'Detect Ghosts' with your Mobile Phone!
Dave Wood looks into the apparently serious pitch of detecting ghosts with your mobile phone for just £4. According to TV adverts you can now not only download ringtones to your mobile but you can now download your very own ‘ghost detector’ and hunt ghosts from the comfort of your own living room.
The advert claims that your very own detector can detect a whole range of paranormal phenomena because - and here comes the science part - ‘experts agree’ that ghosts can affect the electro-magnetic field around us. Thus ghosts, it seems, flicker lights, create flashes on the television and presumably power plug sockets and cook your dinner.
So the first question is, ‘does the technology work’ and the second question is ‘even if it does, does it measure ghosts’? Unfortunately the advert and supporting website doesn’t delve very deeply into the technology, which may or may not work. Does it measure ghosts? The crux of the ‘service’ appears to be the testimony of unnamed experts from unreferenced sources that suggest that ‘ghosts’ have the ability to interfere with electro-magnetic fields. Any readers should be rather cautious of any experts they come across who make these claims. There is no evidence whatsoever for the claim.
There is, however, some evidence that DC fields can cause individuals to have impaired perception which can be mistaken for the paranormal. And should be the reason paranormal investigators carry EMF meters. However, what is turning out to be one of the greatest fallacies of modern times is that a standard EMF meter - measuring AC current - can reliably pick up on these experiencer-influecing fields.
So the short answer is that even if this does work, all it is likely to do is tell you whether you have power cables running through your house.
So maybe as harmless as the average EMF meter, or certainly no worse? Perhaps not. When a mobile phone rings it disturbs the EM field, but everyone would put two and two together. However as anyone whose rested a mobile on a PC monitor knows, the disturbance can be created for a number of other reasons, too.
So the unsuspecting users of the ghost detector will be left with readings that are doing nothing but picking up the mobile’s own signals. They may even use their camera phone can capture a few orbs at the same time? This could be a whole new renaissance in paranormal investigation.