Table of Contents
The SGHA Research Process
The Ghost Hunt (planning process)
Controls
The Ghost Hunt
1. Establish a Base Area
4. Investigate the Event and Mark it on the Map
5. Surveillance
6. Replicate Events (Reconstructions), Natural Causes
7. Debriefing and Submitting the Data
Research, Process and Planning
Testing the paranormal variables (The Positive Control)
Criteria for Low-Score Subjective Paranormal Experience
Assigning a Probability
Control Site (Negative Control)
The Procedure
The Research Plan
RESEARCH PLAN PART A: Specific Aims
RESEARCH PLAN PART B: Background and Significance
RESEARCH PLAN PART C: Preliminary Results/Progress Report
RESEARCH PLAN PART D: Research Design and Methods
BUDGET AND JUSTIFICATION
Experimental Tests
Analysis
The SGHA Research Process
t
he research process used by SGHA is designed to eliminate investigator bias and to collect reliable data on haunted locations for future research. The process has several different phases, each with its own steps, which must be completed fully in order to obtain useable data.
Research
Planning
Ghost hunt
Surveillance
Case Review
The research process is conducted primarily through ghost hunts and is composed of four parts. Each of these parts is designed to gather a particular set of variables from a suspected haunted location. To accomplish this we use a basic scientific controlled experiment that has been adapted to test variables between haunted (positive control) and non-haunted (negative control) environments. A specific measure is selected to test and to trend positive it must substantially differ between the positive and negative control sites. We call this process Method 1 and it will be explained in more detail later in this document.
The advantages of Method 1 are that by breaking down complex hypotheses into simpler elements with a measureable variable, you can test the viability of a hypothesis in a more cost efficient manner. If the simpler measure does not trend out, then the more advanced measures will not trend out either.
The Ghost Hunt (planning process)
The ghost-hunt is the vessel in which our research takes place. However there are several important considerations that must be understood.
1.)To date there is no such thing as a “ghost detector”. Ghosts have not been proven to exist and therefore the instruments used to detect them have not been proven to work either. The instrumentation we use in ghost hunts were selected because a variable measured by that instrument is being trended under Method 1.
2.)It is vital that the blind standard of the research is maintained. The ghost hunters cannot know if they are in a positive or negative control site. This is done to prevent investigator bias when using the instrumentation.
The Planning Phase
Before the ghost hunt can executed, the Charter Officers and Team Leader (if one is appointed) must have a planning meeting to sort out details, assign or delegate responsibilities and to determine what techniques/ experiments are going to be used. It should be noted that when an Officer delegates a specific responsibility, they are still held accountable for that responsibility.
The Charter Officer’s responsibilities are as follows.
Operations Officer
Determine which techniques or experiments are going to be used
Develop a plan to ensure that there is enough allotted time for experiments and to adequately search the location. Other factors, such as breaks, meals and travel time need to be considered.
Determine how many people are needed to carry out the operation based on its size and the amount of time the Team has access to the location.
Post the ghost hunt in the forum to determine which investigators are available for the ghost hunt. Try to give at least two weeks of notice to allow members to adjust their personnel schedules (coordinate this with the Charter Secretary).
Determine if additional (rented) instrumentation is required. Coordinate this with the Charter Secretary.
Determine what controls are necessary for the investigation.
After the Team is chosen, assign a Team Leader (optional). If no Team Leader is chosen, the Operations Officer or the State Coordinator will act as the Team Leader.
Logistics Officer
Inspect equipment and instrumentation prior to leaving to ensure serviceability (Batteries, calibration, condition)
If instrumentation is to be rented, make any needed arrangements (payment, pick up and drop off). Inspect instrumentation before and after the ghost hunt.
Make travel arrangements for the Team (carpooling, etc.) Designate a place and time for the Team to meet up before the ghost hunt.
Ensure hotel arrangements are made (if needed) and know the room numbers of the team members.
Secretary
Arrange a date, place and time for the planning meeting of the Officers.
Advise the Operations Officer on member participation, training levels and special skills.
Type up the final plan and print a copy for the Operations Officer and Team Leader.
State Coordinator
Assume the responsibilities of any Officer not available for duty.
Preside over the Officer’s planning meeting.
Make the final determination and approval of the plan.
Strategic Officer
*The Strategic Officer is only required if media is going to be present during the investigation.
Define who the media source is
Define what the media wants to do at the location.
Assist the State Coordinator in determining who will escort the media during the investigation and who is authorized to do interviews.
