Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's)
Welcome to our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section. Please,
check here before emailing a question to our Help department.
Many times the answers you are seeking can be found there. If
your answer is not on the FAQ’s, or on any of the links
provided on the left, please feel free to email
us. Please keep in mind that our response time
may be a week or more, as we receive hundreds of emails daily.
There may be simple, ordinary reasons
for the happenings in your home. Try to look for logical reasons
behind knocking, banging, hot spots, cold spots, voices etc.
Q: Can spirits follow you?
A: It is blieved that they can, they may be attached to you
or something that you have ie:an object.
Q: Can children see spirits?
A: Children are more open minded; therefore, they might not
know if what they are seeing is a spirit. They are not preconditioned
to ignore the unexplainable and really don't understand the
statement “there are no such thing as ghosts”. Also
keep in mind that fact and fiction are blurred in a child's
mind, so use your best judgement when trying to decide if your
child has had a legitmate paranormal experience.
Q: What is so bad about the ouija board?
A: You are giving something beyond our realm control of your
motor functions. You are allowing yourself to be manipulated
by something you don’t know. It’s not the board
itself, you can make a spirit board out of anything, it’s
the practice of using it as a vehicle to lower your will.
Q: I was sleeping and I couldn’t move, something
was pushing on me what was it?
A: Could have been sleep paralysis. What happens is your body
temporarily paralyzes itself during sleep to preventyou from
enacting everything that you are dreaming about. Sometimes your
body is awake but your mind is asleep and you end up sleepwalking.
Other times it works the other way around, your mind is awake
but your body is sleeping and you cannot move. This can leave
you delusional as, while you panic, your breathing and heart
rate does not increase to compensate, so eventually you fallback
asleep and all is well.
Common side effects are feelings of being held down, shortness
of breath, inability to speak. [More]
Q: How do I start my own group?
A: This requires a group of like-minded individuals, a good
sense of safety and responsibility, and common sense. Some people
start with a group of friends, some look on the internet for
other groups that are already up and running. On our main page
there is a link to all our TAPS family members. The TAPS Family
consists of established, affiliated groups that you may want
to learn from. Click on the “investigators” link
to find one near you. [More]
Q: What is the best equipment to use?
A: We do have extensive equipment, however it has been years
in the making, and these things were not purchased all at
once. It may take time and saving up a bit to get a good equipment
base. However, excellent results can be obtained with the
most basic of equipment such as a video camera with nightshot
and an audio recorder, either analog or digital. Other equipment
you might look to buy are; an EMF meter, thermometer, and
cameras, 35mm and digital. Some of these are obviously expensive
equipment, so to buy them one by one is ok too. These tools
are an investment and need to be treated as such. Be sure
to handle your equipment carefully and to store it properly—You
want to be sure it will be useful to you for a long time.
Always keep a checklist of your equipment, and inventory it
before and after an investigation. When deciding on equipment,
don't forget to factor in the cost of media (tapes, film,
etc.) Many people choose digital to overcome this, while other
swear the results are better with the non-digital variety.
Q: How do I get rid of an unwanted spirit?
A: Well, hopefully, with the right knowledge, you won't feel
threatened by its presence, but if you are truly uncomfortable
with the fact you may have a spirit, and it is the right type
of spirit, you can ask it to leave. As a family you need to
tell it to leave, to move on. This may take several tries,
however it is your home and you need to take charge. Simply
say “we do not want you here, it is time you moved on”.
Q: Why do spirits move things?
A: We cannot interview a spirit to find out for sure, but
we guess that they may want to let you know they are there.
Simple daily tasks that we perform without even a thought
may take a spirit some time to accomplish. You may wake up
to a cup being a few feet from where you left it. That may
be their way of telling you “hey I’m here”.
The important thing to do is to try and find the sense in
the activity in an attempt to figure out what they are trying
to accomplish.Q: How much weight can a spirit move?
A: Iin our experience we've found that what we label as an
intelligent spirit doesn't seem to move objecs more than around
10 pounds in weight. This can actually work out to be quite
a shove or a grab. A demonic or inhuman entity, appears to
be able to move much more than that.
Q: What is a demonic or inhuman?
A: A demonic or inhuman is a classification we use to describe
an entity that has never walked the earth in a human corporeal
form. Ther are many different types; demons, elementals, angels,etc.
For more on the religious theories, please see Keith and Carl’s
Demonology Department. [More]
Q: How come I keep seeing a shadow figure out
of the corner of my eye, but when I look at it it’s
gone?
A: Basically, light entering from the corner of the eye is
distorted more than the light that enters the eye from straight
on. What you see out of the corner of your eye is simply your
mind's best guess at what you would see if you were to look
straight at it. Therefore, you cannot be too sure of what
you see through the corner of your eye.
Q: Why do you investigate at night?
A: One theory is that if an entity, while manifesting itself,
causes any light at all, you will see it better at night with
infrared cameras. Yet, if an entity, while manifesting itself,
does not cause light, then you will see it at night with infrared
cameras. If you were to do this during the day, you wouldn't
catch that bit of light, should there be one. For example:
if you turn on a flashlight outside on a sunny day it's not
going to be discernable at all. But if you turn on the dimmest
of all flashlight in the darkness, you will see it very clearly.
Also, sound travels further at night do to a phenomenon called
sound refraction. Most of all, that is when the reported activity
almost always is reported to happen. And, that is when we
aren't all working at our jobs, lol.
Q: I see on the show that you are only there a
short time. Why not stay longer?
A: Ah, the miracle of editing. We are typically at a location
for 12 hours or longer. There have been episodes where we
have investigated for two nights but the show was edited to
make it look like one night. It takes roughly two and a half
weeks to film one forty-three minute show. As a group we would
love to stay over night, and usually do, but with the production
aspect of the show, we are limited to how long we canspend
in one location. Please understand that we all have families
and jobs as well.
Q: Can spirits travel from place to place?
A: We don't see why not. They seem to have the ability to
move at their will.
Q: Why can spirits travel through walls?
A: One theory is that they are made up of energy and as you
know energy is not solid, giving them the ability to travel
through a wall. Another one is that if it is a residual haunting,
the entity is oblivious to a newly contructed wall etc. Others
say, that the spirit is made of fine matter which is less
dense than that of a wall.
Q: Sometimes I can sense things and I don’t
know where it comes from, what is it?
A: Indigestion. Seriously, you may be sensitive, meaning that
you have a great ability to see things that others can not.
It is not something to be afraid of, it’s a gift that
you can use to your advantage. We recommend, if this is happening
to you, that you contact a respectable group in your area
to help you determine if you truly are or not.
Q: Do you use psychics or mediums?
A: We are looking for scientific evidence, we are not against
anyone that is a psychic or a medium, however we cannot base
the conclusion of a case on the feelings of a psychic or a
medium. A feeling is not solid proof. We do have members who
are very sensitive, but we use them as a tool, almost like
a bloodhound, not as evidence.
We hope that we were able to answer some of your questions.
Please understand we are very busy. Try to research your questions
on our site, we have abundant information here for you to
read. If you do not see your question here, try the “for
the haunted” and “for
the hunters” link located on the left of the main
page.
Requests for research
If you are trying to find a location or what its history is,
please take the time to research before contacting us. There
are plenty of search engines online, and libraries that are
great resources. At this time, regretfully, we are unable
to perform research for you. We are swamped with TAPS related
items and cannot acquiesce your request. |
