Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 (UPI) -- If Wednesday night's weather forecast predicts a Class M solar flare and unsettled electromagnetic fields, don't call your meteorologist -- grab your camera and thermal scanner and start hunting ghosts. The aforementioned weather events forebode good ghost hunting, a sport gaining popularity worldwide and locally as well -- the District of Columbia is considered to be one of the nation's most haunted cities. The International Ghost Hunters' Society estimates it has over 14,000 members in 87 countries, and there are dozens of ghost hunting societies in America. Steve Doss, who conducts Footsteps to the Past ghost and history tours in Alexandria, Va., said that an interest in the paranormal is much more acceptable now than it was years ago. Advertisement Paranormal researcher Lawana Holland, a lifelong D.C.-area resident who maintains a Web site on ghost hunting, told UPI that spooks pique people's curiosity. "I think ... interest in the unknown and life after death fuels a lot of it," said Holland. Advertisement She added that people like ghosts because they're fun. "Think about it. ... Who doesn't like a good ghost story?" The sport began during the late 1800s, when skeptics of the spiritualism craze tried to find a way to scientifically document paranormal activity, according to Specterweb.com. In the 1920s, Harry Price's investigation of the Borley Rectory, one of England's most haunted homes, popularized ghost hunting. A keen interest in history serves those in the profession well. "My history background has really come in handy," Holland noted on her Web site. She has a bachelor's degree in history from George Washington University. Doss, an Alexandria native, has been giving historical tours for many years and ghost tours for two. His tours are "heavy with history" so people will understand why things happen, not just that they happen, he said. Sometimes the managers or owners of haunted places try to discourage ghost hunters. Lynn Rollins, marketing director for the Hay-Adams Hotel in downtown Washington, said ghosts generate bad publicity. "It's not the kind of press we'd like to have." Henry Adams' wife, Marian Adams, who committed suicide in 1885, allegedly haunts the hotel. When pressed for details about the hotel's ghostly guest, Rollins said, "I don't believe in ghosts ... and I have nothing more to say." The National Park Service refused to comment on alleged hauntings at the White House and Capitol. Advertisement Homeowners don't always appreciate the attention paid to their resident ghost either. One Alexandria family asked Doss not to lead his tours to their home so their child wouldn't become frightened of their phantom. So he talks about the house from the nearest corner. Doss has had to rein in some overenthusiastic tour guests when he indicates a house is haunted. "People have a habit of running right up and sticking their faces in the window." Ghost hunters don't take their work lightly. "We are pretty serious about it," said Holland on her site. Doss has studied parapsychology, or the scientific investigation of paranormal phenomena, and rarely mentions ghostly encounters unless they have been documented by at least two witnesses. In fact, Doss said that he sees his role more as someone who tries to disprove paranormal events rather than prove them. Holland agreed: "All ghost hunters ... try to listen to their inner skeptic to help them to rule out natural causes or film/camera malfunctions. This isn't an exact science, so you're open to making errors." That said, one group found it hard to disagree with Doss when they apparently witnessed some ghostly activity at one stop on the tour. The group arrived at what Doss called the "most haunted house in all of Virginia," a house that Doss said the owners can't sell or even rent out because of its six or seven inhospitable ghostly residents. Suddenly, someone on the tour noticed a light was on in the house. Advertisement "Is that light supposed to be on?" she asked. "No one lives there," Doss said, explaining that if we came back an hour later, the light would be off and another would be on. "The lights go on and off all night." Doss takes his craft seriously, but doesn't refrain from indulging in some macabre humor now and then. "Everyone here should pool their money and buy that house for a bed and breakfast - you'd be able to rent out the second floor twice a day," he said. Doss said he learned his craft through books as well as experience, and that these days there are many more books on the subject than before. Europeans apparently take parapsychology more seriously than Americans: "In Europe you can get a master's in parapsychology ... Here, they look at you like you're crazy," Doss said. Some possible signs of paranormal activity are equipment malfunctions and temperatures