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Did anyone watch the start of Ghost Adventures' new season on Friday? They used a strong laser pointed down one of the long hallways of the underground tunnels. Apparently the idea was that if a ghost walks through the laser beam, you can see their energy in some way. I don't know if you are suppose to see the actual outline of a ghost, or if the energy just blurs or breaks the line of the laser, but I thought it was good idea if it were a real possibility. Their results were not successful, but it was worth a try.
What do you guys think about that process?
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Definitely worth the experiment. I assume the entity would simply break the line or blur the beam. I do not know much about lasers, or the frequencies they use, but there has to be a basis for the experimentation. Again, I give that team kudos for trying new things, whether we agree or disagree with anything they use, at least they are giving these items a chance to prove or disprove themselves…look at what they used for their live special…its better then using the same KII meter for every investigation like you know who.
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Worth a go. You will never know what may work, until disproven.
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I've been meaning to bring along my Black & Decker laser leveller doohicky on an investigation, I just never seem to remember to grab it up. /mellow.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='
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The idea would be to mount it to a small tripod (maybe two or three feet high, to avoid hitting anyone in the eyeball), in the view of a fixed camera to see if there's any unexplained 'breaks' in the laser's line.
Gotta remember to bring that with me next time! /laugh.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='
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Gene – that's the thing, how WOULD one really know that the break in the laser beam was actually a ghost or paranormal activity? It would be neat if they could set up the experiment but also somehow use other equipment at the same time to note what each machine reads if and where the laser beam breaks.
Tom, if you use it let me know. I'm really curious about this one. I might just try it soon, too, though I need to so some research about the kind and strength of the laser that would be required to work properly.
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Tom, if you use it let me know. I'm really curious about this one. I might just try it soon, too, though I need to so some research about the kind and strength of the laser that would be required to work properly.
Yeah, will do – I plan on doing a filmed experiment, setting it up in the view of a camera and using various things to see if the laser actually "breaks" when something other-than-solid crosses through it. I was going to start with water from a sprayer, and probably cigarette smoke. Another idea was to roll a ball through the line to see how the camera picks it up…
I'll post when I've done this, maybe tomorrow if I can find the stuff I'll need.
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I might try it out myself. I have one laser used for leveling and it has a prism that spreads out the laser from a single point to a line. I might try it out next time.
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I definitely think it's worth a try.
That's one thing I love about GA … their enthusiasm about trying out new equipment.
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I remember some time back on an old episode of Paranormal State that they had thrown together a cheap laser array consisting of laser heads mounted in rigid foam and a power strip with cheap 2 dollar nightlights with photoresistors. They demonstrated how if the beam was broken, the night lights would illuminate. I thought it was a fantastic idea, and could be made fairly cheaply. The crew then did something that made absolutely no sense to me, they filled the hallway with smoke and put plastic over the entrance to contain it. This illuminated the beams to make them visible. Perhaps I missed an explanation, but I would think that you would want the beams to be invisible and stealthy. At any rate, I thought it was a pretty good idea to make this setup with cheap light-activated nightlights to provide a visual cue of a broken beam. It has been on the "to do" list for awhile now.
If anyone else experiments with this, please keep us updated.
Thanks,
Andy
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Hmm, sort of a homemade motion detector is what it sounds like. I think the smoke actually makes the lasers more visible, doesn't it? Not sure on that one, but maybe it was so they could better capture it on film?
What about motion detectors (re: Tom's comment)?
Can a ghost actually set one off, or is that another myth? I was under the impression that what sets off a motion detector is a physical mass, and though some belief is that the energy of a ghost is actually a sort of physical mass, is it really enough to set off the detector? I suppose if the idea of a ghost "mass" can interrupt a laser beam, it could set off the detector.
