One thing I would like to see more teams do is collect baseline data. I understand that it takes up a good chunk of time and many people just want to dive into the investigation. BUT this step is essential to understanding the environment and learning how to eliminate natural causes of activity. It also makes your team think about a space a bit more thoughtfully before they go running off with cameras and beeping things. During baselines, you will not just be observing the EMF (electromagnetic fields) but also windows, broken floorboards, light fixtures, and more. So how do you integrate this activity into your investigation without losing too much of your precious time?

Planning is key. 

At least one week before your investigation, host a planning meeting either in person or online. This is when you need to pin down some details for your investigation, including who will be doing baseline readings and when. 

Pair up team members and assign each pair to a floor. Once on site, you will give them a map or some graph paper along with a MEL/EMF/Tri-field meter. Hopefully you will have already trained your team on how to take readings, if not, this should be discussed in your planning meeting and new members should be paired with people who have collected readings previously. Ultimately, you want them to know how to read their meter, how to move it along a wall to track a reading, and how/where to tag readings for every room.

Assign 1 hour at the start of the investigation for the pairs to collect data. As for the amount of data they should collect, I like to see at minimum a reading range (ex. 1-1.2 mG)  for each corner, the middle of each wall, and the center of every room. Readings should be taken from as high up the wall as the researcher can reach and all the way to the floor. Then the EMF range will be recorded on the map for that part of the wall. I also want to see notes of anything that is emitting higher than average readings in the space (ex. wi-fi routers, electrical boxes, transformers). The map should show where these higher readings occur, what EMF range was observed, and what was causing the EMF spike. If a source can not be pinned down, researchers should make a note of the area and state “unknown spike”. This will require further research later and may even be related to a spike on another floor. 

Once each pair completes their readings, they should return to the command center and leave their map in a central location for reference during the investigation. EMF spikes during the investigation should be examined thoroughly at the time of the reading, then compared to the baseline map, and noted for future reference. EMF anomalies should be tagged with reading range, location, time, and any additional details. You are building a larger picture of how the environment changes during your investigations, so these notes are important for later analysis of any evidence collected. 

At the end of the investigation, one researcher will take this data and create a clean map with all of the readings clearly labeled. Because EMF ranges fluctuate, it is important to do baselines at the start of every investigation and keep detailed notes for comparison over time. You want to be able to note if the base readings are increasing, decreasing, or staying the same over the course of multiple investigations.  

Yes, this can be tedious, but I strongly believe that having more data will improve your investigations. Sharing the responsibility among team members can make the process move more quickly and everyone can benefit from the collected information. The more often you practice the baseline habit, the faster you will get at collecting the needed information. You will also be training your team to think about the environment in a more deliberate way and that can lead to thoughtful conversations about all of the factors that can influence paranormal phenomena. Over time, you may add additional environmental readings to your baseline habit and increase your understanding of a regular location. 

Ultimately, the goal is to learn as much as possible during your investigation and to build a case for why (or why not) a location may experience phenomena. Data collection is essential to this goal so hopefully you can see why setting aside an hour at the start of every investigation can improve your outcomes. I hope this has been helpful and until next time, Happy Hunting!