During Halloween season, it is easy to find oneself becoming curious about what spirits may be lurking in the shadows. The Scoop decided to look for ways to find out.
Megan Mixon, an avid ghost hunter, started with a simple iPhone app, Paranormal EMF Recorder and Scanner. “I started out with these apps and my interests in paranormal activity grew from there,” she says.
Mixon, 21, has spent the past three Halloweens searching for entities that reside within her hometown of Springfield and has grown her collection of tools to include electronic voice phenomena (EVP) readers, spirit boxes, and electromagnetic field (EMF) detectors.
Mixon has visited the Crescent Hotel, the Missouri State Penitentiary, and Springfield’s own Pythian Castle on her adventures. In addition, she has worked with small groups of paranormal hunters within Springfield and alongside the head of ghost tours at the Crescent Hotel. “I’ve run into lots of spirits, both good and bad on my trips,” Mixon says. “I love doing this, it allows me to know that there is more out there than what meets the eye, I’ve even helped a spirit pass over.”
Mixon believes anyone can easily become a ghost hunter. She suggests the Paranormal EMF Recorder and Scanner app for iPhone or the Ghostcom Radar Spirit Detector for anyone who has an Android. While you could go out and spend hundreds on equipment, consider starting with a free app and expand from there.
The Scoop sat down with Mixon while she gave step by step instructions on how to put the Paranormal EMF Recorder and Scanner to use, along with how to stay safe while doing it.
Find your favorite creepy place
The Paranormal EMF Recorder and Scanner is free on the iPhone App Store. It takes seconds to download and open. Next, Mixon suggests finding your favorite spooky spot to start. “Try starting somewhere fairly unnerving to you; it will be at those spots where you find more activity, sometimes good, sometimes bad,” Mixon says.
Protect yourself
Mixon believes that whether you are religious or not, some form of protection should be in place before you begin hunting. “It could be sage, a rosary, or any type of trinket you believe to have protective powers. The worst thing you could do is bring nothing and have something possibly attach itself to you,” warns Mixon. She also reminds us that respect is required for spirits, as you are entering and disrupting the places in which they permanently reside.
Enter the grounds
Launch the app. “Go ahead and hit the instant record button up in the top left corner, the one closest to the edge of the screen,” Mixon says. The gauge will move further to red as you get closer to paranormal activity. The app uses the magnetometer sensor of your device to turn your phone into an EMF detector. Walk around the grounds or building to begin picking up activity. The app will record any activity and sound it picks up.
Record any activity
Once activity is found, click the second recording button in the top left corner. “This allows you to put the app into a more specific recording mode, allowing you to ask longer questions and record longer periods,” says Mixon.
You can choose from 30 minutes, one hour, or four hours. You can also pick whether the app stays in silent mode or pings when it picks up activity. The app puts you into strict EMF mode, using sound waves on a chart while recording. These recordings allow the user to easily hold their session, instead of having to worry about clicking on and off of the recording button once activity is picked up.
Check your recordings after the hunt
Don’t review the recording during the hunt. “It is easy to become distracted during your hunts if you try to listen to recordings along with trying to continue to pick up more,” says Mixon. “This is why I love this app; it simply stores the recordings for later.”
She suggests getting as many recordings as you would like, ending your hunt — remember to thank the spirits — and going to a quiet, safe place to listen to the recording. Recordings can be shared via text message or email. They can also be analyzed using another feature on the app: Simply click the eye symbol, located as the first button within the recording, and watch where the recording picked up sound waves.
Mixon believes that the highest points of the sound waves are most important, as that is where the words picked up will be loudest and clearest. “Go over your recordings and see if you were able to catch anything. Write it all down — it helps you to understand what was said and who might have been there,” she informs.
Mixon reminds everyone to be careful while ghost hunting: “Get permission to visit the building or land, do not disturb anything, and do not provoke the spirits. They will make themselves known if they want to.”
Mixon also warns against downloading apps that are not EVP or EMF readers, such as Ouija board apps. She sees them as a way to irritate spirits, when true ghost hunting has nothing to do with that. While ghost hunting is not for everyone, those who are interested in it are able to easily step into the paranormal world, without having to spend a dime and are able to expand their knowledge, along with their skills.
