Deep Trace Medium - A psychic who allows a spirit to enter their body so that the spirits can communicate through them.
Dematerialization - The paranormal fading or disappearance of a physical object.
Discarnate - A spirit that exists without a physical body.
Discernment - The ability to feel or perceive something with the use of the mind and the senses.
Disembodied - A spirit that is functioning without a body.
Disembodied Voice - A voice that is heard that comes from no physical body, also known as EVP.
Divination - Obtaining of future events and/or the unknown by the use of outside forces.
Ectoplasm - A substance that emanates from a medium during a trance. It often appears as a mist-like or vapor substance. It can be seen moving, often faces and other forms can been seen in it.
Electromagnetic Field (EMF) - An electric and magnetic energy that radiates from radio and light waves to gamma and cosmic rays.
Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP) - The use of audio equipment to capture voices and sounds of the dead where there are no physical presences in the area where the recordings are being taken.
EMF Detector - A device that measures and detects changes in the electromagnetic field.
Empath - Someone who shows considerable empathy psychically.
Evocation -The summoning of spirits by usage of ritual, gesture, or verse of incantation.
Exorcism -The expulsion of ghosts, demons, spirits or other entities that are believed to be disturbing or possessing a person or a place that people frequent.
Extra Sensory Perception (ESP) - The ability to receive information about past, present or future events that can not be obtained through the normal senses. These include telepathy, clairvoyance and precognition.

Mark Rowland
Lead Investigator
Black Hills Paranormal Investigations
If you are experiencing any paranormal activity and are in need of help contact us at either help@bhparanormal.com or though our website www.bhparanormal.com

Don’t have anything going on this weekend? Come up to the Lucky Nugget Gambling Hall in Deadwood for a paranormal conference, Saturday, Oct 17th. There will be two shows, 12noon and 7pm. More info at www.bhparanormal.com

Mark Rowland
Lead Investigator
Black Hills Paranormal Investigations
If you are experiencing any paranormal activity and are in need of help contact us at either help@bhparanormal.com or though our website www.bhparanormal.com

Benign Spirit - A spirit that is not harmful.

Bilocation- Being (or appearing to be) in two different places at the same time.

Calling Ghosts - These are ghosts that call out the name of the living in order to get their attention.

Channeling - The process that mediums use for communication with the deceased.

Clairvoyant - Someone with the psychic ability to see events or people which have not occurred yet.

Clairaudient -The psychic ability to hear voices and sounds that are inaudible to the normal human ear.

Clairsentient -The psychic ability to feel things that are not normally felt by most people.

Cleansing- A less religious form of exorcism that is done to remove spirits.

Cold Spot - An area where the temperature is lower than the surrounding environment. Cold spots are believed to be created when a ghost is presence within that area.

Collective Apparition – An apparition seen by several people at the same time.

Cryptid – are legendary creatures that are suspected to exist

Mark Rowland
Lead Investigator
Black Hills Paranormal Investigations
If you are experiencing any paranormal activity and are in need of help contact us at either help@bhparanormal.com or though our website www.bhparanormal.com

Over the next while I’m going to cover the terminology used by paranormal investigators and researchers. Many of you may know these from watching shows such as Ghost Hunters, Paranormal State, etc.  But there are a few you may not be familiar with.

Afterlife - Life after our physical bodies die.
Agent - (1) Person who attempts to communicate information to another in an ESP experiment. (2) The subject in a psychokinesis experiment. (3) Person who is the focus of poltergeist activity.
Amorphous - Having no definite form or shape, spirits and ghosts often appears in mist-like forms or shapes.
Anomalies -Deviation from the normal.
Apparition - The phenomenon where a spirit takes on a physical form that can be seen.
Apport-The arrival of object during a séance or a haunting, these can be animate or inanimate.
Asport -The disappearance of objects that reappear elsewhere or not at all.
Astral Projection - When the spirit travels outside the body to either the astral plane or another location on this plane.
Aura -The emanation of energy that surrounds all living things.
Automatic Writing - Phenomena by which people write without conscious thought.
Automatism -A process in which the subconscious communicates with the conscious by means of a vehicle such as a Ouija Board, automatic writing, or pendulum swinging.

