Exorcism

[GeneChing]

ROTFLMAO and MORE !!!

My job here is done for the day.

Have a great weekend!

[Jimbo]

Lol! Thanks for that, Gene. I haven't laughed that hard in a good, long while!

[David Jamieson]

Ambiguity aside, Jesus's being the Messiah and his divinity are central tenets of Christianity. These beliefs are heretical to Judaism.
Christianity considers Jesus the savior of the world. Rabbinical tradition holds that Jesus was a sorcerer who is suffering eternal ****ation in boiling excrement. Those view points are not compatible.

Not actually. Judaism doesn't hold to the idea of a hell in the same way Catholicism does. Judaism barely has a concept of an afterlife in the same sense.

[Kellen Bassette]

Not actually. Judaism doesn't hold to the idea of a hell in the same way Catholicism does. Judaism barely has a concept of an afterlife in the same sense.

The Jewish sheol is not the same concept as the western hell, but they do believe in an eternal punishment. That assessment of Jesus was taken from the Babylonian Talmud.

[rett2]

This is turning into Battle of the Lore-Masters... am dusting off my 1st edition hardcover Silmarillion as I type.... watch out!

[David Jamieson]

This is turning into Battle of the Lore-Masters... am dusting off my 1st edition hardcover Silmarillion as I type.... watch out!

Frankly, I'm ok with the philosophies.
I don't subscribe to any particular religion though.
I think there are underlying truths to our existence and one of them is that we should really get to enjoying existence and living the life as life is for the living. Spending a life in dread about what happens when you're dead is in my view the height of absurdity.

You're missing out on a lot otherwise. How would you feel if you gave someone a gift and they never really used it but rather kept it on a shelf?

[Jimbo]

Frankly, I'm ok with the philosophies.
I don't subscribe to any particular religion though.
I think there are underlying truths to our existence and one of them is that we should really get to enjoying existence and living the life as life is for the living. Spending a life in dread about what happens when you're dead is in my view the height of absurdity.

You're missing out on a lot otherwise. How would you feel if you gave someone a gift and they never really used it but rather kept it on a shelf?

I have similar views.

IMO, religious practices or lifestyles based around fear...fear of death, fear of hell/eternal d@mnation, fear and judgment of those who are different, etc...has nothing to do with spiritual joy, love and goodwill to others and self. Spreading and promoting fear is the opposite of love. Many devout types, whose philosophy revolves around the constant threat of fire and brimstone, approach spirituality in a self-serving, kiss-a$$ manner in the hopes they'll be allowed into heaven. Many such people don't even necessarily believe in an afterlife, but view being 'devout' as a type of insurance 'just in case'.

I strongly believe that we came into this life for a purpose, whatever that is for each soul, and that's certainly not to grovel and be a suck up, spiritually or otherwise.

P.S.:
I realize I've just contradicted myself here with regard to 'judgment of others/those who are different', but I've observed MANY people like I've described. Hey, I'm not perfect, but at least I'm aware of it.

[Kellen Bassette]

I think there are underlying truths to our existence and one of them is that we should really get to enjoying existence and living the life as life is for the living. Spending a life in dread about what happens when you're dead is in my view the height of absurdity.

You're missing out on a lot otherwise. How would you feel if you gave someone a gift and they never really used it but rather kept it on a shelf?

I agree with you on this...I do find the religious histories and philosophies fascinating though, while I'm sure it bores most people to tears.
I think there is value in knowing where we as a society came from, why we do the things we do, why things are the way they are.
Kung Fu being a wonderful example...the more authentic history you learn about it, the more your perspective on it is bound to change.

[Kellen Bassette]

This is turning into Battle of the Lore-Masters... am dusting off my 1st edition hardcover Silmarillion as I type.... watch out!

You made me google "Silmarillion." My pop culture credentials are abysmal. :/

[GeneChing]

But fascinating on many levels...

PARANORMAL


MAY 9, 2016
WERE ‘DEMONS’ RESPONSIBLE FOR 80 SUICIDES IN INDIAN VILLAGE? INVESTIGATORS REVEAL SHOCKING INFORMATION ABOUT MASS SUICIDES IN THE VILLAGE OF BADI
ERIN FITZGERALD

Throughout the year in the village of Badi in the Khargone district, 80 people committed suicide, causing residents to believe “demons” were haunting them. Investigators revealed shocking information about the mass suicides in the village of Badi. Are demons the culprit of this increase in suicides?

