How Not to Conduct an Investigation, Part III: Wrapup

Back at Arno's house, we unwound and took stock of the situation.

"Anybody want a beer?" Arno called.

Anybody, Sam said.

"Sense of humor," Lindz observed.

"Let's go out and have a beer."

Excellent.

Who knows. Maybe the phone just picks up on happy feelings in the air, or has some sort of Cheery Voice Detector Chip. It also predicted the neighbor's cat showing up, which...well, who knows.

Sitting outside and discussing the evening's findings, we came to...no real conclusion.

When played with headphones, the sound we picked up at the abandoned house sounds a hell of a lot like a motorcycle a few streets away. Sam's battery conked out surprisingly early, considering it had nearly a full charge at the start of the evening.

I do think there may be some presence in Arno's house, but whatever it is/was is warm, friendly, and just enjoys hanging out there. I would like to do a more practical investigation at some point, using EVP (properly this time) and doing a full photoshoot. Possibly ditch the phone for a bit and see what happens without it.

Overall, no earth-shaking results from our first investigation. I'm glad; honestly, an entity throwing pots and pans at us during our first attempt would probably send us straight into therapy. But we got our feet wet.

Those mannequins still freak me out.

How Not to Conduct an Investigation, Part II: Abandoned House

We piled into Lindz's car, Tostito, and headed for the Santa Ana Badlands.

By Badlands, I mean a quiet residential neighborhood that happened to have an old house standing in the middle of an orange grove.

How Not to Conduct an Investigation, Part I: Arno's House

I was going to post something about fear, and how I decided to get involved in this whole paranormal investigation thing, but I felt like I ought to document our first, semi-official investigation. This is part one; I may come back to add stuff Lindz recalls.

Lindz's friend Arno heard about the class and immediately invited us to his house. People have had a few experiences there; we heard of two specific cases: he was interviewing a potential roommate when the roommate saw a figure in the doorway and gasped, and a woman felt a hand on her shoulder when she sat down in a chair.

"I have a new roommate moving in soon," he said. "Why don't you check it out?"

Tool of the Trade

Real paranormal investigators have all kinds of cool accessories. EMF detectors. Helmet cams. Photon packs. Walkie-talkies with batteries that keep failing.

I have a 99-cent Spud Pickles Ghost Radar app on my Samsung Galaxy S.

I Can Has Ghosts?

"I'm bored...I'll become a paranormal investigator."

Okay, I'm sure there was some vague logic at work, as well - "I've been having weird dreams lately...I should look into that...what's up with that cold spot...is Black Star Canyon really haunted?...hmm..."

One thing led to another, and I signed up for a paranormal investigation certification course.

I might as well spend my quarter-life crisis doing something interesting, right?

It's not like I can get a degree in it, since...well, it's the supernatural, not a degree in biology. But it's high time I indulged a little bit in my lifelong interest/fear of what is on the other side, and maybe look into whether or not all those weird things that have happened over the years have some shared reason.

A supernatural reason.

(Oooh, does that sound like a movie trailer, or what?)

People are split on the idea. Reactions range from "Cool!" (coworkers) to "Oh, Suzanne" (mother) to "You should investigate that thing in the closet" (father) and "There's nothing in the damned closet" (mother again).

I am not in this alone; my intrepid friend Lindz is taking the class, as well, and together I'm sure we're going to face all manner of supernatural merriment, hopefully not including anything too scary, because overactive imaginations + paranormal hijinks just seems to be asking for trouble.

I figure we can use this blog as a sort of record of our activities, which will be useful if we anger some kind of malevolent non-human entity and it eats us for brunch. Granted, we're trying to avoid such unpleasantness. There's a definite line between us (witty, curious, somewhat over-caffeinated individuals) and Micah from Paranormal Activity (who got exactly what he had coming to him!). We're here to learn, not to piss off.

But anyway. Boring introduction out of the way. Onto the fun stuff!

Enjoy the ride, I guess? And maybe don't repeat any heinous mistakes we make. And always indulge in a nice latte before taking on The Other Side.