---

^ | Home | News | Team | Tactics | Cases | Photos | Links

What to do if you have a paranormal experience
(or 7 steps to follow if you see a ghost!):

1. Don't panic!

2. Think safety.
   Human intruder?
   Get out, get help

3. Check for natural causes

4. Make notes

5. Take photos, video

6. Store & back up info

7. Contact us or others

What to do, in more detail:

1. As it says on the cover of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", Don't panic! Ghosts can't hurt you. But turning and fleeing, tripping and falling downstairs (or something similar) is the most common type of ghost-related injury :-)

2. Consider your safety first. Was that a ghost, or do you in fact have a human intruder? To repeat: ghosts can't hurt you, people can. If you sense danger, get out to safety without delay, then get help. Also, exploring on your own at night can be hazardous, especially in unfamiliar surroundings. Please see note at the bottom of this page: Important safety concerns

3. Once safety has been established, check for natural causes for the phenomenon. Some common things mistaken for paranormal events are:
   • Animals, for example; possums, rats, birds, cats or hedgehogs. They can be surprisingly loud at night.
   • Someone staging a prank or playing a joke.
   • Buildings creaking as they cool down at night, which is due to materials contracting.
   • Plumbing noises and electrical faults.
   • Reflections of car headlights or other sources of light, still or moving.
   • Wind blowing loose windows, roofing materials, etc. Drafts slamming doors.
   • Just being in an unfamiliar or new house at night - each place has its natural pecularities.
   • State of mind - tiredness, stress, side-effects of medications, sleep deprivation.
   • Seeing movement in your peripheral vision, or when you stare at something, especially when it's dark. This is the way normal human vision works.

4. Make notes. This is very important, and you should do it before discussing your experience with anyone.
   Write down in detail:
   • The location, time, and date of the event.
   • As much as you can remember about the event itself.
   • What happened beforehand, leading up to the event.
   • What happened after, your feelings, other peoples' reactions.
   • Weather conditions, and other external things (party in the street?).
   • Names and contact details of whoever was present, even if they didn't witness the event.
   • Whether alcohol or other drugs had been consumed.
   • Measurements of position of any objects that moved.
   • Anything else you can think of that may be relevant or useful later.
   • Ask others to make their own notes, but don't discuss what happened as this will affect people's recollection of events.

5. If you had the presence of mind and the good luck to take photos or video during the event - congratulations! Well done!
   • But if you didn't quite manage to, well - join the club :-) At least you can take lots of photos afterwards, from all angles.
     
   • If shooting video (with a cellphone or camcorder) try to take steady shots, don't wave the camera about and zoom in and out excessively.
     
   • If any objects were moved or altered during the occurrence, (for example, a picture falling off the wall), try to leave them as found and and make sure nobody else touches them until an investigation takes place. If you can't leave things in situ, at least photograph them and mark or measure their positions.

6. Back up any data you record, photocopy any notes, upload or download digital photos or videos to another storage location or device. Keep your original data safe. Don't record over tapes, format data storage media or anything like that. Label everything.

7. Contact the Strange Occurrences team as soon as possible, or another investigation team in your area. The sooner the better, as your memory will be fresh and the site may still contain evidence of the phenomenon.

If you wish to learn more about the paranormal, there are a lot of good links to websites from here. A good place to start is www.paranormal-encyclopedia.com - a site created by Kiwis.

There are also a number of great books about paranormal experiences and haunted locations in New Zealand, listed here.

DISCLAIMER

Strange Occurrences is an amateur interest group. We are not a company, trust or other legal entity. Although we aim to act in a professional manner, we are not professional paranormal investigators - we all have day jobs in other fields!

We follow the edict "Do no harm" and we reserve the right to refuse requests for advice or investigations where we believe we cannot be of help. Safety is paramount. See Important Safety Concerns.

Because the study of paranormal phenomena is far from an exact science, we cannot guarantee our advice or findings. We would advise caution if anyone claims to have definite answers to paranormal questions, because very little in this field has been established with any degree of certainty.

While we are interested in studying paranormal phenomena, we do not clear properties, or release or emanicipate ghosts or spirits. If requested, we may be able to arrange contact with someone who can perhaps perform such services.

Important Safety Concerns:

• Demonic possession? This is a belief-based issue. It is not something we can help you with, sorry. We would, however, generally advise against exorcism-type ceremonies, as they can be very dangerous. In 2007 there was a case in NZ where a person was killed during an exorcism procedure. Article on Coroner's findings

• Physical harm to people, caused by ghosts or demons? This is extremely uncommon. It is much more likely to be caused by a living person, either knowingly or unknowingly. Look for signs of bullying or other abuse, or self-harming. This is not something we can offer help with, sorry.

• If either or both of the above situations occur, we would strongly advise seeking appropriate professional medical advice.

Top of page

Contact the Strange Occurrences team by email:

j.d.gilberd@gmail.com
James Gilberd - team leader and co-founder