Paranormal News reports that 320 families in the small village experienced at least one suicide within their family. The village chief, Rajendra Sisodiya, said his mother and brother committed suicide, as well as his cousin, who hung himself in front of his home.


Are demons or pesticides to blame for mass suicides in village of Badi in India
[Photo by Prashanth Vishwanathan/Getty Images]

Ashok Verma was chosen to lead an investigation to find the root of the mass-suicide problem.

“This is a very grave situation and we need to act fast. The villagers lack confidence and motivation and it’s very important to counsel them.”

Although Sisodiya and other village residents believe that a demonic presence is the cause of the mass suicides, scientists determined the increase in suicides were caused by pesticides.

The village uses pesticides on cotton crops, and the chemicals are likely to cause conditions such as schizophrenia and depression.

Scientists further reported that when farmers in China were using pesticides a couple years ago, they, too, experienced an increase in suicides. A study was performed to confirm that pesticides are, in fact, linked to depression.

According to RT, during an interview with the Times of India, Dr. Srikanth Reddy, a psychiatrist, said that the villagers do not relate to depression and otherwise associate the problem with a demonic presence.

The villagers tried banning alcohol, thinking maybe that was the cause of the suicide problem. However, this simply caused the residents to visit other neighboring villages to get alcohol.

The youngest villager to attempt suicide was only 11-years-old, forcing the community to declare a state of emergency last month.

As mentioned above, China experienced a similar experience a couple years ago when farmers began committing suicide. The suicides were linked to exposure to the harmful pesticides, which caused depression and sometimes even schizophrenia.

Toxipedia states that 250,000 suicide deaths worldwide were a result of pesticide poisoning. Within the last decade, up to 90 percent of suicides in Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and China were caused by pesticide ingestion, particularly Trinidad.


India village hit with mass suicide and pesticides could be to blame
[Photo by Carlos Villalon/Getty Images]

Although pesticide ingestion is the logical explanation for the mass-suicides in the tiny Indian village, residents seem to blame a more illogical reason: demons.
Antiochian reveals that before the time of Christ, mental illnesses were considered demonic, not physical. It was insisted that the symptoms were caused by demons.

Unexplained Stuff says that studies of psychical researchers and clergy reveal certain aspects of demonic possessions.

The possessed may become antisocial and will begin hearing voices. They begin to see a demonic spirit, and eventually, the possessed will black-out consciousness and carry on in a trance-like state.

Others will notice the possessed speaking and walking in a strange manner and doing odd things that the person has never done before. Eventually, the possessed may commit violent crimes, murder, or even suicide.

Professionals in the healthcare industry do compare demonic possessions with mental health illnesses.

A psychotherapist, Dr. Adam Crabtree, stated that entities that seek a person’s body and mind are because they have “unfinished business on Earth.” Crabtree also mentioned that he has had patients come to him complaining that they feel a presence within then. These patients are typically very emotionally disturbed and have often shown different characteristics, unlike their own.

What do you think is the reason behind this Indian village’s mass-suicide problem? Of course, the more likely reason behind the case would be the scientific evidence pointing at pesticide ingestion. However, it is certainly possible that a demon or demons are haunting the tiny Indian village, eventually causing those possessed to commit suicide.

[Photo by Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images]

[GeneChing]

'I let witch doctors steam my wife alive': Chinese villagers defy government attempts to stamp out black magic


Yan's mother, sitting next to where the steaming took place, is still grieving CREDIT: NEIL CONNOR FOR THE TELEGRAPH
Neil Connor, guangyuan, sichuan province
15 MAY 2016 • 2:50PM

After other black magic rituals failed to cure his wife's ailments, Yan Yingmao relented to the Chinese witch doctors’ wishes: she would be steamed alive until the "ghosts" were dispelled from her body.

The two men who had been "treating" the woman proceeded to place her inside a wooden barrel suspended over a large vat of slowly boiling water. “She seemed okay at first," said Mr Yan, who lives in a remote village near Guangyuan, deep in the mountains of south-western China.


The barrel being removed from the steaming apparatus. CREDIT: CHINA NEWS SERVICE

As scalding hot vapour began to pass through the barrel, he was told to fetch a needle needed for the exorcism. "When I returned the screaming had begun," Mr Yan told the Sunday Telegraph.

