How Spontaneous Human Combustion Works? How Spontaneous Human fire Works? What is Spontaneous Human fire? What is Spontaneous Human Combustion?

In December 1966, the body of 92-year-old Dr. J. Irving Bentley was discovered in his Pennsylvania home by a meter reader. Actually, only part of Dr. Bentley's leg and slippered foot were found. The rest of his body had been burned to ashes. A hole in the bathroom floor was the only evidence of the fire that had killed him; the rest of the house remained perfectly intact.

How could a man catch fire -- with no apparent source of a spark or flame -- and then burn so completely without igniting anything around him? Dr. Bentley's case and several hundred others like it have been labeled "spontaneous human combustion" (SHC). Although he and other victims of the phenomenon burned almost completely, their surroundings, and even sometimes their clothes, remained virtually untouched.

Can humans spontaneously burst into flames? A lot of people think spontaneous human combustion is a real occurrence, but most scientists aren't convinced.

In this article, we will look at the strange phenomenon of spontaneous human combustion, see what believers have to say about it and try to separate the scientific truth from the myths.

What is Spontaneous Human Combustion?

Photo courtesy Morguefile

Spontaneous combustion occurs when an object -- in the case of spontaneous human combustion, a person -- bursts into flame from a chemical reaction within, apparently without being ignited by an external heat source.

The first known account of spontaneous human combustion came from the Danish anatomist Thomas Bartholin in 1663, who described how a woman in Paris "went up in ashes and smoke" while she was sleeping. The straw mattress on which she slept was unmarred by the fire. In 1673, a Frenchman named Jonas Dupont published a collection of spontaneous combustion cases in his work "De Incendiis Corporis Humani Spontaneis."

The hundreds of spontaneous human combustion accounts since that time have followed a similar pattern: The victim is almost completely consumed, usually inside his or her home. Coroners at the scene have sometimes noted a sweet, smoky smell in the room where the incident occurred.

What makes the charred bodies in the photos of spontaneous human combustion so peculiar is that the extremities often remain intact. Although the torso and head are charred beyond recognition, the hands, feet, and/or part of the legs may be unburned. Also, the room around the person shows little or no signs of a fire, aside from a greasy residue that is sometimes left on furniture and walls. In rare cases, the internal organs of a victim remain untouched while the outside of the body is charred.

Not all spontaneous human combustion victims simply burst into flames. Some develop strange burns on their body which have no obvious source, or emanate smoke from their body when no fire is present. And not every person who has caught fire has died -- a small percentage of people have actually survived what has been called their spontaneous combustion.

The Theories

To combust, a human body needs two things: intensely high heat and a flammable substance. Under normal circumstances, our bodies contain neither, but some scientists over the last several centuries have speculated on a few possible explanations for the occurrence.

Photo courtesy Amazon.com

In the 1800s, Charles Dickens ignited great interest in spontaneous human combustion by using it to kill off a character in his novel "Bleak House." The character, named Krook, was an alcoholic, following the belief at the time that spontaneous human combustion was caused by excessive amounts of alcohol in the body.

Today, there are several theories. One of the most popular proposes that the fire is sparked when methane (a flammable gas produced when plants decompose) builds up in the intestines and is ignited by enzymes (proteins in the body that act as catalysts to induce and speed up chemical reactions). Yet most victims of spontaneous human combustion suffer greater damage to the outside of their body than to their internal organs, which seems to go against this theory.

Other theories speculate that the fire begins as a result of a buildup of static electricity inside the body or from an external geomagnetic force exerted on the body. A self-proclaimed expert on spontaneous human combustion, Larry Arnold, has suggested that the phenomenon is the work of a new subatomic particle called a pyroton, which he says interacts with cells to create a mini-explosion. But no scientific evidence proves the existence of this particle.

As of March 2005, no one has offered scientific proof of a theory explaining spontaneous human combustion. If humans can't spontaneously combust, then what is the explanation for the stories and pictures of people who have seemingly burned from within?

Spontaneous Combustion Photo courtesy Morguefile The validity of spontaneous human combustion is viewed with skepticism by the scientific community. But some objects have been scientifically proven to burst into flames without an outside heat source. One example is a pile of oily rags stored together in an open container such as a bucket. As oxygen from the air hits the rags, it can slowly raise their internal temperature high enough to ignite the flammable oil. Piles of hay or straw have also been known to spontaneously combust. When they decompose, the bacteria inside them that orchestrate the decomposition process can generate enough heat to kindle a spark.

What Science Says
If spontaneous human combustion isn't real, then what really occurred in the many pictures that exist of the charred bodies? A possible explanation is the wick effect, which proposes that the body, when lit by a cigarette, smoldering ember or other heat source, acts much like an inside-out candle.

A candle is composed of a wick on the inside surrounded by a wax made of flammable fatty acids. The wax ignites the wick and keeps it burning. In the human body, the body fat acts as the flammable substance, and the victim's clothing or hair acts as the wick. As the fat melts from the heat, it soaks into the clothing and acts as a wax-like substance to keep the wick burning slowly. Scientists say this is why victims' bodies are destroyed yet their surroundings are barely burned.

And what about the images of a burned body with feet or hands left intact? The answer to that question may have something to do with the temperature gradient -- the idea that the top of a seated person is hotter than the bottom. This is basically the same phenomenon that occurs when you hold a match with the flame at the bottom. The flame will often go out without provocation because the bottom of the match is cooler than the top.

Finally, how does science account for the greasy stains left on walls and ceilings after a "spontaneous combustion"? They could simply be the residue that was produced when the victims' fatty tissue burned.

No one has ever conclusively proven or disproven the truth of spontaneous human combustion, but most scientists say that there are more likely explanations for the charred remains. Many of the so-called victims of spontaneous human combustion were smokers who were later discovered to have died by falling asleep with a lit cigarette, cigar or pipe. A number of them were believed to have been under the influence of alcohol or to have suffered from a movement-restricting disease that prevented them from moving quickly enough to escape the fire. Another possibility is that some of the fires and strange states of the victims' bodies were the result of a criminal act and subsequent cover-up.

Tales of Spontaneous Combustion

Photo courtesy Amazon.com In "Ablaze!" Larry Arnold details cases of "spontaneous human combustion" using eyewitness accounts.

These are just a few of the many hundred reported cases of "spontaneous human combustion":

In 1938, a 22-year-old woman named Phyllis Newcombe was leaving a dance at the Shire Hall in Chelmsford, England. As she descended the staircase of the hall, her dress suddenly caught fire with no apparent cause. She ran back into the ballroom, where she collapsed. Several people rushed to her aid, but she later died in the hospital. Although the theory was that Newcombe's dress had been ignited by a cigarette or a lit match thrown from the stairwell, no evidence of either was ever found. Coroner L.F. Beccles commented on the incident, "From all my experience I have never come across a case so very mysterious as this."

In 1951, a 67-year-old widow named Mary Reeser was at home in St. Petersburg, Florida. On the morning of July 2, a neighbor discovered that Mary's front door was hot. When she broke into the apartment with the help of two workmen, they found Mary in an easy chair with a black circle around her. Her head had been burned down to the size of a teacup. The only other parts of her that remained were part of her backbone and part of her left foot. Other than Mary's charred remains, there was very little evidence of fire in her apartment. A forensic pathologist, Dr. Wilton Krogman, said of the incident, "[It's] the most amazing thing I have ever seen. As I review it, the short hairs on my neck bristle with vague fear. Were I living in the Middle Ages I'd mutter something about black magic." But the police report cited a far less supernatural explanation for the cause of death: a dropped cigarette, which ignited Mrs. Reeser's highly flammable rayon-acetate nightgown.

