Do you believe in Ghosts?

Who hasn't asked someone else this question? Growing up, we all love talking about ghosts. We tell each other scary stories at sleepovers, play games that involve contacting the spirit world, and have a blast going through haunted houses during Halloween. But every one of us decides at some point whether or not we actually believe in these haunted stories.

Just like most people have talked about ghosts at some point, many people claim to have had personal experiences with them. Some 30+% of Americans claim that they have seen a real ghost. Many others even claim to have taken photos and caught footage of ghosts on tape.

There are so many things that can contribute to people's belief in ghosts that have absolutely nothing to do with the paranormal. When looking at an alleged ghost video there are any number of things that can interfere with the film that might seem to be "otherworldly", but are actually easy to explain.

In the reality TV series Ghost Hunters, a team of real-life Paranormal Investigators explore homes and other buildings where there have been ghost sightings. While on a ghost hunt, they spend hours researching the area, shooting film, and inspecting on foot to see what unusual experiences they might encounter. They even invite the ghosts to talk with and touch them, hoping to come up with hard evidence that there really are ghosts there. But the best thing about this team is that they don't just assume that an unexplained event is a ghost; they try to find a logical explanation for every sound, sight, and touch that they encounter. They'll go through theory after theory, trying to prove that whatever it was could have been caused by something other than a ghost. It's only when they can't prove this that they decide that it really could be a spirit.

Proving that ghosts are around is so much easier than werewolves or vampires. Just a few mechanical toys that go wonky, and boo! There's Casper.

There are many methods that are used to try to prove that ghosts exist. Here are some of the tools that are commonly used on any ghost hunt.

• EVP - Probably the most commonly used tool to show that a house is haunted, Electronic Voice Phenomenon refers to disembodied voices being caught on audio recording equipment. There have even been instances when voices allegedly answered the questions being asked by the people who are recording them.
  
• Video - The most solid way of presenting ghostly evidence. If you're able to get a clear video of an unexplainable moving figure, it is pretty difficult to refute that! There are also various types of video and still image cameras that can be useful to find ghosts. These include infrared cameras and filters, which measure temperature, and have sometimes been found to show evidence of hot and cold spots where they shouldn't logically be found.
  
• Photos - Far more easy to fake than a video, but they can still be prove to be a great piece of evidence. Or at least a great visual aid while telling scary ghost stories.
  
• EMF Meter- It's a very common theory that the presence of a spirit will disrupt the surrounding electromagnetic field, causing drops and spikes, so an EMF meter is a very beneficial tool to help find ghosts. On the other hand, fluctuations in EMF can be accounted to many things, like exposed wires, radio towers, and cordless phones so be on the watch for explanations other than the paranormal.
  
• Geiger counter - Measures fluctuations in radiation in any given area. This tool could be very helpful or not at all when it comes to ghost hunting. Like with the EMF meter, It's difficult to say whether the results will have anything to do with a ghost.
• Personal Experiences - Keep all five senses open! You never know what you might hear, see, smell...or feel. Lets hope you don't taste anything too weird.
  

You probably can't prove that you have a real ghost video if...

• It's orbs - There are just WAY too many alternate explanations for floating dots of light. Dust, reflections, body heat reacting with the film... Don't bother trying to claim that orbs are spirits, because it's practically impossible to prove.
• There is a strange light with no definable form next to you in a photo. Again, like the orbs, there are a million possible explanations that have nothing at all to do with real ghost sightings caught on tape.
• There is a shadow. Come on people! You've got to come up with something that isn't easily explained. There's no way to prove that a shadow is actual ghost footage.
  
• It looks fake. Trust your instincts. After all, how many photos of Bigfoot have we seen and summarily dismissed? Why? Because they look fake.
  
• It's frightening. A scary ghost video probably isn't the real thing because in general, real ghosts seem to be mostly benign. They tend to either ignore us, not know we're here at all, or become mostly harmless pests. Of course there are exceptions to this, but if you've found some truly horrifying ghost footage, it's much more likely that someone created it to scare someone else.
  

It might be real footage of ghosts if...

• There is a recorded voice while no one is talking, or that doesn't match the voice of anyone in the room. Bonus points if you can clearly make out the words.
• There is a strange light next to you with a defined shape in a photo or video, or an undefined shape in a video. On tape, it's much less likely for there to be light disturbance or many of the other explanations that could be used to excuse this in a photo.
• Electronics are malfunctioning in unusual ways. I'm not saying that your house is haunted if your printer refuses to print; but maybe if that same printer is printing the words "I'm here" over and over for no apparent reason, you should really consider it.
• Your pets are acting weird. You need to remember that animals have far sharper senses than we do (and sometimes I think they're smarter too) so it's entirely possible that they are more sensitive to the paranormal than we are. If fluffy is barking incessantly at air, add it to your list of strange happenings.
• Objects are moving on their own. This is a very common way for people to become convinced that their house is haunted. This especially seems to happen if the house is being rearranged or renovated. The theory is that the spirit "living" there wants things to go back to how they were when they were alive. This one can be faked pretty well by someone who knows what they are doing, but if you're by yourself in you house or and a chair pulls out from the table, a door slams shut, and a lamp is suddenly floating... well.. come to your own conclusions. And get it on tape.