14 replies to this topic

[Mychael]

GEOPHONE

You may have seen a new device used on recent episodes of GH/GHI called a geophone. A geophone is a device that measures seismic vibrations down to 4-5 htz. As the geophone detects vibration it provides a signal to the electronics that amplify and document it in some form. There are many uses for this device. It's primary function would be to place it in an area where people have reported hearing footsteps and monitor the area with video surveillance. Now you can "see" footsteps rather than just report a personal experience. All matter constantly vibrates and is expressed as a frequency (i.e.- htz) which translates into sound. Although the human ear cannot hear frequencies in the lower spectrum, the geophone can. The sensitivity can be adjusted based upon your preference or need - passive or ultra sensitive. They are not new to the world but they are new in paranormal research.

TAPS Video

Another use for a geophone would be to ask a spirit to touch somewhere in the area of the device or on the geophone itself. A geophone is similar to the Mel-Vibe which employs touch technology as well, however is uses a less sensitive device called an accelerometer. Geophone sensors are quite a bit more sensitive than accelerometers, in part, due to the sensitivity adjustment. You may have seen a video or had a personal experience of communicating with an intelligent spirit by asking 'yes' or 'no' questions and receiving a response on a K2 meter. When this occurs, the spirit activates the K2 lights by manipulating the magnetic fields, however, some people believe very few spirits are capable of manipulating EMF. Touch communication is simply another tool we can use to investigate and further paranormal research.

I have just completed my first custom geophone build. To my knowledge these are not sold at any online paranormal stores. If anyone has any questions regarding this device, PM me here or feel free to contact me at mychael.hottle@gmail.com

Any further thoughts on this device? Are there any other teams out there that have experience using this?

[Mychael]

Are there any other teams out there that have used one on an investigation before?

I uploaded a demo of mine in action. You can see the video by clicking here.

[Joven76]

It's good to use if there is a claim of movement to see if you find a correlation, but I would say it going off is caused by paranormal activity...

I have used one before on one or 2 investigations... It's an interesting tool, I will say that... It's a good way to tell if there is movement, but the one I used was so sensitive, that a car driving on the bumpy road outside caused it to go off in a bed room while it was sitting on a bed... We couldn't feel the movement, but it still went off... When we put it on the floor, if someone was walking down stairs, it would go off... I don't really depend on mine much, but I do bring it out every once in a while...

Just my 2 cents...

[OMPRDave]

Sounds like strict controls must be present to use these things...no wonder GHI and GH use them...more false positives to add to their "evidence" during the shows...

[LanceM]

sounds like an interesting piece of equipment. would be fun to mess around with but it sounds like you would have to play with and document the settings quite a bit just to make sure your not reading something like a bug crawling on the floor.

[CaveRat2]

I have also developed one and have done some experimenting with it. (it was an offshoot of my project into infrasound since both utilize extremely low frequencies.)

Like the ones mentioned here false positives are sometimes present. Currently I am incorporating various filtering techniques to try to minimize this problem. Some succes, but still have more work to do before I would consider it a reliable tool for research into the paranormal.

[greg_dragonlvr]

Think I will stick with flour on the floor and tea cups full of water. A tambourine with some shot gun shot works pretty well too.

Greg

[OMPRDave]

Can they just be mounted on springs or some other dampener system and used with trigger items?

[Mychael]

I think the sensitivity everyone has experienced may differ based upon the sensor rating. Mine are rated at 10htz, but of course that can be adjusted with the dial. You can back it off so far that it takes an somewhat hard, audible tap to set it off.

As far Joven's experience of "a car driving on the bumpy road outside caused it to go off" - Mine would never do that. It's just not that sensitive. I took a walking ghost tour last night, which is hosted by our group, and showed this off to one of them. We were standing on a simple brick sidewalk and I jacked up the sensitivity as far as I could get it before the lights maxed at to the point where they stay on all the time. I walked back and forth around 6-8ft. from it and it would still register. That was the first time I really got to see it work outside of my house. But of course, as I stated in my video, placement is key due to the dissipation of the vibration as it travels through various materials.

This, or my version rather, will not pick up a bug walking on the floor. -lol- But I never thought of that. Again it's just not that sensitive. As far as strict controls being used, you would certainly want to be aware of it and stay away from the area. If you were attempting to communicate to a spirit by asking for a tap, you would definitely have to watch for false positives because you would want the sensitivity as high as possible. It really just comes down to knowing your equipment, its downfalls and how to interpret the evidence. But that's with everything.

Right now it's just an new piece of equipment that's being heavily criticized because not many people have used one and there's no definitive proof behind it - just theories. And so the journey continues...

[greg_dragonlvr]

My flour and teacup post was not a slam against this piece of gear in particular. I just seriously doubt that something would manifest itself enough to become physical to the point of making the sounds of walking--actually making contact with the floor, that is.

[CaveRat2]

Along the lines of manifestations, I would rather expect a sensor of this type to be sensitive to direct contact. Consider all those who claim to have been touched. The touch was strong enough they could feel it. I would suppose any similar contact directly to the sensor would be more than enough to send a positive indication. Thus these might in theory be used as a means on monitoring for contact by whatever entity is responsible for the touching episodes.

Currently my filtering consists of methods of requiring various sustained contact before activation. To date I am still experimenting so no claims can be made at present. I am open to suggestions....

[OMPRDave]

Mychael, on Oct 12 2009, 10:49 PM, said:

Right now it's just an new piece of equipment that's being heavily criticized because not many people have used one and there's no definitive proof behind it - just theories. And so the journey continues...

That's too bad too...out of all the ideas and equipment I've seen people go gaga for over the last two years, this is actually using new equipment to try and measure one of the various claims witnesses have scientifically. Looking forward to hearing more from any members here that are using them.

Edited by OMPRDave, 13 October 2009 - 10:38 PM.

[CaveRat2]

Mychael, on Oct 12 2009, 10:49 PM, said:

Right now it's just an new piece of equipment that's being heavily criticized because not many people have used one and there's no definitive proof behind it - just theories. And so the journey continues...

I would point out that a lot of those doing the critisizing are the same ones who misuse other equipment that has known flaws. So we must consider the source! Of course there are unknowns now, the use of geophones and infrasound are still behind the learning curve. We'll make mistakes, but hopefully when we find them we'll also develop work arounds and improve the relaibility along the way.

[Joven76]

Well said Caverat, well said...

[grimshawl]

I have seen these briefly used on the show and it definitely looks like it might have some aplications. i will definitely be checking back here to see if any more is posted about there use. Thanks to the original poster and everyone else.