I was watching Ghost Hunters last night, not the most objective of programs but very entertaining nontheless. They were investigating a relatively new House reputed to be haunted by the spirits of Sharon Tate and Jay Sebring,which had apparantly migrated to the new location like phantom geese (poltergeese maybe?).

Brian Harnois was staying behind to witness the birth of his daughter, so T.A.P.S. asked a guest investigator to accompany them to the location. The guest was Christopher S Fleming, you may know him as Chris Fleming. He once co-hosted a show for Living TV called Dead Famous with Gale Porter. Chris describes himself as a "sensitive", but as he stated in Ghost Hunters, he likes to use scientific equipment to add "verifiable proof" of his claims. He remarked upon this on his website http://unknownmagazine.com

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In this episode he was using a "scientific instrument" I must admit I had not heard of before (I do try to stay current on these matters). It was called a KII meter. Jason asked him how it operates, and he stated that the meter has a row of lights which light up in response to Yes/No questions asked to spirits. I Imagined it to be a veritable semaphore of the paranormal world, but alas the results were not as spectacular.

During the course of the investigation Chris was asking questions to any spirits which may be present in the room, the KII meter was blinking away like Uri Geller in the spotlight of public scrutiny, when he discovered he was secretly filmed on a hidden camera show. Jason and Grant seemed quite impressed at the causal response of the instrument, and who can blame them if it does exactly what it says on the tin? This is what got me curious, does it indeed operate as claimed. I decided to investigate further.

So what makes this gadget different from all the rest? well it apparantly allows real time communication between the investifgator and the spirit. Plus a seemingly instantaneous visual response. The ease of use of this device coupled with its relatively low price range practically ensures its popularity. The KII meter seems to be the latest in the long list of "neccessary gadgets" your budding/professional ghost hunter needs to fully investigate paranormal phenomena. It also has celebrity endorsment, It is offered by most of the "ghost hunting equipment" websites, even though the sales descriptions can be quite alarmist and even a little paranoid,in fact one website displays the commercially parasitic tag:

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Could this finally be a worthwhile piece of kit, specifically designed to detect ghosts or spirits using the latest exotic physics? Well not quite, you see it appears to be a less complicated EMF meter with flashing lights instead of a needle. Electro Magnetic Field meters measure the amplitude of emitted radiation, or the electromagnetic radiation flux density present in the surrounding area. Simply put, it measures electromagnetic pollution, and that is all it is designed to do.

So Why do ghost hunters use this piece of equipment? Well there is a theory in paranormal circles that ghosts or spirits are basically or partially comprised of electromagnetic energy, and if this is held to be true then they could theoretically be measured using an EMF meter. The theory has been around a long time, and still remains unproven, despite an obligatory EMF reading in almost every paranormal report these days.

What are the row of lights for on the KII meter? Simply put they measure electromagnetic field strength visually in candela as opposed to analogue (needle strength). This is the only difference as far as I can determine.

What type of meter is it? It is a single field meter or single axis instrument, this means the magnetic field will only be detected depending on the axis the user is holding the meter ie: horizontal or vertical axis. The sensing coil will discount anything without a voltage. If an object does not induce a voltage it wont read it. It will also measure ELF (Extremely Low Frequency 50 to 1,000Hz) and VLF (Very Low Frequency 1,000 to 20,000Hz)

The manufacturers of this particular piece of equipment KII Enterprises, make no claims to its usefulness in detecting ghosts, although they do state It also helps you determine which appliances produce high level emissions.

It was seemingly designed to cash in on the current fear that EMF is harmful or dangerous.They go as far as to quote when referring to EMF radiation, that the U.S. Government has issued a warning to use "Prudent Avoidance" to help reduce your exposure to this risk. Alarmism sells apparantly because the "Prudent Avoidance" tag was coined by Professor Granger Morgan at Carnegie Mellon University way back in 1989 in the context of electromagnetic radiation safety. He was ofcourse referring to the EMF produced by power lines and other incredibly high voltage devices.

Is this device worth buying then? Well if you believe the theory that ghosts can be detected using an EMF meter, you will probably find a good use for this. If you already have an EMF meter I dont see why you would need a literally flashier one. If you would like to experiment with scientific instrumentation cheaply, then this could be useful. It would also be a fantastic piece of kit to convince your friends jokingly you could detect ghosts, or even provide some actual "verifiable proof" to the more irresponsible ghost hunter. It will not however detect ghosts but rather the more mundane electromagnetic spectrum.

The device will not provide any form of answer (except what it was designed to do, EMF ranges) if you ask it questions, it will however flash if you detect a strong EMF field. If you just so happen to be asking a question at the time and it flashes, this will just be a coincidence. For example if you ask "are there any spirits here?" it may flash, but then you could also ask "how long is a piece of string?" and there is a good chance it will also flash. One thing it is not is an electronic Ouija Board, despite the celebrity endorsment of its usefulness.

There is a caveat though I feel I should point out, I am sure most of you are already aware of this but I feel it needs to be said, and that is simply using scientific instruments does not make your findings scientific. Dont rely soley on gadgets to make a case, there is no substitute for accurate data and sound theory.


http://the-atlantic-paranormal-society.com
http://unknownmagazine.com
http://www.kiienterprises.com