A Study Of Electromagnetic Fields

     Why all of the fuss?  The fact is that there is little known about the possible long term effects of exposure to EMF.  Despite more than 20 years of study, the scientific and governmental bodies cannot agree on exactly what is an acceptable dose of EMF exposure, and on exactly what the consequences could be in the long term.
     First, we should define what is considered normal EMF exposure and then what is considered excessive exposure.  Normally accepted standards for EMF exposure are 1.7 mG or less.  The human body produces small amounts of EMF constantly, and the fields produced by the human body fall within the 1.7 mG range.  It is generally believed that fields below that produced by the human body are not harmful.  However, every piece of electrical equipment produces EMF as well.  The following chart shows the EMF production of some common equipment.

Courtesy  of NIOSH

     Considering the fact that acceptable exposure is 1.7 mG, you can see that we all absorb much more EMF per day than is allowed.  What could the long term effects of this exposure be?  Scientists generally accept that such exposure can produce both physical and psychological effects that are detrimental to the human body and brain.
     Scientists, however, can not agree upon the long term effects of exposure to EMF.  However, certain diseases have consistently been linked to such exposure.  Leukemia, brain cancer, and certain other cancers have been possibly linked to exposure to larger doses of EMF.  A  link between EMF exposure and miscarriages in women is also being explored because the preliminary evidence indicates that such a correlation might exist.  We know from studies that human beings can hallucinate when their brains are stimulated by doses of EMF.   NASA did some research in this field and found that people experienced a floating feeling, seeing objects and people who were not there, heard voices, felt touched and sensed that there were presences with them that were not human.  Some imagined demons or angels and experienced very real fear.  Though these people did not really have any of the experiences they reported, they all walked away feeling that the experiences were real in every aspect.  Had they had such experiences without the knowing stimuli they might well have insisted that they had truly had the experiences. 
     Dr. William Roll has taken this research and built upon it.  He has theorized that at least a large portion of hauntings reported are based in buildings that are over underground streams (conductors of electricity).  He further speculated that other hauntings might be explained by the fact that the structure sat over a geological fault which also produces larger than normal amounts of electromagnetic energy.  This might explain hauntings where one person experiences something while others do not.  Could it also explain people who seem more “tuned” to an area?  Are they hallucinating because their brains are more susceptible to electromagnetic fields?  It is only one possibility but it should certainly be considered when investigating possible explanations for psychic activity.  It might also explain why these people are often off the mark, and yet they are insistent that they are right.  They might be so adamant that they are right because they can not deny the evidence of their own ears and eyes--despite the fact that others see and hear nothing in the same space.
     As a child, I grew up on a farming community and I often heard farmers discussing a subject that I now realize might have some bearing on a discussion of EMF.  Farmers for years have insisted that they have noticed that in areas where there are electrical pylons, they have trouble with the cattle.   Illness and dairy cattle drying up prematurely were common problems.  Usually the electrical companies insist that there is no such correlation.  But considering what scientists are learning, they might just have been right.
     Now you might be wondering what all of this has to do with ghost hunting?  I believe that it might have everything to do with what we study.  Before we can talk with authority about the subject of EMF, we must first understand what EMF is, and how it can physically and psychologically effect not only people living in the haunted structure, but the people who are coming to investigate it. 