As his wife cried out in agony inside the barrel, he remonstrated with the two witch doctors. "They said the ritual must be concluded, and that the screams from my wife was the sound of demons leaving her body,” he said.

He stood and watched until his wife's cries became too much to bear. But after pulling her blackened body from the barrel and cradling her in his arms, he knew it was too late. "I looked at her face, and it was purple. She told me she wouldn't make it," said Mr Yan, 45. The pair of witch doctors then slipped away and ran to the green mountains surrounding the family home.


Police remove the barrel CREDIT: CHINA NEWS SERVICE

This incident in Sichuan province shows how belief in the supernatural and adherence to ancient rituals still runs deep in rural China. Beijing is waging a war against superstition, having vowed to eradicate poverty and improve education among the country’s alienated rural citizenry.

This campaign dates back to the 1920s when Mao Tse-tung, then a rebel leader, tried to eradicate feudal and superstitious beliefs in the areas he controlled, more than two decades before the Communists seized power in Beijing. Today, a directive on the party’s website promises the regime will “firmly crackdown on those who used superstition to damage national interests, social stability and people’s life and property”.


Mr Yao lives in a remote rural community CREDIT: NEIL CONNOR FOR THE TELEGRAPH

Ironically, belief in fortune-telling and geomancy is particularly strong amongst Communist party cadres. In March, an official in Shaanxi province was expelled from the party after he was found to be participating in an “evil cult” which claimed to be able to cure diseases. “He should have believed in science and led the locals in gaining wealth,” said a disciplinary official.

The prevalence of irrational beliefs is an embarrassment for the officially atheist Communist Party as it seeks to modernise China in accordance with its own brand of Marxism. People living in Mr Yan’s community - made up of remote dwellings perched on jagged white-cliff mountains – speak openly of their belief in superstition. Many believe in the power of spiritual healing for physical ailments, while some blame "ghosts" or "devils" living in the body for health defects.

“The sick are usually the ones with the most extreme beliefs,” said one local man.

The death of Mr Yan’s wife – whose name he would not disclose – follows other examples of lethal “exorcisms” in China. In the southern island of Hainan, three brothers were charged with murder in 2013 after they killed their mother following instructions by a witch doctor who was treating her painful joints.


The three brothers killed their mother under instructions from a witch doctor CREDIT: HINEWS.CN

Gao Yongchuan, a self-proclaimed "legendary doctor subordinate to the Jade Emperor, Taoist ruler of heaven” force-fed the 61-year-old woman with a concoction of distilled liquor and the blood of pigs, chicken and dogs. The aim was to force her to “spit out the ghost”.

When she fell unconscious after the ritual, he ordered her sons to beat her to death, burn the body and then bury it. She would then climb out from beneath the ground, he promised.

China’s booming coastal cities have also witnessed examples of extreme "healing". In 2013 a self-styled “Ghostbuster’ persuaded a woman to sleep with him after saying that he could only exorcise the demons inside her with his *****.

Those accused of committing crimes through "dispelling ghosts" have been accused of distorting the art of shamanism, an ancient tradition of spiritual healing which is respected among some minority communities in China. Shamans, or "spirit masters", are considered the intermediary between the spiritual and human worlds, and they often offer spiritual advice, commonly in the form of fortune telling.

“There are so-called shamans claiming they can cure," said Shi Wenji, a shaman from Jilin province, in north-eastern China. “A shaman should deal with the relationship between human beings and God, but fake shamans deal with the relationship between human beings and ghosts.”

The two fake shamans who convinced Mr Yan and his wife to carry out the steaming ritual were later arrested by local police.

Mr Yan now lives in despair, trying to cope with the loss of the mother of his two children, and also the guilt that he was partly responsible for her death. “I really didn’t have any other choice as I wanted my wife to be cured,” he said. “I would have rather died than let this happen. How could I have intentionally killed my wife?”

More on this.

[GeneChing]

I found this so disturbing that I had to share. I wonder what the shirt was. I'm sure it was possessed.

Former ASU football player sacrificed family poodle in smoker, police say
Katie Faller, The Republic | azcentral.com 7:13 a.m. MST May 17, 2016


Patrick Zane Thompson
(Photo: Maricopa County Sheriff's Office)

A Goodyear man and former Arizona State University football player was arrested Saturday on suspicion of animal cruelty after being accused of breaking the family dog's neck and placing him in a smoker, according to court documents.

