Ghosts Trigger Objects

Whilst a trigger object could be almost anything, an investigation team are likely to use an object which has a reported history of being moved. Such objects could be glassware or old items such as buttons, coins or small picture frame. Any object can be used, however the purpose of using a trigger object is to act as a focus point to measure or record any event, for example movement.

Movement is relative, even when what we see is most obvious; things may not be as they seem. For example, a young man boarding a train asks the conductor ‘When will the station be leaving the train’, and of course, for the passenger that is indeed what happens, however somehow the majority of us have come to accept that it is the train what moves and not the station, but we couldn’t actually prove that that was the case!.

In the above analogy we do not seek to prove whether the train moved or the station, we only seek to record changes in the distance between the two points. When we talk about movement of a trigger object, we are therefore talking about a change in measurement between the trigger object and another point over a period of time. Time adds it’s own complexity to the research because time isn’t the same for everyone and can be slowed down depending on our own speed of movement, but that’s beyond the scope of this short article and probably not very relevant to measuring small movements to trigger objects.

What should be clear by now is that measuring movement requires the monitoring of distance between two points over a period of time. We assume that our first measurement reading precedes any subsequent reading, because ‘time’ has the appearance of moving forward; progressing in one direction only.

Some investigators will use a plain white A4 sheet of paper marked with a circle or grid and a standard wristwatch to record any movement of the trigger object in relation to the sheet of paper.

Detecting movement doesn’t add up to proof of paranormal activity, it’s odd and raises the question of ‘how did that happen’ and we then take the next logical step and assume that something caused the trigger object to move.

Using video evidence would help to rule out the possibility of human or animal intervention but there are a wide range of other factors which could cause an object to move, vibrations from road traffic can be obvious, less obvious are the vibrations from an investigation team trampling around an old house, changes in temperature, humidity, noise levels, wind, movement which can’t be detected by the frame rate of the camera or the human eye.

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