Ghost Hunting at a Glance Trivia Quiz

Answer: Dust

When you see an orb, you must be very careful with it. You should never immediately assume that it is paranormal in nature without looking at the conditions of the room first. Ball lightning does not spontaneously appear indoors, so there is no chance of that being the culprit. Outdoors, it can occasionally occur. Bugs do not show up as orbs in night-vision modes on a camera, they show up looking like normal bugs, but with no detail. Flashlights, no matter what make or strength, never produce a similar effect to orbs. Dust is a logical explanation, but again, it does not mean a place is not haunted. Try an experiment for yourself. Turn on a camera to night-mode and grab a chunk of dust. Toss it in the room and you'll see what looks like orbs.

Some other orbs, however, respond to human speech, have unusual colors to them, and tend to follow the camera person. They are more likely to be paranormal in nature as they defy many forms of logic.

Answer: No

Age has an impact on hauntings, but it rarely is the deciding factor on whether or not a place is haunted. It is true that an older place is more likely to experience paranormal activity. The main reason is that older places have seen more traffic over the years, they have had more people live and die in them, and who knows, some of that residual energy might have remained to haunt the rooms to the present day. Remember though, that even really new houses can have ghosts, so just because the house or building is old does not mean that it's haunted. An investigation is the only thing that can prove it for certain.

Answer: Electronic Voice Phenomena

When you investigate with a tape recorder, ask a ghost some questions and make sure the recorder runs throughout an investigation. Although you do not hear someone talking with your naked ears, there may be someone in a room with you answering your questions. Most EVPs do not have particularly great detail, but a responsive voice which responds in time to questions can potentially be a confirmation of ghostly presences in a building.

When you review the evidence, do so with a friend, because some of the spirit voices can be quite disturbing. Also, a friend can either determine a natural source for it, or confirm what you hear. Audio matrixing can be one natural explanation for EVPs, however, as certain noises lead one to believe that they are paranormal in nature when in fact, the noises could just be natural noises.

Answer: Never investigate alone!

Ghost investigations are fun, but they can be quite dangerous. The reasons we must have two or more people to be in a group are simple. First of all, in a larger group, we are less frightened by unusual occurrences so we can remain more calm and keep an investigation going to its fullest. Without that extra fear, we may experience extra paranormal phenomena which we might not have experienced had we been alone. Secondly, if you investigate alone, you may get lost, or fall and get injured. If nobody is with you, no-one can really help you because no-one really knows where you are or if you are even missing. Finally, claims and evidence for paranormal phenomena are more concrete if you investigate with more people and they all experience it. Solo investigations tend to be shot down more readily than group investigations.

Answer: You can't confirm it for sure, but if the blue-light is blocked out by the figure, you might have something ghostly on your hands.

Believe it or not, this sample investigation from my question was actually based on a real one that I undertook in my own home. As I was walking to my room, the light on the downstairs entertainment room speaker was still on. As I approached my room, a full-apparition appeared and blocked out most of the light emanating from the unit.

The light was just barely visible through the figure standing before me. Three seconds later, the figure disappeared and the light was fully visible again. Logical explanations have not presented themselves. Shadows do not block the source of bright lights, and hallucinations are not as common as skeptics tend to believe. Knowing how my speaker works, I have tried many times to debunk the experience, but I have not been able to. I feel it is genuine though I do not have video or photographic evidence of the incident.

Answer: Try to replicate it yourself and see if it can be natural in origin.

Again, this paranormal event actually happened to me. When it happened, I wasn't actually waiting for activity. The empty can on the nearby desk tilted onto a 45 degree angle. Shortly afterwards, it gently reverted back to its upright position. I tried replicating it by hitting the desk, blowing the can, jumping up and down, and even tilting it with my own hands. From my finding, it was paranormal in origin as it was unable to stand up on its own again, and it was impossible to replicate again. Had I not done the extra tests to determine its origin, it really could of been anything natural. With those tests out of the way, the logical or natural explanations were disregarded. Technology is good, but you cannot use it to determine if the moving of a can was natural or not. Old fashioned trial and error testing is the best way to do it. If the owner experienced a similar phenomena before, that adds extra support to the sighting. Also, without an investigation, it is not enough to rely solely on the homeowner's claims of ghost activity.

Answer: The "KII Meter" picks up magnetic fields using lights as opposed to simply using a numbered meter.

An EMF Reader used to be the standard device for ghost hunting. Changes in the electromagnetic field could supposedly indicate a spirit presence. The old EMFs had a tendency to pick up and record readings from man made things such as wiring, pipes, lights, and pretty much anything else electric.

The "KII"s, also pick up these man-made sources, but can also reveal unusual spikes in EMF via their five lights. Spirits can allegedly talk through them by influencing the lights on the device. Due to its sensitivity to both man made sources and non-man made sources, the device is increasingly becoming the staple of the paranormal investigative industry.

Answer: A residual entity

This is one of the few types of ghosts, which I have never personally seen, but I have heard of them quite regularly. A residual entity is a ghost that is unconscious of the modern surroundings, and it lives as it did back in the days it was alive. The best analogy I have ever heard for this type of spirit came from one of the members of the infamous "TAPS" team in Rhode Island.

He said that those types of ghost were essentially like video recordings, playing back the same way years after an event. If the ghost walks through a wall it does not mean a ghost has the ability to walk through walls.

A ghost has the same physical nature as humans, they cannot just go through walls, unless a wall or door was not always there. If, in the past there was a passageway or an open doorway, the residual ghosts can walk through it because their playbacks do not account for modern changes in architecture.

Answer: A poltergeist

A poltergeist is one of the scariest types of spirits imaginable. It is not evil, per-se, but it does have problems which it tries to express by putting everything into disarray. People who have been murdered or have died of drug overdoses tend to leave poltergeists.

The use of Ouija boards, and taunting of spirits by living people can also cause poltergeist activities. I have witnessed one instance of poltergeist activity in person, and it was pretty intense. A cat was sitting on a ledge in a particular home and it was staring quite intently at a certain spot down in the basement.

The cat was located higher than the ceiling of the room that he was looking into. Before we knew what happened, a piece of the popcorn-stucco ceiling was detached.

It went downwards and then it literally vaulted itself upwards towards the cat. The cat was shocked when the piece hit him, and so was I. There was no natural explanation for that. The piece of rock looked like it was pulled off, held for a moment and then tossed at the cat.

Answer: Yes

Even if you are not a person who has ever done a ghost hunt before, you can still help a ghost if it is in distress in your home. If you don't believe it is evil, you can talk to it. Since most of them were once people, they still like socialization. Some might leave your home just because of friendly communication. If it is a very disturbed spirit, calling in a professional to do a cleansing would be the best idea. Those professionals have been trained to send ghosts away, and the results do speak for themselves.

Avoid doing the cleansing yourself, and never read lines from the Bible to a ghost, unless you have absolute faith in your religion.