Have you ever wanted to try to catch a ghost voice on tape?? Getting E.v.p’s (ghost voice recordings) and ghost photographs is easy if you know where to look.
The first time I visited Gettysburg Pa was in 2008, for the 145th anniversay battle reenactments. Ghosts are a big business in Gettysburg. Almost every other house on Baltimore Street has an advertisement for ghost tours. The town also has a newly opened museum of spiritual investigations, which houses photos and audio recordings of ghosts as well as aports (an aport is a physical object such as a bullet which has materialized from thin air) and the town hosts a yearly ghost conference where all kinds of interesting evidence of ghosts surfaces. Most of them are collected by ordinary vacationers who just happened to snap a picture of a phantom by accident. You don’t need alot of money or fancy ghost hunting equipment in Gettysburg. You will be surpised at all the fun you can have with just a camera and a digital voice recorder.
If you are planning on ghost hunting at night, it is probably best to stay in a motel near the battlefield. There is a 10:00 curfew on the battlefield but don’t worry there are scores of haunted places around town where you can get good recordings without having to worry about interference from the park police. Culps hill comes to mind. It is a good place to look for ghosts at night because it is detached from the official battlegournd and you will not get in trouble for going there after dark. It is also very isolated so people wont see you walking around talking to yourself and think your nuts.;)
One of the interesting little known facts about Culps Hill is that Many of the trees that are there were actually standing during the time of the battle. And the original breastworks built by the Union Soldiers are still there today too, marking the Union Battle Line.
If you can find the grave marker of Wesley Culp in the dark (Make sure to bring a flashlight) you may be in the vicinity of a restless spirit. Wesley was the nephew of the man who owned Culps hill. He was raised in Gettysburg but as adult moved south and joined the Confederate army. As fate would have it, Lee’s march North placed Wesley right back on his Uncles farm, this time as an enemy soldier. I have asked his spirit many times if he regretted joining the C.S.A, and how he felt about participating in the invasion of Gettysburg in particular, though he has not yet given an answer. Probably not very good as Wesley died in the attack on Culp’s Hill. He was buried there by his comrades, although I do beleive his family later came and moved his body to the family burial plot so alls well that ends well I guess..
One thing I have learned from being around other ghost hunters is that you should always take time to explain to the spirits how the device you are using is able to capture their voices. Tell them the machine can record their voices the way a photo can record a persons image and that they should direct their answers into the microphone. I don’t know if this actually increases your chances of getting an e.v.p but alot of ghost hunters seem to think it does and it makes sense from the perspective of someone who lived in the 1800’s. Other good qustions to ask are, what is the afterlife like? Can you communicate with other spirits? What is keeping you here? Do you know what year is it?
If you dont’t know any personal details about the life of the spirit your tryng to reach think of something to say that will grab their attention.. For instance Confederate spirits may find it interesting to know that we have recently elected our first African American president. This approach has gotten some interesting results for me at Gettysburg, as can be heard here. I have also gotten good recordings in the valley of death area..
Beleive it or not I got two e.v.p’s on my very first visit to the park. I was pretty surprised since it was in the middle of the afternoon and I was more or less still learning how to use my digital recorder.. I played it back to see if it had been recording and heard this….Not too bad for my very first try huh!
Well that’s all I have for now. Ghost hunting season is almost upon us again so I hope to add more e.v.p’s and ghost pictures soon! Happy Casper Chasing as we say here in Gettysburg.