Yet just because people say a place feels haunted and it happens to have EMFs, that does not mean a haunting is the real-life explanation. There are studies which suggest that exposure to certain types of EMF can lead to physical and psychological side effects like paranoia, nausea and a belief that one is having profound experiences. RELATED: When I started to believe in ghosts any erratic EMF fluctuations you may detect may indicate ghostly activity." Whenever you locate one, a ghost might be present. It seems these energy fields have some definite connection to the presence of ghosts." Although he acknowledged that no one knows why that alleged connection exists, he added "the anomalous fields are easy to find. As a British businessman who sells supposedly scientific paranormal kits told Live Science, "At a haunted location, strong, erratic fluctuating EMFs are commonly found. This is not how ghost hunters perceive it. "Even the electronic equipment - the walkie-talkies and TV cameras and all the other electronic gadgetry that they're carrying with them - have electromagnetic fields." "They're surprised that they're getting results in an old house, when in fact there are all sorts of non-ghost sources such as faulty wiring, nearby microwave towers, sunspot activity and so on," Joe Nickell, a senior fellow at an independent research organization called the Center for Inquiry, told NPR on the subject of EMFs and ghost hunting. Yet there are often mundane explanations for what those detectors pick up, as well. EMF can be found virtually everywhere, and unusual EMF detection is far more likely to reflect incomplete scientific knowledge. They argue that the presence of this radiation in certain contexts can indicate a visitation from an otherworldly presence. Some ghost hunters, like those in the science-focused paranormal investigation group Para Science, seek two types of radiating electromagnetic emissions: ionizing and non-ionizing radiation. These are some of the most frequently used devices among ghost hunters, who seek out anomalies under the assumption that they signify paranormal activity. Take electromagnetic field (EMF) detectors. As such, even when ghost hunters use legitimate scientific equipment, they're doing so based on speculation rather than a clear idea of what they need to look for. We do not know what a ghost would actually be made of, which means ghost hunters have to guess how a poltergeist would impact its immediate environment. The difference between an invisible man and a ghost, of course, is that a human being is still made of flesh and blood, and therefore would leave tangible marks on the world around them even if they were invisible. Want more health and science stories in your inbox? Subscribe to Salon's weekly newsletter The Vulgar Scientist. To put it more simply: If you're trying to prove that an invisible man is walking around a room, you won't see his feet, but you might hear his steps and discover his footprints. Since the metaphysical is, by definition, impossible to quantify (hypotheses like panpsychism exist to explain the existence of one immaterial substance: consciousness), any scientific approach would need to somehow study the residue or other contact points that were left behind by undead souls in the physical world. If ghosts or spirits exist in our world, that by definition would mean there was an interaction between the realm of matter, and the realm of the metaphysical. This approach is no doubt necessitated by the paradox of trying to use science to detect the inherently ethereal. When it comes to developing ghost hunting technology, the trendy thinking seems to be: Figure out the kinds of physical clues that a ghost might provide that it was present, then build machines that can identify them. Most of these attempts are based on folklore accounts of what ghosts are, with an eye toward guessing what kinds of traces they might leave. Yet throughout history, that hasn't stopped enterprising scientists and technologists from trying to suss out means of "detecting" them. Because of this, it's difficult to prove - or disprove - their existence. Today, ghosts are considered the realm of pseudoscience because there is no physical "theory" of how or why they might exist. The archetype of the gadget-bearing scientist tracking down specters and spooks has since become prevalent, particularly in popular TV shows like "Ghost Hunters." While these were not the first fictional stories to depict the paranormal as a legitimate science, they are arguably the most iconic. In both the 19 versions of the "Ghostbusters" movie, a group of scientists are shunned by academia for insisting that ghosts not only exist, but can be captured using state-of-the-art technology.
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