Mother Nature’s Effects On Your Paranormal Investigation – Part 2

This is the second installment of a four part series on Mother Nature’s effects on your paranormal investigation.

On the last episode entitled Mother Nature’s Effects On Your Paranormal Investigation – Part 1 we discussed how various meteorological phenomena could influence a paranormal investigation. In today’s episode we will discuss more meteorological situations and phenomena from the cosmos that can affect a paranormal investigation. Some of this material is from previous blog entries and podcasts that I have produced in the past.

Barometric Pressure – Air has weight. Put simply barometric pressure is the measurement of the pressure caused by the weight of the air. According to National Geographic the atmosphere is the layers of air wrapped around the Earth. That air has a weight and presses against everything it touches as gravity pulls it to Earth. Barometers measure this pressure. Atmospheric pressure is an indicator of weather. Changes in the atmosphere, including changes in air pressure, affect the weather. Meteorologists use barometers to predict short-term changes in the weather. A rapid drop in atmospheric pressure means that a low-pressure system is arriving. Low pressure means that there isn’t enough force, or pressure, to push clouds or storms away. Low-pressure systems are associated with cloudy, rainy, or windy weather. A rapid increase in atmospheric pressure pushes that cloudy and rainy weather out, clearing the skies and bringing in cool, dry air. A barometer measures atmospheric pressure in units of measurement called atmospheres or bars. An atmosphere (atm) is a unit of measurement equal to the average air pressure at sea level at a temperature of 15 degrees Celsius (59 degrees Fahrenheit). The number of atmospheres drops as altitude increases because the density of air is lower and exerts less pressure. As altitude decreases, the density of air increases, as does the number of atmospheres. Barometers have to be adjusted for changes in altitude in order to make accurate atmospheric pressure readings.

So you are now asking yourself how does barometric pressure influence a paranormal investigation? Some people are sensitive to changes in barometric pressure. Barometric pressure determines the pressure of the oxygen that we breathe. As the barometric pressure raises or falls the pressure of the oxygen within the atmosphere follows suit. A well known example I can use is that barometric pressure decreases as we gain altitude in an airplane or climbing a mountain. The technology on an airplane keeps the barometric pressure inside the plane at a steady level so we are able to breathe easily. If you climb a mountain you can find that the higher that you go it becomes more difficult to maintain steady breathing as the level of oxygen decreases, and your body requires more air to compensate for the reduced level of oxygen. At ground level barometric pressure changes due to meteorological phenomena.

Our bodies are extremely sensitive to changes in barometric pressure. How many people have you heard mention that they know a storm is coming due to having a headache, an achey joint, or clogged ears due to the change in barometric pressure? Some people are more sensitive to these changes in others. I have seen on paranormal investigations on tv where investigators will claim that they started having a headache out of no where, were having some difficulty breathing, or that their ears were popping. Not once did I see someone pull out a very inexpensive portable weather device to check the barometric pressure, which was likely the cause of their situation. Infrasound could be another cause. I am not saying that paranormal activity can’t potentially cause changes in the atmosphere in the vicinity of the activity, I am just saying we have to rule out everyday science first before we move onto a paranormal cause. Change in barometric pressure can change the way that you are perceiving a location as the investigation continues, and it is important to take barometric pressure readings periodically throughout the investigation so you can compare human felt sensations with the level of barometric pressure.

Barometric pressure can also cause houses, in particular older ones, to make more noises as various construction materials shift creating noises such as creaking and moaning.

Outer Space:

Electromagnetic Radiation – Electromagnetic radiation (EMR) consists of waves of the electromagnetic (EM) field, propagating through space, carrying electromagnetic radiant energy. It includes radio waves, microwaves, infrared, (visible) light, ultraviolet, X-rays, and gamma rays. Half of the equipment used by paranormal investigators are various sensors pertaining to electromagnetic radiation, yet many people don’t exactly understand what it is, how the equipment senses it, and how it can or cannot be manipulated by a paranormal entity. It is imperative to understand electromagnetic radiation if you are going to be a paranormal investigator

Solar Radiation – Our biggest source of electromagnetic energy is the sun, with the universe itself being second on the list. In our galaxy alone there are approximately one trillion stars, all radiating electromagnetic energy, among countless other objects that produce energy. While the radiation from other stars is much less in intensity than the radiation from our own star, the sun, in proper conditions, such as after a supernova, an interception with a black hole, or even if it is a extremely strong quasar, while more unlikely than likely it can in extreme circumstances affect your investigation.