Make arrangements (time, date and place) to meet the media at the location.
Overview of the Officer’s Planning Meeting
The Officer’s planning meeting is held to determine the following.
Are additional resources needed? (Instrumentation, rentals)
Which members are participating in the ghost hunt (compose the Team). Ensure that the Team is balanced (experience and skills) and that the Charter members are selected fairly.
What controls are required for the Ghost Hunt and how they will be maintained (define).
Assign duties for participating members.
Implement a schedule that moves teams from location to location at regular intervals and allows for periodic breaks for each of the teams. In certain instances, the team may be mobile and not stationary. In this case, the team moves from one place to another and calls any information back to a team stationed at the base.
Identify problems with the operational plan and correct them.
Approve and implement the plan.
Controls
After the investigative team arrives at the location, the equipment must be inspected and prepared. Equipment on an investigation serves two purposes. One is that it eliminates natural causes, for example, a video camera would see anyone interfering with an object that is supposed to move by itself. The other is to actually record phenomena. The instruments must be positioned where they cannot move. Try to deploy instruments close to each other if at all possible.
After the instruments have been deployed, the Team assigns an area as the base station and has a final briefing on the objective of the investigation and the protocols assigned to the location. Controls are then implemented. Typical controls for an investigation include (but are not limited to) the following:
The investigation team is locked inside the building. All doors and windows must be secured. This is to prevent any interference from outside sources. In the case of an outdoor investigation, the perimeter of the area must be monitored or secured in some fashion.
All equipment that is used by the investigators (meters, cameras and such) must be inspected and have an operational check performed in front of the Team captain and a SHIELD representative. New batteries are required in all instrumentation.
All personnel must be accounted for at all times. This includes authorized by-standers such as building owners and employees. All team members need to have radio communication with the base station.
Power to the location must be turned off at the breaker box. If complete power cannot be turned off, then attempt to shut off breakers in the areas where the investigation is focusing on. This is done to eliminate man made electromagnetic fields.
Movement around the location is controlled and monitored. The Team Captain must approve any deviation from the assigned positions or unauthorized movement. Positions of the Team and approved movement around the location are briefed to the team during the pre-investigation briefing.
A single investigator should never be left alone.
The Ghost Hunt
1. Establish a Base Area
After the team has arrived at the site, the first step in a ghost-hunt is to establish a “base” area. The base is the primary place where briefings will be conducted and serves as a rendezvous point for the team while at the location. The decision of where to put the base is important. It should not be in an area where known activity as occurred if at all possible. Since this area is also where equipment cases and other items are kept, it should also be secure or have a secure area nearby where those items can be placed while the ghost hunters are away.
Check Out the Equipment: Look over the equipment and perform function tests. This step also requires that new batteries are installed in all equipment to be used and that this is done in the presence of the Team Captain. Synchronize all instruments and the time stamp on cameras with the team captain’s watch.
Ops Briefing: The Team Captain now briefs the group on the plan. This includes where the hunt will begin, where it concludes and the sequence of events in between. The Ops Briefing may also include reminders about rules for ghost hunting and an emphasis on being thorough and keeping controls intact. Again, everyone participating in the investigation should always know where the others are so that there is not any confusion or misinterpretations. Brief the members on their assigned duties during the ghost hunt.
Safety Briefing: Following the Ops Briefing, the Team Captain now briefs the team on all known hazards associated with the location and any steps that need to be performed to ensure the safety of the group. The Safety Briefing should also include emergency procedures that describe what to do if someone is injured during the ghost-hunt.
The Walk-Through: This step consists of walking through the location and pointing out certain areas for identification purposes. During the initial walk-through or at any other time during the investigation try not to unnecessarily touched or move objects. The natural environment should be left alone.
No participant in the investigation (other than the Team Leader, Site Manager and Operations Officer) should be given any information about the haunting before the hunt. If they then witness something on the night of the hunt that agrees with previous reports, it obviously greatly strengthens the case.
2. Execute the plan
The ghost-hunt now begins. The Team will have some idea on where paranormal incidents have occurred by looking at the map prepared during the investigation of the site. However, it is very important to not place too much of an emphasis on these areas because the information provided to the team is intentionally limited to prevent investigator bias. It is also possible those things were missed during the initial survey or that the haunting is moving about the location in a pattern. Be sure to check all areas of the location thoroughly.
