One ghost-hunting crew recently employed its high-tech gear to locate the spirits that always become of interest this time of year at an examination of a purportedly haunted mansion in a rural location an hour south of Richmond, Virginia, called the Edgewood Plantation.

In order to capture any unusual activity in the Sun Prairie Cemetery in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, paranormal investigator Noah Voss directs a camera at an electromagnetic frequency gadget.

Chris Williams, the tech manager for the RIP team, enumerates some of the crucial tools they bring on investigations, including an electromagnetic field (EMF) detector and a temperature gun.

Investigators assert that although the EMF meter measures electromagnetic fields produced by broken cables and radio waves, it can also pick up ghostly activity. The chilly spots in the air that, according to ghost stories, mark haunted locations are measured using temperature guns. Williams also advises bringing along a few walkie-talkies, surveillance equipment, motion detectors, and night-vision cameras.

However, there is one instrument in his arsenal that isn't quite as technological.

He says, 'I usually want to have one bottle of holy water or holy ointment for everyone.' I haven't needed it and I pray I never will.

Untrustworthy Minds

This reliance on technology is questioned by Loyd Auerbach. He believes that someone with psychic talents is better suited to ghost-hunting than someone with a lot of devices. He is a professor at a unique parapsychology department at Atlantic University in Virginia Beach.

But according to Auerbach, technology can offer some hints; he uses the example of following an unseen boat on a lake.

In reality, he argues, 'we're utilizing technology to detect the boat's wake; from that, we can deduce that some things are going on in the environment, given we know there's a boat there to begin with.'

To explain what he observes during paranormal investigations in terms of science is Nickell's responsibility. All the evidence that ghost hunters have presented to him using various gadgets can now be explained by natural occurrences. According to Nickell, the strong EMF readings that the investigators believed came from the purported ghost cat are particularly questionable.

“They're shocked to get results in a historic property, but there are a variety of non-ghost sources present, including damaged wiring, adjacent microwave towers, sunspot activity, and more. There are electromagnetic fields present in all of the electronic devices they are carrying, including the walkie-talkies, TV cameras, and other devices.”