Patrick Zane Thompson, 42, was booked on suspicion of two felony and four misdemeanor counts related to the death of the family's white poodle, documents said.

Thompson played right guard for ASU football in 1996, when the team posted an 11-1 record and lost the Rose Bowl to Ohio State University. He is also the owner of the Raging Cajun Smoking Barbecue catering company.

Officers were called to a house in the 16000 block of West Mohave Street in Goodyear and found Thompson lying on the sidewalk with a self-inflicted gash in his arm, according to police documents.

Thompson earlier had burned a shirt that belonged to his 17-year-old daughter in the industrial-size smoker in a trailer in his side yard, saying he didn't like the shirt because he believed it had to do with the devil.

Family members told police he had begun to act erratically, saying in front of his wife and four children that he had to make a sacrifice of a male, either himself, his 6-year-old son or the family dog.

Thompson grabbed the dog as the children and his wife pleaded with him to stop, but he broke the dog's neck, police said. The family fled and called police.

Officers found the dog dead in the smoker. Thompson told officers he had smoked marijuana earlier in the day and began to have an "episode," according to court documents.

After he burned the shirt, he said he began to have a vision that something bad was going to happen to his family and that "the Lord" was going to kill him for what he had done. From his readings of the Bible, he said, he knew he had to make a male sacrifice. He selected the dog instead of himself or his son, he told officers.

Thompson was booked into a Maricopa County jail on a $20,000 bond. His next court appearance was set for May 23.

[GeneChing]

[GeneChing]

Alas....kids today.

Exorcism in Italy a job 'too scary' for young priests
By James Reynolds
BBC News, Rome
18 October 2016


Fr Vincenzo Taraborelli sees dozens of people every day in his backroom office

"That is a possessed woman there," says Fr Vincenzo Taraborelli as he points up to an 18th Century fresco in his Roman church. "They're holding her with her mouth open. She has little devils coming out of her body. She's being freed."
It is a scene the 79-year-old priest says he knows well. For the past 27 years, Fr Taraborelli has performed exorcisms - the Catholic rite of expelling evil spirits.
He stumbled into the job when a fellow priest needed help.
"I didn't know what it was, I hadn't studied it," the father says. "He told me what to do. I was totally ignorant."
He has since become one of Rome's busiest exorcists, and the Catholic Church is struggling to find younger successors.
Working three days a week from a windowless room at the back of his church near the Vatican, he often sees up to 30 people every day.
"Before doing exorcisms I urge people to see a psychologist or a psychiatrist, and I ask them to bring me their prognosis. I'm in touch with many psychologists who send their patients here."


AP
The Vatican denied claims in 2013 that Pope Francis had been filmed performing an exorcism

On one side of the room, a cabinet is filled with hundreds of small statues of angels. In a drawer, he keeps a supply of sweets to hand out to his visitors. On the wall is an official document showing his qualification as an exorcist.
Fr Taraborelli's desk is crowded with papers, photos, and prayer books. He sits in a simple chair; those who come to see him sit opposite him.
Before doing exorcisms I urge people to see a psychologist or a psychiatrist. I ask them to bring me their prognosis."
Fr Vincenzo Taraborelli
BBC
"First of all, I get the room ready," he says. "Then if the person is not doing well, I try to calm them down reassure them. I invite them to join me in prayer. But many of them when they come here are already disturbed."
He looks through his copy of the Catholic Church's exorcism rites. He's had to tape it back together to stop it from falling apart. Amidst the pile of papers on his desk, he finds the cross he uses to expel evil spirits.
His most notable case involved a married woman he treated for 13 years.
"Another man, who was a Satanist, wanted her," he remembers. "She refused. So this man told her: 'You'll pay for this.' He cast so-called spells to attract her to him, twice a week.
"Then they came to me, in this room. I started to pray, and she went into a trance. She would blurt out insults, blasphemies. I quickly understood she was possessed.
"As the rite continued, she started feeling worse and worse. So when I told the devil: 'In the name of Jesus, I order you to go away', she started to vomit little metal pins, five at a time.
"Aside from pins she would also vomit hair braids, little stones, pieces of wood. It sounds like something from another world right? Instead, it's something from this world."

