Tis the season for spookiness, creepiness and just plain ordinary hauntedness. So, I started looking for Haunted Canada. Who better to find haunted sites and locations than a Canadian urban explorer? Sure, there probably is someone better, but I'm here.
You might want to try exploring and ghost hunting yourself. But, how do you become an instant expert on the topic of hauntings? Here are some guidelines to get you started.
Take these tips with a grain of salt. Most noises, lights and atmosphere can be explained once you start looking for a logical answer. I think this is why it is so hard to prove the existence of ghosts. There are so many logical answers. Logic is so nice, firm and solid. Meanwhile, everything else is just a feeling, something you could have imagined or something you want to believe in spite of the logical explanation.
I don't know if anyone will ever find concrete proof of ghosts. But, they keep on trying.
Don't go alone. It's safer with an exploring buddy who can call for help if one of you has an accident, like falling through rotten floor boards.
Gather the gear you need: flashlights digital (or film) camera, tripod to set the camera on, extra lights for better photos in a dark house, sound recording device, temperature gauge, notebook and pen. Bring supplies for first aid and cleaning up after the exploring. Consider a back up for your camera and flashlight this isn't the time you want a mechanical problem to keep you from exploring.
Don't impede your own investigation with alcohol, smoking or long hair. Not drinking alcohol should be common sense. But you should consider the photos you will be using as evidence and make sure you get the cleanest, clearest photos you can. Don't let stray cigarette smoke or long hair wind up being a 'ghost'.
Find a place to explore. Get some historical background, talk to others who have explored there and get permission from the property owner. (If you are carrying a bunch of equipment into the house this might be the smarter way to go rather than risk having the police charge you with trespassing).
If you can, make copies of floor plans from the location. This will let you plan the route you will explore so you can make sure you don't miss a room while you are there. You can also use your floor plan to note the exact area you found any paranormal activity.
Visit the location before you plan to explore it. Make sure you will be able to get in. You may need to contact the owner again for a key. You may find your information is out of date and the house has already been demolished, etc.
Don't start out expecting to find something haunted, spooky, etc. Try to be unbiased when you explore. Don't get into scaring each other for fun. If you are serious about detecting paranormal activity, approach the location like a detective or a scientist.
The following is cut and pasted from an abandoned site, on Tripod. I would have reposted more newsletters, but I only found two.
Welcome, to The STRANGE TRAVELER Hi. I'm Fred, the Robin Leach of haunted castles, alien landing fields, mystical monoliths and really cool bars. You have just stumbled into the only travel Website on the Internet that takes a "Twilight Zone" approach to vacation planning. This is how it works: First, dim the lights. Stare deeply into your computer screen. Then imagine you are in the black-and-white world of early 1960s television, sitting in a AAA travel office filled with happy brochures on Disneyland, the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. Suddenly, you realize that the terse, thin-lipped agent marking up your TripTik is actually Rod Serling, host of "The Twilight Zone" and one of modern society's first supernatural tour guides. In your head, you hear his clipped, dramatically inflected words offering guidance in your search for vacation ideas that don't center on theme parks, relatives or all-inclusive resorts: "You're traveling through another dimension - a dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind; a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That's the signpost up ahead. Your next stop ...Alton, Illinois." Or Pascagoula, Mississippi. Or Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Paris, Roswell, Loch Ness, the Nazca Plain, Stonehenge, Area 51, The Queen Mary or that spooky old house everyone whispered about in the neighborhood you grew up in. The Strange Traveler thinks vacations should be more than sunscreen and lengthy discussions about where to eat dinner. Your travel tales should make jaws drop around the office water cooler, and widen the eyes of fellow parents on the T-ball sidelines. You see, the world is filled with Strange Travel possibilities: destinations reputed to be haunted, cursed, charmed, visited by aliens, inhabited by monsters, worshiped by strange cults, or infested by vampires, faeries and zombies. Some of these places are the doorways to true mysteries. Others are heavily hyped tourist traps. Most have overnight accommodations, lots of local color, and at least one decent bar. That's where The Strange Traveler comes in. This Website and its newsletter are your tour guides to bizarre, out-of-the-way destinations. This e-zine both guides readers to strange places they can visit, and advises them of the supernatural undercurrents flowing beneath traditional getaways. Travel Advisories …more
You won't find a lot written or reported about the paranormal in Canada. Canadians just don't talk about it all that much. Almost seems to be a secret from the rest of the world.