Mark Rowland
Lead Investigator
Black Hills Paranormal Investigations
If you are experiencing any paranormal activity and are in need of help contact us at either help@bhparanormal.com or though our website www.bhparanormal.com

There is a phenomenon that is referred to as “Arrival Cases”, and is basically a situation where an apparition of the person appears in advance of the actual person. People who see the apparition of the person have been known to interact with the apparition and the projecting person is not usually aware of appearing at a location until told they were there.

There have been some noted cases of this phenomenon and one of the most notable was one Mark Twain actually described. He told how he was at a dinner party and met a woman he knew however, the real woman was on a train on her way to the town where the dinner party was being held.

There has been some research done on this phenomenon by the Society for Psychical Research in London, and it was determined that in some cases, intent and state of mind seemed to be relevant factors. Basically, a person is expected to arrive, and in transit is intent on getting there.

How many times have you heard people talking about someone who walks into a room and the room lights up and becomes livelier? Or, the reverse happens when someone dynamic leaves a room. I think we all exude a certain amount of energy and it is felt by those around us. If you walk into a room that you think is unoccupied, but you still feel a presence and learn that there is someone there you did not see.

This is obviously just a theory, but I truly think that our own energy can and does play a part in some paranormal phenomena. In fact, our group have gotten some very compelling EVPs while we are all talking and laughing amongst ourselves on an investigation. Our energy is providing the necessary energy for the environment to cause us to capture paranormal activity.

Mark Shadley
BHPI investigator
If you are experiencing any paranormal activity and are in need of help contact us at either help@bhparanormal.com or though our website www.bhparanormal.com

A while back a reader asked a good question about what happens to ghosts when a haunted building either burns down or is torn down? There really is no good answer to this question and I guess ‘it depends’ is as good as any answer. Not to be flippant and dismissive, there are so many possibilities and theories that it is a complex subject.

Personally, I believe that if a building is reported to have activity burns down or is demolished, the haunting may not stop there. If the energy of the ghost is attached to the property; then the ghost’s energy will not leave the location. If the ghost’s energy is attached to any part of the building or contents within; then it is possible that the energy can be transferred to another location if in fact any of the surviving materials are reused.

A case in point, there are many examples of people buying objects out of estate sales, garage sales, antique shops who report strange happenings that are paranormal in nature. Many paranormal researchers have concluded that the energy of the spirit is attached to the item. Once the item is removed from the home or business, there is no further paranormal activity.

On the other hand, as paranormal investigators, we have heard stories from people about seeing apparitions that seem to either float above the floor or the apparition seems to be in the floor or the apparition is seen to dissolve into a wall. When we begin to conduct our research we might find evidence that the original home site was either torn down or burned down and replaced with a new home. If the floor plan of the replacement home has changed, this could account for the apparition appearing to be floating above the floor or in it, or even walking through a wall. This could very well be an example of a residual haunting since the apparition has no comprehension of the change in surroundings. For all intents and purposes, the apparition is following its original course.

This obviously leaves a lot of questions, but that is the bane of this profession, once you think you might have figured out what is going on, it throws you another curve ball. That is why there are so many ‘what ifs’, and ‘it depends’ in the field of paranormal investigations.

Mark Shadley
BHPI investigator
If you are experiencing any paranormal activity and are in need of help contact us at either help@bhparanormal.com or though our website www.bhparanormal.com

Debunking the Paranormal, Perfecting the Supernatural Investigation.

When investigating the paranormal or supernatural, proper debunking is just as important as using the right equipment. The most important part of any paranormal investigation is the ability to debunk a location. This means that one must be willing to explore alternative explanations in order to properly address a potential haunting. The true measure of a paranormal investigator is their commitment to the truth.
Observation of visual, auditory, and tactile stimuli should be carefully examined from all possible angles.

Examples:
Lights
A common cause of mysterious lights that appear in a certain place can be explained as reflections, or the lights from a passing car. 

Tactile
Tactile refers to the sensation of feeling touched by something that isn’t there. Tactile sensations most often occur when some or all of the body’s senses are deprived, i.e., total darkness, complete silence, etc.  Cobwebs, dust bunnies, bugs are a common cause.

