White Noise

Yes, thanks! I'll consider this stuff carefully, when I'm not alone in my office near midnight. I do get the creeps here alone sometimes. Silly, I know. It is intriguing, though, matter how it comes out. I will have a listen in the morning.

Peace and good health to you and your little one. Your first child?

Thank you! My third, actually. There'll be close to seven years' gap between this one and my second daughter.

Sekhmet, how long have you been ghost hunting? And is it just a hobby, or a job? Where al lhave you gone, and what is your website?

Oh geez...how to answer all this and not sound like an arrogant goob...

This is far from being my job, but I have taught classes on ghosthunting in the past. Nothing regular, just something I do on certain weekends in Gettysburg. I'm actually a historian and researcher in terms of my "day job". Heavy on the living history aspect.

I've been ghosthunting since before it was considered "kewl", sometime in the early 90s. It actually started with a journalism project my senior year of high school and I've been hooked ever since. Actually, that'd put it in spring of '92. Good lord, I'm getting old. LOL

I've been to a lot of places, many of them private residences and properties. Cemeteries are always a good place for short investigations, but really I was usually in them doing genealogical work and restoration more than ghosthunting...one kinda grew into the other by a few strange twists of circumstance. Now, for some of the places you might've heard of:

Gettysburg, PA - my first love, name the location and I've been there
Ohio State Reformatory - Mansfield, OH
Moundsville Penitentiary - Moundsville, WV
Eastern State Penitentiary - Philadelphia, PA
Fort Mifflin - Philadelphia, PA
Point Lookout - St. Mary's Co., MD
Penn State University
St. Vincent College - Latrobe, PA

...and others I know I'm forgetting. LOL Anyway, I've been around a good bit by myself and with other groups over the years. I had a bit of a dry period for a couple of years while I was off having children, getting married, and other real life things, and I'm presently the historian and an investigator with Spirited Ghosthunting (www.spiritedghosthunting.com), and I'm the audio-to-chat transcriber for the Saturday evening live investigations with the Oklahoma City Ghost Club (www.okcgc.com or www.researchwebcam.com to go directly to the cams).

Since I get the uncomfortable sensation that I've completely ganked this thread, if anyone has any other questions that has to do with ghosthunting and not necessarily White Noise or EVP, feel free to PM me or start another thread.

No, I'm glad you did. It makes more sense to me that you would have come to this together with history -- especially the history of a big, desperate, costly battle like Gettysburg.

I sometimes get funny looks when I say that ghosts and ghost stories come as an occupational hazard, but it's absolutely true. Being a living historian, going to historic places, and being familiar with the life and culture of the corresponding time period makes you...well, kind of like a target in multiple senses. The interaction with the public makes you a frequent recipient of stories, you're "in the right place" for unexplained phenomena to happen, and a lot of people will tell you that being in the period clothing seems to take down a few barriers, perhaps making one "look familiar" to a spirit and therefore more prone to communication attempts. Might be why there's a lot of reenactors and their ilk who can sit you down and tell you hours and hours of stories both passed around and personally experienced.

Well -- I'm not sure about the video, but I did hear what you indicated, and I'll take your word that none of the hunting party made the sounds. I wonder what I would hear if I had no previous expectations. Not that I'm being skeptical, but that is how you would have to do it if you wanted to be able to test it systematically. You would just make sure the listener was cued that the sound was coming.

Brrrr.

You have to be skeptical when you're listening to the data in the first place. As much as you -want- to have captured something, the odds are actually very much stacked against it. I catch a little flak from time to time because some think I'm being a little too critical when something's found. I'd rather err on the side of caution than be too eager to peg everything as paranormal.

You've gotten quite matter of fact about it. I'm excitable enough (I mean, neurologically -- just chronically hot-wired and a jumpy sort) to find it aversive. I assume you have no fear that any contact could harm you or affect you negatively, unless it was by your own attitude?

::cough:: You weren't around the night I startled and screamed so hard I unhinged my jaw...LOL

It's not that I'm totally unafraid...I've still got those hard-wired instincts that make you somewhat nervy in the dark and prone to startlement. There's a few other things that tend to set me off too, if I'm not careful. It sounds like I'm being overly-blase about the whole thing, but truthfully, after awhile you get used to a lot of it. A common caveat in the community is that one has a lot more to fear from the living than the dead, and it's absolutely true.

I've run into things that have been angry, nasty, violent, and possibly insane, and some have been physically demonstrative (which I'll tell about in the other thread). They are *far* rarer than some would have you believe. You have to be careful, yes...but not fearful.

Besides, I have this tendency to keep my head during the emergency in question, then quietly lose my mind when it's all over.

A good survival tactic that. Keeping your head in an emergency is a good thing, however if I ran into, or believed I was about to encounter one of the formentionend malevolent, angry, or phyiscally assualtive spirits, I believe I would break world records in sprinting and have to locate a fresh pair of pants.

LMAO Our fearless leader of the group carries a spare set of pants with her on all outings now, for precisely that reason. It happened to her on a hunt awhile back and she had nothing to change into.

OH wow. That's awesome that it really happened to someone. sad for her, but hilarious.

DH and i watched this Halloween! Fitting movie for the day. I really liked it! I am very into the EVP stuff!
We have some friends in Gettysburg that do this alot they have sent us some of the EVP they have gotten.

We also meet the Ghost Hunters in Alltoona PA the first show they did for there first seson they stayed at the hotel we were staying at. To bad we didn't know at that time Whats TAP"S ment!