CHAPTER 1
From Skeptics to Believers
What is a ghost box?
"What is a ghost box?" you may ask. A ghost box is basicallyan electronic device that sweeps a wide band of frequencieswithout stopping. These bands can and usually do include thefrequencies of your standard AM/FM radio. Many of thesedevices are, in fact, converted radios. The device scans throughthe different frequencies at varying rates while the Listeners tryto hear a message from the great beyond.
High standards for paranormal investigations
When we began our research about the ghost box, wedecided from the start that no matter the outcome, we wouldbe as transparent as possible. Our goal was to allow any andall to take our findings and come to their own conclusions. Ourparanormal investigations adhere to strict scientific guidelinesfor all our team members. When processing evidence welook for all possible natural explanations for the event beingobserved. With that being said, we understand that this levelof scrutiny is not for everyone. Nevertheless, we believe that itis necessary to practice the scientific method when conductinginvestigations. Ironically, our findings have been so spectacularthat when people see the evidence, it seems unbelievable. Wehave been accused on more than one occasion of fabricatingour results. Oddly enough, it is these critics that give us themost pleasure. While this obviously does not help to convinceothers that our findings are valid, it does prove to us that we arenot "just hearing things." When a critic hears the same thingwe do and the only support for his or her lack of belief is thatwe fabricated evidence, it validates our findings, because weknow we did not.
Ghost box experiments are remarkable
If you have never seen our videos, it is hard to understandjust how incredible the process is to watch. While we wereconducting a battlefield investigation in Gettysburg, a couplewho was visiting the site happened upon us during a ghostbox experiment. The Listener with the box in this case wasShawn. He had his hood up and head down while Patrick,the Questioner, asked specific questions about battle events.The couple listened as Shawn provided responses from theghost box to Patrick's questions. The responses were comingso quickly and were following the questions so closely that oneof them said, "He must be a psychic." They were even moreamazed when Shawn removed his hood to reveal that he had onheadphones and could not hear any of the questions Patrick hadasked! This is at the very heart of the double-blind process, andit is sessions like this where the ghost box really shines.
The beginning
We would like to take you through the process by which weeventually accepted the ghost box as a valid tool for paranormalinvestigations. Keep in mind that we did not start this processlightly. We encourage anyone who wishes to follow this pathto take the same approach. We took a long time to includethe ghost box in our evidence. When we began our double-blindexperiments, we wanted to make sure that what we werehearing was truly supernatural. Any researcher should take anobjective approach to his or her investigations. The ghost boxtakes time to get used to, and you may or may not have goodresults right away. No matter how you begin, you should usethis method in a way that can validate findings and verify thatwhat you're hearing is truly supernatural. The bottom line isthat a ghost box should be one tool, but not the only tool, atyour disposal.
Variation of responses by location
As we continued the research in a variety of venues, wewere shocked time and time again not only at our findings,but at how differently each location responded from the ghostbox. Some locations gave no coherent responses whatsoever.We have been on investigations where the box never produceda valid response. We have been on investigations where thebox would talk so much we could not keep up. We performinvestigations in both daylight and darkness, and there seemsto be no difference in how the box performs. Through thecases we present, you will see this diversity of responses and"moods." We do not believe that this is the box's fault, butinstead that it speaks of the disposition of the entities presentat each location.
Variation in the number of spirits
We have investigated a few cemeteries, which haveexhibited their own unique dispositions. Here, as one mayexpect, the ghost box was crowded with people that wanted tocommunicate. Some spirits are open to speak and others arenot. The problem with cemeteries is that the experience canbe so overwhelming that you may not be able to distinguishwho is talking and who is answering. We have had incredibleexperiences at them, though, and in this book we will sharewith you one of the most incredible.
Variation between users
We have also used two different ghost boxes in tandem withtwo separate Listeners to see what would happen. The resultswere astounding! When two Listeners utilized the double blindon two separate boxes, what began to happen was a sort of dualanswer. However, this is not what we expected. Obviously, weknew that it was impossible that both radios would browse thefrequencies at the same time. Different radios have differentspeeds at which they sweep through frequencies, thus makingany kind of synchronization impossible. The boxes also beganfinishing each other's sentences. At one point, we almost felt likewe were watching a tennis match between the two Listeners.This is to say that one box would start talking to the second boxand the second would answer back!
Variation between boxes
So we began the experiment. What happened was that whenwe would ask a question, we would get an answer from bothboxes using different words! One box would say "yes" while theother would say "affirmative." At one point, the boxes seemedto begin talking to each other. A casual observer would see twopeople talking to each other, not realizing that they couldn'thear the responses. It was a really strange occurrence.