Exorcism and the Catholic Church


THINKSTOCK

Within the Catholic Church, the concept of possession by demons is an accepted belief.
It is sometimes used to explain murderous behaviour, as in the recent murder of 85-year-old French priest Fr Jacques Hamel in his church in the French city of Rouen in July.


GETTY IMAGES
Pope Francis said Fr Hamel was on his way to sainthood

When two Islamist militants acting in the name of jihadist group Islamic State (IS) burst into the church and stabbed Fr Hamel, he tried to fend them off, crying out "Be gone, Satan!" - an apparent attempt at exorcism.
In support of the priest's actions, Pope Francis accelerated the process of Fr Hamel's candidacy for sainthood.
But outside the Catholic Church, many dispute the entire basis of demonic possession and exorcism.
Non-believers argue that so-called possession by evil spirits is simply a medieval superstition or myth. Those who claim to be possessed by evil spirits are people suffering from easily explicable psychological or psychiatric problems, they say.
Fr Taraborelli rejects the scepticism.
"Well, someone who isn't a believer doesn't believe in the devil either," he says, "But someone who believes knows that the devil exists, you can read it in the gospel. Then you only need to see how the world is nowadays. It has never been this bad. These violence acts are not human. So terrible, like IS."


AFP
The Church's most prominent exorcist, Gabriele Amorth, who died last month, was said to have performed 160,000 exorcisms

Fr Taraborelli shows no sign of wanting to give up his work and his mobile phone rings constantly.
But younger priests are not particularly attracted by the prospect of spending hours in windowless rooms, reading exorcism rites to disturbed believers.
"I told the bishop that I can't find anyone willing to do this. Many of them are scared. Even priests can be scared. It's a difficult life."

[GeneChing]

The Making of a Modern-Day Exorcist
With reports of demonic possession on the rise, a look at the clergy who have to separate mental illness from the devil's work
By Caroline Cox
4 days ago

In 1999, a man we’ll call Jacob Turner was 18 and on a mission trip in Trinidad and Tobago when he suddenly felt the sensation of something wrapping itself around him, constricting him and rendering him unable to breathe. He tried to ignore it, but it continued to escalate, as though a snake was wrapping itself around his torso, squeezing him tighter and tighter. He and his fellow Pentecostals had ventured into a part of the Caribbean nation where demonic activity had been reported. After about 10 minutes, Turner alerted his group to what was happening, and they began to pray over him. The pain and discomfort subsided immediately.
From a self-trained mentalist to a second-generation ghost hunter, what it takes to conduct a seance for the Hollywood set
What Turner – who asked Rolling Stone not to use his real name due to his continued affiliation with the Catholic Church – experienced is a makeshift exorcism from what could be classified as "demonic oppression," less severe than demonic possession, wherein someone can experience anything from a physical ailment to financial hardship due to an evil spirit or the devil himself.
Reports of exorcism requests have been steadily on the rise in the last century – a short time when you consider that the first instance of Christian exorcism was reportedly recorded in the year 253 in a letter from Pope Cornelius, with the first rite of exorcism allegedly being written in 1614. Though in the U.S. the practice is mostly relegated to Christianity, non-Christian religions, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism also have their own forms of exorcising. The Exorcist, which was released in 1973 and remains one of the most popular R-rated films of all time, certainly had its part in bringing the phenomenon outside of church doors and into public consciousness. But it's more recent developments that have arguably had a greater effect.

Advancements in technology have made it easier than ever to submit an exorcism request

