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Running Your Own Ghost Investigation?

Quirkz writes "I am a skeptic, but have friends and family who swear by their ghost stories. I have access to a supposedly haunted house and been tempted to run a proper scientific investigation. My first question is what sorts of tools or measurements would make for sensible metrics to test during a hunt? Temperature change seems to be a common one, but the other devices you'll see ghost hunters use seem pretty random. The second question is what kinds of results would it take to be 'interesting'? Baseline readings at several presumably non-haunted locations seem to be obvious requirements for comparison. Once you have those, what kinds of results would it take to convince a skeptic there's something unusual going on, or demonstrate that there's not? I don't have much hope of changing the minds of those who believe, but it would be satisfying to at least be scientific about it."

15 of 810 comments (clear)

  1. Proton Pack by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    You definitely need a proton pack: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_pack

    1. Re:Proton Pack by cinderellamanson · · Score: 2, Funny

      Not fair, in a rush of excitement I read that as a link to amazon :(

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    2. Re:Proton Pack by magarity · · Score: 4, Funny

      I rarely post on Slashdot, but I will for this.

      What are you babbling about?? I see your posts all the time.

    3. Re:Proton Pack by illeism · · Score: 3, Funny

      Once you're sitting in your apartment with someone, and suddenly a candle flies several feet off a shelf as you're looking at it

      (insert adorable kitty pic here)

      I can has midichlorians too?

      --
      Help test the /. effect at my min
  2. How about by plover · · Score: 5, Funny

    Bring some common fucking sense, and a stick to hit those who didn't bring any?

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    John
  3. Wrong location by Quasar1999 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Take the people who believe they're in a haunted house and send them through an MRI to see what part of their brain is damaged. Don't waste your time in the supposed haunted house, the feeling of a 'presence' and 'ghosts' and any other paranormal crap is all in the person's head. So start there.

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    Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
  4. Take a cue from ghostbusters by HockeyPuck · · Score: 5, Funny

    The Ghostbusters also use equipment to hunt and find ghosts, such as a PKE meter, Ecto-Goggles, and a Ghost Sniffer. A PKE meter is a handheld device, used in locating and measuring Psycho-Kinetic Energy, which is a unique environmental byproduct emitted by ghosts. The device's most prominent feature are winged arms that raise and lower in relation to the amount of PKE detected while a digital display gives an exact reading for the operator. The Giga meter is a device similar to the PKE meter, featured in Ghostbusters II. As explained by Egon in the original script, the Giga meter measures PKE in GeV, or giga-electronvolts. Ecto-Goggles, sometimes known as "Spectro-Visors", are a special pair of goggles that visually trace PKE readings. They are particularly useful in helping its wearer see normally invisible ghosts and it can also be used to assist in tracking ghosts within a visible field of search.

  5. but I have friends and family ... by porky_pig_jr · · Score: 4, Funny

    wouldn't be easier just to change both friends and family?

  6. I'm normally a skeptic but... by makubesu · · Score: 5, Funny

    there have been times where I've wandered these parts late at night in lonely topics, and I swear I've heard the cries of the negative karma posters, screaming for revenge. They say their souls will not rest until they've compensated for their sins in life. On nights like these, they say you can see their cold remarks beckoning from the mist, trying to pull you into hell with them...

  7. A megaphone and a pair of ears by holophrastic · · Score: 3, Funny

    Just shout, really loudly, "HEY GHOST!".

    If you hear "HEY HUMAN" then shout "MARCO?". If you hear "POLLO!" go find the source of the sound.

    If it's your friend, laugh. If it's nothing, lather-rinse-repeat. If it's a ghost, you'll see it. Then ask it to follow you home.

    What the hell else are you going to do? Temperature change? Wind. What the hell, it can change by ten degrees in an hour quite easily.

    Like everything else in english, you have to answer one question: what's a ghost. Define the term, circle the nouns, and look for them. Then underline the verbs and see if the nouns are doing the verbs. Since when does anyone define a ghost as something that can change temperature. That's just a lot of hot air -- maybe from the ghost.

  8. Just be sure to use a fast film by mark-t · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ghosts can be quite amiable to being photographed, but you don't want to end up in a situation where the spirit was willing but the flash was weak.

  9. Re:Burden of proof. by Culture20 · · Score: 4, Funny

    My wife saw a ghost hunters where they were in the woods when something flashed across the screen (black and white night vision). They replayed it a couple of times. My wife showed it to me, it was obvious to me on first viewing that the silhouette was a deer that finally decided the idiots where too close and sprinted out of there. The freeze frame left no doubt it was a deer, but the ghost hunters could only say 'something' was out there.

    Just because they were hunting ghosts doesn't mean they couldn't find a unicorn.

  10. Re:Burden of proof. by John+Hasler · · Score: 3, Funny

    Then one night I got throw out of bed by something unseen. My girlfriend was already awake (she had been hearing footsteps around the bed). I guess we're both mad.

    Sounds more like your girlfriend was mad at you.

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    Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
  11. Re:A good dose of: by Hognoxious · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yeah, imagine if misinformation got mixed with politics!

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    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  12. That's why ghosts don't like skeptics! by billstewart · · Score: 4, Funny

    Have you ever wondered why skeptics never find ghosts? It's because, basically, skeptics are annoying people and ghosts don't like to hang around them. Too much negativity, and not enough good-looking cheerleader girlfriends, and especially not enough of the dumb ones who say "let's leave the rest of the party in the well-lit living room and go make out in the abandoned upstairs wing of the house - we don't need to bring a flashlight."

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    Bill Stewart
    New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks