I've been watching Meterite Men and Mantracker on the Science Channel , at least they find what they go looking for.

Well, I could start taking EVP's more seriously when ghost hunters (in general) started using reasonable recording equipment and put some controls in place. Good equipment will benefit the phenomenon greatly since we will have less artifacts from compression, crappy microphones and different filters and "enhancements". Toss away the digital dictaphones (with them the EMF-meters) or atleast buy some reasonable microphones. Then we can talk. And also one-syllable words or cut off sentences don't really cut it for me, but if controls were in place, some sort of protocol, atleast we hopefully can weed out the fakes and the misinterpretations. Like with knocks, repeatability is key. 

Personally I somewhat feel towards EVP's as you do to EMF-meters, Learjet. Waving a crappy digital dictaphone in the dark is little better than waving a K2 or a Tri-Field Meter. Since most of them don't really know what either records or reacts to, it is really something of goose chase. 

And again, sounds travel, sounds get distorted, a new location often have sounds investigator are unfamiliar with etc, the first priority is or should be to assess and be able to assess what isn't paranormal, before we can even start to talk about voices/sounds being allegedly paranormal. 

I think people hold to much faith in their ears and therefor in EVP's. Yes, they are intriguing but so easily victims of misinterpretations. First, is it even an EVP? (Not even GH uses double recorders or any controls whatsoever)  Is it not simply a voice/natural noise/animal and if so, can contamination be ruled out? Where and when was it recorded? Is there recordings from the same place that can be used for comparison? Etcetera.  Simply hearing a voice on tape is really only the start, not the end of the investigation.

But still, there is of course hope, if controls were set in place, protocol was adhered to, the equipment wasn't bought at Wal-Mart and we got to hear a Q&A (and then that one repeated at a later date) where one party was not physically present, we might have moved an inch towards the paranormal. Maybe we even could assess what phenomenon we are dealing with concerning EVP's and with what we are communicating.

Personally I really have lost faith in almost all practices ghost hunters deploy EMFs, EVP's, Video, Full-spectrum this and that. And some I like them to use, they don't, or use plain wrong. I think a return to the drawing board is in order. I think to really get somewhere we need less, but higher-grade equipment, more focus on psychology (hypnagogia, suggestion etc). Less anomaly hunting and more actual investigation. The only gadgets I really think is useful in ghost hunting is an infra-sound meter and various detectors for chemical agents or gases. And then as debunk tools, since I don't really believe any equipment actually can detect or record ghosts (as in the case with EVP's some actual evidence is needed for all of them). Video cameras, cameras and recorders only real use is for documentation of interviews and experiments. A thermal camera is really only useful as a surveillance tool, to make sure the investigations site is free of intruders, bi-pedals or others. 

We need to remember one thing about "Ghost Hunting" in general: there is no proof they exist.  

So, with that how are we supposed to record or register data?  I mean, in the end, we have no way of knowing anything about the subject.  There is no lab with a sample ghost we can play with. 

Do they make noise?    Do they have physical form?   Do they radiate any heat?   Do they emit EMF?  etc. etc.  Truth is, we know nothing. 

Now, with that complete lack of knowledge, "we" decide that they radiate EMF so if the EMF detector goes off, there's a ghost.   Huh!?!?    We "assume" they can speak in a different frequncy than we can hear, so we use a microphone to record everything, and play it back to hear if anything was said that we didn't hear.  HUH!?!?!

These are *ALL* 100% guesses with nothing to back it up.  Huge leaps, IMO.   

Very true, Bobarino. The biggest flaw with EVP's (and other techniques) is the assumption that ghosts exist and communicate via EVP's, either they produce aduio or some "ethereal" imprint on the recording media. A flaw that is rarely addressed by believers. As a skeptic you soon find that the very basic premises of ghost hunting is flawed, a realisation that is not always easy to swallow and even causes some grief. That is probably why many believers turn to self-delusion and ambiguity. Without any actual answers only presumptions adjusted to fit the narrative (there is a theory that… etc), the tough questions never has to be asked. 

Still, what we have is what we can measure, and for better or worse that is the place we have to start. Unexplained voices on tape need to be better explained, and not be a pillar for pseudoscience. In short, we need less anomalies. Even if it is a fool's errand getting ghost hunters to use better equipment (and other equipment) it could lead to less anomalies and ambigious "hits", and perhaps less fakery. What is hidden in the "snow" of crappy recorders is largely revealed when using proper equipment.

In short, we can't measure ghosts, so let's start with what we can measure. Sounds, infra-sounds, chemicals, gases etc. Add to that some actual knowledge in psychology and we are getting somewhere. After filtering the crap, we might end up with something of interest, with actual merit. However I fear in the end what we are left with are anecdotes en masse. But perhaps also a better understanding of why and how people come to (allegedly) experience and believe in ghosts. If there is environmental factors, cultural factors, psychological factors etc. In fact, to some degree the belief itself and alleged experiences is a more  interesting subject, than hunting the ghosts themselves. 

Yes, any white noise generators is of course a reason to invalidate anything caught audio-wise, although I'm not clear on whether GH uses them or not. Can't say I've seen them around lately. It is not unlike GH to drop or include equipment without telling about it, like the K2 which suddenly appeared even though it was implicitly mocked in the Manson Episode.

As for the "fear cage", it has no scientific validity. Yes,  electro-magnetic field is something science can measure, but that's about all science has to say on the matter. Any effects, like the ones Grant again and again and again and again keep passing of as the truth, has no basis in science.