How to be a Ghost Magnet

If you watch ghost hunting shows, by now you’ve probably noticed something interesting. Certain hunters seem to attract action. Others seem to be forever waiting for an encounter.

What does Jason Hawes have that, say, Kris Williams doesn’t?

I’ve known a wide variety of people who have “attracted” strangeness on ghost hunts. They seem like "ghostie magnets." Sometimes, it’s a combination of two people who separately maybe don’t do much, but together have a strange attraction for action. That says a lot about their relationship and its healthy features.

Let’s break down some of the commonalities I’ve found in ghost magnets:

They usually have a spiritual base. I’m not talking a religious commitment. I’m talking about a universal way of seeing the world and a connection with everyone in it, as well as a sense of responsibility for other humans. They’re the first to offer someone to jump in the grocery line ahead of them. They’re able to feel deeply but also keep a perspective that this too shall pass and in the end life is ups and downs and a ride not a conveyer belt. They make patient parents, sometimes social workers, nurses, ambulance attendants, teachers, and artists. Often times, they’re very sensitive to other people’s feelings. They are at their happiest making a stranger smile.

They are exceedingly patient. They can sit for hours in a room without moving, without talking, just soaking it in until the room is “one” with them. It’s a meditative process in which the boundaries of their body reaches out and feels the corners of the room, as if pushing their aura outward so that if something moves in the northeast corner of the room, they can almost feel it in their body. They come to understand the moods and sounds of the room. There are no expectations, no demands, just the process of being. This normally takes a level of maturity with life and comfort in your own skin to attain this kind of attraction for spirits. The restless energy and manipulative inward-focused emotional aspects of youth sometimes works against them. You need a “wise old soul” no matter what age.

They are folksy and amiable. Jason and Grant get it. A lot of other unnamed ghost hunters don’t. Sit down, shoot the breeze, be casual and friendly, the average “Joe” (or “Jane”). Like attracts like. You gently invite someone in, they gently arrive. You yell and taunt, you drive it away. You know the saying “attracting more flies with honey than vinegar.” It really does apply in ghost hunting. The concept of pissing something off might work in this world. The loud people do get the most attention. Just look at Carrie Prejean. However, in the spirit world the need for anger and pettiness is certainly no longer necessary. You don’t yell at the person doing you a favor by communicating. In other words, if you wouldn’t talk to your friend this way, don’t talk to a stranger this way.

Often times, they have had near-death experiences or psychic abilities. That’s probably a no-brainer, but the fact is that a good deal of life experience including some extremes of the human condition can make a person more sensitive. It can even include people who have had an emotional upset that was devastating, an out of body experience, psychic abilities, emotional empathic abilities, precognition, and telekinesis. Just as psychics better access information from others that the rest of the population doesn’t even notice, they too can touch the other side.

Ultimately, it is the intent upon which you ghost hunt that shows through the most. It’s a kind of spiritual karma.

When I go on a ghost hunt, my extremely logical mind has to be suspended long enough to be able to accept subtle signals and psychic information. I sit with the place, let it get used to my presence. I think in my mind about what it would be like to desperately want to communicate with visitors and not be able to adequately accomplish the task. I try to give the spirits the chance to find easy methods to let us know they’re there. This is probably why the KII meter is attractive to me. It’s an immediate visual that only asks the spirit to move near the device to light it up for “yes” and not light it for “no.”

After extensive testing of EMF in the room with an EMF meter, as well as the KII, I place it in a spot centrally where there are no potential devices, wires, or people with electronics nearby. This also allows a bit of healthy space for a cautious entity to come and go as he or she pleases without having to get near you. For some, that’s also a better insurance that the hunter himself is not somehow telekinetically affecting the device.

Some classic questions I like to ask are: (no, I do not ask “would you give us a sign of your presence?”)

I begin by introducing who I am by name only,not that I'm a ghost hunter. I then show the device, its lights, and that anyone in the room who comes near it will make it light up, I ask anyone in the room who wants to answer “yes” to a question to come near the device to make it light up and to step away for “no.”

Next, I go into casual questioning in a conversational casual style as if I’ve been invited to someone’s home and am sitting in the parlor with him. In fact, it is a form of social interaction and the process of getting to know a stranger and trust him. I let the answers to questions determine other questions I ask.

I like this place. I can see why you stay here. Have you been here more than 10 years? 20 years? 30 years?

Is it okay that we’re here visiting you?

Do you ever get lonely? Would you like us to stay and talk for a while?

Do you have a message we could give someone?

At this point, I usually lapse into a personal conversation with my co-hunter. We talk about our issues day to day and dreams and obstacles and all the usual daily grind. We then, after exposing ourselves emotionally and showing we’re regular people, go into another question session.

This serves two purposes:

1. If the light goes off during our conversation, it could be a random interference and not truly an intelligent find. We usually will ask the entity to please stay away from the device for a while until we have further questions. We might in the middle of a conversation ask “did you have the same problem getting all your work done in one day?” If the light goes on again, we know he is still there. Being very random about the time between questions is really key in a KII session because you can see if the light is going off when it shouldn’t and the pacing of the questioning and the response of the answers promptly can show if there’s true interaction occurring. If the light happens to go off after a question once, it could be coincidence, but if you pace your questions randomly and it continues to respond right after each question, you have a legitimate reason to believe you’ve made contact.

2. Also, this little chatting session allows the entity to get to know us as real people. We now have an empathy line that is essential. When you enter a party, don’t you gravitate towards people talking about real things you can relate to?

The next level of questioning might be more intimate:

Are there more than one of you here?

Boy?

Girl?

Did you live here?

Can you leave here if you want to?

The year is 2010, did you know that?

Do you like the changes in the house?

Am I wearing blue? (I never wear blue, so this is a good trick question)

The whole process of attracting spirit energy is a complex one. Many spiritualists and wiccans have their own methods, as do mediums and channelers. The average Joe and Jane need not believe it’s out of their reach. The fact is, the best ghost magnets I’ve ever known were open-minded, logical, highly intelligent people with only a broad sense of the spiritual about them.

So, go forth and learn to attract. It’s kind of like getting that date from a chance meeting, it’s partially your appearance (your age, sex, coloring, whatever) that makes an entity trust you (why having a diverse team is good) and part is simply being human, honest, friendly, and trustworthy.

Lastly,I can’t emphasize enough how much a sense of humor is appreciated. My co-hunter and I laugh hard during our conversation time when we’re on a hunt. It might seen unprofessional, but in those moments when you’re hanging out and shooting the breeze to make an inviting environment, the number one attraction is always humor. The minute we start laughing, magic occurs. It has never failed us and I think I know why. That same party you entered earlier in my post, you would have gravitated towards the people who were loose and having fun and relieving stress. Like children’s laughter attracts spirits, so does adult laughter. (Of course, we keep the humor away from poking fun at the spirits or the location). We usually make fun of our comical drive or how poorly one of us read the map, whatever other silliness we can.

Happy hunting!