Your Lead Investigator has compiled all of your investigation data together, so now what? This quick guide will walk you through each piece of media, showing you how we spot check it and what you should consider as possible evidence.

This guide is going to walk you through each set of media in your data, step by step with screenshots. Not only do we feel this is helpful for going through your time with Stories in the Cemetery, but also for your future investigations on your own or with your team.

A Few Things of Note before You Get Started

• Your Lead Investigator only spot checks your data as a whole so you have the thrill of discovering real evidence for yourself. This process takes approximately two hours after all media has been converted and/or uploaded to the Stories in the Cemetery website.
• Some media pieces may be compressed, thus causing markers to seem a bit off based on how these mediums are watched/listened.
• Your Lead Investigator is not Google for the locations you visited. In fact, we welcome fact checkers to always provide the most honest, factual data possible to ghost hunters on future experiences. Use the form on the top of your data page in order to reach out to us with any links you find credible to your data.
• All links provided will be in green and we always do our best to not duplicate links within the same set of data.

You may have noticed a small, colored number at the bottom of your data set. This is a rating system we use to determine the activity of your paranormal investigation based on the spot checking of all media from an investigation. Here’s how it breaks down:

• 0-15: Zero to little activity

• 16-29: Below Average Activity

• 30-45: Average amount of activity
• 46*-60*: Above Average Activity
• 61**-75**: Undeniable Proof of the Afterlife
• 76***-90***: A thorough (not a spot check) research of all media is needed.
• **91**-**100**: The investigation data needs to be submitted to a second team and the locations need to be investigated again under the exact conditions: weather, moon phase, dates, tools/equipment.  

The Equipment

Most of the equipment used during your investigation was obtained through GhostStop.com. Click the banner below to learn more about each tool. Stories in the Cemetery earns a small commission from your purchase at no extra cost to you.

Tested Phone Apps You Can Use on Your Own

Ghost Hunting Tools was used during your investigation and labeled as the Digital Spirit Box Word list. We used the paid version to obtain the 9100 term dictionary.

True EMF Detector is great when you don’t have your normal equipment with you and measures in units of Tesla versus milligauss.

The Ghost Tube app is fun for finding the SLS (stick figures) in your investigative space.

*Just like all paranormal tools, these apps should be taken in stride and used as additions to your toolkit as a whole and not solely relied upon to determine paranormal activity.

EVP Audio

A Philips VoiceTracer Voice Recorder was used during your investigation. It uses three microphones to record your Lead Investigator and any surrounding sounds. This stayed on your Lead Investigator for a number of reasons:

• First, to record the histories discussed during your investigation. Your investigation was carefully designed to not always go to the tourist attraction types, but rather visit historical sites where normal paranormal activity occurs.
• Second, to allow any EVPs or Electronic Voice Phenomenon to come through the recording. EVPs will sound out of place, louder than any other voice surrounding your Lead Investigator, and very clear. All other noises are exactly that; noises.
• Third, this voice recorder is operated via Wi-Fi to the user’s phone to eliminate any accidental button pushing that may eliminate or alter a recording.

Your Lead Investigator does not listen to this recording for they already have the histories memorized and this allows them the time to research and spot check the other media below.

SBox Spirit Box Recording

One or two SBox Spirit Boxes were used during your investigation. Inexpensive earbuds were already attached to this device for ease of listening.

This spirit box records audio, hence why it was used for your investigation. The method used during your investigation was a slowed radio sweep of FM radio frequencies allowing radio chatter of songs, commercials and deejays to come through in small bursts.

These small bursts may convey messaging relatable to the locations visited, persons discussed, or quite possibly one of the ghost hunters on your team. This is by far one of the most difficult challenges of investigating a space: to research possibilities of relatable terms and words to your investigated space.

Your Lead Investigator provides a list of spot checks of the recorded audio whether the terms and phrases are relevant to investigated spaces or not. This allows you to see how your Lead Investigator listens to a recording like this. Here’s a shortlist of some criteria of noteworthy terms and phrases that may come through in your audio:

• Names: these are a great indicator of spiritual activity as they may be attempting to introduce themselves.
• Numbers: Numbers never lie. If digits are heard, they are an excellent indicator of possible dates, ages or years relatable to the space.
• Odd phrasing: We’ve all listened to the radio and have an expectation of commonly heard terms and phrases. Odd phrasing usually comes from conversation among deejays. Think “My refrigerator just broke!” while investigating a space where the inventor of the refrigerator once lived.
• Keywords: Specific keywords repeated are often found while investigating. For example, religious terms are often heard while listening around St. Philip’s Church: “pastor”, “Bible”, religion”, etc.

There are certain things your Lead Investigator will omit:

• Numbers/digits within the current year. If “2022” is heard, and “20” or “22” is relevant to your space, it’s too easy, therefore, omitted.
• Yes and No answers. Against the popular belief that TV shows portray, proven paranormal activity comes from specifics and details, not an “Is anyone here?” answer of “No”.
• The name of the city where the radio station frequencies are being transmitted. In other words, “Charleston” would be omitted and never counted as evidence.

This is not the only method that can be used with a radio frequency sweeping spirit box, but is by far the easiest to learn from before experimenting with faster sweeps, the ESTES method, or Faraday boxes.

Digital Photos

The Fuji XP Waterproof model was chosen specifically because of it’s weight, size and durability to be handled on an nightly basis. Thinner models are slippery and can be easily dropped. The waterproof model can also sustain light rain.

Your photos, if part of your investigation, were uploaded to the Stories in the Cemetery Facebook page as it’s own folder, labeled by the dates and lead travelers in alphabetical order. Example: January 1, 2022 ADAM BRYAN CHARLES

Photos are quickly analyzed for anomalies or disturbances in laser grids. If a photo is too dark to visually detect anything, it is lightened through simple filters until the photo can be clarified.

If a photo contains a confirmed anomaly or disturbance of lasers, it is then uploaded to the Stories in the Cemetery Facebook folder labeled EVIDENCE Folder.

FLIR Thermal Imaging Video

The thermal imaging camera used during your investigation was an upgraded FLIR Pro One attached to a Samsung S8 Active Smartphone. The S8 Active Smartphone is not only durable, but is one of the few Smartphones capable of handling the FLIR hardware and software.

Features of the thermal imaging video:

• The camera sees in 2D, but provides white outlines around possible 3D objects in the video.
• There is a blue “dot” that will bounce around the frame providing the viewer with the coldest spot in the frame at that moment.
• A center crosshairs is left purposely to give the user the capability to measure a specific point.
• Temperatures are set to white=hot, black=cold.

Anomalies to watch for:

• Blue or black areas that either take shape or move on their own.
• Temperature differences of ambient to the coldest “dot” of 15 degrees or more.
• Areas that heat up in a short amount of time, thus suggesting that a cold spot is being generated in another location nearby. Temperature isn’t generated, it fluctuates.

Infrared Lighting Video

The Phasm Cam by Ghost Stop was used during your investigation for Infrared Lighting capture. Along with this amazing camera, a multiple of 24 infrared lights were used (four built into the camera and a separate Infrared Torch containing 20 lights). These were all used to illuminate your video frame with infrared lighting to insure that all possible anomalies can be caught. Your investigation may or may not have also used laser grids to accompany this camera to detect any motion.

For orb anomalies, consider the following possibilities as you go through your full spectrum video:

• Does the anomaly have the possibility of being an insect based on size, speed, shape?
• Did the anomaly originate outside the frame?
• Did the anomaly’s destination leave the frame?
• Does the anomaly change speed or direction?

Here is an example of a large anomaly found in the green laser grids:

In the photo above, note that you can see the origin of the green laser pen above the anomaly and the full grid spread on the ground.

Digital Spirit Box Word List

During your investigation, a digital spirit box app was used entitled “Ghost Hunting Tools”. This app’s dictionary holds over 9,000 terms and phrases. This was used instead of an Ovilus due to the capacity of the app’s dictionary. For reference, an Ovilus, commonly seen on ghost hunting TV shows, holds 2,048 terms and phrases versus this app’s 9,000, that’s over 4x the amount of possibilities that can show up.

