Ghosts, Sundays, Rapport, and Unintended Provoking

During some ghost investigations, you can focus on a religious context for better EVP and real-time communication with ghosts.

In this four-page report, Fiona described two very different techniques:

1. Hold a serious and era-appropriate (but informal) religious service and ask the ghost to be one of the speakers, talking about his or her life.  Many ghosts from the 19th century, and earlier, are familiar and comfortable with this kind of event.

2. Do things that are likely to irk (but not enfuriate) your ghost enough to respond by talking (or lecturing) to you. This could be seen as a passive form of provoking, but it should be handled carefully.

Important: This isn’t intended to cause long-term pain for the ghost, or insult, taunt, or ridicule him (or her).  Handled correctly, it can elicit an almost immediate response that you can record as EVP or use with real-time communication devices.

These concepts became successful in my research starting in 2009.  I discovered them during research in Haverhill (MA, USA), when my trousers (early American women usually wore dresses) and flippant attitude annoyed the ghost of an early 19th-century minister.  It was a very successful investigation.

Look for a book about this topic in the future.

(The free report was a one-day-only special treat during my 13 Days of Halloween Treats giveaway.)

Church photo courtesy of Ove Tøpfer, Norway.