Introduction

We recognise that people have expectations when they attend an event,

and these are normally based on their beliefs. There

are people who are particularly sensitive and seem to pick up on

many different atmospheres and spirit activity within a location. There are

others who are completely sceptical and have come out of a need to prove

that they were right and that nothing will happen as spirits and ghosts do

not exist. You then have the middle of the road customers who are open to

experience and come with a sense of hope that something may happen to

completely sway their belief of the afterlife.

Supernatural Activity incorporate all of these expectations into our ghost

hunt events and we are fully trained to recognise the differing emotions

that people are going through whilst on an event. These emotions are

always heightened due to the alien atmosphere that people find

themselves in. I mean how many times would you sit in a dark torture

chamber where you cannot see the hand in front of your face and feel quite

normal? We take this very aspect into account before we look at the

paranormal prospects of anything. It is important to us that our customers

are taken care of and whilst we encourage them to be involved in all of our

events we also know that we have a duty of care to them whilst placed in

these situations, which may well be out of their own comfort zones.

The Beginnings of A Ghost Hunt Event

Before we even consider offering our clients a location to investigate we

have to do a lot of work in preparation. Once we have researched our

location as being haunted by carrying out our own investigation, we the

have to look at the logistics of holding a public event at the location. This

preparation includes the Health and Safety of the location, the feasibility of

allowing a group of customers to move freely around the location and also

the expense associated with the location. On every event we would expect

a member of staff from the location to stay with us throughout the ghost

hunt. We would have to look at the Insurance elements of the location and

ensure that we are fully covered for anything that may happen through

public liability insurance. Once we have the logistics out of the way we

then get down to the costs. Many locations are extremely expensive to

hire and we have to pass this cost on to our customers.

At Supernatural Activity we believe that the opportunity to be part of a

ghost hunt should be affordable to everybody and we try very hard to keep

our costs down to a minimum to ensure that it is inclusive to all. We even

take deposits so that customers can book an event and pay for it later

when they have saved for it.

With the finances sorted out we then have to put our event up on the

website and attempt to make it look suitably terrifying in order for people

to want to come. We never lie on the website and we never try to over

exaggerate a location. However, we do want people to come to the event

so we do put a taster up of the type of paranormal activity that has been

found at the location just to give our customers an idea of why it is deemed

to be haunted.

Many customers book in twos or threes but some book larger numbers.

We originally thought that it would be problematic to introduce large

groups into our public events but we have discovered that there is so much

common ground between them and other guests that it has never been a

problem. Nearly everyone that turns up to an event wants the same thing.

This is that they want some kind of proof of paranormal activity. Even

though they may seem giggly and excited or challenging and dubious they

are still there and the fact that they are means they are expecting

something from the event. I do think that many people are shocked by

what can be seen to be bossiness on the events but the structure and the

boundaries that we put in place are absolutely imperative to a good ghost

hunt event and usually appreciated by all of our guests.

The Team

If you can imagine that we are working with differing groups of people in

terms of age, background, seriousness and humour then you can

appreciate why we have to take a broad outlook on making it enjoyable for

each and everyone of them. We have absolutely no hope whatsoever if we

working to the agenda of a small group. Each guest is as important as

another and this is how we see things on all of our events.

On each event we have a team. This team is hand picked for the event

and for the number of people attending it. We always adapt the amount of

team to the amount of people. Usually this is a ratio of 2 member of staff

to 8 people. Sometimes more staff are in attendance but never any less.

The staff themselves are made up as follows:

Paranormal Investigators

Host

Co‐Host

Security Crew

The team is there to ensure that the event runs smoothly and that all the

controls (which we will talk about later) are in place. It also gives us a good

balance between those that believe in the spirit world and those that are

investigating that fact.

We ask all of our guests to challenge our Mediums and tell them not to

settle for what they are told but to ask as many questions as they can

about what is being said.

The paranormal team are there to ensure that measurements and

readings are recorded and that all the guests are feeling comfortable with

what is happening. Our host who has complete control over the event

itself is the person who will structure the event and ensure the smooth

running of the ghost hunt. The host is really the person who has overall

responsibility for everything that happens during the ghost hunt itself.

Our co‐hosts will support the Host and ensure that timings are kept and

that evidence is recorded. They will also ensure that our guests are given

all that they need in terms of refreshments and also to be there to talk to

them to hear their experiences.

Ghost Hunting Equipment

We use a lot of equipment on our ghost hunts. This includes dowsing

rods, crystal pendulums, EMF readers and temperature thermometers. I

will give you more information about the Dowsing rods and crystal

pendulums in a little while but the EMF readers and temperature

thermometers are wonderful for getting some scientific feedback into

what is happening.

EMF (electromagnetic field) readers can detect energy fields. They can

sensitive to electric cables and other such electrical equipment. However,

the fascination with them is when they come on after they have been stati

in the same area and the actual atmosphere has not apparently changed.

We have been able to outline shapes with it on some of our events from

human forms to the shape of a small dog with tail. Laser thermometers

can detect temperature changes.

Temperatures can obviously go up due to the amount of people in one

area. However, if we detect a temperature change of more or less than 2

degrees we know that this is not natural. Many paranormal investigators

have some very high tech equipment when they attend haunted locations

and they use them well. The problem that we find with a huge range of

equipment is that we spend a lot of time showing people how to use the

equipment instead of ghost hunting.

Dowsing rods and dowsing pendulums are fascinating objects and give us

a lot of fun as well as being brilliant ghost hunting tools. They are used in

every day life as a way of giving us answers to difficult decisions. Some

people actually run their life by the power of the dowsing rod which I find

quite dangerous myself but hey ho each to their own.

