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 !