'Ghost Detector': For entertainment purposes only.
Original Article for PSICAN by Matthew Didier
April 24th, 2005
Lately (Spring of 2005,) a lot of ink has been spilled about the marvellous "new" invention coming out of Japan... a portable 'ghost radar' device that will allow the user to 'detect' a ghost and, even more impressively, quantify what 'type' of ghost they've detected.
Kenji Koshida, the inventor of the item and it's manufacturer, Solid Alliance, are marketing the device as a tool (granted, even they call it a 'novelty item' which is the same moniker used for fake dog poo and plastic vomit,) that can detect everything from "lost souls" to "evil spirits".
The device (apparently) measures "human fear and other factors". But from the articles we've seen, it's primary function is an EMF meter... the only difference is a normal EMF meter is about $50.00 from your local science store. A ghost radar is going to sell for $90.00. At least, that's the functionality of the device. The 'ghost radar' has a display that, instead of measuring milligauss, has a "range" to show you what type of ghost you're encountering.
As most of us know, there is (seemingly) no apparent and documented legitimate evidence to state that electro-magnetic waves/pulses/ambient levels and ghosts have anything to do with each other at all. In fact, there has really never been a successful correlation between ghosts and electro-magnetic fields done by any group. There have been many that "waving a detector willy-nilly with limited or no control readings" have noticed changes in the ambient EM levels, but never any controls to prove this has any bearing on the the experience of a witness or of any ghostly activity. In fact, the first time we were able to find a "legitimate" source for the whole EMF = Ghosts affair was a movie from the early 1970's.
We have an article on EMF which, for those in the field, should be required reading here.
On that note, I quote an article in the London Times newspaper dated April 22nd, 2005...
Original Article Linked Here...
The Times took the radar to two of the most notoriously haunted places in Tokyo. The first, in the middle of the Otemachi financial district, was Taira no Masakado, the shrine of a decapitated descendant of Emperor Kammu whose ghostly disembodied head will reportedly slay anyone attempting to move the monument. Even the presence of this unspeakable evil did not cause the ghost radar to flicker. It did, however, register a type-6 moving spirit as it passed a drinks vending machine about 250 metres away.
The radar was equally silent outside the Sengakuji temple, where the famous 47 Samurai are buried. Their mass suicide in disgust at Lord Kira’s cowardice is the stuff of legend, but after 300 years in the afterlife their tortured souls are evidently staying quiet.
These "findings" go nicely with what we've discovered as the usual data collected with EMF meters.
The reason I bring this up is that I'm sure it won't be too long before many sites and groups are dropping $90.00 for this "valuable tool" (the ghost radar) and proclaiming good to moderate success with the item... especially around electrical items known to "kick out" a solid electro magnetic field (such as a microwave or flourescent lamps) or around power-fields.
One hopes (but knows better) that the "ghost busters", "ghost hunters" and even those who report themselves to be "investigators" and "researchers" will avoid this trap and not fall for the concept that someone has invented the elusive "spectre-detector" that will make their lives (and work?) easier. Since "we" don't (or shouldn't assume to) know what a ghost is, and findings with proper data are few and far between if not non-existent, I think "we" should all sit and think...
"If you don't know what something truly is, how can you make a device to detect it?"
