The Science of Monsters

Jenny Melton: “When I was nine, I lived in a home right outside of D.C., and that is where my paranormal experiences began. I would see shadow figures, hear the organ start playing that we had in the room next to me, the rocking chair would rock on its own, the TV in my room would turn on by itself. And this was when we didn’t have remotes and had to use a knob to manually turn the TV on/off and adjust the volume!”

Kelly:“I remember those days!”

Jenny Melton: “I would see a man at the top of my stairs, and the overall energy of the house was pretty terrifying for me. No one else in my family experienced any of this and just thought I was crazy, but my friend who lived next door would describe all the same things happening in her house. She even described the same man that I would see.”

Kelly:“Okay . . . that’s really scary.”

Jenny Melton: “My dad was in the Navy so we moved often and I remember being so happy when we moved out of that house. Throughout the next couple of years, I had a couple of friends pass away who also came to me in spirit, but it wasn’t nearly as scary as that house in D.C. because I felt like I knew who it was that was haunting me.”

Meg:“I could see that. So, the thought of ghosts doesn’t scare you anymore?”

Jenny Melton: “After watching a few episodes of Ghost Hunters and being introduced to a scientific approach to looking at the paranormal, I decided to write the Fairfax County Historical Society and inquire about my old house in D.C. Fortunately, they were more than willing to do some research for me and ended up sending me a huge manila envelope with a bunch of documents and deeds regarding the house and the property it sat on. Being right outside of D.C. there was a lot of trauma tied to the land in terms of battles and death. I’m flipping through the packet they had sent me, lost in deep thought and concentration, and there is a picture of the man I used to see at the top of our stairs.”

Kelly:“Whoa. That’s incredible!”

Jenny Melton: “In that very instant, an instant I thought would have completely freaked me out, I was instead completely validated. What I had experienced was real. I wasn’t crazy. With my fear completely eliminated, that day in 2004 my whole life changed as I made it a life purpose to delve more into the things I don’t understand.”

Meg:“Can you describe the equipment you use in ghost detecting?”

Jenny Melton: “So, we use a lot of different devices that detect different forms of energy. For years my only piece of equipment was a digital voice recorder. These devices can pick up a higher range of sound frequencies than are audible to the human ear. What we are looking for from a digital voice recorder are EVPs: electronic voice phenomenon. In my opinion, this is one of the least foolproof pieces of equipment we use, as long as you are completely conscious on ‘tagging’ any outside noises. Something so small like a stomach growling, a whisper, or an animal making sounds outside can be picked up very easily on these recorders, so we have to make sure we mark any noise we hear so we don’t mistake it as something paranormal. What we look for is a voice that is not our own, or a response to a question that we ask.”

Ghost hunters use a variety of equipment for detection.

Kelly:“I’ve seen that in horror movies!”

Jenny Melton: “Other devices that we use measure the electromagnetic frequency [EMF] through items like a KII meter, a MEL meter, or a REM Pod. All of these items will detect any changes in EMF, but they use different techniques to relay that information to us.”

Meg:“I had no idea there were so many different types of equipment!”

Kelly:“What about video equipment?”

Jenny Melton: “We also always set up four to eight infrared cameras and a DVR system anytime we do an investigation. We typically place the cameras in ‘hot spots’ where some of the claims have taken place. The infrared allows us to see what is going on even when it is dark. Some of us also use handheld infrared camcorders which are helpful to see what is going on around us as we sit in the dark.”

Kelly:“That would creep me out!”

Meg:“Can you tell us about the differences in what you are detecting?”