Most people have never had a paranormal investigation done in their home or business. The prospect of strangers coming into your home and just sitting there in the dark can, understandably, make people feel uncomfortable. We want to take the mystery out of the investigation process and try to explain to you what exactly will happen before, during and after the actual investigation of your property.
Pre -Investigation
After your initial contact, we will schedule an interview to document your claims. This interview can be done in person, or over the phone. Any information you can provide, no matter how small or unimportant you may think it is, is key to a successful investigation.
It would be helpful if you could keep a log of the activity as it occurs. Making note of the time, place and as many details of the event as you can remember. Continue to update this log before and after our investigation.
When possible, we will come to your home or business more than once. Ghosts do not perform on cue and we can better gather evidence over a couple of separate investigations. How many times we visit is, of course, up to you.
We may need to ask some personal questions to prepare for our investigation. Such questions may include: Have there been any recent deaths in your family? Has there been any use of spirit communication tools (such as Ouija boards) by yourself or your children? Is there any turmoil in your personal and family relationships? It is important that you are honest with us in answering these questions. We are not there to judge you. But we can better understand what may be feeding the activity in your house if we have this information.
Before we agree to investigate your home or business, both parties must agree to the Conditions of the investigation and waivers must be signed by you and a member of Gatekeeper Paranormal. Some of this may sound harsh, but you don’t know us and we don’t know you. We both need assurances. You need to know that we are a trustworthy, professional group and we need to be sure that we are not being hoaxed. It happens more than you might think.
During the Investigation
Once we arrive for the investigation we would like to have a tour of your property. It is helpful for us to know the layout of the building and be aware of where the activity is occurring. We also require that you inform us of any hazards on the property or areas that would be dangerous for us to enter.
During the tour we will look for alternate explanations for some of the activity you claim to have experienced. We are not trying to offend you by doing this, but it is the responsibility of every paranormal group to look for natural explanations before jumping to paranormal conclusions. Things we may look for are faulty electrical wiring, evidence of rodents in the home, the way the shadows play on the walls from passing cars or the wind blowing through trees.
Our equipment set-up is very simple. We use all hand-held equipment as it is quicker and easier to set-up and take down and you do not have miles of cables and wires running throughout your home or business. Those cables can create hazards for investigators walking around in the dark.
We will ask that everyone leave the home or business while we conduct our investigation. This prevents contamination of evidence. However, exceptions can be made, especially if activity seems to center around a certain person. If it is decided that someone stay in the building during the investigation, it will be only one person. That person will be required to stay with us during the entire investigation. But please understand that during a normal investigation, it is best if we are in the building alone.
You should allow approximately 4 hours for an investigation. However, if we are getting a lot of activity, we may ask you for permission to stay longer.
Post-Investigation
We will need 1-2 weeks to analyze all the evidence we collect during our investigation. During that time, please continue to update your log with any activity that occurs after we leave. Sometimes, the activity may stop for awhile as the entities may have been frightened off by strangers walking around “their home” with weird equipment. Other times, activity can increase. It’s just impossible to say, but it is important for you to record anything that may happen after we leave.
It is not possible to guarantee that we can remove whatever spirit may be inhabiting your home or business. Any group that tells you they can do this, is not being honest with you. If we have an active communication with a spirit that is possibly confused about their death or perhaps has a message to pass along, we might be able to convince that spirit to let go and move on once we have received their message. But they do have free will and whatever personality they had in life, they have in the afterlife. They may be happy where they are and not want to go. If that is the case, we will try to teach you how to peacefully coexist with your ghostly roommate. Sometimes it could be a close family member or friend who wishes to remain with you and sort of look out for you.
Once we have reviewed all the evidence, we will meet with you and go over everything with you. You will also be given digital copies of all evidence we collect.
What if we do not collect any evidence? It happens. And that’s not to say you do not have a legitimate haunting. The entities may have been nervous and shy because of our presence. Or they may just simply be uncooperative. There is also the possibility of a residual haunting which occurs only at certain times (which is why it is important to maintain the activity log!) Or it could be a residual haunting that has no set schedule of appearances! In any case, we will always be available to you to come back for another investigation. You may also feel free to contact us at any time if activity picks up or worsens.