In 1982, a mentally handicapped woman named Jean Lucille "Jeannie" Saffin was sitting with her 82-year-old father at their home in Edmonton, in northern London. According to her father, a flash of light caught his eye. When he turned to his daughter, he saw that her upper body was enveloped in flames. Mr. Saffin and his son-in-law, Donald Carroll, managed to put out the blaze, but Jeannie died of her third-degree burns about a week after entering the hospital. According to Carroll, "the flames were coming from her mouth like a dragon and they were making a roaring noise." There was no smoke or fire damage in the room. Some have wondered if an ember from her father's pipe ignited Jeannie's clothing.

How Crop Circles Work? What is Crop Circles?

The sun sets on a field in southern England. When it rises again the following morning, that field has been transformed into an enormous work of art. A large section of the crop has been tamped into a pattern of circles, rings and other intricate geometric shapes. But who created it?

Are crop circles the work of alien visitors? Are they a natural phenomenon, created by electrically charged currents of air? Or are they elaborate hoaxes perpetrated by savvy, talented and very determined circlemakers? Believers and naysayers each have their own theories, but the truth remains elusive.

Crop Circle Image Gallery

Photo courtesy www.circlemakers.org Crop circle discovered at Alton Barnes in England in June 2004. See more pictures of crop circles.

In this article, we'll look into the phenomenon of crop circles -- what they are, where they can be found, how they are made (from the people who claim to create them), and how researchers are studying them in an effort to separate the supernatural from the scientific.

What are Crop Circles?

Cereology Crop-circle enthusiasts call themselves cereologists -- after Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture. Most cereologists (or "croppies," as they are sometimes called) believe that crop circles are the work of either extraterrestrials or plasma vortices.

Crop circles are patterns that appear in fields. The pattern is created when certain areas of the crops are tamped down, but others are left intact. The edge is so clean that it looks like it was created with a machine. Even though the stalks are bent, they are not damaged. Most of the time, the crop continues to grow as normal.

Sometimes, the patterns are simple circles. In other instances, they are elaborate designs consisting of several interconnecting geometric shapes.

Photo courtesy www.circlemakers.org This "optical labyrinth" formation, located near Savernake Forest in Wiltshire, consists of 180 separate standing and flattened elements and is approximately 200 feet (60 meters) across.

Farmers have reported finding strange circles in their fields for centuries. The earliest mention of a crop circle dates back to the 1500s. A 17th-century English woodcut shows a devilish creature making a crop circle. People who lived in the area called the creature the "mowing devil."

In an 1880 issue of the journal Nature, amateur scientist John Rand Capron reported on a formation near Guildford, Surrey, in the south of England. He described his finding as "a field of standing wheat considerably knocked about, not as an entirety, but in patches forming, as viewed from a distance, circular spots." He went on to say, "... I could not trace locally any circumstances accounting for the peculiar forms of the patches in the field ... They were suggestive to me of some cyclonic wind action ..."

Mentions of crop circles were sporadic until the 20th century, when circles began appearing in the 1960s and '70s in England and the United States. But the phenomenon didn't gain attention until 1980, when a farmer in Wiltshire County, England, discovered three circles, each about 60 feet (18 meters) across, in his oat crops. UFO researchers and media descended on the farm, and the world first began to learn about crop circles.

By the 1990s, crop circles had become something of a tourist attraction. In 1990 alone, more than 500 circles emerged in Europe. Within the next few years, there were thousands. Visitors came from around the world to see them. Some farmers even charged admission to their mysterious attractions.

Crop Circle Designs

Crop circles are not just circles -- they can come in many different shapes. The most basic (and the most common) crop circle is the single circle. Circles may also come in sets of two (doublets), three (triplets) or four (quadruplets). Circles also may be enclosed in a thin outer ring.

Photo courtesy www.circlemakers.org Formation at Ogbourne St. George in Wiltshire

The stalks inside a crop circle are typically bent into what is known as a swirl pattern, and the circles may spin clockwise or counterclockwise. In patterns with several circles, one circle may spin clockwise and another counterclockwise. Even a single circle may contain two "layers" of stalks, each spinning in a different direction.

Crop Writing In 1987, a crop message read "WEARENOTALONE." Skeptics argued that if the message had been from aliens, it would have read "YOUARENOTALONE."

Crop circles can range in size from a few inches to a few hundred feet across. Most early crop circles were simple circular designs. But after 1990, the circles became more elaborate. More complex crop patterns, called pictograms, emerged. Crops can be made to look like just about anything -- smiling faces, flowers or even words. Crop circles are sometimes unique designs, but they can also be based on ancient motifs.

Photo courtesy www.circlemakers.org A crop circle near Silbury Hill in Wiltshire, England, that resembles an Aztec Sun Stone

Photo courtesy www.circlemakers.org A formation at West Kennett in Wiltshire that looks like a Celtic symbol called the Triskell

Some of the more sophisticated patterns are based on mathematical equations. Astronomer and former Boston University professor Gerald S. Hawkins studied several crop circles and found that the positions of the circles, triangles and other shapes were placed based on specific numerical relationships. In one crop circle that had an outer and an inner circle, the area of the outer circle was exactly four times that of the inner circle. The specific placement of the shapes indicates that, whoever the circlemakers are, they have an intricate knowledge of Euclidean geometry (the geometry of a flat surface introduced by the mathematician Euclid of Alexandria).

Some circles have thin lines leading away from them. These lines, called spurs, are not actually a part of the circle. They are created by the farmer's tractor.

Crop Circle Locations

Most circles are concentrated in the south of England, primarily in the counties of Hampshire and Wiltshire. Many of them have been found near Avebury and Stonehenge, two mystical sites containing large stone monuments.

Photo courtesy www.circlemakers.org Formation at Avebury Trusloe in Wiltshire

But crop circles are not confined to England. They have been spotted in the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, India and other parts of the world.

The "season" for crop circles runs from April to September, which coincides with the growing season. Circles tend to be created at night, hiding their creators (human or otherwise) from curious eyes.

Crop circles can be found in many different types of fields -- wheat, corn, oats, rice, oil-seed rape, barley, rye, tobacco -- even weeds. Most circles are found in low-lying areas close to steep hills, which may explain the wind theory of their creation.

Now, let's get into some of the crop circle theories.

Who Makes Crop Circles?

The answer of who or what is creating these crop formations is not an easy one to answer. Some people claim they are the work of UFOs. Others say they are a natural phenomenon. Still others say they are elaborate hoaxes perpetrated by teams of circlemakers.

The Theories

UFOs and Aliens
Possibly the most controversial theory is that crop circles are the work of visitors from other planets -- sort of like alien calling cards.

People who agree with this theory say that the circles are either the imprint left by landing spacecraft or messages brought from afar for us earthlings. Some eyewitnesses claim to have seen UFO-like lights and strange noises emanating from crop circle sites.

Winds

Light Formation In August 2001, two witnesses in Holland saw "columns" or "tubes" of white light descend into a string-bean field. Shortly after they observed this light, they saw a new crop formation exactly where the light had descended. For a simulated image, see BLT Research: Eyewitness Report.

Probably the most scientific theory says that crop circles are created by small currents of swirling winds called vortices (similar to "dust devils"). The spinning columns force a burst of air down to the ground, which flattens the crops. Vortices are common in hilly areas such as parts of southern England.

Dr. Terence Meaden of the Tornado and Storm Research Organization (TORRO) in Wiltshire, England, says the vortices that create crop circles are charged with energy (his idea is called the Plasma Vortex Theory). When dust particles get caught up in the spinning, charged air, they can appear to glow, which may explain the UFO-like glowing lights many witnesses have seen near crop circles.

But the question remains -- how can a few seconds worth of spinning air create such intricate and perfectly defined crop circles?