fluctuations. "We ... had a battery drain and a 30 degree (temperature) drop at one point -- signs of a possible ghost," Holland said of a nighttime hunt in Gettysburg. At the Hampton Mansion in Towson, Md., Holland said her camera wouldn't work just as "something perfumed" passed her. Advertisement Doss, who said he has photographed many ghosts, stressed the value of modern scientific methods of recording a ghostly presence. "It's not like the old days when you tied a key to a string and asked a question." Equipment Doss uses to detect ghosts includes a thermal scanner, a video camera that can film in total darkness using infrared light, and a TriField Natural EMF (Electromagnetic Frequency) meter. The thermal scanner detects cold spots caused when ectoplasm "feeds" on ions in the air, Doss said. The TriField meter detects the electromagnetic frequency emitted by humans. "Humans put out their own frequency, whether they're alive or not," he said. Since he can't see the spirits, he uses his equipment to figure out where they are. Ghosts show up in photographs as orbs, which are balls of light, or ecto, which looks like smoke, Doss said. On one tour, guests were filming the aforementioned haunted house with an infrared-light-equipped video camera, and squealed that they saw orbs. "I kept telling them, 'Take the picture, take the picture!' And when they finally took the picture, one of the orbs had come right up to the camera - you could see a face," he said. Advertisement Ghost hunters can order their supplies online from specialty sites like Paraseek.com, Ghosthunterstore.com and Electrosmog.com. Equipment ranges from very cheap to very expensive - sites charged anywhere from $13 - $220 for EMF detectors. But Doss said even with the right equipment, there's no guarantee that a ghost will show up. "I've taken 100-200 pictures without getting anything," he said. Documenting ghosts is highly dependent on timing as well as good ghost weather, which occurs during night or day, in cold, dry conditions, during full or new moons, and during solar flares and electromagnetic field activity, Doss said. The best time of year to see ghosts is right around the end of October and beginning of November. Ghosthaunting.com is one site that monitors ghost weather. Even experienced hunters sometimes feel threatened by their study subjects. "Use common sense. If your situation is becoming uncomfortable or dangerous for you, GO! Just as you have negative or hostile humans, you can run into spirits who are the same way," Holland warned novice hunters in her site's tips on ghost hunting. Doss said he has been "not so much scared, but nervous." People also need to know what they're dealing with during an encounter he said. Advertisement "There are two things that people call 'ghosts' - actual hauntings, where the entity interacts with you, and residual energy, which is just a replay of past events -- when an entity walks past you and doesn't acknowledge your presence." About 90 percent of these encounters are "residual playback," while only about 10 percent are hauntings. Of the hauntings, he said it just depends on the spirit. "Spirits are generally the same as they are in life - malevolent or benevolent." All this progress and enthusiasm hasn't impressed Pat Linse. In a phone interview from California, Linse -- co-founder of the Skeptic Society, which publishes Skeptic magazine -- attributed ghost sightings to everything from "physical stress" to a particular "mindset" but emphasized above all that ghosts are products of cultures. "Ghosts vary wildly according to culture," said Linse. She provided a visual aid titled "A Gallery of Useful Ghosts" that featured popular ghosts from many cultures, including the Zar, a Middle Eastern ghost that haunts husbands who do not lavish enough clothing and jewelry on their wives, and the Domovik, an avuncular Russian ghost that lives behind the stove and protects the family it lives with. And Linse is not the only one scoffing at the surge in ghost mania; thousands of Web sites are devoted to paranormal skeptics. Advertisement But Doss is convinced. Ghosts "are everywhere," he said, "just like people are everywhere." "I tell people that they don't have to believe in ghosts at all, just the possibility of them," Holland said. To be a successful ghost hunter, people have to use their intuition, not their logic, Doss said. He suggested that's why children attract poltergeists, and why most people have lost their paranormal abilities: "Once you grow up, you put (intuition) away, and over generations of doing that, it's gone." Doss plans to try to start a workshop in the spring for aspiring ghost hunters. At the end of Doss' tour, this reporter mentioned that her digital camera's battery, fully charged, had inexplicably run out - drained by ghosts? "I think you need stronger batteries," he quipped, smiling.
