What If....?

I really have to stop thinking...it gets me in trouble.

The more we've been experimenting, the more we're learning that "the accepted way" has way too many flaws in it in the gathering of any tangible evidence.

Take for example the Digital Camera craze that swept the paranormal field. We've already proven that to be wrong. We've analyzed and isolated the identification of dust that has the world in an uproar, and have found out that its just the way the cameras are made, that will not allow them to capture anything paranormal.

Ok, strike one...

The gadgets that are making some schmuck rich off the naive and over-enthusiastic public, is a crime in itself.

There are again too many flaws in the determination and detection of spirit energy with these pieces of junk that weren't even designed for what they're being used for. So, was your hard earned cash well spent? Ask the salesman as he sits on a beach somewhere...he'll say, "Yes it was"...meanwhile the user is fumbling around in the dark thinking he's accomplishing something, but only fueling the misconception fires.

Strike two...

The Internet is so full of misconception, confusion, assumption, speculation, and conjecture, that the well meaning public has no place to turn for any reliable, honest, accurate answers without getting some made up fairy tale about the dust pictures they submit to a website.

The Internet has the world thinking all you need is a digital camera and a handy cemetery, and *POOF*, you're an instant ghost hunter...

Sorry, but there's a lot more to this than just running around taking pictures.

The Internet is a great source of information...it's also a great source of misinformation in the way of how the paranormal world is being studied these days. For the most part, it's about who has the prettiest website, "Vote for me for the most popular website", and "Visit our store".

The Internet has thrown us back into the stone-age with all the commercialism, and has lost the real meaning of the word "Research". It's turned our field into nothing more than a home-based business opportunity for most people.

Strike three...We're out...back to square one.

We've lost touch with reality folks...nobody cares about finding answers anymore, it's more important that your check clears first.

The Internet has sparked fierce and vicious competition between individuals and groups, causing all out wars with mud slinging, back stabbing, and bashing campaigns that only serve to hurt EVERYONE involved in the field...It's time to grow up. We're all suppose to be in this together. Nobody has ALL the answers to most of the questions, but there are a few that have a slight edge in the knowledge department. We should be learning from each other, not trying to kill each other....Are we in agreement here?

If someone points out a discrepancy, learn from it...don't get mad because pride gets in the way. Disappointment is a part of life. Learn from mistakes made, and make efforts to improve on them. There are more rational explanations for things out here than unexplainable. Most have "unexplainable" things on their websites, but just because they cannot explain it, doesn't mean it's "unexplainable". When someone tries to explain it to them, that person is immediately labeled as "skeptic" and "debunker".

A certain level of skepticism is called for in this field if we're going to find any answers.

We have to walk that thin line between black and white....on the negative, follow the first rule of "Find the explanation first". If all else fails, then go from there...but on the positive, be open to the possibilities but follow that first rule. "Don't let your enthusiasm distort your perception".

So, what I'm trying to say here is, what if everything that has come to be accepted as "standards", thanks to the internet, are wrong?

Using a little bit of rational thought and common sense here, I have questions myself...

What If...The whole "electro-magnetic field" theory is wrong?

What If... Night-Shot is more of a detriment than a help?

What If... (you ask your own questions)

I'm thinking that the whole EMF thing is wrong. If you think about it...I mean really think about it, EMF's do not make your hair stand up like Static Electricity does. Lets go simple here for a moment. When you enter a space that you think, or is reputed to be "occupied", one of two things happen. Either your imagination gives you the "willies" and you make your own hair stand on end OR, if there is a spookie in the room, he's doing it.

There have been times when upon entering a room that  the ol' hair on the arms stood up. You could feel the charge in the air, and more often than not, that's when you get something good...good photo or EVP.

There are too many things in the house/building/property itself that'll set off an EMF meter (we've already proven this).

So why not lean toward trying to detect static charges?

I found the plans for a static charge detector on the net. Its easy to build, and the pieces-parts are very inexpensive from Radio Shack.

What you need is:

1 - 9-volt battery (heavy duty) - $4.29

1 - MPF-102 N-Channel Field Effect Transistor (FET) - $1.29

     Radio Shack # 276-2062

1 - Red- Light Emitting Diode (LED) - $1.29

     Radio Shack # 276-041

1 - 9-volt battery connections (they come 5 in a package) $2.59

      Radio Shack # 270-324

1 - Spool of standard 20ga. wire (you get 20 ft., more than plenty) $3.69

     Radio Shack # 278-563

1 - Package of "Mini-'gator Clips" (10 to a package, 5 black, 5 red) $2.79

     Radio Shack # 270-374

Some minimal soldering skills later on.