After the initial run through, the Team meets at Base and is briefed on the phenomena that have been reported at the location. Information gathered during the first run through is compared with the information obtained during the investigation(s). Adjustments to the operations plan are made at this time (if needed) to focus on areas that have significant comparisons.
3. Record any findings
Hopefully, something interesting will occur during the ghost-hunt. These incidents are called “EVENTS” for the purpose of identification and are listed in numerical order as they are encountered. It is extremely important that every detail that can be accounted for is logged and recorded. Always log every event that seems out of the ordinary (doors that lock, electrical problems, chandeliers swaying, strange lights, etc.) Videotape everything for proof. Form 001 is used by SGHA for recording events that have occurred during a ghost hunt. In particular, three items are very important.
1)Electromagnetic Fields: Type, Power level and Frequency
2)Temperature Variations
3)Photographs taken during the event
4. Investigate the Event and Mark it on the Map
Mark on the map everything that the team came across. Then, add in the important points such as position of team members / witnesses and the apparent track of the phenomena (if applicable). After an event has occurred, it is important to investigate the event. Note whether the site is likely to have been seen by pedestrians or other people at the time of the event.
Take photographs of all important points of the incident. Put an object of known size in the field of view to act as a scale marker. Shoot the whole scene from different angles as well as taking details of particular points. Ensure that any controls implemented for the ghost hunt are kept intact / followed. Finally, look at the scene again. Try to imagine what happened by visualizing and replaying the original incident. Doing so might allow one to notice something that may have been missed before and that may have a bearing on the event.
5. Surveillance
The basic principle of conducting surveillance is to split the investigators up into teams of two or more. Each team is then stationed at a particular location to look for phenomena and operate any instruments set up or assigned there.
Anything unusual is radioed back to base so that it can be recorded. The rotation schedule moves teams from location to location at regular intervals. Breaks are also scheduled to allow the investigators time to rest.
The teams are moved to prevent boredom. It is important that a single investigator is never left alone. This is done to prevent psychosomatic response and misidentification of natural causes of phenomena. This is most likely to happen during bathroom and refreshment breaks.
If remote monitoring is employed, two investigators should watch the monitor at all times unless the plan specifically states to record the cameras without monitoring. This may be done if the investigation is short on manpower.
If the cameras are monitored, anything unusual seen on the monitor must be reported to the team captain immediately so that it can be investigated as soon as possible. The monitoring station should be set up in the established base area so cameras can be checked if an event is radioed in by any of the surveillance teams.
Additionally, two investigators need to be assigned to a “stand-by” team. This team is deployed at the base station and if a significant event is reported, the standby team proceeds to that area to investigate the occurrence.
After the surveillance is completed, the Team captain should set up a debriefing. Review your work. Go back and study each of your steps. Did you do everything correctly? Did you find all the information that you could? Is your research valid? If you do find a mistake in your work try to determine how it affected the outcome up to this point.
All data from the surveillance is recorded on SGHA Form 001. Additional information may be recorded in the form of attachments.
Once the Team arrives back home it begins to work on the final written report. Include stories, facts, evidence, theories and conclusions and any other information prudent to the final report. Be sure to include maps and historical information. Double and triple check all of these steps and your work involved in them. Look for any area in your investigation that could be considered incomplete and then go back and do your best to fill in that area. Have you done as much as possible in this investigation?
The final report needs to be completed in a timely matter. The general guideline is that the report is completed within two weeks of the investigation. Once the final report is completed it is submitted to the Charter’s Secretary who will turn it over for a case review by the State Coordinator.
6. Replicate Events (Reconstructions), Natural Causes
Sometimes, reconstructing events at the original site can lead to a normal explanation of the event. Suppose, for instance, that a weird groaning noise was heard by one of the investigators in an old derelict building. Upon further examination, it was discovered that the wind produces just such a noise when it blows through the building from a particular direction.
Other odd noises or smells could be produced by animals or nearby vegetation. The ghost hunter should follow where the facts lead. Often those facts will need to explanations with a basis in a natural cause.
7. Debriefing and Submitting the Data
After the ghost-hunt has concluded, the Team Captain will sit down with the investigators to discuss the events encountered during the ghost-hunt. Each investigator gives his or her opinion of the event, and if necessary the team can revisit the site the next morning to reexamine certain areas.
The purpose of the debriefing is to examine all the events from all possible angles. Different phenomena may be interpreted in different ways and this may be apparent by examining the viewpoints of those involved in the ghost-hunt. After the debriefing, the final results are recorded and submitted to Logistics with the map & Form 001.