What does "Paranormal" mean?
This word has been tossed around a great deal, but what exactly is paranormal? Breaking this term down includes "Para-" and "-normal". The Greeks used the word Para for usage in "beyond". Normal is used to discuss what current human society dictates as the currently common knowledge. It is important to realize that we say current rather than just common knowledge because what is deemed "common" is constantly changing. 1000 years ago it was "common" to understand that Europe, Afria, and Asia was the known world. Only 300 years ago that knowledge would be completely obsolete and deemed irrational as all seven continents were founded by that point. However, 300 years ago it was "common" to understand that Earth was at the center of the universe. Today anyone who claims that this is the case would be considered an extremely uneducated individual. Thus, the idea of what is common and what is "beyond common" is based only on a factor of the overall level of human knowledge.

Paranormal then should be considered what is beyond the normal common knowledge, or in other words, what is yet to be categorized by common thought. Paranormal has been used in the context of "ghosts", "hauntings", and even "UFO's", "Bigfoot", and other such claims. However, based on the definition of paranormal, this can apply to literally everything we do not know enough information. Traveling to Mars, building biometric security systems, or solving world hunger should be thus be considered paranormal since this is beyond the normal thought. Instead, the mainstream media dictates that only the most extreme of thought be listed in the category of paranormal. In essence, paranormal is just a greater depth of the "unknown science". That is the task that Syracuse Paranormal attempts to complete; to bridge the gap between the para and the norm in relation to the claims of hauntings. Simply ignoring all the facts and figures that support theories on the paranormal is extremely ignorant of people. These theories need to be analyzed just as we analyze the theories on space travel and physics. Doing so will increase the overall "common" knowledge of man to a new level.

What is a "Ghost"?
It is believed that the phenomenon known as a "Ghost" is a combination of science, religion, and psychology. It is completely irrational for any person or group to claim to know what the true definition of a "Ghost" is. There are many theories and classifications that have been presented, but the purpose, content, and composition of what a "Ghost" is remains unknown. Thus, we can only present our current research and begin to classify what we have found. This is what we will define the term as a "Ghost".

To begin, when people claim to see ghosts, there can be many different classifications of ghosts. From our current research it seems that what we know as an authentic "ghost" can occur in mainly two types of hauntings: Residual and Interactive. Residual ghosts are those spirits that are seemingly trapped in an endless loop of some event or act that they most carry out. Residual ghosts, for some apparent reason, cannot see you and cannot interact with you. However, you may in fact see them, but also cannot interact with them. These types of ghosts would often haunt places they feel an interaction or belonging to. It is unknown how or why they are stuck in this loop. Some preliminary research suggests that Residual hauntings are a natural form of building material or nearby material, such as places near large bodies of water or built with a natural electric conductor. It may believe that these natural energy sources can fuel residual activity. How or why it occurs is greatly left in the unknown.

Interactive ghosts, on the other and, can see you and often do interact with people as their name indicates. Interactive ghosts may also typically haunt the area's in which they felt most connected to in life or a place in which is their most emotional area. This emotional area typically is the place they spent the most time in their life or where they died if the death was violent or unexpected. However, it has been seen that interactive hauntings can also be in non-attachment places as in a place they may have passed away, such as a battlefield or unknown building. Interactive ghosts typically do not harm others besides giving living humans a jump or two. It is believed interactive ghosts need help of some kind or wish to connect with the living world. Unfortunately, the majority of the current world do not wish to connect with them, leaving for unwelcome guests in a person's living area.

Finally, ghosts sometimes can be nothing more than a psychological state of mind. Too often people claim to have seen a loved one when in fact it is nothing more than the mind seeing and wanting to see something when there is nothing to be seen. Additionally, shadows, wind, light, and other random factors make armature ghost hunters believe that they are seeing something paranormal when it is truly just normal. In order to truly have a ghostly haunting, there must be key pieces of evidence that can be experienced MANY times over, not just once. Such evidence includes: continual sightings within your direct sight that last more than 2 seconds, physical disturbances to objects or yourself, residual sounds that wont go away, residual smells that wont go away, etc. These are far more difficult to dismiss than your average 1 second sighting.

What is a ghost made of?
The million dollar question for scientific researchers in this field. When we can determine what something is made up of, we can delve into the very existence of that object. Unfortunately, since the concept of "Ghosts" are so sporadic and difficult to find, determining their composition is almost impossible. What we do hypothesize, however, is that ghosts themselves are made up of some form of energy. We begin to propose this to due the fact of unknown pockets of energy being detected from EMF detectors. EMF, standing for Electro Magnetic Field, picks up the natural electricity and magnetism given off by our planet and man-made devices. (Please refer to "EMF" further down this page for a more detailed explanation). EMF can be released from most man-made devices, even some natural places that contain energy. However, when a ghost is believed to be within the area, the EMF detectors pick up energy spikes from the normal EMF gauge. For example, when an average EMF for an area is determined to be a base reading of .5, and we receive a spike of 2.5, a ghostly paranormal event sometimes will occur (such as an object movement, noise, smell, visual light, etc). This direct correlation has occurred many times over and is strong evidence that ghosts are made up of energy. While this energy is itself unknown, it is a common belief trough most paranormal investigators that this is the composition of Ghosts. Be wary of man-made devices such as electronic boxes giving off large EMF readings, which can tamper your EMF field.

