Services - Education - Tools of the Trade - Low-Tech Equipment

Introduction
The Ghosts of Ohio uses various pieces of equipment during the investigations it conducts. We would like to explain what types of equipment we use, how each works, how and why we use it, and the pros and cons.

• Analog and Digital Audio Recorders
• Ambient Temperature Devices
• Digital Video Recorder (DVR)
• Electromagnetic Field (EMF) meters
• Low-Tech Equipment
• Non-contact Digital IR Thermometer
• Vernier LabPro
• Video Cameras

In this edition of tools of the trade, we will be taking a little departure from the usual. Instead of an article about a high-tech piece of equipment, I will be writing about low-tech items that have been used for a long time in paranormal research. They are things that can be bought rather inexpensively and don’t require a degree to use. I’ll discuss how each item works normally and then how it is used in the paranormal research field.

The first item is a simple compass. It is a magnetized needle that floats in liquid. Since the needle is magnetized, it aligns itself with the magnetic field of the Earth and points in a north/south direction. It can be used during an investigation in place of an EMF meter. An EMF meter detects fluctuations in the electric and magnetic fields. A compass can also detect these changes. A change in the electric or magnetic field around a compass will cause it to act strangely because it is no longer influenced by the Earth’s natural magnetic field. One advantage a compass has over an EMF meter is that most EMF meters are unidirectional pieces of equipment. It is designed to detect these fluctuations in the electromagnetic fields that are right in front of it. Theoretically changes in these fields anywhere around a compass should affect how the compass works. Another advantage is that it is not as sensitive as a tri-field meter so you can move around with it.

The next thing is used quite a bit but is a little more complicated to explain. It is a simple object that has been in use for possibly thousands of years but how it works is still a mystery. Dowsing rods have been used to help find water, minerals, and other things. No one really knows how they work, but it is believed that they are tools that help focus a person’s natural psychic energy. By concentrating on something, the dowsing rods help direct a person to that object. Over the years, dowsing has proven to be very accurate as a means to find water. In fact, even today, dowsers are often employed by well drilling companies to help find underground water. There are several types of dowsing: forked-stick dowsing, dowsing rods, and map dowsing. Paranormal investigators have predominately used dowsing rods. The rods are small L-shaped pieces of wire, either copper or steel, and can even be made out of coat hangers.

In the paranormal field, dowsing rods are used to help find everything from the energy of spirits to unmarked graves. They are used by loosely holding the rods away from your body so they are perpendicular to the ground and each other. Then, by concentrating on the spirit or unmarked grave, the rods are supposed to point in the direction you need to go. Once you reach the spot you were focusing on, the rods will cross or point away from each other to indicate you have reached what you were looking for.

Although it is believed that anyone can use dowsing rods, it might not always work. Some people seem to have a better ability to focus on what they are searching for than others. One way to test their accuracy is to have someone with an EMF meter follow around the dowser and see if they are really being guided to spots that have a higher reading than the rest of the area.