The Ghost Busters came to visit Middletown High School this past Friday, Nov. 14. The Scientific Investigation of Ghost and Hauntings Team, or SIGHT, came to test the skepticism of Jerry Donald’s philosophy of knowledge class. Donald’s class had been studying Roman philosophy, and as a fun conclusion to its study of Skeptics, he invited SIGHT to come speak to the students for a second year.

 The founders of the SIGHT team, Bonnie Morin and Angela Souders, as well as three other members, spoke to the class about the steps to an investigation and their own personal experiences. The group started out of a curiosity and it became a full fledged hobby. The members perform investigations for free, and have had up to four a month.

 The process of it’s investigations begins with a consultation where they are contacted by someone who thinks his or her home or business may be haunted. Then they have an interview and set a date for a field investigation. The field investigation involves a team of 4-6 SIGHT members setting up equipment and spending 3-5 hours collecting data and reading. Next, they analyze the data collected which can take up to a week. Then they have a follow up to investigate more thoroughly and eliminate natural events from the realm of circumstance, for example, making sure a house pet was not the cause of a suspicion. Finally, a report is made which determines the validity of a haunting in the area inspected.

 The SIGHT team uses many instruments in order to determine the presence of a ghost or spirit. This includes video cameras, infrared video cameras, digital photography, electro-magnetic field detectors, infrared thermometers, sound recorders and tape recorders. The field detector is used to detect distortions in the electric field which might point to the presence of a spirit.

 The most commonly found evidence of a spirit during investigations is an orb. An orb is a circular, opaque and three-dimensional spirit. Morin explained that a circle is the most basic and simplest shape and, therefore, when spirits are not strong enough to take human form, they simply take on the shape of an orb. SIGHT has many distinctions for determining between orbs and dust. Dust is transparent and moves in a slow, uniform motion, while orbs take their own path.

 The most interesting part of the visit was the question-and-answer session. The SIGHT members shared many stories of their investigations and the personal experiences they had with ghosts and hauntings. One story told by Morin involved investigating a house to find evidence of a child’s ghost. One of the children living in the house had been said to have had a lot of contact with a ghost. The SIGHT wanted to verify this and so they used a digital sound recorder to amplify the sound. Morin placed a doll on the bed and told the child’s ghost that it was for her, and that she was placing ‘this’ beside the doll. ‘This’ was referring to the tape recorder.

 Later, when the team analyzed its findings, it was astonished to discover that the tape recorder had picked up a child’s voice in response to Morin’s comment. Morin played the recording and after she played it numerous times, it was clear that a child’s voice was asking a question. The team told us that the little girl ghost was saying, “What is it?” in response to Morin leaving the tape recorder.

The visit from SIGHT proved very informative and tested the students’ skepticism in a big way. If you would like to find out more about SIGHT or schedule an appointment, go to www.callsight.net or call 301-560-1388.

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