See Parts II; III of "The Current Debate" under the July 2010 heading, Part IV under January 2011 heading
By Robin Strom-Mackey
“How a
spirit gathers energy and manifests itself is certainly open for debate. I find
a lot of amateur ghost hunters blithely explain that a spirit can manifest
itself using any energy source available, and therefore any device to measure
electricity will work just as well. . But paranormal purists disagree.”
There
are several kinds of EMF detectors on the market, and the beginning paranormal
investigator may just pick the one that looks the most impressive, or has the
best price. When I purchased my first detector, I bought one that had flashing
lights, figuring it would be the easiest to use in the dark. It wasn’t until I
did an interview with a local ghost hunter with several decades worth of
experience, Clinton "Doc" Vick, that I realized my purchase might
have been hasty. I realized my possible mistake when Vick said in his usual,
compassionate manner, “Why in the %$%% did you buy that piece of junk?"
(Vick is a former sailor, so many of our conversations are peppered with these
gentle nuances.)
To which
I replied with an enlightening, “I don’t know, it has cool colored lights.
What’s wrong with it?”
What’s
wrong he went on to explain is that my K2 meter measures the wrong type of
electricity, namely AC power. Why would you buy a gage, he reasoned, that
measured AC power when the human body and the earth’s magnetic field use DC?
Wouldn’t it be much more likely that an entity would use a natural electrical
field? Wouldn't they access the same type of electromagnetic charge as they had
when they had a body? You don’t die, after all, and suddenly become a lamp.
This
theory did make sense. There was only one problem, I had no freakin clue what
the difference was! I embarked, therefore, upon a quest to figure all this out.
Little do we know, when we sign on to be ghost hunters, how many complicated,
and seemingly unrelated, topics we’ll end up studying as well. Unfortunately,
in the ghost hunting literature I found next to nothing on what should probably be a hot topic for
discussion. Troy Taylor did mention the Tri-Field EMF detector as being the
best device, in his estimation, but never explained why. Other authors simply
listed many different types of devices with very little explanation as to why
they might work, or which might work better. Other authors breezily theorized
that a spirit, when it was trying to manifest or manipulate something in its
environment would use any energy in the area, thereby sidestepping the question
altogether. Cowards!
Most
ghost hunters know that besides EMF detectors, other devices such as Geiger
counters and barometric pressure meters have been used in ghost hunting. No one
explained how they worked, or what they detected, or speculated as to why one
might be more advantageous than another. This kind of indecision drives me a
little crazy, so what I wanted to do is to find out about each of these natural
elements and examine the instruments associated with measuring each of these
phenomenon and report back. Learning how electricity works was, not
surprisingly, a bigger job than I had anticipated, so this will be a work in
several parts. As for this article, gear up to learn the very basics of
electricity. I’ve come to think of it as electricity 101 – that’s short for
what every 5th grader already knows, and we adults have forgotten.
How Electricity is Created
To
understand electricity one needs to understand something of the way that atoms
work. Atoms are made of three different substances, protons, neutrons and
electrons. Protons (which have a positive electrical charge) and neutrons
reside conspicuously near the center or nucleus of an atom. The tiny electrons,
which are tiny, negatively charged particles circle widely around the atom.
Atoms that are unstable have an odd number of electrons in their outermost
shell. Electrons in an unstable atom can become disengaged easily from the atom
to which they are attached, moving to another atom. Electricity is created by
the flow of these electrons moving from one atom to another along a circuit of
wire. Not all atoms have electrons that can be disengaged. What entices an
electron to move from one atom to another? A magnet. Take a magnet, for example
and move it near a paper clip, and you will have caused the electrons in that
paperclip to have moved toward the magnet. To move electricity from the power
plant to your bedroom lamp requires a magnetic push as well. Generators which
are really big, spinning magnets are used to do the trick This relationship of
electricity and magnetism is what is referred to as electromagnetism.
AC or Alternating Current
Alternating Current, the current with which we power
buildings is used instead of Direct Current, because it is easier to send
across miles of wire to your home. “It is called alternating current because it
is produced when magnets spin in a coil of wire.” AC current is a flouncy
thing, literally flowing back and forth in a wave like pattern as it flows down
a wire. These loops of course occur quickly; 120 times, completing 60 cycles a
second..
