Definitions

Apparitions - A visual appearance of a spirit or ghost. May also include inanimate objects such as cars or horse carriages.

Anomalies - Something found on a picture, photograph, video or voice recording that has no conventionally explainable source.

Cold Spot - It is believed that spirits can pull energy from their surroundings in order to manifest, and heat is a common form of energy. When this is done what is left is an area that is noticeably colder than the surrounding environment.

Demonologist - Person who studies demons, negative spirits and devils.

Ectoplasm - An immaterial or ethereal substance believed to surround or come from a spirit or other supernatural being. No sample of ectoplasm has ever been collected.

EMF Meter - A meter for measuring electromagnetic fields. It is believed spirits can interrupt or even create their own electromagnetic fields. Compasses can also be used to detect changes in EMF's. A spike in EMF levels could represent spirit or ghost activity.

EVP - Electronic Voice Phenomenon. Believed to be the voices of spirits, recorded on digital voice recorders, and tape recorders etc. These voices are not heard by the persons doing the recording.

False Positive - A bit of collected evidence or an anomaly that
actually has a natural cause and explanation. A dust orb would be an example.

Ghost – The physical form of a person or animal in a Residual Haunting. A ghost does not interact with people or its surroundings.

Hunt - Going to a place where there has been no previously reported ghost activity in the hopes of finding paranormal activity.

Investigation - Going to a suspected or reported haunting to get evidence to determine if the haunting is caused by a ghost, spirit, or natural occurrences, in some cases even hoaxes.

Haunting - Paranormal phenomenon occurring usually over a period of time, such as ghostly apparitions, smells, noises, disembodied voices etc.

Intelligent Haunting - A haunting by spirits with a demonstrated interaction with the living.

Orb - Believed by some to be a sphere of energy, soul forms, energy of spirits trying to materialize, sometimes caught on film or video. Usually caused by dust, moisture or insects. We don't believe them to be paranormal.

Ouija - A Board used to communicate with spirits. There are several types of boards used. The most common, is the wood Board currently being made by Parker Brothers. Some consider this a game, while others take it very seriously.

Paranormal - Not explainable by science or natural causes.

Parapsychology - The study of the evidence for psychological phenomena, such as telepathy, clairvoyance, and psycho kinesis, that are inexplicable by conventional science.

Poltergeist - Noisy and or mischievous ghost. Generally, poltergeist activity will include but is not limited to knocking, rapping, objects being thrown, objects disappearing, loud voices, and bed shaking. A recent theory is that there is no spirit involved but that it is psychokenetic in nature.

Religious Demonologist - Person who is normally a member of the clergy. A lay Religious Demonologist does the same job but is not ordained, but can perform the same duties with special permission by the Bishop- The main difference between a Demonologist and Religious Demonologist is that the Demonologist studies Demonology while the Religious Demonologist helps people to be rid of them.

Matrixing
and
Pareidolia
We are Hard-Wired To See Faces.
“As soon as the infant can see, it recognizes faces and we know that this skill is hardwired in our brains... As an inadvertent side effect, the pattern recognition machinery in our brains is so efficient in extracting a face from a clutter of other detail that we sometimes see faces where there are none.”
- Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World.

Pareidolia:
Describes a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) being mistakenly perceived as recognizable. Common examples include images of animals or faces in clouds, seeing the man in the moon, and hearing messages on records played in reverse.
- Wikipedia also known as matrixing.

Matrixing is something that we as investigators have to be very aware of. As stated above, we are hard wired to see and recognise faces from birth. While not a problem for most people, for a paranormal investigator it can mean the difference between genuine evidence and crap. I have seen hundreds of pages with "full bodied apparitions" that have a lamp shade for a head, window for a body, shadows for arms and two light streams from the windows for legs. In most cases the person that took the picture wants to see something, so they do. Matrixing is why Rorschach tests (ink blots) work.
Ok. So now we know what the problem is and why it happens. How do we avoid it? The first step would be to look at the face or apparition and determine if it is a stand alone item in the picture. That means, if you were to remove the background elements would it still be there or is it comprised of those elements? If it is dependent on those other elements then you are matrixing.
Another step is to determine if it looks real. Are the proportions right or is one eye huge, the other one missing and the nose a bit too high on the face? Does it look like a cartoon face? If so, you are probably matrixing.
One more tip is to take the same picture the next day at the same time. This is especially true of pictures where shadows make up the image you are focusing on. If it is there, at the same place, at the same time the next day, start looking for what is casting the shadow. You should really start the hunt for the cause of the shadow when you first see it but sometimes we don't notice them until later.
One of the biggest tools to avoid matrixing is to understand what it is and why we do it, and you now have that tool.

Residual Haunting - When a ghost is seen or heard doing the same thing over and over without interaction with the living. Many believe this to be an energy imprint on the surroundings similar to a record. In other words, a strong, traumatic event that occurred in the past, repeating itself over and over.

Shadow Person - Unexplainable dark shadows which are often human shaped. They can be found in photos and video and are most often seen out of the corner of your eye but have also been seen full on.

Sleep Paralysis - A frightening state of seeming to be awake but unable to move. Caused by the body's natural system that shuts off voluntary motor functions during sleep to prevent us from acting out our dreams. Also known as "Old hag" syndrome.

Spirit - A discarnate entity. Formerly a living person or animal. Present in an intelligent haunting.

Vortex or vortices - Believed by many to be a Portal to another dimension, which spirits use to appear. Some believe that these Vortexes sometimes show up in photographs as funnel shaped anomalies or translucent clouds. Camera straps and hair are often false positives confused for these. We have seen nothing to indicate their existance.

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