Music/Sounds
Animals, insects, wind are a common cause of sounds.  Moans, groans, creaks of a house. Plumbing drips and leaks.  Many of these are only heard during nighttime due to being drowned out by daytime activity.

In short, observation skills are very important in the field of paranormal investigating. Try not to jump to conclusions. Keep an open mind, and have open eyes and ears.
As Sherlock Holmes once said, “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

Mark Rowland
Lead Investigator
Black Hills Paranormal Investigations
If you are experiencing any paranormal activity and are in need of help contact us at either help@bhparanormal.com or though our website www.bhparanormal.com

Matrixing

Matrixing is a term used in the paranormal field to describe the human mind’s natural tendency to find familiar images and phrases in complex shapes, colors, and sound. It’s what happens when you see cloud shapes, the Man in the Moon, and sometime hear voices in white noise. A good number of photos that have been presented as proof of a haunting or paranormal activity, have actually been just matrixing. This phenomenon is something we use everyday. Especially as newborn children. It is what we use to distinguish our parents face from others. Also to learn shapes of commonly used objects. Pattern recognition of this sort is also a survival tool, giving the earliest humans a way to spot predators in hiding. The skill is so fundamental that, when presented with a random set of patterns the human brain attempts to make sense of what it sees.

Examples of Matrixing

The infamous picture of the face on Mars. This seems to show the shape of a human face on the surface of Mars only to be shown the image was the product of natural features and shadow.
The appearance of well known figures in surprising places. The images of Christ, the Virgin Mary, Elvis have appeared in locations as diverse as stained concrete, windows and Cheetos.
Probably the most immediately familiar form of matrixing, anyone who has looked into the sky and thought “that cloud looks just like…” has experienced a form of harmless matrixing.
And, of course the Rorschach ink blot tests. These depend on a sort of directed matrixing, with the person taking the test allowing their subconsciousness to make the ink shape suggest something, or form patterns.

Matrixing can be heightened by unfamiliar surroundings, poor lighting, and events being witnessed via peripheral vision. Of course, when hunting ghosts these are the situations an investigator encounters; it is equally true of witnesses, who are disadvantaged by being unaware of matrixing in the first place. Not every ghostly image or encounter can be explained with reference to matrixing, but knowing the phenomena exists can be a useful tool in the arsenal of debunking techniques.

Have a photo or recording of something you believe to be paranormal, send it to help@bhparanormal.com and let our team of investigators take a look or listen.

Susan Parsons
Investigator
Black Hills Paranormal Investigations
If you are experiencing any paranormal activity and are in need of help contact us at either help@bhparanormal.com or though our website www.bhparanormal.com

This one was probably our most exciting and scariest to date. We investigated on five different occasions between Sept ‘08 and May ‘09.  We caught some wild and crazy stuff. We had shadow people, evp’s, disembodied voices, a ‘confrontation’ with two of our investigators.  This was a paranormal investigators dream.  They only evidence we didn’t get was that all ellusive full body apparition.  We have some info on our experiences and a bit of history of the location on our website.  We don’t have everything posted but, some can be heard at these links:

 http://www.bhparanormal.com/brothels.htm
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Mark Rowland
Lead Investigator
Black Hills Paranormal Investigations
If you are experiencing any paranormal activity and are in need of help contact us at either help@bhparanormal.com or though our website www.bhparanormal.com

In May 2008, we visited a residence in Deadwood. We agreed with the owners that we would not disclose their names or address. Reports of activity included a child seeing and talking with an apparition whom he called “Cinderella”, various noises  (footsteps, whispering etc.) and an unusual occurrence involving a door hinge pin being removed and replaced while the top half of the door fell out of the hinge. We spent one night there and had a couple minor personal experiences. After reviewing our evidence(mainly audio, but some video), we had a few interesting audio clips.

A more detailed report plus audio clips can be found at our website www.bhparanormal.com.  Click on the ‘Investigations’ link.

Mark Rowland
Lead Investigator
Black Hills Paranormal Investigations
If you are experiencing any paranormal activity and are in need of help contact us at either help@bhparanormal.com or though our website www.bhparanormal.com