Aircraft
A few researchers have theorized that small airplanes or helicopters stir up downdrafts that push the crops down into patterns.

Recreation attempts so far have not been able to produce the types of downdrafts necessary to make the perfectly round edges seen in most crop circles.

Earth Energy

Energy Effects People close to the sites of crop circles have had some strange physical and emotional reactions. Some have reported feeling dizzy, disoriented, peaceful or nervous. Others have said they heard a buzzing noise or felt a tingling sensation. After visiting the Julia Set formation near Stonehenge in 1996, a group of women reported changes in their normal menstrual cycles. Most startling was a small group of post-menopausal women who suddenly began menstruating again after visiting the site.

Some researchers believe that the earth creates its own energy, which forms the circles. One possible form of earth energy is electromagnetic radiation. In fact, scientists have measured strong magnetic fields inside crop circles, and visitors have sometimes reported feeling a tingling sensation in their body while in or near the circles.

In the early 1990s, American biophysicist Dr. William Levengood discovered that crops in circles were damaged much in the same way as plants heated in a microwave oven. He proposed the idea that the crops were being rapidly heated from the inside by some kind of microwave energy.

Other researchers say that the energy comes from under the ground or in the soil. Either the energy is natural, such as a fungus that attacks the crops and causes their stems to bend over, or it is a byproduct of something man-made, such as bombs that exploded during World War II.

Humans

Photo courtesy www.circlemakers.org Doug and Dave, in Doug's Southampton studio in 1992

The easiest explanation for crop circles is that they are man-made hoaxes, created either for fun or to stump the scientists. Among the most famous hoaxers are the British team of Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, known as "Doug and Dave." In 1991, the duo came out and announced that they had made hundreds of crop circles since 1978. To prove that they were responsible, they filmed themselves for the BBC making a circle with a rope-and-plank contraption in a Wiltshire field (see the next section for information on making a crop circle).

Joe Nickell, Senior Research Fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) says that crop circles have all the hallmarks of hoaxes: They are concentrated primarily in southern England; they've become more elaborate over the years (indicating that hoaxers are getting better at their craft); and their creators never allow themselves to be seen. But even with crop circlemakers claiming responsibility for hundreds of designs, hoaxes can't account for all of the thousands of crop circles created. Colin Andrews, cereologist and author of the book, Circular Evidence, admits that about 80 percent of crop circles are probably man-made, but says that the other 20 percent are probably the work of some "higher force."

How Do You Make a Crop Circle?

Crop circles appear to be very intricate formations, with many geometric shapes linked in sophisticated patterns. But the basics of crop-circle creation and the tools involved are actually fairly simple.

In general, circlemakers follow the following steps:

1. Choose a location.
2. Create a diagram of the design (although some circlemakers decide to come up with an idea spontaneously when they arrive at their intended site).
3. Once they arrive at the field, they use ropes and poles to measure out the circle.
4. One circlemaker stands in the middle of the proposed circle and turns on one foot while pushing the crop down with the other foot to make a center.
5. The team makes the radius of the circle using a long piece of rope tied at both ends to an approximately 4-foot-long (1.2-meter) board called a stalk stomper (a garden roller can also be used). One member of the team stands at the center of the circle while the other walks around the edge of the circle, putting one foot in the middle of the board to stomp down the circle's outline.

   Photos courtesy www.circlemakers.org Circlemakers Rod Dickinson and Wil Russell in action

In August 2004, National Geographic contacted a team including circlemakers John Lundberg, Rod Dickinson and Wil Russell and requested a daylight demonstration in Wiltshire in support of a crop-circle documentary. These are the plans they worked from:

Photo courtesy www.circlemakers.org

Here are the tools they used:

Photo courtesy www.circlemakers.org Circlemaker John Lundberg displaying one of the 'stalk stompers' (and standing in front of the combine) his team will use to create the formation.

This is the resulting crop circle:

Photo courtesy www.circlemakers.org This formation, created in a field opposite Silbury Hill in Wiltshire, took the team five hours to create.

Circlemakers avoid getting caught by working under cover of night and by hiding their tracks in existing tractor-tire ruts.

Crop Circles for Profit Some circlemakers are turning their talent into a real business -- and making big profits from it. A team including artist and filmmaker John Lundberg, Rod Dickinson and Wil Russell travel all over the world making crop circles as advertisements for big corporations. Their client list includes a multibillion dollar computer-chip company, a car manufacturer and a digital television company. Although they won't divulge exactly how much they make per crop design, their budgets are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Photos courtesy www.circlemakers.org
For the company Sanrio, the team worked with other artists to create a 200-ft portrait in a wheat field at Yatesbury in Wiltshire to commemorate Hello Kitty's 30th anniversary.

How Do Researchers Study Crop Circles?

When researchers come to the scene of a crop circle, they conduct a thorough investigation, including the following methods:

• Talking to possible eyewitnesses and residents living nearby
• Examining the location and the weather where circles have formed
• Examining the affected crops and the surrounding soil with sophisticated techniques such as X-ray diffraction analysis (firing X-rays at a sample to determine its composition materials)
• Taking electromagnetic energy readings inside and near the crop circles
• Analyzing the circle patterns (Some complex patterns are compared with hieroglyphics or other ancient symbols.)

Photo courtesy www.circlemakers.org This formation was discovered in Eastfield, England, in June 2004. An article in the Western Daily Press called the design "uncannily similar to plans for one of Nikola Tesla's early pieces of equipment."

Researchers have been pondering the question of crop circles for several decades, but they still haven't come up with a real answer as to why they exist

What is Crystal Skull? How Crystal Skulls Work?

To some people, a crystal skull is simply an object carved from quartz crystal in the shape of a human skull. They can be clear or colored crystal, and they range from crudely carved to incredibly detailed. Some crystal skulls are just a few inches in diameter, while others are life-size. Whether you find them beautiful or creepy, many crystal skulls are representations of amazing craftsmanship. That's part of why some of them have been (and still are) exhibited in the Smithsonian, the British Museum and the Musee de l'Homme in Paris.

But according to believers in the supernatural and the occult, crystal skulls are more than just interesting artifacts. They may represent doom and destruction, or hope and healing. Some people think that crystal skulls can be used like crystal balls to see visions of the past, present and future. They claim that the skulls emit psychic energy, auras or even sounds. Believers point to Mayan creation myths that reference crystal skulls and a story that 13 crystal skulls were scattered by the Mayans thousands of years ago to be discovered and reunited in modern times.

The meaning of crystal skulls isn't the only thing up for debate; there's also a lot of mystery surrounding their history. Some think that they're thousands of years old and could have been placed by aliens, or are relics of lost civilizations like Atlantis or Lemuria. Others call them "fakes," carved within the last few hundred years and sold with phony stories so they could bring better prices at auction. The controversy dates back to the mid-1930s and continues today, despite the assertions of both New Age believers and skeptics.

In this article, we'll take a look at the stories behind the most well known crystal skulls. We'll also learn what both devotees of the supernatural and scientists have to say about their origins. Let's start with the Mitchell-Hedges skull, possibly the most discussed crystal skull of the past 70 years.

Crystal Skulls in Pop Culture

Image courtesy Amazon.com Cover art for "Nancy Drew: The Legend of the Crystal Skull."

Crystal skulls have often been used as plot devices in TV shows, games, books and movies. In an episode of the sci-fi series "Stargate SG-1," a crystal skull allows people to travel between worlds. The main character in the cartoon "American Dragon: Jake Long" tries to collect 13 crystal skulls. They have also been used in many video games, including "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow" and "Nancy Drew: Legend of the Crystal Skull."

Some of the Indiana Jones novels involve hunting for crystal skulls. The upcoming fourth movie in the "Indiana Jones" series is also titled "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." So far, only small details about the film's plot have been released, and there are too many different stories about the skulls to know exactly what role they'll play in Indy's latest adventure.

