Computers, audio and video recorders…. things I would never have imagined having or using, back in my youth.
Over the years, investigators have uncovered some patterns, such as unusually elevated and fluctuating EMF and temperature levels, visible apparitions, and audio recordings.
However, despite these findings, no one knows which environmental factors influence paranormal phenomena. Since the cause is still unknown, all environmental variables must be measured.

Every team and every investigator will have varying results from varying techniques. What works for one team or investigator may or may not always work for another.
As you can imagine, there are a lot of techniques practiced with varying levels of results.

There are no wrong or right ways of experimenting. Try it all. No matter how unusual, give it a shot. Some techniques or approaches might give you something to work on, whilst others lead to dead ends and are worth discontinuing with. You wont know either way, unless you try.

We work with other groups and individuals with a like-minded approach and seek expertise in varying disciplines to withdraw facts from findings.

We also believe in sharing our knowledge, experience, and results as a way to advance the community.
You just never know what might tip the scales in finding conclusive evidence of the existence of ghosts and the paranormal world.

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