Going Dark: Ghost Hunting With The Lights Out
Is Paranormal Investigation in the Dark a Bright Idea?
Jul 13, 2008
The contention is that turning off the lights makes it easier to catch paranormal phenomena, but this is a contention that doesn't stand up to scrutiny.
Most people rely almost entirely on sight to provide the majority of sensory information. Our instinct, when new information presents itself, is to look at it. When it gets dark and we turn off the lights, we deprive ourselves of our main method of gathering information.
Sharper Senses?
Some ghost hunters will tell you that our other senses sharpen to compensate for the lack of sight, but this is not the case. In studies done comparing the senses of blind people to sighted people, the results indicate that blind people have the same sensory acuity as sighted people but simply evolve different strategies for discovering information. The senses do not become sharper; they are simply used in new ways.
This happens out of necessity and over time. You cannot learn to better process what your ears are telling you in the course of one night and, unless you live in permanent darkness, as soon as the lights go on sight is once more the primary method of learning about the world.
Ghosts, when they are reported at all, very seldom glow in the dark. More often, people report shadows or insubstantial figures. Does being in the dark make these easier to see? No. Moreover, people report ghosts under all types of lighting conditions.
Complications and Trickery
There’s also the matter of adding more factors to the environment that were not present when the phenomena was reported. For example: a group of people wants to investigate a building and they turn the lights off. In order to navigate the unfamiliar location safely, they need flashlights – which create moving shadows and destroy what little night vision the eye is capable of – and the cameras need some way of recording in the dark. This means infrared light, and quite strong infrared light, too, if the cameras are to see at any distance. Other cameras, still cameras in particular, need to use a flash or long exposure times in order to take pictures and these have associated problems (not the least of which is that flash photography also destroys night vision).
Video evidence obtained under poor lighting conditions is always going to be suspect. You turned out the lights, made it harder to see. What were you trying to conceal? What didn’t you want us to see? When a skeptic reviews that evidence, those are the questions they will want answered first and foremost.
Mood Lighting
Perhaps the main reason for turning out the lights has nothing to do with gathering evidence and a lot to do with creating an atmosphere. TV shows look to create a dramatic or exciting atmosphere to keep viewers interested. Sudden noises or lights are much more interesting in the dark. It also forces the cameramen to work in low light conditions and brings a particular look to the footage. For paranormal investigators, perhaps there’s much the same desire – to replicate what they have seen on the TV or to experience something in a spooky atmosphere.
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