The Mitchell-Hedges Skull

Of all of the crystal skulls, the Mitchell-Hedges skull is probably the most infamous. The skull was allegedly discovered in the mid-1920s by Anna Mitchell-Hedges, the adopted daughter of a British adventurer and traveler named F.A. Mitchell-Hedges. Anna claims that she found the skull beneath the altar of a Mayan temple in Lubaantun, a ruined city in Belize, on her 17th birthday.

According to Anna, the Mayans told her that the skull was used to "will death" [source: "Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World"]. When a priest became too old to continue with his duties, he and his replacement would lie in front of the altar with the skull. After a ceremony, all of the elderly priest's knowledge would be transferred into the younger man. Then the old priest would die.

Topical Press Agency/Getty Images F. A. Mitchell-Hedges leaves for Central America to excavate the Mayan city of Lubaatun on January 6, 1926.

The Mitchell-Hedges skull is about 8 inches long, 5 inches wide and 5 inches high and made out of transparent quartz. It weighs around 12 pounds and has many of the details of a human skull, with ridges, cheekbones, a nose socket, a detached jawbone and deep eye sockets.

In 1936, a description of the skull appeared in the British journal "Man" (in comparison with another crystal skull owned by the British Museum), but its ownership was attributed to an art dealer named Sydney Burney. Anna explained that her father had actually left the skull in the keeping of Burney, who put it up for auction as payment for a debt in 1943. Mitchell-Hedges ended up paying Burney at Sotheby's auction house to get the skull back.

However, there's evidence that disputes Anna's claims and shows that Mitchell-Hedges bought the skull outright from Burney at Sotheby's. In "Secrets of the Supernatural," author Joe Nickell quotes a letter written by Burney to the American Museum of Natural History and dated 1933, which states "the rock-crystal skull was for several years in the possession of the collector from whom I bought it and he in his turn had it from an Englishman in whose collection it had been also for several years, but beyond that I have not been able to go" [source: Nickell].

Anna and the Skull

©Photographer: Tose |Agency: Dreamstime A crystal skull

Strangely, F.A. Mitchell-Hedges only documented the skull once, in "Danger, My Ally," a book that he wrote describing his adventures. Near the end of the book, Mitchell-Hedges states that the crystal skull is a "skull of doom" that dates "back at least 3,600 years, and taking about 150 years to rub down with sand from a block of pure rock crystal." He also goes on to say that "several people who have cynically laughed at it have died, others have been stricken and become seriously ill [...] How it came into my possession, I have reason for not revealing" [source: Mitchell-Hedges]. Mitchell-Hedges doesn't make any mention of his daughter's presence at Lubaantun in the book, nor does he give her credit as the finder of the skull.

Two friends of Mitchell-Hedges who came along on the excavation of Lubaantum, Lady Richmond Brown and Dr. Thomas Gann, never spoke or wrote of the skull. Anna isn't present in the many photographs of the dig at Lubaantun, either. Mitchell-Hedges died in 1959, and Anna has kept the skull ever since. She toured with the skull and gave many talks and interviews. In many accounts, she gave the date of discovery as 1924 and 1927. These dates don't match her father's account of his time in Lubaantun, which he states "ended late in 1926" [source: Mitchell-Hedges].

Next, we'll look at the history of some other crystal skulls.

Anna Mitchell-Hedges Today

Anna has retired from touring with the skull and lives in the United States. She continues to give interviews and still holds to her claims of the skull's discovery and power. In a 1983 letter to Joe Nickell, Anna stated that the skull had been "used for healing a number of times" and hopes it "will go to an institution where it will be used by mathmeticians [sic], weather people, surgeons, etc." [source: Nickell].

Other Crystal Skulls

The Mitchell-Hedges skull is arguably the most famous crystal skull, but several others have been discovered (or publicized, depending on what you believe). Most of them do not have the same storied history as the Mitchell-Hedges skull, but each is still unique.

The British Museum crystal skull has been around at least as long as the Mitchell-Hedges skull. In 1936, G.M. Morant compared this crystal skull with the Mitchell-Hedges skull (then owned by Sydney Burney). It's also life-size, but the British Museum skull isn't as detailed. It has rounder eye sockets and its jaw doesn't detach. It's also made of cloudy quartz. Morant believed that the skulls weren't made independently of each other, but had no proof of this.

Staff/AFP/Getty Images Crystal skull from the British museum.

This skull was purchased by the British Museum from Tiffany & Co. in 1898. It supposedly came from Mexico and became the property of Eugène Boban, a French art dealer, before Tiffany's acquired it. In 1990, the museum displayed the skull in an exhibit called "Fake? The Art of Deception." Its label reads "possible of Aztec origin - the Colonial period at the earliest." The British Museum also has a smaller, cruder crystal skull called the Aztec skull.

The Paris skull is kept in the Musée de l'Homme in Paris. It's cruder than the British Museum skull and has a hole cut into the top, supposedly to hold a cross. The Paris crystal skull is half the size of the Mitchell-Hedges and British Museum skulls. It weighs about 6 pounds and is about 4.5 inches high and 6 inches long [source: Henderson]. This skull was thought to be Aztec. Alphonse Pinart purchased it from Eugène Boban in 1878 and donated it to the museum. The museum also owns a very small crystal skull that's about 1.5 inches long.

In 1992, the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution received a crystal skull in the mail. This skull is bigger than life-size, weighing a little over 30 pounds at 9 inches high and about 8 inches long [Source: Henderson]. The anonymous note accompanying the skull stated that it was an "Aztec crystal skull" and "purchased in Mexico City in 1960" [Source: Henderson]. It's made of milky white crystal and is crudely carved compared to some of the other skulls. It's also hollow.

In the next section, we'll examine the supernatural claims about crystal skulls, as well as what scientists and researchers have determined.

Even More Skulls

There are several other crystal skulls in existence, but there's very little verifiable information about them:

• Max, the "Texas Crystal Skull," is a clear, one-piece skull reportedly from Guatemala. It belongs to Jo Ann Parks, who began exhibiting it in the 1980s.
• "ET" is a smoky crystal skull that was supposedly discovered in 1900 on property owned by a Central American family. Its skull is pointed and it has an overbite. "ET" is owned by Joke van Dieten, who also owns several other crystal skulls.
• An amethyst crystal skull called "Ami" was supposed to have been found in the 1900s. It has a squiggly white line around its circumference and is supposed to be Mayan.
• "Sha-na-ra" is a clear crystal skull weighing about 13 pounds and owned by Nick Nocerino, a self-described expert in crystal skull research who claims that it was found in Mexico.

In addition to these, there are several small (1 inch in diameter) crystal skulls in museums, thought to be Aztec or Mixtec, with holes drilled either vertically or horizontally. These small crystal skulls were probably used as necklaces.

Crystal Skull Myth vs. Reality

Believers in the power of crystal skulls have made some fantastic claims about their abilities. Anna Mitchell-Hedges claims that her skull was used for healing but has never been specific. The owner of “ET” believes that it helped to heal her brain tumor. Many people who have encountered the more well known crystal skulls describe them as giving off strong “psychic energy.”

Mitchell-Hedges has only allowed her skull out of her possession once, in 1970. Art restorer Frank Dorland studied the skull for six years. He claimed that he heard ringing bells and the sound of a choir singing. Dorland also said that he saw an aura around the skull and could see images when gazing into it.

Some crystal skull devotees point to the piezoelectric properties of quartz crystal as evidence of the skulls' power. They say that the skulls might function like large computer chips that have recorded the history of the Earth, or even messages from aliens or lost civilizations. We just have to discover the right way to “read” them.