But, Canada has a dark past, hidden history and things that go bump in the night.
Canadians have not always been so polite and quiet as they appear. You can hide a lot in the frozen tundra, the endless forests, islands and the long stretches of roads between small towns and the odd big city.
The Haunted Canada Collection is available at Canada Post this year (the collection came out Friday, June, 13, 2014).
Ghost walks (or ghost tours) are guided tours where guests are shown the haunted history of an area or a location. Ghost tours cater to tourists and are not meant to be as frightening or taken as seriously as an actual ghost hunting would be.
If you want the reality of a ghost hunt you will need to talk to the ghost hunting or paranormal research group and ask to be included next time they go out on something other than a tour. However, you would have to be someone with more knowledge and commitment to investigating the paranormal than at the tourist level.
If you are already online the easiest way to find a local ghost hunting tour group is to try an online search. Open your search site of choice: Yahoo, Google, DuckDuckGo (a new search which I've been trying and liking), etc. Type in the search terms - "ghost tour", "haunted walk", "haunted tour", "ghost exploring", and then your local area which could be the town or city or the county you live in. Don't restrict your search to a small area, unless you live in a very large city and want to find something right in your neighbourhood.
Don't forget to check social sites like Flickr, YouTube and Pinterest for people who are giving ghost tours or have been on a ghost tour and given a review of their experience.
Also, search for paranormal seekers and ghost hunters in the larger area around you. Often they will have links to smaller groups in the area on their websites or blogs. This is a great help, of course, for people looking for local ghost tours.
You can also contact the larger groups and ask for information, links or phone numbers to contact any local ghost hunters who would give tours if asked or may already run scheduled tours.
Another way to find your local ghost hunters is to watch where local groups list their upcoming events. I found my local group listed in the local newspaper and a website giving free space to local groups to list their upcoming events. The ghost tours are a tourist service, a small business, so they won't be trying to be too secretive, they want customers to find them. Ask around town, talk to other local business people and see what they know.
Here in my area, Barrie, Ontario, Canada, we have Doors Open, which is a tour of historical homes and places. The doors to private homes and businesses open once a year for people to have a look.
Look for tours of historical places in your area and ask the people who give the tour if any of the places are known or suspected to be haunted.
Talk to people in your local historical society too. Anyone with an interest in history of the local area is likely to know other people who share the same interests.
Try to find a group or individual who explores old places, not for ghost hunting, necessarily. Urban explorers like old places. They don't focus on finding ghosts or any thing paranormal but they are usually interested and have stories of their own to share.
Is there a local group of Pagans, Wiccans or Witches? These are another group of people who tend to be involved in the local paranormal community. Chances are great someone in the Pagan community will also know about the paranormal researchers in your area. (Actually, they are very likely to be part of both groups).
If your town or local area has a Pagan supplies store, ask there about ghost tours. They will likely have a business card, brochure or something they can hand out to tourists looking for a local ghost walk.
Don't forget a ghost tour is a business, like any other kind of tourism service. Don't pay for the tour without checking to make sure you are getting what you want. Just what does the tour include? Will you need your own transportation between locations, if there are more than one included in the tour? Does the tour guide have a plan for handling things if someone gets too spooked out and needs a break? Will you get to see data taken from the tour and discuss it afterwards, like a paranormal investigator rather than being just a tourist sent on your way right afterwards?
Also, find out what you need to bring. Should you dress warmly, bring your own water or coffee? Find out what you are allowed to bring as well. Can you bring your own ghost hunting gear, if you have any?