Ghostly Activities

We're ordinary folks - investigating ghostly activity.

How to Protect Yourself from Ghostly Energy Draining

On hunts, you sometimes feel sick or discombobulated. It could be the energy leeching effect of the spirit, or it could be a form of psychic attack.

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(image source: newagewizard.com)

Generally, ghosts don’t intend to steal your energy, but it can happen. When they try to communicate, they have to manifest in this realm. That’s no easy feat for the departed, so they take some of your body’s energy to help themselves manifest. Formerly human ghosts will only take what they need and, more importantly, only as much as you let them.

There are a few things you can do to protect yourself from earthly spirits’ energy siphoning. Let’s find out.

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True Ghost Story: Ashburn Neighborhood, Chicago, Illinois

Someone wants something from the basement

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Maria, a proud grandmother, found the perfect home for her family in the Ashburn neighborhood on Chicago’s South side. A few weeks after she moved in, the activity picked up. It got worse when her granddaughter would visit.

Here’s Maria’s story:

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Ghostly Activities on Hiatus for 7-10 Days

Hi Gang,

Ghostly Activities will now go on hiatus while Jake packs up his stuff and pooches, and heads to Los Angeles. We’ll start to post again next week. Expect more info about California hauntings and hunts in the near future. Of course, Chicago will remain a focus of Ghostly Activities’ posts.

Take care,

Jake + Saleen

Our Favorite Haunts: Whaley House, San Diego, California

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The Whaley House is famous for its ghostly activities. It’s been named the most haunted house in the US by Time magazine. The question is: Why is such a nice house, in a such a nice neighborhood, so haunted? Well, it has a little something to do with its location and its history.

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Ghostly Types: Ghouls

Ghouls are a controversial subject. Some ghost hunters believe they’re a subcategory of demons. In other cases, they’re considered a cryptid and left for paranormal investigators to document.

Ghostly Activities can’t say if they’re really a ghost or not. They seem subhuman, so we doubt they were human in life. We’d classify them as part of the demon category until we have more info about them.

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Ghost Hunting Tip: Camera Settings

Ideally, you have a digital camera to set the ISO using its menu. In most cases, 400 ISO works well. In some cameras, you can set it as high as 1000 ISO. You pictures can look grainy at this setting, especially in low-light areas. The 400 ISO is a good point to use. Lower settings don’t pick up enough ambient light to capture an anomaly.

Be careful with your flash. Flashes, contrary to common sense, can help you capture an entity. The light burst doesn’t create out a white out effect and mask a spirit. It can actually help make it clearer in the picture.

There is a big drawback to using a flash: It can make your breath appear as an anomaly. In fact, this is the most likely cause of ghostly pics. You should have a second camera available to take backup pictures. If it also captures the apparition, you have a much stronger case when presenting the evidence.

Make sure you test different settings. You’ll probably find settings that work better for the ghost hunt’s conditions.

EVP Classifications

There are 4 classifications for EVP with Class A recordings being the rarest type.

Class A

This type of recording is very clear. People in the immediate vicinity can make out the words used by the spirit and it’s heard with the ear. There is no need to play back the audio. Class A EVPs usually accompany a highly active, intelligent haunting. Ghostly Activities has yet to capture a Class A EVP.

Class B

Class B is a more common type of EVP. The investigator may not hear it in real time; it’s heard during audio play back. In most cases, you can make out the words after listening to the data a few times. You shouldn’t have to strain to understand the words. Many times, the Class B EVP is laughter, screams, growls and humming. Ghostly Activities captured Class B EVP at the Congress Hotel and a session with a psychic medium.

Class C

Class C EVPs are the most common type of audio evidence. The recording may sound like whispers and it’s hard to understand what’s said by the spirit. You have to use some high-powered audio filters and amplifiers to get something understandable from the data. Ghostly Activities recorded numerous Class C EVPs at the Congress Hotel in Chicago.

Class D

We usually debunk most Class D EVPs as background noise. Many times, it’s your mind matrixing the audio. If we can’t make the data out, we generally disregard this type of phenomenon.

Was Zak Bagans Attacked by an Old Hag?

We’re currently reading “Dark World” by Zak Bagans and he describes a ghostly encounter in the first part of the book. What he describes sounds like an old hag or something very similar.

Let’s analyze his description of the events and decide if it’s an old hag or something more dastardly.

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Ghost Hunting in Cemeteries: How To Prioritize Locations

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Before we get into prioritizing plots, there are a few things to know about ghost hunts in a cemetery:

First - You can hunt during the day. The place is still haunted and you can get good results for EVP collection.

Second - New plots usually do not have activity (since the 1990s) and old plots (over 200 years old) rarely have activity. The ‘sweet spot’ tends to be plots over 50-years-old and under 150-years-old (the 1860s through 1960s).

Third - Look for graves outside the cemetery walls. We’ll explain the reason why after the jump.

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Ghostly Spotlight: The Bell Witch

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Never scorn a woman. It can create a rather unpleasant experience, as John Bell found out in the early 1800s. You see, John met a very nice lady, Kate Batts, who had a bit of a temper. He tried to break off the engagement, but Kate was stubborn and wouldn’t allow it.

That’s when an accident got John out of his initial jam and created the bitchy poltergeist we know as the Bell Witch.

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