Photographer: Webking | Agency: Dreamstime.com A crystal skull

Frank Dorland also made many other, less dubious, observations about the Mitchell-Hedges skull. He claimed that the skull showed signs of “mechanical grinding on the faces of the teeth” [source: Garvin]. Norman Hammond, a Mayan expert who examined the skull while appearing on a TV show with Anna Mitchell-Hedges, stated that it also had holes that were obviously drilled using a metal drill.

Dorland also claims to have taken the Mitchell-Hedges skull to Hewlett-Packard Laboratories to learn more about its composition. It was lowered into a vat of benzyl alcohol, where it became nearly invisible. This proved that the skull was actually quartz crystal (alcohol and quartz have the same diffraction coefficient, they both bend light waves at the same angle). Dorland states that the Hewlett-Packard researchers also determined that it was carved from a single piece of crystal and that it was carved without taking its axes into consideration. However, Hewlett-Packard has no record of these tests.

While appearing with her on Arthur C. Clarke's 1980 TV show “Mysterious World,” gem expert Allan Jobbins told Anna Mitchell-Hedges that he thought the skull comprised crystal that originated in Brazil (not known to have been inhabited by Mayans) and was probably worked after 1700.

aking Crystal Skulls

The British Museum skull and the Paris skull were also likely carved from Brazilian crystal. Researchers at the British Museum also believe that most crystal skulls were carved in Germany, where large quantities of Brazilian crystal was imported and worked in the late 19^th century. Because Eugène Boban is known to have been involved in the sale of both skulls as well as other pre-Columbian artifacts, he's likely the source of most of these crystal skulls. Whether he knew that they were fakes or not is a matter of debate [source: Henderson].

Harold Cunningham/WireImage/Getty Images The British Museum

As for how the skulls were made, the Department of Scientific Research at the British Museum concluded that its skull:

...bears traces of the use of a jeweler's wheel, which was unknown in the Americas before the arrival of the Europeans. These traces and the high polish of its surface indicate that it was carved using traditional European techniques [source: The British Museum].

In 2005, Jane Walsh, an anthropologist at the Smithsonian, took the Smithsonian's crystal skull to be tested at the British Museum with an electron-scanning microscope. Rather than showing the uneven scratches that one would expect from an object carved with pre-Columbian tools, all of the crystal skulls showed clean rows in arcs that would have been made by modern wheeled tools. Walsh states, "all of the crystal skulls had been carved with modern coated lapidary wheels using industrial diamonds and polished with modern machinery" [source: Inside Smithsonian Research].

Attempts to test the Mitchell-Hedges skull further have been refused. Some crystal skull believers say that more skulls, including "Max" and "Sha-na-ra" were part of the British Museum test. They state that the museum didn't release their findings on these skulls, however. Some even say that the museum denies testing them at all.

Why would someone "fake" crystal skulls? In the 19^th century, the "age of the museum," these types of artifacts were in high demand and could bring a lot of money. Because the origins of each skull can't be perfectly established, some still prefer to believe that they are ancient. Skulls figure prominently in Mexican and Central American culture, so it's possible that some crystal skulls truly are ancient artifacts. But the most well-known, perfectly smooth and detailed skulls must have been carved using modern techniques. Regardless of their origins, these skulls remain fascinating, even beautiful, works of art.

What is life after death? Life after death is real? Life after death scientific explanation? Has science explained life after death?

In 1991, Atlanta, Ga. resident Pam Reynolds had a near-death experience (NDE). Reynolds underwent surgery for a brain aneurysm, and the procedure required doctors to drain all the blood from her brain. Reynolds was kept literally brain-dead by the surgical team for a full 45 minutes. Despite being clinically dead, when Reynolds was resuscitated, she described some amazing things. She recounted experiences she had while dead -- like interacting with deceased relatives. Even more amazing is that Reynolds was able to describe aspects of the surgical procedure, down to the bone saw that was used to remove part of her skull [source: Parker].

­Courtesy StockXchng­ It is estimated that as many as 18 percent of people who have been resuscitated after cardiac arrest have reported a near-death experience.

What's remarkable (although not unique) about Reynolds' experience is that it is the combination of an NDE and an out-of-body-experience (OBE). HowStuffWorks has braved this territory on the edge of reality, explaining how near-death experiences work and how a person can have an out-of-body experience. Science, too, has made its own headway toward explaining these weird phenomena. Two studies on the separate aspects of Reynolds' experience were conducted in 2007. Each seems to explain how a person can have an OBE or a NDE, but do they hold up in explaining experiences like Reynolds'? ­­

As many as 18 percent of people brought back from death after a heart attack said they'd had a NDE [source: Time]. While many religious adherents might not be surprised by these accounts, the idea that human consciousness and the body exist distinctly from each other flies in the face of science. A brain-dead person should not be able to form new memories -- he shouldn't have any consciousness at all, really. So how can anything but a metaphysical explanation cover NDEs?

A study from the University of Kentucky has quickly gained ground among scientists as possibly the best explanation for NDEs. Researchers there theorize that the mysterious phenomenon is really an instance of the sleep disorder rapid eye movement (REM) intrusion. In this disorder, a person's mind can wake up before his body, and hallucinations and the feeling of being physically detached from his body can occur.

The Kentucky researchers believe that NDEs are actually REM intrusions triggered in the brain by traumatic events like cardiac arrest. If this is true, then this means the experiences of some people following near-death are confusion from suddenly and unexpectedly entering a dream-like state.

This theory helps explain what has always been a tantalizing aspect of the mystery of NDEs: how people can experience sights and sounds after confirmed brain death. The area where REM intrusion is triggered is found in the brain stem -- the region that controls the most basic functions of the body -- and it can operate virtually independent from the higher brain. So even after the higher regions of the brain are dead, the brain stem can conceivably continue to function, and REM intrusion could still occur [source: BBC].

This sounds like a good explanation for NDEs, but what about OBEs? Are they the same thing?

The Temporal Parietal Junction and OBEs

While the REM intrusion theory for near-death experiences explains the apparent hallucinations that accompany NDEs, another aspect remains a mystery. How can a person watch his body after he dies? Though out-of-body experiences are sometimes reported as part of the near-death experience, they can also stand alone, indicating that they are a different animal than NDEs.

Photo courtesy Dreamstme Research shows that different parts of the brain are most likely responsible for out-of-body experiences and near-death experiences.

patient's seizures, This is supported by a bit of accidental research. To find the cause of a 43-year-old epilepticSwiss neurologist Dr. Olaf Blanke conducted a brain mapping test using electrodes planted on the brain to determine which area controls what function. As one region was being stimulated, the woman had a sudden out-of-body experience. She told Blanke that she could see herself from above [source: New York Times].

Blanke determined that by electrically stimulating the woman's angular gyrus, a part of the temporal parietal junction, he could induce her OBEs. What's remarkable is that the patient experienced an OBE each time her angular gyrus was arbitrarily stimulated.

At any given time, the brain is assaulted with information. As a result, we become desensitized to the sights and sounds around us, such as the buzz of a fluorescent light. The temporal parietal junction (TPJ) is responsible for sorting through this disparate information and putting it together into a coherent package.

The TPJ also happens to be the region that controls our comprehension of our own body and its situation in space. Blanke believes that a misfiring of this region is responsible for OBEs. If any of the information being sorted by the temporal parietal junction becomes crossed, like where we are in space, then we could seemingly be released from the confines of our body -- even if only for a moment.

Both Blanke's and the University of Kentucky theories explain OBEs and NDEs. But what about when you put the two together as an explanation for experiences like that of Pam Reynolds? This still does not resolve how Pam Reynolds and others like her view themselves outside of their bodies while they were brain-dead.