Variation between tools
The first case that began to focus us on the ghost box wasan investigation at Ramsey Middle School in Bluefield, WestVirginia. The first time we arrived at this location, we used theghost box near the end of the night and began getting signalsfrom an entity. We were employing a technique by which anelectromagnetic field (EMF) detector was used to give a yes/no response by blinking once or twice respectively. We haveused this method in the past, with its obvious limitations. Whenwe began to use the ghost box, we used the EMF detector todetermine if the devices agreed with each other. We began toshape our questions to the answers we were receiving on thebox, with incredible results. The first double-blind experimentwas a success.
Ghost box hide-and-seek tests
We returned to this location for a second time and truly hadour minds blown. The school has five floors, providing quite theworkout, especially when dragging up equipment. We were onthe third floor and were fishing for answers with the box. As webegan the session, we were shocked when the rhythmic pulsingof stations seemed to quiet and a voice began to "instruct us" asto what we needed to do. We later would understand this to bean entity known as John. We discuss this more in later chapters.After this brief session, a spirit began to tell us about lettersthat she wanted to find. We began to ask the entity, whom webelieved to be a girl named Edith, where these letters could befound. She stated on the ghost box that they were in a safe inthe basement, so we made our way there.
When we got there, we began to ask where the safe mightbe. The entity began to talk about a brown box, but we werehaving a hard time determining exactly where the box was.There were three members participating in this exercise, so wedecided to fan out in a triangle to see if we could determinein which direction the safe was. We used this method anddetermined the direction in which the box lay, but we still couldnot pinpoint its location. The entity then instructed us to startat the fireplace and walk forty-five feet. Since we knew thedirection, we began to pace off the distance. As Dan finishedup at the end of the measurement, he looked down, and therewas an old, rusted electrical box, lying partially covered in asand pile. As he picked it up, the ghost box declared: "You gotit!" Obviously, there were no letters in the box, but this incidentrevealed that the ghost box was able to lead us to the brown box.When we revealed our findings to the owner, he indicated thatthe "closet like structure" about five feet away, in the center ofthat room, was the old safe for the school board records!
The "F" test
On another occasion we were investigating the propertyof one of our own members, Dave Henderson. His family hadowned this property for generations, and he was curious to seewhat we would find if we investigated. One of the things thathe wanted to focus on was an old family burial site that hadbeen lost over the years. He had heard stories of the cemeterybut had been unable to locate it on his hundreds of acres. Webegan the ghost box session and inquired as to the location ofthe gravesite. The box began to lead us in a particular direction,so we followed. As we continued it became clear that the boxwas focused on an area that was overgrown with briars. Adetail that Dave had learned from his family was that therewas a stone marked with an "F" carved into its top. As we keptsearching for grave markers and coming up empty, one of theteam members found the stone and observed the "F" carvedthere. We were unable to find the grave markers, but the stonewas exactly where the ghost box said the site was.
It is details like this that make the ghost box an incredibletool. When you are able to pinpoint details of the history, it notonly helps you to find out historical details, but also determineswith whom you speak. In other words, if you receive detailsconcerning the Civil War then the entity you are speaking withmay come from that period of time and be easier to identify.Details like this can be used to prove the validity of the ghostbox and prove to the critics that there is more to it than just ajumble of radio stations. In the case of the ghost box, althoughDave knew which direction the site was in, he had no definitedetails. The fact that it was dark during the session makes it thatmuch more incredible. Even more incredible was that when wethought we were cold about the location and wandered awayfrom that site, the box would tell us to go back. This helps tosubstantiate that the box was guiding us, and not the otherway around. At this point we hope you see a clear potentialapplication for the ghost box to assist in even non-paranormalcases like finding a missing person, which is an upcomingexperiment for our team.
Variation in types of spirit
During that same investigation, we began a ghost boxsession in the same room where the box was found. Then apeculiar thing happened. A voice began to come across veryclearly, introducing itself as John. It explained that we needed tokeep doing what we are doing, that we could make a difference.This single experience began to shape what our group doestoday. One of the questions we get asked a lot is "Who is John?"Our answer: "We don't know." To be honest, when John showsup during our investigation, he is very task-focused and rarely,if ever, speaks with us directly. We have never tried to askquestions, because he doesn't appear to want to answer any.The philosophy of who or what John is goes beyond the scopeof this book. We just want to point out that there are entitiesthat may manipulate the box in greater ways than we are usedto, so be prepared. Demonic or nonhuman spirits appear tohave a greater control as well, and we have encountered a fewthroughout our investigations.
