Michigan's Otherside Paranormal Forums

I am looking for advice as I undertake my first house investigation. I have a friend that has a house in Northern Indiana that he wants us to check out. It is currently empty. Both his mother and grandmother died in this house. Not at the same time. It is a 1960 ranch style house.
As far as equipment goes, I have: digital camera, sony handycam with night vision, digital voice recorder, ir thermometer. There will only be 2 maybe 3 of us. I have some past experience with the deceased mother and am hoping to be able to do some evp work through reintroducing myself.
Any help or ideas will be greatly appreciated. I am hoping to head down on April 3.

I have some experience with cemetery investigations as well as some public hunts.

Thanks in advance

Angie

Don't go alone.
*People may be overwhelmed by emotion or fear and might suffer panic attacks or other emotional episodes. Aside from that, many investigation locations may be old or in poor repair and injury or falls can happen. So always have a partner.

* Study. Read. Watch. Learn. The more you know about paranormal, and the latest equipment and techniques, the more rewarding your experience will be.

*First thing usually done is a walk thru to learn the layout. You don't have a EMF meter so this makes part of your investigation a waste. Emf's can cause paranormal feelings. So with no emf do a temp check and document them and location. A pad and pencil is a must. Check it in every area of the home.

*Now its time to start the investigation. seeing there is 2- 3 stay in one group. Take lots of pictures while announcing flash before every picture so as not blinding everyone. If you can set your camera for highest mega pixel and turn iso to 400 to 800. If you have a manual focus choice I recommend using it with focus set at beginning. If you can turn off the lcd screen it helps also. Plan on taking 200 or more pictures. Avoid taking pictures towards mirrors, windows, chrome, these can all give odd reflections you may mistake as paranormal later. If the place is vacant it means dusty, you will probably catch lots of orbs on both the video and regular camera. This is nothing but dust, orbs are not paranormal. TAKE YOUR CAMERA STRAP OFF!
Keep your fingers and hair from the front of the lens.

*Evp work When doing evp work note the time, location and have everyone say there name so you have a reference later. Don't do evp work while walking around, set the recorder down and if possible have everyone set down also. This eliminates a great deal of hand, pant leg and shoe noise. If one of you cough, bang something make sure you loudly state what it was on the recorder. If you hear a car go by or a noise outside identify it out loud. While doing evp work have the person with the video recorder monitor this so if you catch an evp you have evidence of what it might be on video.

Ok the person with the ir cam should also avoid windows and mirrors, if you see a shadow show up from the camera flash or another light source announce it on the camera so you don't later think you caught a shadow figure. Don't point the ir towards the person taking pictures. Try and hold the camera steady at all times. When doing evp work set the camera down to record the room.

* Be patient. Understand that many, many times nothing at all is going to happen for hours, if ever. Paranormal investigations involve sometimes long stretches of doing nothing but sitting quietly and observing. Only embark on this kind of activity if you feel that the possibility of catching something extraordinary is worth a lot of time and effort.

* Study. Read. Watch. Learn. The more you know about paranormal, and the latest equipment and techniques, the more rewarding your experience will be.

*Paranormal investigation is a fascinating field, and with the right attitude, can be rewarding on many levels. The key is attitude. Keep your mind open and be prepared for anything or nothing! Most investigations reward you with experience and teach you patience. Possible paranormal is caught at less then 3% of investigations so don't go in expecting a wild night. Go in with the attitude of we are looking for something but if we don't catch anything iy was interesting. If you hear a strange noise or shadow try and debunk it. Was it a pipe, water, an animal, the floor creaking.

* Study. Read. Watch. Learn. The more you know about paranormal, and the latest equipment and techniques, the more rewarding your experience will be.

I probably left some stuff out, search this forum and read everything you can on it.
If you think you catch anything on video or EVP or a picture you can ask here and lots of people will offer help. You can also post it here http://grou.ps/wwps/home and have it analyzed.

Hello Angie,
The equipment you have is plenty enough to capture paranormal activity if it is present, If their are going to be only three of you, you should most likely work together. Have a meeting prior to going, to discuss parameters, such as who's leading the investigation, who's going to ask the evp questions, Remember to give the spirit (if any) time to respond. Video everything. You should place the video camera where it covers the room you are working in, to verify the evps, or activity happening, also to make sure it wasn't some one on your team or a homeowner making the suspect noise. It is very important to have video reference to ll activity captured. Sometimes that is impossible, so when a member experiences a paranormal activity, it is a great idea to write it down immediatly as to not forget, or add to the happening. Written documentation is still a valuable asset in paranormal investigating. Please don't take pictures of windows, or anything that reflects, Sometimes its tough in the dark to see exactly what you taking a picture of, I suggest (only suggest) That you take the picture with one eye closed and one open to see what was in the path of the picture being taken. ( one eye being closed as not to get night blindness) Get some back ground on the location, get as much info, such as the diceased members Names, age, friends, anything that will help with EVP work. If reports of activity are also reported with the claim, get their a little early so when you are doing your walk through, you can look to see if you can debunk any of the claims. Don't be amused with Orb shots caught on digital camera, remember the house is empty, their will be dust, any movement in the house will stirr up the dust , and create those nasty round things caught on your camera. I probably forgot a ton, but it is early, so please excuse the Typo's along with running sentences... Good luck.

Thanks for the help. I am excited to be able to do this. If anyone ever needs an extra set of hands or even just some help analyzing data, let me know. I live in Western Michigan and am willing to drive. I just got laid off so I have all the free time in the world. (At least until school starts)
I will post any results, if any here.
Oh yeah..one quick technical question. When i bought my digital voice recorder, I didnt buy one with the ability to upload into the computer. Is there any kind of work around to get any data into the computer with only a headphone jack? Without jeopardizing the quality? I will buy a better one when I get the money.

You can put it on your computer but its slow. You just need a cord with double male ends, plug one into ear phone jack, the other ind into your microphone female jack. Then open your program you use to listen (audacity, cool edit, adobe audition) and select record and then play on your digital recorder.

Another decent way of listening is to plug your computer speakers into your recorder.

well, I just learned that the investigation has to be postponed. He had to rent it sooner than he wanted to. Thanks for all of the advice. I will be able to use it some day I am sure.