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I recall an episode of GA where motion detectors were placed around a fixed camera, and they went off; later analysis showed a faint shadowy figure moving infront of the camera – so perhaps it is possible…
However, I also remember thinking that it could have just been the effects of the motion detectors "alarm" lights playing tricks on the camera… /mellow.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':P' />
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It depends on the motion detector software. Yes there are some that require a mass to move or break a light beam. Then there are some like computer based software where the program is constantly analyzing the picture and looks for a certain percentage of changes in the picture. I have one that is hooked up to my webcam. I set it for motion detection one day while at work. I left for 3 hours to go run some calls and then came back. It was set to take a picture every 30 seconds. It ended up taking about 500 pictures. The clouds were moving through the glass door so I got an awesome sequence of cloud formations. Other times just the sun moving throughout the day set off the motion.
So there are many different types of motion detection. Which ones will go off by a ghost going by is anyone's guess.
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Definitely worth the experiment. I assume the entity would simply break the line or blur the beam. I do not know much about lasers, or the frequencies they use, but there has to be a basis for the experimentation. Again, I give that team kudos for trying new things, whether we agree or disagree with anything they use, at least they are giving these items a chance to prove or disprove themselves…look at what they used for their live special…its better then using the same KII meter for every investigation like you know who.
Let me preface this by saying that I do have a fair amount of knowledge and experience with strong lasers. The kind that, when properly focused, can literally burn through a credit card faster than a blowtorch. Spent my first two years out of the military working on them, including some R&D work with a guy fresh out of the Soviet equivalent of the "Star Wars" program. Pretty cool work, but kind of dangerous, because they used infrared beams. Pure heat, totally invisible to the naked eye, and extremely unforgiving to skin and clothing.
Anyway, they are like any other form of light. The individual photons have no more energy than the glow of Rudolph's nose, they're just piled on top of each other and all at the same wavelength, so they don't scatter themselves. If a ghost was going to visibly scatter the beam, it would refract a flashlight beam, and it would be visible to the naked eye.
The only way I could realistically see a ghost affecting a beam would be a minor variation in phasing, using a technique called interferometry. It can measure variations in the phase of the light, giving distance resolution down to the sub-atomic level. it's a serious pain to set up, and requires some fairly exotic hardware, but it might pick up something as subtle as a ghost. of course, with that kind of sensitivity, it might pick up everything else in the room as well.
The only way I could realistically see a ghost affecting a beam would be a minor variation in phasing, using a technique called interferometry. It can measure variations in the phase of the light, giving distance resolution down to the sub-atomic level. it's a serious pain to set up, and requires some fairly exotic hardware, but it might pick up something as subtle as a ghost. of course, with that kind of sensitivity, it might pick up everything else in the room as well.
Thanks Jybian. That's kind of along the lines of what I was thinking and wondering about it. I guess there's only one way to find out, and that's to repeatedly try the experiment with lasers, which I know some people here are doing and I'm looking forward to their results.
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I don't think a ghost would show up when breaking the beam of a laser. The purpose of what I am planning on doing is using the laser through a door way as a line of light. Reports of a shadow person moving by the doorway is what I'm planning on testing. The laser will be mounted up high and aimed at the floor about 4 feet inside the doorway. If a shadow passes in front of the laser then the laser should black out in that area. With a static cam aimed at the doorway we should be able to pick it up if it happens.
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I don't think a ghost would show up when breaking the beam of a laser. The purpose of what I am planning on doing is using the laser through a door way as a line of light. Reports of a shadow person moving by the doorway is what I'm planning on testing. The laser will be mounted up high and aimed at the floor about 4 feet inside the doorway. If a shadow passes in front of the laser then the laser should black out in that area. With a static cam aimed at the doorway we should be able to pick it up if it happens.
Sounds like a pretty simple experiment to run, Ryan. If something does manage to interrupt the beam, you'll know it was substantial, since a laser has a rather impressive ability to carry great distances unless physically blocked. Astronomers have been bouncing laser beams off the surface of the moon for **** near half a century.
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Ya know, they make pseudo laser based door chime. Break the beam and the chime goes off. they're relatively inexpensive if I remember. That might be an alternative to a visual break in the beam. The only problem would be the distance between transmitter and receiver i'd guess.
just a thought
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