In 1999, the Vatican revised its exorcism regulations for the first time in more than 300 years to put more emphasis on working with mental health professionals to ensure that the allegedly possessed person's feelings aren't from a chemical imbalance or a psychological condition, such as depression or schizophrenia. But advancements in technology have made it easier than ever to submit an exorcism request.
The principle belief of exorcism separates the possessed person from the evil that is possessing them, making a clear distinction. Though there have been updates to the rites, the processes and rituals have, for the most part, stayed the same for centuries. There are varying recognized degrees of demonic possession – the less severe is considered demonic oppression, which is felt more as a weight on the oppressed person. Demonic possession is more severe, potentially causing the afflicted person to speak in a different voice or to become violent. (Homes and objects, like figurines or dolls, can also become possessed.) Likewise, the act of exorcising in the Christian faith takes on several forms, generally ranging from minor to major rites. It's minor rites that are more commonly invoked, in the form of praying over a person, place or object. Often, this successfully banishes the "demon" after one concise session. Major rites tackle severe demonic possession, which is rare and may involve taking such measures as tying someone down so that they're not a danger to themselves or others. These types of exorcisms can take years to complete.
Turner, now 35, always knew he'd be active in ministry. He was born and raised in both Baptist and Charismatic Pentecostal parishes around Atlanta, Georgia. These types of Pentecostal churches aren't affiliated with other traditional Pentecostal churches – they can be made up of people from various Christian denominations such as Catholic, Methodist or Presbyterian. There's a heavy emphasis on connecting with the Holy Spirit through things like signs, miracles, healings and speaking in tongues. He started out as a student at Atlanta Christian College (now Point University) majoring in Biblical Studies and Humanities. During this time, a combination of adolescent angst and his parents' divorce prompted him to look outside of the Pentecostal church for religious roots. "If you had said that I was going to be a priest, I probably would have asked the question: 'At what point did I fall away?'" says Turner. Priesthood was based in the Catholic tradition, and growing up he'd been told that Catholics were all going to Hell. Catholicism, as he was taught, "was heretical at best, and satanic deception at worst."
Nevertheless, Turner felt called to pastoral ministry. He joined the Anglican church in 2004 and rose from a deacon to a priest. One element that linked his Pentecostal upbringing and his Catholic calling together was the practice of exorcisms. "You'd see and hear exorcisms quite a bit in Pentecostal church," he says. "I have had quite a few experiences with malevolent entities that made me very cognitive of their existence." In his role as a priest, he was often called on to bless people or items – a light form of exorcising, if you will. He began researching and studying the history of exorcism after realizing the church was receiving requests "pretty much nonstop."
Roman Catholics act out the Crucifixion in Roland Doe's boyhood neighborhood during a Via Crucis parade organized by the boy's old church, Saint James Parish, in Prince George's County, Maryland, USA, 29 March 2013. In 1949, a Saint James priest named Father Albert Hughes first proclaimed Roland's need of an exorcism. Roland, who was then Lutheran, converted to Catholicism and joined Saint James Parish.


A March, 2013, recreation of the 1949 Roman Catholic exorcism of a boy called Roland Doe. Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Redux

Bishop Bryan Ouellette’s path to exorcism was similarly circuitous. At 43, he serves as the presiding bishop at the Holy Nicholean Catholic Church, based in Cartersville, Georgia. A former Roman-Catholic-turned-Buddhist, Ouellette had what he calls a "profound religious experience" about 10 years ago when he passed out in his home for several hours, during which he heard a voice telling him he would become a priest. He returned to Roman Catholicism shortly after, but realized he was unable to become a priest as a married man. That's when he found the Independent Sacramental Movement which lead to the creation of the Holy Nicholean, a church that serves as a sort of Catholic Island of Misfit Toys, wherein the highest-ranking bishop doesn't have to report to a higher authority. One of the main markers of the HNCC revolves around exorcisms – which Ouellette can perform by virtue of being a Catholic bishop with valid orders and Apostolic succession, regardless of not being in union with the Vatican. The open nature of the HNCC means they got a lot of exorcism requests from people of varying religious backgrounds and practices. "They didn't know where to go," says Ouellette, "so they found us and said, 'Could you help us?' We help everyone who comes to us."
On Order of Exorcists, a site run by the HNCC, people can fill out a form to "request an investigation" into whatever they feel is afflicting them – Ouellette says they receive about 12 requests a month. The Order of Exorcists is headquartered in California, with services offered in more than 35 states and more than 20 countries. "Not everyone has an exorcist on staff, but we have trained lay investigators all over the place that can go in and determine whether or not there is an actual demonic event taking place," he explains. "If there is, and there's no clergy assigned to that jurisdiction, they can sometimes try to find the closest clergy that can go and conduct the exorcism."

Bishop Ouellette has seen things that give him no doubt demonic possession is real

The Order of Exorcists team is unique from more traditional Christian exorcists in that they use top-of-the-line "paranormal investigation equipment" to aid them in the process – digital voice recorders, structured light sensor cameras, electromagnetic field detectors, a SB7 Spirit Box (frequently seen on ghost-hunting TV shows), infrared cameras, the works. They bring this equipment to the person's place of residence (they prefer to work in-house, where they also videotape the process) and, firstly, ask around 60 questions about what they’ve felt or witnessed to determine the legitimacy of the person's situation.

continued next post