NDEs may be a result of REM intrusion, triggered in the brain stem. But OBEs are controlled by a region of the higher brain, which is clinically dead when NDEs occur. What's more, it seems logical to believe that the higher brain must still function in order to interpret the sensations produced by the REM intrusion triggered in the brain stem.

Even though combining the University of Kentucky and Blanke theories does not produce an explanation for NDEs, it does not mean that either theory is wrong. Research in one area often leads to a breakthrough in another. Perhaps we will find out that an organic function is indeed behind NDEs.

If neurology does come up with the definitive explanation for NDEs, the mystery may still remain. Science could explain the "how," while leaving the "why" unanswered. Discovering an explanation for NDEs may reveal a door to the metaphysical world, which could possibly be unlocked -- and explored -- by science.

As physician Dr. Melvin Morse wrote, "Simply because religious experiences are brain-based does not automatically lessen or demean their spiritual significance. Indeed, the findings of neurological substrates to religious experiences can be argued to provide evidence for their objective reality" [source: Morse].

What is EVP? How EVP Works? How EVP functions? Use of EVP?

On a January night in 2002, a group of paranormal investigators visited an abandoned mental hospital just south of Chicago, Ill. The hospital had a dark past. Before it was shut down in the 1970s, it had housed the criminally insane. Occasionally, the staff had executed criminals by electrocution.

EVP Image Gallery

Photo courtesy Southern Wisconsin Paranormal Research Group A researcher makes audio recordings at Manteno State Mental Hospital. See more EVP images.

The team of investigators walked through Manteno State Mental Hospital, recording both audio and video as they went. They didn't hear or see much while they were there, but when they reviewed their videotape, they discovered something quite startling. In the empty, powerless hospital, they heard very distinctly the sound of a female voice paging Dr. Martin ("Martin" is the best guess -- they are not completely sure of the last name of the doctor).

The voice was recorded by the Southern Wisconsin Paranormal Research Group, one of many research organizations around the world that study electronic voice phenomena (EVP). EVP is the recording of sounds and voices onto tapes, videocassettes and other electronic devices. Those who investigate the phenomenon say that the recordings are the voices of spirits trying to communicate with us. Skeptics say EVP is just radio interference or tricks played by our mind.

In this article, we will find out how researchers study electronic voice phenomena, discover some of the arguments for and against its existence and hear some of the extraordinary voices that have been caught on tape.

EVP Communications

EVP is the recording of otherworldly voices onto tapes, reel-to-reels and other types of recording equipment. A newer term for the phenomenon, instrumental transcommunication (ITC), refers specifically to the way the voices are recorded using technology.

Many of the people who regularly record these voices say they are spirits -- voices of dead men, women and children who are trying to communicate from beyond the grave. Since spirits no longer have a body with vocal chords, they can't actually "talk." Instead, the theory goes, they use their energy to electronically manipulate sound into a form that resembles the spoken voice.

EVP Recording See SJPR Case Studies: "La-la" to listen to an "otherworldly" woman singing, recorded by paranormal investigators in New Jersey.

Voices are rarely heard during recording -- only during playback. They may be so soft that they can barely be heard or so distorted that they must be listened to over and over again to determine their meaning. The words may be in any language, and they can even be in a combination of languages (called polyglot). Sometimes, the voice answers questions or addresses the researcher directly. It may call the person by name or mention something very personal to the researcher. Sometimes, the voice sounds as though it is singing.

Researchers categorize recordings based on their audibility:

• Class A voices are very clear and easily understandable.
• Class B voices are fairly loud and clear and are sometimes audible without headphones.
• Class C voices are very soft and often indecipherable.

Regardless of how clear the recording is, the voices rarely speak for more than a few seconds at a time. Researchers spend hours listening again and again to decipher the meaning behind just a few seconds of sound.

EVP Recording See World ITC: Sample contacts: Extraordinary contacts to hear a message recorded in 1994 by EVP researcher Mark Macy. A voice supposedly belonging to EVP pioneer Konstantin Raudive speaks directly to Mark, saying in part:

"... You know by experience, Mark, how dangerous drugs of all kinds can be. Try to warn humanity that they not only alter their present lives on your side, but also influence in a negative way their future lives. Go on with your experiences and you will see that the bridge to the States will soon be strengthened. Regina, as your twin soul, can help you a lot. Listen to her inner voice, and you will be in the right way."

How is EVP Recorded?

Photo courtesy Amazon.com EVP can be recorded using an ordinary cassette tape deck.

People who study EVP use several types of devices to record the sounds. They may use old-fashioned cassette or reel-to-reel recorders or more modern digital recorders. Most researchers say the cost of the recorder is unimportant -- that inexpensive recorders work just as well as expensive ones.

They attach an external microphone to the recorder, one with a long enough cord so that it avoids picking up the sound of the tape recorder itself. The external microphone also enables the researcher to record his or her thoughts while the process is underway. Headphones are often used because many of the voices are soft and difficult to hear otherwise.

Jennifer Lauer, director and founder of the Southern Wisconsin Paranormal Research Group, is called on regularly by companies and homeowners to document paranormal activity. She describes the recording process her team uses:

We'll go out to the location and we'll interview the witnesses and find out what is going on -- what they're seeing and hearing. We'll also take equipment readings to make sure what they're sensing isn't an electromagnetic field or radio waves.

We record EVP in two different ways, depending on what type of haunting it seems to be ... EVP can be a residual type of energy. It can be a clip that happened at one time and replays itself like a movie. If it's a residual haunting, we let the tape recorder go in the room to see if we pick up anything.

With an intelligent haunting [meaning that an actual spirit is present], we would ask questions because we know we would get answers ... We sit down in a group of four to six people. We put the tape recorder in a central location between all of us. We proceed to one by one ask a question to whatever is in the room. After our question, we leave about 20 seconds of airtime for the question to be answered, and then the next person will ask a question.

Analyzing an EVP Recording

After making the recording, researchers listen to the tape over and over again, listening for any sound that resembles a voice. They may also use a computer to analyze any voices that do emerge. Here is an example of the analytical process used at The Ghost Investigators Society:

Wave form: This screen shows the pattern of a voice directly after being input into the computer for analysis.

Statistics screen: After viewing the wave pattern, researchers view the wave form statistics. This in essence gives the makeup of the voice sample itself, such as pitch, amplitude and sample rate.

Courtesy The Ghost Investigators Society Analysis graph: After viewing the statistics of the wave form, researchers compare the results to the analysis graph. After doing this, they take all the information gathered from the wave form and determine if the voice sample is EVP or simply a stray sound picked up by the microphone.

Researchers may also use software to make the recorded sound more audible. "I use software to remove background noise, to boost the strength of their voices or to remove clicking or hiss from the recording," explains Dave Oester, Ph.D., cofounder of the International Ghost Hunters Society. "Some EVP require no filtering at all; they are very clear. EVP voices are filled with emotions and are never monotone."

When using a very quiet cassette or reel-to-reel recorder, researchers often run a fan or play radio static or the babble of prerecorded voices (usually in a foreign language) during playback, because they say that the background noise helps the voices form on tape. The theory is that the communicator translates the noise into words.

EVP Skeptics

"White Noise" Even Hollywood has caught onto EVP with the film "White Noise." This suspense thriller stars Michael Keaton as a husband who becomes obsessed with trying to contact his dead wife. But when he finally succeeds and hears her voice on tape, he opens up a portal to another world.

Not everyone believes that the voices EVP researchers hear are otherworldly spirits. Some skeptics say that EVP is nothing more than radio interference. Others say that people who claim to have heard these voices are either imagining them or else their minds are creating meaning out of insignificant sound, projecting what the person wants or expects to hear on the recording.