The next time that John showed up in an investigation was atPearis Cemetery in Pearisburg, Virginia. When we arrived, weperformed our investigation in our normal manner, receivingsome interesting EVP but little else. At the end of the night,we began our ghost box session. Often we will try to have onegroup session with the entire team in attendance. This nightthere were only four of us present, so we all sat around andbegan our attempt to establish communication. Immediately achorus of voices began to flood in, asking for help. We began tospeak with these voices and got a picture of what was happeningjust beyond our ability to perceive. Basically, the voices keptrepeating the phrase "ten thousand years, ten thousand years."This intrigued us, because we knew that the radio would not berepeating this in a normal radio scan. It was so incredible thatat one point the Listener had others listen, and it was obviousto all that it was repeating this phrase. As we began to pointour questions in this direction, we learned that these spiritshad been told that if they would only wait ten thousand years,redemption would come. When we began to ask who had saidthis, they referred to a demon. We began to speak with thesespirits, telling them that they had been lied to, when the demonspoke up and began telling us to leave. When we refused andbegan telling it to leave, a funny thing happened. As we werespeaking to this thing, the night, which was completely still,began to stir and a fairly bad wind began to blow. At one point,the ghost box said "Walk!" very clearly. Five seconds later weheard a voice snarl from the corner of the cemetery, "Walk!"Of course the Listener never heard this. Eventually, the "strongman" was dealt with, and we were able to help the spirits. Thisentire scene is available on our website.
Ghost box validates history
The final case, and perhaps the most bizarre one to date, isa battlefield investigation we conducted with Patrick Burke, afounder of the American Battlefield Ghost Hunters Society. Inthis session we made contact pretty quickly. The details of thebattle were mind-boggling. We were given details that we hadno prior knowledge of as well as of what units were present.All of this was later substantiated through historical accounts.At one point Patrick asked if they had to charge back in toretrieve their dead commander. When he asked a second time,a voice replied, "Isaac? He's dead over there." The name of thecommander in question was Colonel Isaac Nicoll. We wereflabbergasted at the level of detail. What made this session sobizarre was that during most of the session, the sounds of gunsand cannons could be heard in the background. Shawn statedthat he felt like he was there in the midst of the battle. At onepoint, a cannon with a very distinct sound could be heard. Itwas clear enough in the recording that, after research, it couldbe traced back to a twelve-pound howitzer.
This session was also unique in that we had tried a newtraining technique that also helped to establish our triple-blindghost box session. In this a splitter was introduced, allowinga second Listener to be included to validate what was heard.This was important in this case, because at one point bothListeners could hear "angelic music" cutting through the radiochatter very clearly. It was so clear and distinct that they wereboth very excited during this time frame. However, when therecording was played back, no music could be heard. Why?We aren't sure. To be honest, we had not encountered thisphenomenon before and did not know what to make of it.Outside of philosophical explanations, it's possible the recordercouldn't pick up the frequencies, although we find this to be abit hard to swallow. No matter what the reason, the music washeard and substantiated through a second Listener but was notrecorded.
Variation in languages and dialects
Just as you would expect when traveling to differentareas, we run into a variety of different spirits who wish tocommunicate. We have heard different languages, includingwhat has sounded French and Native American. This obviouslypresents new challenges to the Listener but also lends credenceto the device. We have been to locations in which it appears thatthe spirits have very little energy, in that you can hear thembut they are faint and easily lost in the noise and static thatis inherent in the device. As you use the device in your owninvestigations, it is important that you be open and listen for thesubtleties. If you are the Listener, just say whatever you hear,because it rarely makes sense to you, as you do not hear bothsides of the conversation. Many times on our investigations,the Listener stops and asks if it is making any sense. These areusually some of the more incredible conversations.
CHAPTER 2
The History of the Ghost Boxand How to Get One
About EVP: Electronic Voice Phenomenon
Perhaps one of the most controversial tools in the paranormalresearcher's bag is the ghost box. Before you can understand thetheory behind the ghost box, you must first understand a littleabout Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP). In this process(which was discovered in the late 1950s by Attila von Szalay),a researcher receives an audible message on a voice recorder.These messages are not detected by the researcher's ears, butonly on the device itself. The problem with this method is thatmessages can be received only after the researcher replaysthe device. This means that no real two-way communicationcan be achieved using this method in real time. If you arefamiliar with TV shows like Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures,Paranormal State, and Ghost Lab, to name a few, EVP aretypically seen during evidence review. The team would playan audio file made with a recorder either placed in a room oron an investigator during the time of the investigation. Withinthe audio file an "unknown voice" would be heard and the teamwould display on the screen what they believed were the wordsor phrases stated. Again, this is all after the fact. Suppose theEVP caught was of significant importance, even leading to thepossibility of bringing the case to closure. EVP rip away theteam's opportunity to respond to the spirit who produced theEVP in the first place. So that is where the ghost box comesin. Granted, most recent advancements in recorder technologyhave allowed devices to record, then play back, almost instantlyrevealing EVP on the fly. These devices are called recorderswith "EVP Live Listening Capability" and are becoming moreand more popular.