A quasar is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as a massive and extremely remote celestial object, emitting exceptionally large amounts of energy, and typically having a starlike image in a telescope. It has been suggested that quasars contain massive black holes and may represent a stage in the evolution of some galaxies. Although these phenomena release mind boggling amounts of energy the distance between the Earth and the quasars are in the vicinity of quadrillions or quintillions of miles or more, so by the time the energy gets to us it is so weak that it couldn’t influence your investigation, except for a once in lifetime occurrence where the situation lines up perfectly to where it can feasibly cause extra noise on a voice recorder.

A supernova is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as a star that suddenly increases greatly in brightness because of a catastrophic explosion that ejects most of its mass. When a supernova occurs extreme amounts of radiation can be released, and while they are common in the universe, it is much less common, but not impossible, for one to occur around a scheduled paranormal investigation, and the resulting onslaught of electromagnetic radiation while highly unlikely, in extreme circumstances can interfere with your equipment. Due to my dedication to paranormal research, I choose to monitor supernova before and after each investigation to see if there is any ongoing correlation between supernova caused radiation and paranormal activity. I take a look at https://www.rochesterastronomy.org/snimages/sndate.html to see if there was a recent supernova that is strong enough in magnitude to remotely influence my investigation.

While we are on the topic of electromagnetic radiation, let’s briefly touch on commonly known radiation that doesn’t remotely have the chance to influence on your investigation and why this is so, because as a paranormal investigator you should be able to explain the science behind what we do and not just say “the theory is” which you often hear being used in conversation. Who created the theory? What experiments were done to collaborate the hypothesis? What science is there to back it up? When I hear other investigators say “the theory is” i follow up with several questions such as the ones that I just listed and I usually get a blank stare or an I don’t know.

A black hole is defined by NASA as a place in space where gravity pulls so much that even light can not get out. The gravity is so strong because matter has been squeezed into a tiny space. This can happen when a star is dying. When something falls into a black hole there is what is known as a gamma ray burst. Gamma rays could theoretically affect your equipment directly, however gamma rays wont affect anything mechanical, yet it can affect crystalline components in computer chips. While the dose of gamma rays needed to affect equipment on earth are at least 10 times the exposure that would kill you, so that isn’t a concern, as if the gamma ray radiation was strong enough to take out your equipment you wouldn’t be alive to talk about it. There is a very small possibility of a gamma ray burst temporarily knocking out some satellite communication which could affect any form of communications or equipment that you use that somewhere in the communications stream uses a satellite,. Due to Earth’s magnetic field the gamma rays are deflected around the planet. However, being a very serious paranormal researcher, and a commonly held belief is that electromagnetic radiation has an effect on paranormal activity, so after each investigation I visit a NASA run website that keeps track of gamma ray bursts just to see if any paranormal activity occurred during a recorded gamma ray burst. The paranormal science field is ever evolving and I try not to discount any natural outside influence on possible activity so I visit this website just for research purposes to see if there is any correlation between paranormal activity and a gamma ray burst.

In general radio bursts from outer space are typically extremely weak. Radio bursts from outer space are measured using a term called Jansky which is a measurement of flux density which is equal to 10_^-26 watt per Jansky. One Jansky would be the equivalent of 1/10 of the 3 watt radio signal from a cell phone located on the moon once that signal reached the Earth’s surface over which is an average distance of 238,855 miles. For example a Fast Radio Burst which can last a fraction of a millisecond to a few milliseconds, the strongest of which was recorded at 1,500,000 Jansky. This is still so infinitesimal that it wouldn’t even interfere an unshielded KII meter, which by the way I wouldn’t use on a paranormal investigation as almost anything can set them off.

Ever listen to an AM radio frequency on your car radio and hear a hissing static when there isn’t a radio station broadcasting on the frequency? That hissing static is a combination of radio signals coming from the sun, our solar system, deep space, and the Earth itself. Once the radio signals reach earth they are typically very weak, however there can be large bursts from the sun that can create stronger interference in lower frequencies that could potentially cause interference with your paranormal investigation equipment if you are investigating during the day.

Since many of the frequencies used by radio controlled devices are found in the middle of the Citizens Band Radio grouping of frequencies, and many CB Radio users love to illegally use the frequencies designated for radio controlled devices for their own conversations it is possible that their transmissions could activate radio controlled equipment at a paranormal investigation. In addition I have seen situations where people will hook up a radio controlled device controller to an amplifier and put out control signals at thousands of watts strong just to mess with other people’s radio controlled equipment. Just because a radio controlled device activates during a paranormal investigation or a client reports the situation occurring, doesn’t mean it is paranormal if you can explain it with the radio phenomenon that I discussed today.

That concludes part two of our four part series. On our next episode entitled Mother Nature’s Effects On Your Paranormal Investigation – Part 3 we will discuss various radio wave phenomena that are naturally occurring that can influence a paranormal investigation as well as a few miscellaneous natural phenomenon that can affect a paranormal investigation