Alternating
Current Chart
“In a
power station, electricity can be made most easily and efficiently by using a
motor to spin magnetic wire coils. The resultant voltage is always
‘alternating’ by virtue of the motor's rotation. The illustration indicates how
the voltage goes first positive than negative [1].”
DC or Direct Current
The human body also uses DC current to send weak
electrical messages along cell membranes (the outer shell of a living cell)
with low voltage pulses called action potentials. These pulses serve as a
communication system between an organism’s central and peripheral nervous
system and the muscles. The electric shock from these action potentials causes
muscles to contract (shrink) which causes the skeletal system (to which the
muscles are attached) to move; thereby allowing the organism locomotion. So
while our appliances rely on AC, DC is definitely Mother Nature’s electrical
current of choice!
The two types of current are similar – both use a
magnetic field to move electrons through circuits. The difference is in the way
those electrons move – either in a straight line of wavy back and forth
pattern. It should be noted that AC current can be transformed into DC, by
going through a device that in effect smoothes out its waves. Many electronic
devices convert AC to a low voltage DC. For example your cell phone charger
convertsAC to DC so it can then store the current in the battery.
The Current
Debate
How a spirit gathers energy and manifests itself is
certainly open for debate. I find a lot of amateur ghost hunters blithely
explain that a spirit can manifest itself using any energy source available, and therefore any device to measure electricity will work just as well. . But
paranormal purists disagree. They argue that a human body uses DC current,
therefore, a spirit, having been housed in the body, would also use DC. (By the
way, this theory might explain battery drain; as batteries run on DC.).
So, if a spirit can and does utilize sources of DC power,
wouldn’t it be wiser to use an electromagnetic field detector that detected DC
power, and not AC?
By the way, most of the EMF detectors you’re seeing on
television are AC current detectors. These meters seem to be more readily
available than DC detectors, having been created for the electrical
construction market. They also appear to be the cheaper meters.
Most serious ghost hunters, however, suggest using
Natural EMF detectors which measure low current natural (read DC)
electromagnetic fields. Of these the Trifield Natural EMF detector appears to
be the device of choice, though I found several other systems and brands while
researching this article. The natural EMF devices tend to extremely sensitive
and should be used in a stationary position versus going handheld. They also
are not as simple to use as their AC counterparts. And of course...there’s
price. Natural EMF detectors can easily run hundreds of dollars. When it’s all
said and done, it’s not surprising that most amateur groups are running around
with $30 ghost meters!
So the basic question is still whether an AC meter can
pick up spikes of DC current? And the answer does appear to be, yes, in a
limited way AC meters can detect some DC spikes. However, ghost hunting
aficionados still recommend a DC device for greater accuracy and sensitivity.
Other Meter
Recommendations:
On a
website dedicated to EMF detectors of all types I found the following
recommendations for EMF detectors used specifically for ghost hunting.
1. Trifield Meter: The hands down
favorite is the 3-axis meter with its fast reaction needle gauge and 2
sensitivity scales. This meter is reportedely easy to use right out of the box.
However, check weather conditions when using the Tri-Field. One source reported
that the Tri-Field can pick up Lightning Strikes up to 7 miles away as well as
battery discharges.
2. 3-Axis AC Gauss Meter for high
accuracy, the Single Axis AC
Gauss Meter for economy, and among the low costsingle axis meters: 3. Gauss Master offers an audio
tone
4.
E.L.F. Zone offers lights
which are very useful in the dark.
[1]
www.HowStruffWorks.com “Electricity.” Article retrieved May 26, 2010.
[2] www.saskschools.ca “Using Electricity.”
Article retrieved May 26, 2010.
[3[ http://www.satcure-focus.com/tutor/page1.htm
“The Difference Between AC and DC Current.” Article retrieved May 26, 2010.
[4] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/edison/sfeature/acdc.html
"AC/DC: What’s the Difference?" tp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity
“Electricity” Article retrieved May 26, 2010.
[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_electric_field_of_the_Earth.
“The Natural Electric Field of the Earth.” Article retrieved May 26, 2010.
[6] http://www.lessemf.com/faq-mete.html
"Most Often Asked Questions as to Which EMF Detector to Buy" Article
retrieved May 26, 2010.
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