Control.
It’s a word scientists love, and an environment they demand when conducting research. Laboratories offer the most controlled environments, as parapsychologist and paranormal research pioneer J. B. Rhine and his team proved when they conducted successful extrasensory perception (ESP) experiments at Duke University in the 1920s and 1930s. Rhine’s experimentation led to reliable analysis due to the replication of his observations. To this day, ESP is the only paranormal occurrence to which some scientists will acquiesce, in large part due to Rhine’s efforts.
Unfortunately, most paranormal phenomena dictate that researchers and investigators leave the comfortable confines of the laboratory and venture out into the field. This, after all, is where the action is. A wise man once said that if you want to catch fish, go where the fish are. The same principle applies to ghosts, as only so much can be gleaned from ghostly phenomena in a laboratory.
The problem: Too many unknown variables taint evidence, rendering it useless to those who subscribe to the scientific method. The scientific method demands observation, hypothesis, experimentation, analysis, conclusion, and theory. In the field, it’s often difficult to cover the stages of scientific rigor in the few seconds an anomaly might occur, and you can’t go back and make it happen again on demand (lack of repeatability). Spirits don’t keep schedules, and emotional imprints can’t be bottled up for laboratory analysis—at least not yet.
Having said this, some of the most active and challenging places to conduct paranormal research are battlefields. These historic landmarks have presented difficult challenges to field researchers. Some of these hindrances include natural elements associated with the outdoors such as rain, wind, and extreme temperatures, which all can affect electronic equipment, film stock, and an investigator’s fortitude. Indigenous animals can make it difficult to conduct electronic voice phenomena (EVP) experiments, as the sounds they make can be easily misinterpreted as paranormal.
And then there are people. Millions of tourists visit battlefields every year. During the course of any given day, dozens of school buses drop off children of all ages to explore these hallowed grounds. At Gettysburg, some of these kids tend to run around Devil’s Den like it’s a Chuck E. Cheese’s. It’s important that children experience these places, but it’s a nightmare for field researchers!
Large battlefields such as Gettysburg cover more than ten square miles, and strange anomalies have been experienced on just about every portion of it. Remember, the larger the area in which you conduct an experiment, the less control you have over outside elements. Lugging around hundreds of pounds of equipment over long distances is no walk in the park. Storing equipment, keeping it safe, and having appropriate power sources in the middle of a battlefield can be a tricky proposition when the nearest shelter or power source is hundreds of yards, or even miles, away.
Topography also adds to the chaos. Battlefields are covered with trees, bushes, logs, leaves, and rocks—a perfect environment in which to see a thousand faces on Mars! Remember, the mind creates familiarity out of chaos (simulacra), so in a place like Gettysburg, every photograph can conceivably have a blurry tree or moss-covered rock in the background that will look like a soldier once the mind connects the dots.
Adding to these headaches are time and money. Some battlefield parks have banker’s hours, so your time may be limited once it gets dark. Unless you want to spend time in county lockup, you need to take the time to secure the appropriate permits, or permission, depending on where you go. Also, traveling costs money, whether you travel by car (gas), airplane (ticket expenses), or horse and buggy (time away from work!). Field investigators traverse long distances in order to “go where the fish are.” Such research can be likened to expeditions that require planning and smart logistical execution.
Although these obstacles can be daunting, there are things you can do to make your battlefield investigation a success. For example, always pick smaller areas in which to conduct experiments. Remember, you have more control the smaller your “outdoor laboratory.” In Gettysburg, we narrow our experiments to specific parts of the battlefield. On the twenty-six-acre Wheatfield, for example, we conduct a grid-like walkthrough with several participants. These investigators walk across the field at twenty yards apart holding handheld equipment such as cameras, tape recorders, and trifield meters. Simultaneously, we set up video cameras on higher elevations that offer wide-angle views of the entire field. The result—several people with possible psi abilities being documented exploring every inch of the field while holding environmental monitoring equipment.
As mentioned above, battlefields are covered with trees, bushes, tall grass, dead logs, and rocks. At various angles, these objects can look like soldiers, horses, and other battlefield objects. In order to document locations properly, always shoot a series of photos to create a panoramic view of the entire area from where you stand. By doing so, you cover every angle and can better determine if that bearded Union soldier is actually a jagged rock with fungus and moss growing on it. Another effective way to decrease the chances of misinterpretation is by setting up a triangulated coverage with video equipment. Triangulation is an approach to data analysis that synthesizes data from multiple sources. By having multiple video sources in which to view various angles of Devil’s Den, for example, we can rule out a false positive by viewing the ghostly image from another angle and determining it’s only a rock that happens to looks like a man’s face from one particular angle. Triangulation can also help corroborate something as being paranormal in nature if more than one camera picks up the same anomaly.
In the end, field investigations are imperative to paranormal research. Rhine proved certain phenomena could be observed and replicated in a laboratory. Some of the more unpredictable phenomena, however, cannot. Therefore, interaction with the environments where these events occur is necessary. Environmental factors that are geographically specific such as electromagnetic field anomalies, family dynamics, and traumatic historical events seem to play a role in various types of hauntings, so being in the trenches can yield the best evidence as it applies to the effects of these variables. Importantly, interviewing eyewitnesses where the phenomena occur—not in a parapsychologist’s office or laboratory—seems to be the best way to extract accurate testimony due to familiar triggers in the environment. As field researchers, we can put forth due diligence in order to gather acceptable evidence, especially if, over long periods of time, we can establish trends that give scientists something to attempt to replicate either in the field or in a laboratory.
We intend for this book to be the first in a collaborative series that documents compelling evidence collected on battlefields across the world. Our goal is to accumulate a body of evidence that compels other researchers and scientists to recognize the importance of battlefields as they apply to paranormal research.
Life happens “out there,” and that’s where we need to be in order to find the elusive answers to life’s most puzzling enigmas. Our experiences at Gettysburg have taught us that exploring the unknown represents an unparalleled adventure and that investigating battlefields results in a clearer understanding of both historical events and the specific sacrifices associated with war that make them the most horrific, yet enduring, of all human experiences.