Don't let all these parts and numbers scare you, its really quite easy to do.

So far you'll have $15.94 (+tax) invested...not too bad, but you also have enough material to make a few of them.

Before actually building one, try connecting everything with the clip leads first, to get the idea of how its going to react. Play around with it for a while. Use black-on-black and red-on-red wires so you don't get confused...black clip lead on black battery connector wire, etc...black is negative, red is positive.

I made my own clip leads using short pieces of wire instead of the long store bought ones. This made it easier too, and not as messy.

We'll go step-by-step with everything for you here so anyone can follow along and do it.

Making your own Clip-Leads:

1) Cut a piece of wire about 2-3" long and strip about 1/4" off the end.

2) Remove one of the rubber covers from the clip.

3) Twist the end of the wire and insert it into the hole at the end of the clip, and bend it tight.

Slip the rubber cover over the wire and back onto the clip. No soldering required here, it holds itself together. Repeat with the other end and a black set of clips.

To build your own FET:

Step 1:     (*skip this step until you're ready to solder*)

Take a tiny screwdriver and pry the top cover off of a 9v battery connector and snip off the wires.

Step 2:

Rather than try to explain the mumbo jumbo of positive and negative anodes/cathodes blah blah blah, we'll just keep it simple and just hook up the connections as seen in the diagram. The leads of an LED are usually the short one is the negative.

a) Strip off about 1/4" off of each wire on the battery connector, and attach the the clip leads to their respective color.

b) Be careful, transistors are very sensitive and static from your own body can fry it. Carefully turn the FET so the flat side is on the bottom. Bend the left leg up, this is going to be the antennae. Connect the red clip lead to the middle leg. You'll want to spread out the legs of the FET a little so nothing can short each other out. MAKE SURE NOTHING TOUCHES !!

c) Using one of the extra clips, connect the right leg of the FET to the longer wire on the LED.

d) Connect the black clip lead from the battery connector to the short leg of the LED.

e) Connect the battery.

If all went well, the LED should be on.

Granted, it looks like Frankenstein now, but it'll work.

Step 3:

Once everything is connected as in the diagram, you can start playing with it after connecting it to the 9volt battery. The LED should light up. If it doesn't, just flip it around so the other wire is reversed.

Step 4:

Connect to the battery.

WARNING!!! - If the battery gets hot, something is connected incorrectly!!!

The finished product will look like this. I shortened the legs of the components. This won't effect the performance any, it makes it more portable without smashing anything.

I added the extra piece of wire wrapped into a pig-tail to make the antennae more sensitive. This is optional, but once you see how fun soldering is, you'll probably want to solder everything in sight.

Once you know everything is connected correctly, you can start experimenting by combing your hair while the battery is sitting on the table. We'll call it FET...

While you comb your hair, the LED should either turn off or fade in brightness with the strokes of the comb. If the light goes out and doesn't come back on, touch the "antennae" wire with your finger.

Move the comb around the FET and watch the LED react to the static charge of the comb.

If you have long hair, wave it around and watch the reaction.

Once you're happy with the results, you can take the plunge, and solder everything together to make it more permanent and transportable. It fits in a pocket, but disconnect it from the battery when not in use. I like to plug in just one of the terminals, then swing the other one over to make contact. This will eliminate wear and tear on the connections.

Ok, what I'm getting at here, is this thing will show you its working...BUT, it has some drawbacks.

Humidity plays a major role in the performance. If its too moist in the air, the reactions are slow, and if its too dry in the air, the LED might stay off.

You can't walk around with it, because your feet on carpeting will send a static charge that will be detected. Your clothes rubbing together will make it react also.

So, to use it, set it down somewhere that you can observe it clearly from a distance, and wait for the LED to flicker or go out. If you're videotaping it, and it suddenly flickers or goes out, you might have something there. A spookie may not show up in form to say "Hi", but this may be an indication of one passing thru. This thing is way more sensitive than an EMF meter, and will detect a static charge from a few feet away. This is why you can set it down and leave it, as opposed to an EMF meter that needs to be in the field to get a "good reading".

I'm not writing any guarantees in stone here, this is just an idea to work with. However, it has on occasion indicated "something", as the LED went out a short EVP was recorded on the video tape. It may or may not have been a fluke stroke of luck, we just have to stay open to the possibilities. As I keep saying, there are no guarantees in this business, and its all a matter of being in the right place at the right time.

For more information about how this thing works, go to:

http://www.amasci.com/emotor/chargdet.html

They'll tell you all the technical details and different ways to play with it.

I'm willing to make a bet now though...

Watch some schmuck start mass producing these and try to sell them at a 1000% profit. Make your own, not somebody else rich.

