How does Antietam Paranormal Society Approach Investigations?

One of the most asked questions we get is "What do you do?". While this question can be answered in many ways, we know that many people just want to know what we do on our investigations. I wrote up a description years ago that I shared on Facebook and this blog includes a lot of that information. Each paragraph represents a step, stage, or just a little tid bit of information about how Antietam Paranormal Society approaches investigations.

While ghosts and spirits know no time, A.P.S. investigates during the evening and night hours. Our decision to do our investigations in this time is due to our members availability and the decreased contamination during the night hours.

When we first arrive at a location we like to take the team on a walk through so that they have a good lay of the land so to speak. We are able to point out camera/ voice recorder locations and familiarize them with any hot spots or safety hazards. Once this is complete our members break off into teams: equipment set up, baselines, and client paperwork. As the case manager I like to have these documents done prior to the investigation however we need to make sure everything is complete before we begin.

Set up is comprised of determining the best location for cameras that does not create any contamination for the IR. One of the things people do not realize is how much IR reflects off of surfaces and how you cannot point IR cameras at each other. There are many components to getting the right camera angle while maximizing your view. We also make sure that the audio recorders are in a safe place up high away from any noise generating machinery or windows. Having the ambient noise of an appliance or road can completely contaminate an entire audio file. (Recorder Mics should also point out towards the room not into a wall or other surface.) Once these are set up we note them in our Data Log.

Baselines are done throughout the location to document temperature and EMF. Noting the temperature allows us a view into any natural phenomenon that solves the riddle of sudden temperature drops in a specific area. If we have documented a room has a draft then in many cases we cannot use a temperature drop as a "paranormal occurrence". Keeping track of EMF tells us where our equipment can potentially malfunction or create false positives. It also tells a story if it is really high. High EMF can cause headaches and strange feelings. This could solve a clients issue with one area of their home.

During our investigations we break our group into teams usually male and female, and do sessions in various areas throughout the location. Our teams are separated male and female to see if any spirits prefer one gender over another when it comes to communication. This technique has worked very well on many investigations. While we investigate the areas that are "hot spots" we attempt to recreate the experiences they have had with natural phenomenon and then attempt to get responses to questions. At this point if our investigators know historical information we would utilize some of this information to obtain a response. We also love to utilize 'trigger objects' that are geared towards the spirit that is thought to be in the location. We have used cigars, tobacco products, whiskey, bibles, playing cards, confederate money, dolls, balls, stuffed animals and more. These could potentially trigger a response from any spirits that we are attempting to contact. (Audio Note: When we begin audio recordings for stationary recorders and session recorders we tag the audio at the beginning with the time, date, location, area, where the recorder has been placed and investigators present. This keeps a digital stamp of all the valuable information needed for any future reference if the files "properties" are compromised in some way. All of this information will then point you in the right direction on referencing any documents involved with that particular case. Also, when reviewing the audio the time stamp will give you a time to note when you capture an anomaly.)

Our teams of male and female are usually only investigating one at a time. If the boys are out investigating the girls are on DVR duty. DVR duty is comprised of watching for any anomalies on any of the cameras and to make notes on our logs. We keep track of where everyone is during the investigation for a reference when reviewing audio and video to make sure no one was in a specific area if we capture any anomalies.

While we expect that a client be present at the home or business while we investigate we aren't always able to include them on the investigation. There have been many investigations that we are surprised by random guests stopping in or joining in investigations. This can be very frustrating because we are serious about helping the client and this is very disrespectful. In the last few posts I have made about paranormal investigations I have mentioned a few questions regarding who makes up the household. Pets for instance make it very difficult during an investigation because of audio contamination. If a client has an apartment or home that is attached to another home it can be virtually impossible to use audio as a piece of data to validate the clients claims due to contamination by the neighbors.

(Note: Our members/ investigators are required to have a digital voice recorder. This audio allows them to create a Investigation Report that will include valuable information regarding any experiences that may not have been logged on our Investigation Activity Log. The Report outlines time frames at areas within the location, experiences, and any audio clips)

Once our investigation is complete we pack up and begin our trek home. I don't have to let you know that at this point we are all exhausted and ready to hit the hay.

Rebecca Boyer

Co-Founder/ Case Manager

Antietam Paranormal Society