What is an EVP?
An EVP stands for Electronic Voice Phenomenon. EVP's are human-like voices or sounds that appear on an electronic device that is not audible when in the current area. EVP's are imprinted onto these devices by currently unknown means. It is currently believed that EVP's are actually sounds that are being heard at the same time when they are taken, but is in frequency range that is inaudible by the human ear. Audio recorders take these inaudible sounds and converts it to the normal frequency range that we can hear. We have begun to research this concept and have researched a concept called "Infra-Sound". Using non-audible frequencies, such as Bat Sonar, we can map out sonar frequencies of entire sounds. Our current tests include being able to imprint Bat Sonar on a digital audio device and then being able to recreate that in an actual human voice. If successful, we can at the very least prove that EVP's can be possible in the world. The essence of where they come from would still, of course, remain a mystery.

What is an EMF?
An EMF stands for Electronic Magnetic Field. An EM Field is present always on our planet. Earth itself is constantly rotating. Because of the combination of material iron core, rotation, and mass, Earth generates a powerful magnetic field around itself. This natural magnetic field is widely accepted by scientists everywhere and is the reason why Earth can deflect most solar radiation from destroying our planet. Because this magnetic field stems from the core of the Earth, the field also appears on the ground, although in much lower frequency. A base reading in a home or in the field is generally between .1-.5mG (milligauss). Some electronic devices can increase this field such as a laptop computer, air conditioner, television, microwave, etc. This field can increase only a slight amount from a computer, to around 5.0, to a dramatic amount to around 75 when a microwave is present. It is believed ghosts cause an increased EMF when manifesting because they attempt to utilize unused energy in an area. If you find a base EMF reading and then find a spike in that number, you must check for all nearby sources of possible energy. If that EMF reading cannot be found by a source, or appears to randomly fluctuate and is not stable, that is strong evidence for an EMF paranormal event, most often followed by a ghost manifesting. EMF detectors are very cheap and can be purchased online or at your nearest Radioshack or hardware store.
EMF AND YOUR HEALTH
Be warned of areas that either have a natural EMF range or those that "seep" into different rooms. EMF leakage can cause nausea, headaches, itchiness, and rashes. These can typically occur in an EMF area of 1.2 milligauus+. Strong EMF readings or EMF readings that are present in an area where someone sleeps or spends a lot of time can lead to more significant health risks such as cancer and cysts. If an area that is not near a powerbox or is in an area where there is a lot of human activity, then an electrician should be called to cover unshielded wires or re-route wires to prevent these health risks

What does infrared video do?
As opposed to normal video, infrared video allows paranormal researchers to view video in total darkness. IR light is not visible to the human eye. By "shining" this light in an area where your video is placed, you will see the area illuminated on your video, while it is still in total darkness (according to the visible light spectrum at least). It is currently hypothesized that paranormal activity while sounds in the Infrasound of audio can also occur in the Infralight of video. As there are countless frequencies that we cannot hear but are all around us, there are also countless wavelengths of light that are all around us that we also cannot see. As paranormal activity has been seen more frequently in low-light conditions, it has been hypothesized that visual activity may occur in another light spectrum. If this is true, than visible light would contaminate this spectrum, blinding us from seeing this activity. Thus, while paranormal activity certainly occurs during the daytime hours, some types of visual paranormal activity and other such phenomenon are more easily visible on video when natural light is at a minimal.

What does thermo-imaging do?
Specific field equipment called Thermo-Imaging can allow a user to see the heat-signatures of any object with extreme clarity. Heat signatures would indicate hot and cold spots in areas, whether they be inanimate objects like a bed or hot bodies like a human or dog. These heat signatures map out an area in great clarity with hot and cold spots that would otherwise be impossible to see. It is believed that paranormal activity use energy in all forms. If they draw energy from the area around themselves, they would create a surface area that is colder than the rest of the room, possibly creating a hot/cold outline that has no apparent source. This is extremely useful for both finding paranormal activity or debunking a possible animal or behind-wall heat sources.

Physics and energy?
Energy. This term gets thrown around quite often among paranormal experts, scientists, researchers...just about anyone. But what do they mean? Well, energy is quite simply the force that binds our entire universe together. Gravity, light, sound, biology, electricity, waves, mass, you name it! All of it has some form of energy. Einstein proved that even mass can transform into energy when undergoing nuclear fusion in his E=MC2 equation. Light energy can go into such things as infrared, ultraviolet, microwave, visible (our spectrum), gamma light, etc. Sound energy can travel upon many frequencies, in such forms that our human ears cannot hear. So what does all this have to do with the concept of ghosts?

Well it is believed that everything has a finite amount of energy. In essence if everything contains energy, including humans, and we know from the energy conservation law that "Energy can neither be created nor destroyed", then where does your energy go when pass on? Paranormal experts believe your soul will convert itself into another form that we are not aware of. Other debunkers would argue that this energy simply passes on into the environment around yourself undisturbed. Either case, it is without a doubt that energy has a lot left to discover. It's many forms, conversions, properties, and interactions in our world is unknown.

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