"Some of the 'voices' are most likely people creating meaning out of random noise, a kind of auditory pareidolia [the illusion that something obscure is real] or apophenia [mentally connecting unrelated phenomena]," writes Robert Carroll, Ph.D. on his Web site, The Skeptic's Dictionary.

"Humans are exceptionally wonderful at finding patterns in noise," says Edwin C. May, Ph.D., president of the Laboratories for Fundamental Research. "The hardware in our sensory system is designed to see changes in things." So when we hear repeated sounds, our brain picks out and pieces together what sounds to us like spoken words. If you listen to thousands of pieces of audio, Dr. May contends, you'll eventually find one that sounds like a voice. "It's the monkey on the typewriter issue."

EVP researchers counter that the highly interactive communication they have engaged in would be impossible to discount as interference or brain tricks. "I have been an amateur radio operator for 40 years, and I have never had tape or digital recorders pick up any artificial interference," says Oester. "Also, how can an interactive EVP, where the spirit is responding to my questions or commenting on my words, ever be considered interference?"

History of EVP

Photo courtesy Edison National Historic Site Thomas Edison

One of the world's most respected scientists, Thomas Alva Edison, believed that it would one day be possible to build a machine that would help humans communicate with the dead. He once said:

If our personality survives, then it is strictly logical or scientific to assume that it retains memory, intellect, other faculties, and knowledge that we acquire on this Earth. Therefore ... if we can evolve an instrument so delicate as to be affected by our personality as it survives in the next life, such an instrument, when made available, ought to record something.

Unfortunately, Edison did not live to see his invention take shape.

In 1949, Marcello Bacci of Italy began recording voices with an old tube radio. People would come to Bacci's home to talk with their departed relatives. A few years later, two Italian priests named Father Ernetti and Father Gemelli were trying to record a Gregorian chant on their magnetophone, but the machine kept breaking. Exasperated, Father Gemelli looked up and asked his father for help. To his surprise, his dead father's voice answered from the magnetophone, "Of course I shall help you. I'm always with you."

EVP Researchers

One of the most well-known EVP researchers of the 20th century was a Swedish opera singer, painter and film producer named Friedrich Jurgenson. His interest in electronic voice phenomena was sparked one day in 1959, when he recorded the sounds of birds singing in a forest. When he played the tape back, he heard a female voice say, "Friedrich, you are being watched. Friedel, my little Friedel, can you hear me?" It was the voice of his dead mother. Jurgenson went on to record many other voices over the next four years, and he published two books: "Voices From the Universe" and "Radio Contact with the Dead."

Dr. Konstantin Raudive, a Latvian psychologist, heard of Jurgenson's experiments several years later. At first he was skeptical, but then he tried the technique himself and wound up recording many voices, including that of his deceased mother.

In the 1960s and 1970s, EVP became a legitimate, if controversial, arm of paranormal research. American researchers George and Jeanette Meek and psychic William O'Neil recorded hundreds of hours of EVP with radio oscillators. They claim to have worked closely with another scientist, Dr. George Jeffries Mueller. The only catch was that Mueller was deceased.

Sarah Estep, one of the most outspoken EVP researchers, started the American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomenon (AAEVP) in 1982. She claims to have communicated with thousands of ghosts, as well as with aliens.

Researchers around the world continue to investigate EVP. Their findings are documented on dozens of Web sites, as well as in books.

How Ghost Busters Work? What is Ghost Busters?

From the moment you read the title of this article, you probably had the song going through your head: "There's something weird, and it don't look good. Who you gonna call?..." Many of us are familiar with the Hollywood version of ghost busting, made famous in the 1984 hit movie "Ghostbusters." But there are people for whom hunting ghosts is no laughing matter.

What are real-life ghost busters like? Do they hunt down ghosts and vanquish them? Do they shoot proton beams, drive a customized ambulance or come home after a hard day's work coated in green goo?

In this article, we'll meet some actual ghost hunters, find out what they do and see what tools they use in the course of their work.

Meet the Ghost Hunters Randy Liebeck

Photo courtesy Randy Liebeck Randy Liebeck

Cop by day, ghost hunter by night
Although his career in law enforcement doesn't put Randy Liebeck into contact with too many ghosts, he indulges his lifelong interest in the supernatural by investigating reported hauntings after hours. He has served as a consultant for several TV shows and has written for the magazines Fate and Unknown.

Liebeck has investigated hauntings throughout the United States using an ever-growing technological tool kit to try and capture evidence of a real ghost.

Joe Nickell

Photo courtesy Ed Grabianowski Joe Nickell

Professional paranormal investigator
Joe Nickell is a senior research fellow for the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), a non-profit organization that applies scientific methods to claims of paranormal or supernatural phenomena. He has investigated hundreds, if not thousands, of haunted houses and other paranormal phenomena. He has worked as a detective, a stage magician and a journalist and is now a full-time, salaried paranormal investigator.

He has published several books and many articles and is also an expert in forgery detection and document authentication.

Ghost Stories

Photo courtesy Southern Wisconsin Paranormal Research Group

Ghost stories have probably been around as long as humans have had language. The Epic of Gilgamesh, thought by many scholars to be the oldest written story, contains many references to the spirits of the dead. That is the most basic definition of a ghost -- a person's spirit that continues to exist in some form after the physical body has died. Most religions describe an afterlife where these spirits are sent to be either rewarded or punished for their deeds in this life. A lot of ghost stories focus on spirits that return from this afterlife or never get there in the first place -- instead, they interact with people in the physical world.

Why do these spirits have such a hard time getting to, or staying in, the afterlife? Ghost believers often cite "unfinished business" in the dead person's life. Sudden violent or traumatic death is another reason given for hauntings. In some cases, people seem to have formed such a strong bond to a specific place in life that his or her spirit returns there after death.

Some hauntings don't seem to involve a specific spirit moving about in a conscious manner. These hauntings seem more like an old film replaying an event from the past, like a battle or a murder. There are reports of spectral Roman armies marching off to some long-forgotten war or soldiers still fighting the Battle of Gettysburg in ghostly form.

One of the most famous kinds of ghosts isn't believed to involve the spirits of the dead at all. Some have theorized that poltergeists (German for "knocking spirit") result from telekinetic energy given off by angry or frustrated people. Often, adolescents going through puberty are reported to be the focus of the bangings and moving objects that are the hallmarks of poltergeist activity.

The final type of ghosts can be classified as evil entities. Those who subscribe to Judeo-Christian religion and mythology believe that some hauntings are caused by demons or even Satan himself. Sometimes these demons even "possess" a living person. Believers feel that the best way to get rid of these ghosts is with an exorcism, a special religious ritual that is intended to cast the demons out.

Of course, this discussion of ghosts assumes that they're real, and assumptions have no place in worthwhile investigations. Ghostbusting investigations are no exception.

Ghost Hunters

­­­ T­he first thing you need to know about real-life ghost busters is that they don't like the term "ghost buster." To actually bust a ghost, you'd need two things:

• An actual, verifiable ghost
• A tested, proven method of getting rid of that ghost

The problem a real ghost buster runs into is simply this: Neither of those things has ever been conclusively proven to exist.

What does exist are unexplained events that seem to have a paranormal origin. These events can be investigated, and many times the causes can be determined. Often, the ghosts are "busted" when the investigator discovers that it was really a poorly sealed window causing the cold draft or reflected car headlights causing the strange lights moving around a darkened room. So instead of ghost busters, they tend to prefer "paranormal investigators" or even "ghost hunters."

You won't find most paranormal investigators listed in the phone book. So how do they find their cases? Randy Liebeck has cases referred to him from various paranormal research institutions. Joe Nickell selects which hauntings he will investigate based on the infamy of the case or whether it has any unusual or interesting characteristics. Many investigators, including both Liebeck and Nickell, conduct some investigations at the invitation of TV crews or newspaper reporters.

