by Amanda Turenchalk

Created on: January 17, 2007   Last Updated: April 30, 2007

I became interested in the paranormal when I was younger and would see a shadow-spirit lurking about our home. I wasn't the only one, if you think it could've been my imagination, who had seen it. My mother and younger brother were also witnesses.

As I grew older, I became convinced that we were not alone and that I was being contact by spirits when I would constantly dream about them needing my help. I'm still unsure of how to help a spiritual entity or if they were really entering my dreams, but the thoughts on trying to contact them came into my mind.

I became interested in ghost hunting to merely prove to myself that there was something else out there. I grouped a couple of friends and we set out to find the truth about the spiritual realm.

We first used a video camera and an older model digital camera to "photograph ghosts", and to catch their voices we took along a large tape recorder, something I was in charge of. Our first excursion was down a long, dark, abandoned railroad tunnel near our homes. We caught one EVP, which stands for electronic voice phenomena; a man saying, "Good night." We didn't, however, catch any ghosts on camera. We later upgraded to a very nice digital camera (model unknown to me right now) and added an extra tape recorder.

Using a video camera at night is not a good idea. You will need to keep the light on to even see anything. It doesn't prove to be very effective. Digital cameras are an excellent idea compared to disposable or 35mm cameras; with film, things can show up that may be questionable, i.e. specks of light, splotches of color, or even fog when it COULD be a ghost; but often times the film has been overexposed or damaged. Digital cameras are semi-error proof. They are able to catch the in-the-moment validation with very few defects.

My friends and I have never caught an apparition of a spirit in its entirety on camera. There were no Canterbury Ghosts staring at me, Casper the Friendly Ghost, nor even a full-bodied individual who was apparently see-through and not of this world. What my friends and I caught were orbs, or sphere-shaped balls. A majority of the time, I believe that the orbs we see are dust particles or liquid vapor drops in the air. There have been a few photographs we've taken that have shown an orb with an odd color, like blue or purple. Sometimes when solid orbs are enlarged, faces can be seen within them. Those I believe to be these orbs which are balls of energy from a spirit or something else unknown.

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