Equipment used in Paranormal Investigations

Many devices currently in use by the paranormal community were originally developed for other uses such as EMF Detectors and Thermal Imaging Devices. Others like the Spirit Box and Ovilus devices were developed specifically for paranormal research.

EMF (Electromagetic field)Detectors

Several common paranormal EMF detector types – The Ghost Meter, a Mel Meter, and a K2 meter.

One of the more commonly used paranormal devices, the EMF detector was first developed for use by electricians to detect the presence of electricity. EMF detectors for paranormal use have been redesigned to meet the needs of the investigators. Ghosts are believed to be made up of EMF and so it follows that a reading on an EMF detector may indicate the presence of a ghost.

Digital Voice Recorders

Digital voice recorders range vastly in quality, price, and appearance but in reality most voice recorders including the one on your phone work quite well for paranormal investigation. Digital voice recorders’ particular talent is picking up EVP s but of course they can be used for types of paranormal sound recordings.

Spirit Box

FM/AM radios have recently been adopted for use by the paranormal community but not in their standard form. Spirit Boxes (a.k.a. Frank’s Box) are FM/AM radios that have been modified to scan through the channels on either band to create a type of white noise or static and which makes them ITC devices. Rapid scanning through the channels happens at the microsecond rate in to cut down on the number of radio voices coming through the box. Spirit Box voices can be heard in real time but extreme care (and user experience) must be taken before a voice is declared a spirit voice.

Thermal Imaging Devices

FLIR (forward looking infrared) imaging device (left). ASI’s own Ruby the ghost hunting
cattle dog shown in visible light (center) and in FLIR imaging (right) using a FLIR E5

Thermal imaging has been used for military and security purposes for some time now and has become a popular and effective ghost hunting tool too. There are a variety of thermal imaging devices but the two most common technologies are FLIR (see above) and those used for night surveillance (see below). Both “see in temperature” but have different imaging outputs. FLIR does not provide an onboard heat source where most of the surveillance styles do come with a circle of heat LEDs.

Night surveillance camera (left) with circle of heat LEDs on camera front. A bathroom hallway (right) captured with thermal imaging. The bathroom was dark in the visible light spectrum (to the naked eye) but is illuminated in the infrared range using heat LEDs.

More to be added to this page soon!