Guest blogger William Butt talks to us about his investigation methods when dealing with the paranormal. William’s Air Force training conditions him to observe with a focused attention and record incidents for further analysis. Methods like ‘dual verification’ and note taking are obvious techniques to use when investigating, but do any of you guys out there who investigate the paranormal really take these methods into consideration?

I myself don’t do any paranormal investigating (ghost hunting), but when I do research on cases or do interviews, I’m always cross referencing facts and statements. I also carry my own moleskin notepad. Those things are great.

Written by William Butt

This is my second guest blog for Ghost Theory and I want to start by acknowledging a mistake
I made with last week’s article. At the beginning of the article I talked about skeptics and
people who will argue that there is no paranormal phenomenon. I miss used the term skeptics;
I was not trying to say that an investigator should not be skeptical when investigating. All the
commenters on the post were correct you should always be skeptical while investigating; it
is a key trait while collecting research on the paranormal. What I was attempting to say was
investigating the paranormal usually comes with a stigma from a section of the population who
will always say there is no paranormal activity; no matter what kind of evidence you present
against them. I hope this clears up any confusion I might have caused. When I wrote the blog
it all sounded great in my mind but of course that is the problem with writing; people interpret
things differently.
Last article I spoke about methodology of an investigation and community. This week I want
to talk about investigation techniques and use the built in community here at Ghost Theory to
usher in a discussion on techniques. I am going to discuss two aspects of an investigation that I
perceive as the most important. The first is dual verification and the second is note taking.
I have been active duty Air Force for over five years now to be a little more specific I work
with tracking satellites. The Air Force uses what is simply known as dual verification; a simple
methodology to adopt but a very useful one. I have been developing my own investigation
techniques over the past year. Dual verification is the main theme of my technique. This does
not always translate exactly to paranormal investigating; there are certain situations that just
cannot be verified twice. However any evidence that I can verify twice I hold at a much higher
regard. The verification can be between two pieces of your equipment or yourself and a piece
of equipment.
The second part of my technique that I value is note taking. I am not sure if it is just the people
I have investigating with or a general trend but I do not see a lot of note taking anymore. I write
as much as I can during an investigation. The reason why goes back into dual verification.
People’s memory cannot be counted on and used as a legitimate source. If I pick up something
on my DVR and I heard something or felt something at the same time I can go back into my
notes and verify the times and locations. Note taking is crucial because your mind is not a steel
trap. Investigations are conducted at night which already puts you at a disadvantage because
your mind will be tired. Eye witness accounts are very unreliable. Any police investigator
will tell you that, in fact I just finished reading an unbelievable book on Columbine and one of
the main problems police investigators encountered was unreliable eye witness accounts. I
know the two situations are nowhere close to the same and I am not comparing the two. I use
Columbine only to prove a point about memory. Investigations happen late at night, it could be
a stressful situation for you; so your mind may remember details differently than they actually
happened. Another problem that is presented is time between the investigation and evidence
review. If there is a long time frame between the two your mind will lose crucial details to the
investigation, therefore take notes, and write as much as possible during the investigation.
Now let’s use Ghost Theory to its full potential and post your techniques down below. I will
check the site daily and comment as well. The only way we can grow as investigators is to
learn from each other.
About the Author: Will Butt is a documentary filmmaker, military officer, and paranormal
investigator. You can follow him on twitter at twitter.com/fearnothingprod