By Matt Schenk
Chief Coordinator
East Central Wisconsin Paranormal Investigations
02/15/06

Robert Becker is an M.D. and very established research scientist. He discovered the direct currents in our body. Before that, we only knew about the nerve impulses that transmit commands from the brain to the motor nerves, and carry sensory messages from sensory nerves (skin, ears, nose, eyes, taste buds) to the brain. But those are just electrochemical. Scientists scoffed at the long-discarded myth that there is electricity running throughout our bodies, like in old Frankenstein movies, until Mr. Becker discovered the direct currents.

The nerve impulses that are electrochemical travel down neurons. The direct currents have to travel through the myelin sheath though because impulses and electricity can't travel through the same neuron at the same time without interfering with each other. When applied to bone fractures, the direct currents will heal breaks that weren't knitting (before, amputation was the only treatment). And the direct currents also play a very significant part in limb regeneration. (If you're interested in that, read Becker's book "The Body Electric".)

The direct currents in our body produce an electromagnetic field. We think that the brain's electromagnetic field is what binds all the information in the different parts of the brain together to generate consciousness:

"Each part of the brain has a particular function with respect to the nervous system. The visual cortex has one function, the frontal lobes have another function, the auditory system has yet another function. And yet when we look at the external world we see things as having properties that are inseparable from the object itself...Imagine I have a little bird on my hand. I can see the bird. I can see its color. I can see its shape. I can hear it sing. I can feel its weight on my hand. It might peck me. All of these things occur simultaneously, so we say that the bird has those properties. But all those properties are put together in different parts of the brain. So one wonders how the brain makes a collage of all these sensory inputs to generate one single precept -- the bird -- out of all the different sensory systems activated. This is called the binding property. Since we don't know for sure how it works, we call it the binding problem."
(Internet article, "The Electric Brain")

"Through his research, Professor McFadden realized that every time a nerve fires, the electrical activity sends a signal to the brain's electromagnetic field. However, unlike solitary nerve signals, information that reaches the brain's electromagnetic field is automatically bound together with all the other signals in the brain. The brain's electromagnetic field does the binding that is characteristic of consciousness. What Professor McFadden and, independently, the New Zealand-based neurobiologist Sue Pockett, have proposed is that the brain's EM field is consciousness. The brain's electromagnetic field is not just an information sink; it can influence our actions, pushing some neurons towards firing and others away from firing. This influence, Professor McFadden proposes, is the physical manifestation of our conscious will."
(Internet article, "Our Conscious Mind")

An electromagnetic field would be the only thing that could plausibly survive bodily death and become a ghost, because energy can only change form, it can't be destroyed. "Interesting enough there is some data out there that suggests that the mind goes into theta waves just before death, which gives us a possibility of ghosts." (Internet article, "Electromagnetism")

This is why ghost hunters look at EM fields. A lot of paranormal researchers believe that ghosts are this powerless thing that needs to draw energy from around it (electrical appliances, batteries, even the air, creating cold spots) to manifest, and that energy can be detected using an EMF meter, but myself and a lot of others disagree and believe ghosts (and human consciousness) are electromagnetic fields.

The reason we experience battery drainage a lot on ghost hunts could just be a natural reaction to the ghost's electromagnetic field. "We all assume that ghosts draw energy from our batteries or from us, when in fact it might just be a reaction between their magnetic fields and our equipment, not a deliberate act and not a constant one. Imagine that the ?ghost' consciousness is broadcasting (existing) on one frequency and we're broadcasting on another, but trying to span the gap between the two with our primitive equipment -- every once in a while, we get some ?feedback', something that we can't quite explain what it is, but only work to eliminate all the things it could be. Now, it's possible that they must utilize some of our own frequencies to respond to us, because anything they possess is beyond our spectrum just by it's basic principal, but that theory, to me anyway, is vastly different than imagining a powerless, bodiless entity relying on our AAAs as their only means of reaching out." (Barry Dalberg)

The reason for temperature changes could just be a thermal reaction to the ghost's electromagnetic field. "We do not have ionizing EMFs in our body, we're at the other end -- long wave, low frequency. Non-ionizing does not mean that there aren't transfers and thermal effects with regards to the fields, they just don't occur as rapidly or at the same high frequency as the ionizing EMFs. Wikipedia gives the simple summation: ?The declarative statement that microwaves are non-ionizing is often taken to mean there are no negative health effects. By comparison, nobody would say it was safe to cook all or part of one's head in a microwave oven, even at LOW ?because microwaves are limited to non-ionizing, thermal effects'.'" (Barry Dalberg)

We are looking for extremely low frequency direct current EM fields when using an EMF meter, like we have in our body. However, even the most sensitive meter on the market today is still very primitive and might not get anything at all. I think your best chance would probably be with one of the Trifield Meters, as these are the most sensitive meters you can buy. And these meters are also good because electromagnetic fields are 3-dimensional, and these are the only meters with an X, Y, and Z axis so you can detect all three dimensions. Otherwise, a ghost could walk right by you and it might not even register on your meter.

There are two kinds: the Trifield Standard Meter and the Trifield Natural. I use both of these. The Trifield Natural is the only meter you can buy for under $2,000 that blocks out man-made AC fields (alternating currents) like power lines so you're less likely to get as many false positives as you would using any other meter. Another plus is that it's so sensitive it can detect the electromagnetic impulses inside your body when you move, which is why this meter would be the most likely to be able to detect a ghost. But there's a downside to that too. Since it can detect your movements, you can't walk with this meter in hand. You have to set it down and stand back and be perfectly still as you watch it. Or, what I'd do is just set up a video camera to watch it (since it doesn't detect AC fields, the camera won't interfere), then leave and go do something else. On larger investigations like JFK Prep, I'd go to a different building and walk around with my Trifield Standard meter. The Trifield Natural can also detect geomagnetic storms in space, which is why you should always check the weather on space.com before using it.

You can walk around with the Trifield Standard meter. It works just like any other meter, only it's more sensitive...but not as sensitive as the Trifield Natural. It's not sensitive enough to read the impulses inside your body, so it's probably not sensitive enough to detect a ghost with either. Using the Trifield Natural, I think you stand your best chance of detecting a ghost. Using any other meter, I think you stand a better chance at detecting a reaction between the ghost's EMF and your own electronic equipment you're carrying. And I think the Trifield Standard is the best for that, as again it is the only meter that can detect all three dimensions and it's more sensitive than the others.

When you hold this meter be sure to hold it in the middle (NEVER put your hand over the top or it will block electric fields.) Hold the meter out away from your body and walk slowly with it. First do a walkthrough of the area with it and get a base EMF reading, and then on your investigation any time you get a spike above the base reading try to look around for the source of it. Remember that just because you got a spike does not immediately mean there's a ghost around. There are so many things that could have made the needle go up. With experience, you'll get better at tracking down the source of the spike.

And once again, I want to conclude by saying just how primitive our equipment is. Some ghost hunters have been able to actually track an EMF with no obvious source up some stairs before it dissipated, but generally you don't get a constant reading like that, and even if you do it's not consistent. Someday in the future we may have an EMF meter so far ahead that we can actually follow a ghost's entire daily routine with it, but until then we'll have to make the best with what we have.

References:

"The Body Electric" by Robert Becker

Internet article "The Electric Brain" Rodolfo Llinas

Internet article "Electromagnetism" Ron Milione

"The Ghost Hunter's Guidebook" by Troy Taylor

Internet article "Our Conscious Mind Could Be An Electromagnetic Field" Johnjoe McFadden