Dowsing pendulums are fascinating. When watching somebody use a

dowsing pendulum it is always up for interpretation whether that

pendulum is being moved by the user. On ghost hunt investigations they

are very useful when attempting to communicate with spirit. The ways to

ensure that they are being used correctly are through demonstration and

allowing the observer to use the pendulum on a personal basis. I will never

forget the first time that I used a dowsing pendulum and was absolutely

astounded by the fact that it really worked. It doesn’t matter whether

people believe that it is being moved by the user it is what is believed by

the user that is important. In order to gain the confidence of new users to

this form of communication it is important that they become attuned to a

pendulum and begin to know what their yes and no responses are. Once

this is interpreted it can be used quite safely during a ghost hunt

investigation.

The dowsing pendulum will swing in a particular direction for yes and in

another direction for no. The user needs to ensure that they keep their

arms and hands as still as possible. The word “stop” should be used

between each question to ensure that the Dowsing pendulum settles

before answering the next. This is perhaps the most fascinating aspect of

it all. Watching a moving object stop on demand without any attempt by

yourself to stop it is very mysterious.

Once you have ascertained the correct responses these forms of

communication are fantastic to use on ghost hunts in very active areas

when communicating with spirit.

As you can see the dowsing rods and pendulums are extremely fascinating

and mysterious complements to the scientific ghost hunting equipment.

However, it is important to recognise that they are up for interpretation

due to the personal use of them. 

Filming equipment is an absolute must on any ghost hunt. We actively

encourage our guests to bring as much filming equipment as they can to

ensure that any activity is captured for evidence and prosperity. We know

that the cameras can be distracting during vigils and séances so at these

times we do ask our guests to turn their cameras off. Those with night

vision without backlights are normally ok. The light of the camera can be

quite distracting. At these times we normally have a cameraman who wil

film discreetly.

On many of our events we put up locked off cameras to ensure that ever

the unused areas of the building are not missed whilst paranormally active.

Many people love using cameras. Apart from the obvious which is that it

allows them to film anything ghostly, it also acts as a security blanket and

becomes something that people can focus on whilst they are feeling

scared.

The biggest problem that we do have with cameras is when somebody

forgets to shout the word “flash” before taking a picture and manages to

blind everybody. People then begin to think that they have seen orbs for

the next ten minutes whilst their eyes readjust.

The Location

We have many locations on our website. Each is very different and very

well researched. We look carefully at why people choose the location that

they book for their ghost hunt event. We can see from our database that it

can be mainly due to the area where the location is based. Many people do

not want to travel huge distances to be part of the ghost hunt so will look

for something nearer to home. Others may be so involved in the art of

ghost hunting that they are prepared to travel anywhere to get their fix of

the paranormal.

We have learned recently that we can actually work well without

Mediums. This was quite by accident when our Medium was unable to

attend an event at the last minute and we had to use our own powers of

persuasion to communicate with the spirits. This worked so well that we

now have investigation only locations where we do not use Mediums and

our guests have to do all the work.

These are normally smaller and more intimate ghost hunt events which

lends itself well to the work we have to do. A good example of this is when

we went to the Georgian House in Derby and managed to get all of our

customers involved to an extent that we were all as one on the event which

really enhanced the ghost hunt for all of us.

We have some massive locations such as Ruthin Gaol , Nantyclwyd Y Dre , Tutbury Castle,

Alton Tower Ruins, Dudley Castle, Woodchester Mansion, The Galleries of

Justice and many more. We also have very small locations such as Ye Olde

Salutation Inn and Ostrich Inn.

We get many phone calls from customers who really want us to say that if

they come on a ghost hunt at a particular location there will be a lot of

paranormal activity. We are honest with every customer and tell them that

we never make anything happen and anything that does happen is not

affected by us.

However, we also make it very clear to them that we can never guarantee

paranormal activity on any event. If nothing happens at all then it is bad

luck but unavoidable. All we can do is set the conditions within our format

and structure of the event to ensure that we have done all that we can to

elicit any paranormal activity.

We have been very fortunate to date and have only ever been let down

once by a location that had previously on many occasions been very active.

However, that is the way the cookie crumbles and we cannot accept

responsibility for the lack of activity. What we would be responsible for is if

we panicked and made activity fit just to let the guests go home thinking

that something had actually happened. I personally believe that our guests

are very intelligent and deserve honesty about what they are witnessing.

Behaviour whilst on a ghost hunt

There has been a time when one of our guests was filmed throwing a

stone during an event and he was immediately evicted from the ghost

hunt. The reason for this is that the guests are informed of what would

happen if they did do something like this and the reasons why. They all

agree not to so when we see somebody doing it we have to ask ourselves

what their motivation might be. I would be extremely annoyed if I had

been made to believe that the stone throwing had been paranormal and

then found out at a later date that it had been affected by somebody.

We take our role as an authentic ghost hunting company very seriously

indeed and do not entertain any behaviour that puts our company name at

risk.

However, it is also important to mention that there are times when we can

act very abnormally during a ghost hunt event. We do take this into

consideration when behaviour is out of character or bizarre. I have been

a ghost hunt where I have felt completely ok and I was thinking about what

we were doing next and then found myself on the floor wailing loudly.

This was not only extremely embarrassing to say the least but also

completely out of character. I prefer to do my crying in private and there I

was unashamedly letting everybody have the benefit of my angst. This

really was not normal behaviour for me and it has helped me to realise and

to understand that people can be overcome, either with emotion or in a

spirit sense. The reason that I am mentioning this is because people do

sometimes behave out of character during ghost hunt events and instead

of condemning them immediately to eviction we do need to know why

they have behaved in the ways that they have in order to eliminate any

paranormal activity.

If anything happens on your ghosthunt with

Supernatural Activity Ghost Hunts

It happened for REAL !