What if Night-Shot is Over-rated?

Again, going back to internet misconception, someone saw a dust ball float past the camera, and instantly Night-Shot had wonderful, magical properties of making spirits materialize, and Sony sales went through the roof.

The only thing I've ever gotten with a Night-Shot camera was dust "orbs"...no apparitions, no shadow people, no "demons"...nothing, except for an accidental or occasional EVP.

I like to video tape investigations, not so much for evidence gathering, but mainly to cover my own butt in case someone tries to accuse me of something.

Night-Shot video cameras right-out-of-the-box are not the miracle workers people claim they are when capturing footage of alleged paranormal phenomena. Again, the most often thing you see is the "balls of light" floating by.

Night-Shot is very limited in range of distance, and the captured "orb" seems to appear then disappear causing hyper-ventilation and sweaty palms when viewed later. The simple explanation is, a speck of dust wandered into the range of the Infra-Red beam, then was pushed out by a draft. It lit up as the beam reflected off of it as it passed by.

I like the claims of, "It shows an intelligence" by hovering around an object as though it were curious about something then going about its merry way.

"There were no drafts"....Ummm, yes there were. Unless you're in a vacuum, there will be drafts and ever-changing air currents. Air pressure is all around us, always changing, always moving.

So far, my most valuable piece of observational research equipment is my Living Room window. I get the afternoon sun directly through it around 5:30-6pm. Here is where I've observed dust floating around, and blew smoke into it to watch the movement and details.

(smoke in a sun beam is just damn fascinating to watch. it doesn't take much to amuse me)

At any rate, even with plastic on the windows to keep out the cold winter air, the smoke swirls and dances around in the air. It didn't just go up...it curved and turned and went anywhere it wanted to until it finally dissipated. One day, I stacked pillows on the couch under the window to see what happens. A big glob of smoke approached the stack, and climbed up one side, turned and went down the other. It didn't follow its direct course of travel...maybe the smoke found the pillows interesting and wanted to take the tour.

The strange thing about this is, the smoke didn't touch the stack of pillows. It stayed about a couple of inches away during its travels.

Just like the atmosphere outside, you have high pressure and low pressure indoors. Hot air rises, cold air sinks, and this constant changing in temperatures is the cause for the air currents. Particles in the air drift along in them freely. Its a subtle environment your body really can't detect, but pay attention to our friend, "Mr. Sunbeam", he explains a lot.

When video taping with Night-Shot, I'm looking for specific things, not just ANY movement. I'm looking for things like doors or items moving. Maybe a possible shadow that I know I or someone else didn't cause. I'm paying attention to car headlights coming in thru windows. Above all, I'm watching how I breathe if I'm in a chilly place, so I won't get all excited about "ecto".

Even in the hot summer months, if the humidity is high and the air is damp, the moisture content of the air can be observable with Night-Shot...again, you won't see it but the camera will pick it up by the reflection of the IR beam on the particles.

So...what to do about it?

Its a given, you have to alter your video camera in some way to avoid the confusion and accommodate your needs to rule out any "contamination" to your footage.

The thought of altering your expensive video equipment sounds scary to you, but there are some simple ways to do it. I've found that using a red LED light atop the camera will significantly reduce, if not eliminate, dust "orbs". A little red LED flashlight and some stick-on velcro works wonders. (see the "Dust Elimination" article for more...)

Night-Shot seems to be more of a convenience to us while viewing, rather than picking up anything. It just helps our eyes "see in the dark" so to speak.

I have thoughts on this, and I'm thinking we don't need to "see IN the dark", we need to "see THE dark"...meaning finding a way to negate the entire light spectrum while still being able to see what's going on.

During the winter of 2004, I spent 5 months working on and perfecting a lens system for my video camera that does just this. I'm not going into detail here, this is going to be my little secret until I can verify and confirm it does what its supposed to. Sorry, but you're going to have to figure this one out on your own.

I've used it on a few investigations, but so far it hasn't "magically made a spirit appear". It does however, do what I wanted it to. You can shine a flashlight at the wall you're looking at, but the light won't appear on the tape, and you can still see the room. (pretty cool, huh?)

The idea behind this madness, was to eliminate any and all "man-made" or "un-natural" light that might bend, reflect, and refract causing any "false-positives" and confusion. With this thing, its literally "what you see is what you get".

One of these days I'm hoping to get lucky, and be in the right place at the right time, and I'm bound and determine to be able to manipulate the light spectrum in such a way that a spookie WILL "magically appear".

Keep your fingers crossed...

~~~copyright 2004 Dr. Ken

 None of this material may be used without
 the written consent of Dr. Ken