So you want to be a ghost hunter? pt 4

    So far we talked about some of the more common physical dangers that go along with ghost hunting. In part 4, I’m going to talk about some of the non-physical dangers and annoyances that go along with opening those metaphysical doors. It takes a special personality and spirit to work in this field, especially when the spirits you’re searching for decide to come home with you or any member of your group. This is normal and will happen eventually to anyone doing this type of work. All the protection in the world won’t stop the inevitable, it will attach to you at some point in time. I get spirits following me home quite often and they will even follow the people I take along. If a spirit does follow you home, you need not worry; it’s not the end of the world. Sometimes these spirits will show themselves to you right away and other times after a day or two. If you don’t want them in your home, simply tell them to leave immediately and sometimes you might have to do this a few times before they listen to you. When you tell them to leave, you must use a strong and very firm voice with absolutely no fear or doubt. Tell them that you’re the one in control, not them and that they must go back from where it is they come from. We recently did an old abandoned water treatment plant and after we got to my home after finishing with the investigation, a spirit followed my partner in through my front door. I immediately commanded it to leave my home and to go back to the treatment plant. A few hours later, I saw it again in my living room and again commanded it to leave and to go back to the treatment plant. I never saw it again after the second command.

    If you do ghost hunting and other paranormal investigations as long as I’ve done, you’ll start to open many doors into their realm and they will be attracted to your spiritual vibration. I come across a fatal car accident once and had to sit there for about an hour before the police let us continue on. That night after I went to bed, I started to see a partial apparition and it felt as if someone was trying to get my attention. It felt like someone was very panic stricken, yelling inside my mind screaming for help. I started talking to him, telling him that he was involved in a fatal car accident. I told him to calm down, not to panic and that I want you to realize that you have died and you’re no longer alive. The panic that I was feeling in my mind stopped and I told him that if he wanted to that he could stay in my house till it was time for him to move on. Occasionally a spirit will follow you home, only wanting help from you and you’ll need to learn and know the difference.

    Sometimes when they follow you home, you can’t or won’t be able to get rid of a spirit. These can be very troublesome to you, as they will start showing themselves while you’re dressing, taking a shower and just doing household chores. I have one that followed me home from the Price City Cemetery 9 years ago and it still shows itself in my home as a black shadow person that I can’t get rid of. I’ve moved to three different homes and it still shows up wherever I go. I set up a night vision video camera in front of a large mausoleum then knocked on the door asking it to please come out so that I can take your picture. She did come out and started to appear as a very dark shadow, followed me home and I’ve tried for nine years to banish her from my home with absolutely no luck at all. You can command these types to go back to where they come from, but will always reappear after a few days. You can invoke or call upon the name of Jesus Christ, sage your home or try using a priest, but they will always come back after a short time away.

    Another type of spiritual problem that you could quite possibly run into is a possession of either yourself or to a team member. You’ll have to act very quickly in getting and maintaining control of the individual, because you never know what might happen. It could take three big people to control one person who becomes possessed. They could run off into the dark falling through a hole in the floor, jump through a broken window or possibly take off out of control running out of the building and onto a road or whatever else might be out there. I’ve seen this happen before and quick response and action is a must.

    Ghost hunting and other paranormal investigations can be very interesting and rewarding, but one needs to be very prepared in this field of work. You have all the right equipment to do a good job with, but there’s more than just a standard first aid kit. You need to know what to expect, your surroundings at all times, how to deal with the unexpected, both physical and non-physical and most importantly, to protect the people you work with or anyone you take along with you. I didn’t cover every safety topic in this 4 part series, but touched upon some of the dangers and problems associated with this work that I’ve personally encountered. Remember to use common sense and you shouldn’t get into trouble. Have a safe time and happy hunting.

Ron Johnson

So you want to be a ghost hunter? pt 3

Biological Dangers

    Ghost hunting can be a fun and rewarding field to follow, as long as nothing serious happens. A majority of the time while perusing spirits, nothing will happen and being skunked will be the order of the day or night at times. Dangers will appear to you and your group in all shapes, kinds and sizes. One kind that could possibly harm you is biological in nature. I’m referring to micro-organisms, viruses and harmful toxic particles that can cause serious harm to your health. Basements, basement houses, old mines and anything underground are just a few examples that can harbor these types of dangers. We were planning on investigating an old abandoned basement house in Helper, Utah. I contacted the owner to obtain permission and upon investigating the property prior to entering, we decided to abandon the investigation. The inside of this old house had approximately 8 inches of standing water, dead animals floating in the water, black mold on most of the walls, and was full of black widow spiders. Even wearing a respirator, we would never enter into an environment such as this. Asbestos was used as insulation in walls and on pipes in older buildings. Asbestos is a carcinogen and extreme caution should be used while working around it. The wearing of a respirator is always a good idea in certain buildings. We tried to gain access to the old train station in Thompson, UT but were denied because of the asbestos issues inside. Remember, if it’s present, you’re breathing it.