Once they have a reported haunting, a paranormal investigator begins by researching the site ahead of time. This often takes the form of a list of the phenomena reported to occur at the haunting, but it can also lead to historical research into the back story behind a haunting. Knowing what phenomena are being reported is important, because it helps determine what equipment to bring. "If the reports involve only auditory or subjective sensations, there is no point in wiring up the house with 15 video cameras," said Liebeck. Historical research is vital, because the word-of-mouth legends that usually surround ghostly sites can be red herrings that lead investigators to dead ends.

The first step upon reaching the investigation site is to speak with all the witnesses to the phenomena and find out exactly what they've experienced. Often, the exact details reported by eyewitnesses are quite different from the legendary tales that surround a haunting.

Joe Nickell has developed a ghost questionnaire that he gives to witnesses at the start of an investigation in an attempt to quantify their experiences. The questionnaire addresses details such as the number of times they've experienced a haunting and at what time of day the hauntings have occurred. It also uses psychological survey questions that help Nickell give the witness a "fantasy-prone quotient."

Real Ghost Pictures?

In 1972, Joe Nickell conducted his first investigation of a haunted house. The caretaker of an old inn called Mackenzie House in Toronto, Ontario, reported heavy footsteps on a stairway late at night, mysterious piano music and an apparition that had appeared to his wife while lying in bed one night. Finally, a photograph of a piano had an unexplained white blur in the foreground.

After interviewing all the employees, Nickell found one tour guide who reported hearing the footsteps during the day, as well. Examining the staircase, Nickell found that it ran along an outside wall. Heading outside, he found another old building sharing that wall. A quick interview with the caretaker of that building revealed a stairway running parallel to the one in Mackenzie House, but on the other side of the wall. A late-night cleaning crew explained the footsteps at night. The wife of the other house's caretaker playing the piano explained the "mysterious" piano music. But what about the photo? And the apparition?

Analysis of the photo by a professional photographer revealed that a bright flash had been used. White sheet music on the piano threw a reflection of the flash into the foreground, creating the strange blur.

Experiencing an apparition while in bed is actually a common experience. Known as a waking dream, or a hypnogogic trance, the witness may awake to find his or her body utterly paralyzed. People in a waking dream also frequently perceive one or more figures moving around them. The underlying psychological and physiological causes of these trances are not well-understood, but they have been documented by many subjects. In the end, Nickell concluded that the house was not, in fact, haunted.

Photographic Evidence?

This photo was taken in the author's basement:

Photo courtesy Ed Grabianowski

This next photo was taken in the same corner of the same basement. Ghost activity?

Photo courtesy Ed Grabianowski
The camera-strap effect: Many ghost photographers report strange glowing shapes in their images, even when there was nothing unusual in the room when they took the photo. In some cameras, the viewfinder does not look directly through the actual lens of the camera, so a camera strap can fall across the lens unnoticed by the photographer. A bright flash and lack of focus can make the strap look strange.

Ghost-detecting Equipment

Ghost hunters take a variety of tools with them on an investigation. Randy Liebeck's kit includes: "analog and digital video cameras with infrared night-vision capabilities; hand-held camcorders and stationary units that feed to a central command center; 35-mm film still cameras and digital cameras; analog and digital audio recorders; amplified or parabolic surveillance microphones; atmospheric environment monitors; motion detectors; Geiger counters; a seismograph and a thermal-imaging camera."

Photo courtesy USGS Photo by R. P. Hoblitt Seismograph in action

One of the most frequently used devices in a ghost hunt is an EMF detector, sometimes known as a TriField® meter. These devices detect fluctuations in magnetic, electric and radio/microwave energy levels. Some investigators have speculated that anomalous readings in those energy fields are a sign of a ghost.

Photo courtesy TriField Natural EM Meter TriField Meter

According to Joe Nickell, however, the use of such equipment is unnecessary and unscientific. "Why would we even be taking EMF detectors when we have no scientific evidence that they detect ghosts?"

As a result, Nickell doesn't spend too much time trying to get photos of ghosts or audio recordings of ghostly voices. Instead, he brings a camera to photograph evidence, his questionnaires, a notebook and a tape recorder for interviews. He also keeps a forensic-evidence collection kit handy, just in case some physical traces of a ghost do show up. He once investigated a Kentucky farmhouse with a door that supposedly dripped blood when it rained. He collected some of the substance on the door, and analysis showed it to be rust and other materials from the roof washing down with the rainwater.

Photo courtesy Ed Grabianowski This magnifying lens has been used to examine hundreds of supposed holy relics, monster footprints and physical traces left by ghosts. In the background are several of the modules Nickell uses to put together an investigator's tool kit appropriate to each case.

If the evidence needs further clarification, Nickell sometimes calls in scientists or specialized equipment to conduct further analysis. Nickel was not present at Atlanta's "House of Blood," where a witness stated that blood had "oozed" up out of the floor, but he obtained crime scene photos showing blood on the floor and walls. Nickell consulted a forensic expert in blood-splatter patterns, who looked at the photos and determined that the blood had been squirted at the walls, probably out of a syringe.

Containment Fields and Proton Streams

Photo courtesy Amazon.com "Ghostbusters," 1984

If Randy Liebeck and Joe Nickell are indicative of the field, real-life ghost busters aren't running around blasting ghosts or sucking them into special traps like in the movies. There's no containment unit housing thousands of captured spirits. And there isn't any way to guarantee the removal of a ghost. Most ghost hunters are mostly trying to document paranormal phenomena and possibly find explanations for them. Randy Liebeck explains that in some cases, certain rituals designed to remove ghosts seem to work, such as telling the spirit to leave or having a psychic guide the spirit "toward the light." He says the success of these rituals may have as much to do with the psychological effect on the witness as anything else. It depends "on the dynamics of the case and/or the individual's belief system."

The Scientific Method

Ghost-hunter clubs and societies have popped up all over the world. There is no government regulation of ghost hunters, nor is there an industry group that oversees their activities. These groups are almost all amateurs, and very few of them practice the scientific method. "Many of these groups are earnest and are making an honest effort to contribute to the field," said Liebeck. However, too many of them "are not in the business of conducting actual research or impartially evaluating evidence, but have apparently already decided what the 'truth' is and are just promoting their belief system. Waving a magnetometer in front of a TV set and announcing, 'They're here!' or photographing a bunch of flash-illuminated dust particles and proclaiming that 'The orbs are upset over our negative vibrations,' does not constitute an investigation."

Photo courtesy Ed Grabianowski Paranormal investigator Joe Nickell examines a rare 18th-century "spirit photograph" under a stereo microscope.

Photo courtesy Ed Grabianowski Sometimes, the microscope can help reveal hard edges where a figure has been cut out and placed onto a negative.

Photo courtesy Ed Grabianowski The off-center position of this portrait is not typical of most 18th century portrait photos, but it is typical of the faked spirit photographs of the era.

Liebeck points out that many ghost hunters are going about it backward. They go into an investigation with an unchanging, dogmatic idea -- that ghosts exist. During the course of an investigation, they will interpret almost anything they find as evidence of an actual ghost. EVP recordings, cold spots or photographic anomalies all become additional ghostly phenomena, but the ghost hunters never seriously consider other, more earthly solutions. They start with the answer they want to reach before they begin investigating.

The scientific method, on the other hand, does not have a pre-ordained solution to paranormal problems. Ghost hunters like Joe Nickell are aiming neither to legitimate nor to debunk every ghost case they find. Instead, a paranormal investigator examines the evidence itself and then tries to find out where that evidence leads. In Joe Nickell's case, it has never led to an actual ghost.