So, I'm at the part of the process now where I need to figure out what I need to pack, and this is where things start to get weird. Let's start with the recommended equipment, then I'll add my commentary as we go, and then fill in what I consider to be gaps in the list at the end.1. Digital video recorder: this makes sense to me. No real issue with this.
2. Digital Still Camera: again, nothing too odd or silly about this.
3. Digital Image Editing Program: I sh-t you not, one of the lists online said this verbatim "sometimes by adjusting contrast, shadows and highlights or colors, you can find things in a photo you didn’t know were there." Yeah, no sh-t, Sherlock. Let me put it like my statistics professor did to me..."if you come into a situation with zero bias and look hard enough for results, you're virtually guaranteed to find some anomalous behavior that current data cannot explain. However, the replicability and significance of the findings will be questionable at best." Put into laymen's (my) terms, if you are open-minded to excess and scrutinize everything, then you'll always find something out of the ordinary, but you'll lose your perspective in the process and thereby lose your recognition of what qualifies as a "real finding". So yeah, it's a wonder that people don't take this area of inquiry more seriously, what with Pablo Picassh-le over here trying to find Jesus in every piece of toast they come across.
4. 35mm FILM Camera: From the same source that gave me the quote above; "Experienced ghost hunters will tell you that a traditional 35mm camera, especially with black and white film often catches images that do not show up on even the best digital cameras." So you're saying that a different type of media (that commonly spits out artifacts such as "ghosts") that led to the creation of the digital standard (that's currently the vastly more prevalent one) is a good piece of equipment to double check your primary device? Does that sounds even a little bit questionable to anyone else?
5. Night Vision Equipment: I think this is useful...but not in the way the writer of this list intended. I think it's way more useful for the hunting of cryptozoological anomalies rather than spirits, but that's just my hunch.
6. Analog Tape Recorder: seriously, see my rant under 35mm above. I just don't think comparing apples to oranges is the way to do good science, especially when the apples are fifty years old.
7. Flash Lights: An unexpectedly pragmatic recommendation. Nice.
8. EMF Detector: for ghost-hunting parties, this is supposedly more useful than a flashlight. I think this'll just tell us when someone pops some Orville Redenbacher in the microwave, but they're cheap, so let's do it.
9. Compass: At first, I thought this was another amazingly practical recommendation, but it's intended as a backup to the EMF detector. Whatever, I have the feeling I'd use it more for it's original use.
10. GPS: This actually makes sense to me. You'd want an accurate estimation of -where- you were when ish went down, right?
11. Thermometers and Barometers: more actual measurement devices. Incredible!
12. Wind chimes: ? Seriously, they mean for this to be used like a sort of spectral equivalent of a piece of string and a tin can full of rocks...something tells me that if these things were stupid enough to fall for something that originated back with the "Little Rascals", then we wouldn't be trying so hard to capture definitive proof of their existence in modern times.
13. Infrared Thermal Scanner: Yeah, I see this as being useful, but again...if you take one of every measurement device out with you, then you're almost invariably going to trigger -something-, without having any way to replicate the experience or use it in any meaningful way to build a working hypothesis. It's not about the anomalies themselves, it's about constructing a parsimonious way to describe their occurrence and predict future occurrences.
14. Air Ion Counter: While the above point stands, this is something I feel like I'd carry more as an early warning system...I've heard reports that high concentrations of either one or the other type of ion can cause exceedingly powerful physical effects to manifest in humans, including things as drastic as suffocation, heart attacks, depression, and suicide ideation. Considering that particular places and (supposedly) powerful spirits can cause massive "fronts" of these ion clouds to occur, I'd want to know what the hell I'm walking into.
15. Walkie-Talkie: Totally covered on this one, I have like seven. Don't ask why...oh well, let's just say the college airsoft fights were much more intense that you can probably imagine.
Now that's a good list of measurement devices, but I feel that there's something lacking in the practicality department. Call me paranoid, but I worry more about how to defend myself, from both dangers physical and spectral. Here's what I'd want to pack as extras.
Lighter-Mostly in the same line of logic as the camping gear, but also because fire is one of those primal elements that seem to occur repeatedly in many different stories involving the supernatural.
Combat shovel-Coming back to practical concerns, a multitool seems like a must. And regardless of whether it has any efficacy outside of the veil of tears we mortals are confined to, I'd like to have a multitool that also doubles as a weapon in case I meet something larger than I who decides it has taken issue with the particular ironic shirt I am wearing.
Air horn-I see this as being useful for both signaling others on the team, but also to disrupt "things". Mostly to scare off animals, but from what I've heard, loud noises can also serve to drive off malign spiritual entities as well, though in most of those stories it's debatable whether the noise drove them off or some religious/ancestral connection (i.e. church bells, heirloom drum, etc.). Either way, I'm the kind of guy who can't see how keeping an air horn on me could be a -bad- idea.
Notebook-Well, I feel like keeping a lab notebook of observations is simply part and parcel of good science.
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