(by Larry Lawson)
What do you do with the evidence you gather at a paranormal investigation? Do you keep it? Do you review it? First you have to understand what an “investigation” is. According to the many definitions of the word it means to systematically, carefully examine the information to determine the facts of what happened. To determine how and why an event occurred. Is that what we truly do when we search for the evidence of the other side?
I submit that most often paranormal investigators conduct “paranormal investigations” for the purpose of thrill. Now that’s not necessarily bad or wrong but can you then truly call the search an investigation? As I have discussed in other articles and blogs, being a “paranormal thrill seeker” is ok but are you really investigating?
As retired law enforcement officer investigation means to search for, collect, examine and preserve evidence in order to solve the question at hand. As a cop it usually meant who committed the crime. As a paranormal investigator it means to solve the question of what exists on the other side of life as we know it.
If investigating the other side is your goal, then you must develop a method to collect the evidence you have uncovered. The photographs, audio and video recordings, the data gained from equipment, results of experiments conducted during the investigation, local and solar weather information, moon phase have to be collected, examined and stored so that it can be compared with information you gather in later investigations. This leads to the question of where do you store it. External hard drives on the computer that can be secured. Locked boxes, safes or other methods to secure paperbound data is important. In the law enforcement world, evidence must be secured so it can be shown it was not tampered with. That is a little more difficult to do in civilian world but efforts must be made to show what you have collected could not have been tampered or altered by anyone.
Finally, what do you do with your evidence once you have examined it and stored it. It is vital that the evidence be available to be compared with later evidence found in investigations to show similarities and commonalities. For example, in a series of ten investigations, you have found six that have Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP’s) recorded on a video camera. In five of those the temperature, moon phase, time of day and barometric pressure were the same. Perhaps that would provide evidence that the veil between the dimensions is thinnest during these conditions. Or that the other side was able to communicate during this combination of conditions. That’s evidence that we can begin to build on if we are investigating to find answers, to find the truth.
Then the evidence needs to be shared. Shared with others who are also investigating the paranormal phenomenon so they can compare it with evidence they have collected. Sharing what we have uncovered with other investigators is another important way we can solve this mystery. If an investigator in England has collected evidence under the same conditions an investigator in Florida has, that could be a significant find. It could be a break in solving this mystery.
To investigate means you must collect, examine, preserve and share the evidence. It’s the only way this mystery will ever be solved.
See you on the other side!