The app is designed to randomly choose a word in the dictionary based on what terms it picks up from FM frequencies. This is the same method used with the SBox Spirit Box above. However, you were more than likely told that this app will generate only 20% of words relevant to your location.

Each term/phrase has a timestamp and if found relevant by your Lead Investigator, there will be notes and a possible set of links for you to verify the information.

Look for this icon in the App Store or Google Play.

Real Time Notes by Location

At the bottom of your set of investigation notes and media, you’ll find the notes taken by your Lead Investigator in real time with links to verify information. This addition of notes is provided on top of the spot checks of the media to insure that all device’s readings are included in your analysis.

Below, you’ll find which device’s readings are included.

The K-II EMF Meter

This is a staple for ghost hunting. This device measures EMF or Electromagnetic Fields. These readings can generate due to a number of reasons like power lines, cell phones, buildings, parking meters and more. The gist behind this device is that the spirit world can manipulate these fields and cause abnormalities in the field itself.

The K-II EMF Meter measures in milligauss or mG, and has a max reading of 25mG. This device was used on your investigation for debunking man-made objects like those mentioned above.

The Mel Meter

This multi-function device is a great checker for many other devices. If your investigation group was small, this may have been used instead of the K-II EMF Meter for accuracy.

The functions of this device:

• Digital EMF Meter set to measure in milligauss to compare to K-II readings.
• Ambient Thermometer used to prove/debunk any cold areas found in the thermal imaging camera.
• REM, to detect any motion near the user by use of an antenna generating a separate Electromagnetic field. Once this separate field is interrupted, the device gives colored indicators to show proximity of motion near the user.

This device has other modes to work with, but was set to simplify it’s use and learning curve of handling such a powerful device in a short amount of time.

PSB-7T Spirit Box with ANC Modification

The P-SB7T is an upgrade to the commonly used P-SB7 device. It adds a temperature change indicator.

The ANC-Mini is attached to our P-SB7T to attempt to eliminate any white noise in between radio station sweeps, only allowing terms/phrases to slip through. In essence, this configuration is the same as the P-SB11 ANC spirit box below.

The method of how to listen to this spirit box is the same as the SBox by Ghost Stop above.

SB-11 ANC Spirit Box

The massive upgrade to the SB-7 Spirit Box, this device scans through both FM and AM frequencies simultaneously. The Auto-Noise-Canceling (ANC) feature attempts to drown out the white noise coming through the frequencies thus only bringing voices through the speaker.

This device will provide about 10-12 terms/phrases in a 2 hour time span and has proven very useful and fun during the nightly investigations. If a term heard in real-time is relevant to the space, then it will often be highlighted that it was heard by this device specifically.

The Onvoy

This new to the field device is a revolutionary communicator by using Electrogmagnetic Field detection, Temperature changes and a Tap/Vibration to stop a cursor on letters, Yes/No, numbers or Emojis. For your investigation, the Electromagnetic Field detection was used for letters and/or numbers.

In conjunction with other communication devices, this device can provide full spellings, initials or anagrams to decipher. It is important to consider that this specific device is revolutionary and even our spirits aren’t familiar with it’s technology yet. It is still in experimental stages.

Final Conditions to Consider

Your Lead Investigator will provide notes through each piece of media, but it is advised to also look at the set of data as a whole. Your Lead Investigator may have told you a theme of the set of data or if one location was more active than another.

You should pay attention to the time stamps on the media that provides them including the thermal imaging video, full spectrum lighting video, EVP audio, SBox findings and the digital spirit box word list. By analyzing these time stamps, you may discover more than what you originally thought was there.

There are times when the terms and phrases that appear to us that are not relevant to the space at all, but rather to a person on the investigation. These types of evidence occur more often than you think and you should consider that there may be a direct message to you from a lost loved one.

And last, have fun with your set of data, that’s the reason it was provided. Not only will your links and notes give you more history about Charleston, but you will be well on your way to becoming an excellent paranormal investigator by learning different methods.

As always, we encourage you to reach out to us with your findings. We are always happy to take a look at your markers and either prove or disprove your findings.