Hey everyone, I just joined today, and have a question that's been bugging me since my first paranormal investigation this Spring. I have resigned myself to the fact that I possess zero ghost "radar"-while my team members point out shadows to me, I can never see anything. When they walk into a room and say "Oh, someone is here with us", I have, with time, come to trust they are being honest, but yet I still feel, sense, and see nothing despite trying to open my mind up to them and "tune in" to it. I can recall throughout my life hearing the oft-used phrase "You know how you feel someone is watching you?", and not knowing what that meant at all. Although I tend to get more evidence than others (loads of EVP's, for example), I would like to learn to be more sensitive, if that is even possible. In a relevant post on Nov 9 2009 regarding his use of thermal cameras, ourobouros2k2 said the following-

"A main reason I persist in using technical means is that I have virtually no intuitive or sensitive ability. I can be in a group of 3 people and 2 of them will see an apparition and I will see nothing. I am therefore relegated to use of monitoring/recording equipment to catch a glimpse of what most people tend to see naturally."

I can attest I know just how he feels! So, my question is how can I develop this ability, and is that even possible at all? I know many describe it as a gift they were born with, but I've also heard accounts of people becoming sensitives after severe head trauma, or a near death experience. Anyway, does anyone have any advice? On the other hand, I sometimes wonder if my almost routine abundance of EVP is because they are trying harder to communicate with me? For example, I had my name called on my very first investigation, and have captured it a half dozen or so times on some of the other cases I've been on since then. Also, once about 8 of us were doing a group EVP session when I clearly heard a girl say "help"- no one else heard it but me, and only my recorder picked it up. Was she specifically trying to reach me I wonder? So, any feedback on this would be most appreciated. I love my apparent knack for getting evidence (especially that rush when I first review my recordings and find there really were spirits right there, often even commenting on our discussions between team members). But, I think I'd really love to actually see an apparition even more! Thanks.

Again, thanks for your time, there are a lot of paranormal sites and forums out there, I can see I made a good choice joining this one.

I agree, it is nice to be successful at investigating. I had gone into this warned and fully expecting I'd spend long, boring nights not getting anything, and instead had my mind blown on the very first night. I've gotten some wild recordings on almost every investigation since then, enough to know positively we are not alone. This by itself has opened a wealth of questions, like am I ever truly by myself, or do we constantly have company? And is it our friends and family who have passed, or souls I never knew? Do they help me somehow or just watch? I wish I could sense who and when they were with me, if at all. Maybe it's only when I go to an active location, and I'm truly by myself when I'm elsewhere?

I guess what bothers me about my lack of ability to sense them besides the privacy issues, is the fact that as convincing as the EVP stuff is, it's still just a voice. So I have this knowledge that they are out there, but they are still only voices to me, not actual ghosts. I want to experience seeing them with my own eyes. I want to know for sure, and, as they say, seeing is believing. The touch on the back was perhaps the most reassuring that this is no joke, someone touched me when I asked for it, and there was no one near me to do it. That is undeniable.

The other bigger reason is that I've heard sensitives are like a beacon, ghosts see them and gravitate towards them, because they know they can be acknowledged. My strongest EVP has been captured while in the company of these people, and I guess I'm a little nervous that without having them there, I won't be able to get the same results alone.

On the other hand, I have heard if you "make appointments" with them and record on a regular basis, they seem to go nuts and can't wait to talk to you?

"Nowhammies", I think your "visits" are fantastic, and I would love to have a chance to do that on my own. The questions I would have for them!

As a sensitive, I've got to say, it's not all it's cracked up to be. Being a "beacon" for the supernatural has it's ups and downs- and the downs aren't anything I've ever liked. Growing up I constantly had to deal with going over friends houses, which in my area tend to be old with lingering spirits. Without fail, anytime I was over the activity was always heightened. I could "see" these people in my mind and hear them- but you have to understand, while spirits often are human, they're also strangers. And like the living, they're not always happy or pleasant to deal with. And the nasty ones really can make you feel awful, drained and sick. I'm a pretty stubborn person, and it doesn't go over well when some nasty spirit is making me feel things I don't want to feel.

Then I constantly had to deal with being woken up by spirits- which was fine to a point when I was single, but try having to explain to your new husband why you're talking to an invisible person in the middle of the night- or having your new husband jumping out of bed because they start tugging on his blankets and humming to him.

It got to the point that I finally had to set parameters with the spirit world because I just couldn't keep up with it, and honestly didn't want to. Now I just tap into it when I want to, which isn't often. Sometimes it's still hard to block it out, but it is nice being able to go places without being constantly bombarded by the other side.

Yeah, as they say, careful what you wish for……… I guess then you'd be a good source of some of the information I am pondering-Why are they strangers, and not our loved ones? Is that because only some people become what they are? Or maybe we all do, but some some stay earthbound for various reasons and need help crossing over? I had read this wonderful article on the Association Transcommunication website (http://atransc.org/theory/surv…..thesis.htm) and thought I had finally found a reasonable hypothesis for what happens to us next. The only problem is that it does not explain why only a small number of people seem to haunt earth, not all the people in history (by the way, check that website out if you haven't already!). That's funny what you said about being woken up at night, people in my group complain about that to each other all the time: "And so I sat up and told her KNOCK IT OFF, I AM SLEEPING HERE!!!", lol. Although I suppose it would get old, I think I'd want to talk with them all night, the hell with work! For starters, I'd ask "Do you know why you are here?", "Can you go wherever you want?", "Can you communicate easily with others like you?", "Does time pass for you as it does us?", "Do you believe in God?", "Are you with people that lived long before you did?", "Do you have moods?", etc, I mean I could just keep going. Or, I wonder is it more strained than that, where you get a little across here and there, like the EVP's?