    Animal and human waste are other biological dangers that you will run into while ghost hunting. I’ve been in buildings that have had piles of human waste and dead animals in the basement. One place we investigated back in 2011, a bar and grill had an unhooked toilet in the attic with human waste lying all around. The cover photo to this article shows this. This is in a place of business where people eat and drink. Another private home I did many years back have the bathroom toilet disconnected from the sewer and a straight pipe from the toilet dropping it into a big pile in the basement. After seeing this I decided not to further investigate into the basement.

    Animals both wild and domestic are a danger that you constantly will have on your mind. There’s an old mine office building that we frequent quite a lot for EVP’s but whenever we go there care must be taken that no animals are inside. I go there a lot in winter and have photos of big cat tracks (Cougar) that lead into this building. Another Time we were at the Mountain Meadow Massacre site doing an investigation and I decided to go down to the creek into the willows to capture some EVP’s. Remember, if you ever go to this site, there is a working cattle ranch surrounding this place. After sitting down and asking my first question, I was interrupted by a mad cow. This cow comes charging through the willows after me.

    Spiders are another thing to watch out for, especially the venomous kind. Here where I live in Utah, black widow spiders are common. If you or anyone else in your group is allergic to different types of venom, extreme caution is needed. Old grave yards, the kind that hasn’t had any maintenance, are breeding grounds for black widows and snakes. The MK tunnels in Emery County, UT are totally full of spiders. We went there to try some EVP’s at night and when we entered the portal, the wall seemed to be moving. There were literally billions of spiders everywhere. We left. We did a home in Murray, UT that had Rattle snakes in glass tanks. The owner collected the venom and sold it. I couldn’t concentrate on the investigation because of this. If you are contemplating doing old mines, be careful as wild and domestic animal do inhabit old mines. Be careful when sitting down in an old mine to do EVP’s, rats, mice and spiders will be present if there’s any piles of debris around.

    Transients, drug dealers and just plain people in general can be a hazard too. Be aware of your surroundings at all times. I like to do EVP sessions at old ghost towns and once I was at Standardville by myself doing EVPs, when three trucks arrived. I was behind an old wall not making a sound. I had a good idea as to what these people were up too, drug dealing. After they finished what they were doing, they all left. I stress this more than anything else and even though I’m guilty of it too, take someone else with you and don’t go by yourself. Another time in Seattle, I entered with permission into a boarded up old hotel. Thinking that I was the only one there, on the 4th floor I entered into a room that was occupied by 5 transients. I immediately turned ice cold, but soon found out that they were all very nice people. They even told me about strange things happening inside this building. I shiver to think, what if they were anything but nice people. Be careful when in a large old building or any building, you never know who else might be there too. It’s better to have others with you and some type of protection, than to amble into trouble alone.

    This is pretty much all common sense and all I’m stressing is to be prepared. You might think to yourself that this won’t happen to me, but it’s a mathematical certainty, if you do this line of work long enough’ it will happen sooner or later. Remember be safe and happy hunting.

Ron Johnson

So you want to be a ghost hunter? pt 2

Environmental Dangers

    In part 2, I’ll discuss some environmental dangers that you will eventually run across if you decide to stay in this field. Pre-scouting an investigation site for dangers is a must in this line of work and one needs to protect themselves and their co-workers from hidden danger. I hear this lot from new investigators, where they see an old abandoned multi level building and come back at night to investigate it without checking it out first, only to find a surprise in the dark like falling through a hole in the floor, or stumbling down onto a pile of broken glass. Environmental dangers include the condition of the structure you are about to investigate. Is the structure sound enough to hold itself up with multiple people walking about? If there are stair cases, are they structurally sound enough to hold the weight of people? Open trap doors or big holes in the floor can be a big surprise if you happen to fall in one while walking around in the dark.