     We havedefined electromagnetic fields (EMF) and looked into some basic information about what they are and how they effect the human body and brain.  We learned that the possible biological and psychological effects of EMF might call into question both the observations of those people living in a structure and those people who come to investigate.  It has been noted that more women than men claim to experience hauntings in homes and offices.  One common explanation is very sexist--women are just more “imaginative.”  But what if women are simply more susceptible to EMF fields?  Or what if there is a cumulative effect and women are more often in the home and office than their male counterparts and they, therefore, absorb more EMF which in turn makes them experience more.  Obviously, there are more questions than answers in this field, but I believe that by identifying the questions a person can at least begin the process of looking for the answers.
     So where do we go from here?  Back to those little meters that we have paid so much for.  They were never designed for ghost hunting.  They were designed for service technicians to use to look for stray electrical fields in wiring that they could then correct.  I can not find any information about who first thought up the idea of plugging them into ghost hunting, but they have become a staple. 
     Traditionally we are told that low EMF readings are to be ignored.  (By low I mean below 4mG.)  We are also instructed that only EMF readings within the 4-8 mG range indicate the presence of a spirit.  But why?  
      I think that conventional wisdom should be thrown away.  There is no evidence that paranormal activity can occur only in the 4-8 mG range.  Certainly if you are picking up a 2mG reading in an old cemetery in the woods you should consider that significant.  If there are no power lines over head and no rational explanation that you can find, then start snapping photos!  By the same token, if you are picking up a 80mG reading in a cemetery and can find no explanation, you should consider that significant. 
      One example of strange readings that I have always wondered about occurred at a very active site called the Jean Bonnet Tavern.  We began picking up readings varying between 10 and 20 mG.  We found no external source for this reading either in the room or even in the ceiling of the room below.  The reading was obtained in a bedroom with very little electrical equipment in it.  The reading was highest under the bed in that room.   We even entertained the notion that there might be wiring running under the area, but the owner informed us that he had just replaced a floor board in the spot where it was highest and there was nothing but insulation in that spot.  We wrote it off because it was much too high--right?  Now I am not so sure.  Perhaps we should have been taking photographs under that bed.  The room was known to be haunted and at one point a woman actually used an EMF meter in that room to outline what appeared to be a human body which had fallen onto the floor. 
      Let me explain that last statement a bit.  We had a couple come to the group and the woman, Bobbi, was learning how to use the EMF meter properly.  She noticed that it was spiking consistently in what appeared to be a pattern.  She convinced her husband, Lee, to lay down on the floor in the middle of that EMF field.  Then she would move a hand or foot or adjust his body to conform to the spikes in the EMF.  When she was done, it looked like a man falling backward from the window.  She repeated this procedure several times through the night and got the exact same positions.  (I know because I was a skeptic and took photographs to compare the positioning.)
     So if there are no minimum or maximum standards for EMF then what does that mean?  I have been thinking that it means that we should be able to seed an area with EMF and possibly cause phenomena to happen.  There is some indication that it could work.  Dr. Urda wrote a series of articles for this magazine about Rock Kinetics and he cited an example of an old pub in Wales where a small, slow current of electricity was fed into the rock walls of the sealed building.  The results included a sudden influx of the traditional haunting activity of the site.  (This included voices speaking in an ancient language and a clock striking the hour even though it was broken and had not struck the hour for years.)
     Now we can’t electrically charge the walls of every site we go to or feed current into the ground of every cemetery just to see what surfaces--no pun intended.  But we could possibly feed current directly into the air.  We will have to determine if the electricity must be positive or negative ions.  If it is negative ions, then possibly something as simple as an electrical ion air filtering system could be used.  However, we will also have to determine if magnetics must also come into play in this process.  (Anyone interested in pursuing this research should contact me.  I would love to conduct a double blind set of experiments to see if this will work and how successful it could be.)
     We have all heard that these entities drain batteries and I have certainly had some experience of that.  In one site we had the ghost of a teenage boy who committed suicide ask us for “more batteries please.”  This happened when the investigator was complaining that her batteries were dead again.  (She had replaced them approximately 20 minutes earlier.)  
     We have all either experienced, or know someone who has experienced, energy drains when on sites.  Some people will leave a site and complain of feeling very tired, flu-like symptoms or so physically exhausted that they will sleep for hours and hours.  Perhaps these people are being drained of electromagnetic energy so that the entities can manifest.  My oldest son seems to have the ability to see and experience a haunting with great depth--much to his dismay.  (He’s not into ghost hunting like his mother is.)  He has experienced such drains on several sites, but it became most prominent at a place called the Hurry Sundown where after a few hours of wandering the site he slept nearly non-stop for 24 hrs.  He complained of fatigue for days and we noticed a sever drop in his electrical energy.  (Hi ability to produce static electricity that had been reduced.)
     I am about to propose an extraordinary theory now.  What if we should consider a drop in EMF readings as an indicator of activity, too.  We know that something lowers the temperature significantly in a site prior to a visual sighting.  Tradition is filled with such stories.  “I suddenly felt very cold and then I looked up.  The man was standing in the doorway looking at me and I could see through him,” is a classic line.  We have all heard those stories.  I believe that this indicates that the entity has pulled electromagnetic (heat) energy from the atmosphere in order to manifest.  What if he is also tapping into the EMF of an area in order to manifest?
     Dr. Barry Taff reported upon an extraordinary haunting in his book, The Entity, and he noted that when the activity in the house increased his Geiger Counter would go from normal readings to none at all.  He theorized that the entity was using the natural energy of the house in order to manifest. 
     The purpose this article is not to offer solid information, but rather to make the reader question everything.  We are still in the dark ages in this research and so no observation, no theory, no possibility is impossible.  We must note everything, and then look for patterns.  We must not fall into the same stale patterns that plague conventional science.  The literature of research is littered with stories of researchers who were ridiculed and driven from their work by the scientific establishment.  They ridiculed and belittled the men and made them sound like crackpots.  Only later, usually after the researcher’s death, did his “crackpot” theories become accepted science.  I am not speaking out against science because every field has those who hold to old ideas as if they are gospel.  Did we not once ridicule those who believed the earth was round, or who said we’d walk on the moon, or that people could talk through the miles by the use of electrical currents on little wires?  If man was meant to fly, God would have given him wings--was once conventional wisdom, too.
     What I am hoping is that people will open doors and expand their borders of research.  I believe that it is not only possible but probable that in the future a device could be designed that would feed energy into the air of a haunted site so that the entity can manifest if it chooses to.  However, we will never take the element of human will out of the manifestation process.  Simply think, consider, dream and question everything on each investigation.  Questions abound in this field.  I have always questioned what orbs are.  Perhaps they are simply flashes of EMF captured on film and if so, does that mean that they are not ghosts?  Who knows...
     If you have questions or comments please send them in.  I am hoping to spark a debate with this article that will help us all to understand this  field better.