    An old mine shop building that we investigate quite regularly, has a large 3 foot diameter hole in the floor. This is located in a hallway and in the dark, is very difficult to see. The drop to the pipe covered concrete basement below is 25 feet, straight down. Another old mine shop building that gets visited a lot, had a 5 foot square hole in the middle of a hall right after a turn. Again at night this danger is hard to see and has a 15 foot drop onto a concrete floor below. Old buildings with multiple floors can have sections of flooring missing. I did an old boarded up hotel in Seattle, WA many years back and when I got to the fifth floor, there was a hole big enough to put 20 people in and it was open all the way into the basement from the 5^th floor. How would it be to stumble into that trap without knowing firsthand about it?

    Things hanging from ceilings can be a problem too. Old electrical conduit, pipes, boards and metal brackets can hang freely in the dark waiting for some unsuspecting investigator to run into it face first. A lot of places that we investigate has these dangers and even knowing that they exist, doesn’t guarantee someone not hitting it.

    Missing stair cases is another problem you will need to keep in mind. At a popular location here in Utah, scrap metal hunters has taken the entire metal stair case out of a mine building. This stairway led to the outside of the building from the second floor, which is approximately 18 feet, straight down. At night someone unknowingly could walk out the door and fall. In old multiple level buildings, I’ve seen upstairs walls missing, exposing the outside.

    Broken glass, old nails, and wood splinters can cut or bruise and needs to be dealt with before hand. Watch for big pieces of broken glass that’s still hanging in its frame work, as these are extremely dangerous. Nails can be a big problem to deal with. Watch where you walk, you don’t want to step on one. I stepped on a big long rusty nail at an old ranch location while conducting an EVP session. I had to leave early to go to the doctor’s office. Big nails are my weakness. We were in the LaSal Mountains investigating an old mine site and this time I ran a giant spike into the palm of my right hand. This goes to show you that no matter how careful one is; sometimes it’s not being careful enough.

    The important thing to remember is to check things out first and please don’t try investigating a location without evaluating it first. The last thing you want to do is to take someone to the hospital, or have to call 911. A little common sense and time will go a long way in keeping a disaster from occurring and ruining an investigation. I’ll talk about Biological dangers in part 3, so stay safe and happy hunting.

Ron Johnson

So you want to be a ghost hunter? pt 1

The Wall at Peerless, Utah

    Just think, me being a ghost hunter, how exciting would this be. A lot of people are doing this, so why not me. What’s the reason you want to do this kind of work. Do you want to try helping trapped spirits or are you looking for notoriety. This is probably the most important question you can ask yourself, before diving head long into this field. I see so many starting in this work only to give it up after a couple years. The most common and number one reason I hear for quitting, is that it has become boring. The second reason I hear a lot about, is that the person in question wasn’t capable of dealing with the different paranormal aspects that come along with ghost hunting and how to properly deal with them. I’ve been in this line of work for well over 25 years and hope that this article will help you in searching for a reason. For me, ever since I was a young child, I had this ability to sense, see and even hear things that others are incapable of. This wasn’t only just related to the spirit world, but also to the UFO/ET and animals too. I’m not trying to prove the existence of ghosts or spirits and the afterlife, as I already know of their existence, but acting more or less as a guiding light, a road sign or beacon if you may, to help in their progression. I certainly don’t want to confuse any one, so at this point; all I’m going to say is that the entire paranormal spectrum is related to one another, everything from man on Earth, to Sasquatch and everything in between. The feeling and seeing of actually helping a trapped spirit move on is over whelming to say the least. My old partner has basically the same spiritual gifts as myself and we were doing a series of EVP sessions at the old mining camp (ghost town) Peerless, UT. After a couple of sessions, we started getting some pretty disturbing EVP’s. A new voice started asking for help in response to our questions. Over the next three sessions, we were getting “Help me” “Please help me” from this one man’s voice. Then another voice started answering our questions. This other voice was a real low and rough sounding voice. He would tell us to lease, don’t come back and that he was going to kill us. Then the original voice that was asking for help started answering our questions again. He answered with some very disturbing responses “To hell and back” many times. There was a bad spirit here and possibly more, keeping this one spirit from moving on. I started to talk to him out loud that he didn’t have to stay with these other bad spirits and that if he wanted to move on, it’s OK. I told him that as a spirit, they can’t physically hold you here. I told him to move towards the light with the Christ type feeling to it and don’t let these other bad spirits hold you here. A white fuzzy looking light slowly come up out of the ground between me and Kevin, and then very quickly shot straight up towards the night sky. It has been nearly two years since and we have never heard that voice again in our EVP’s. This is the reason why I ghost hunt, to help. What is yours?

Ron Johnson