Fiona Broome talks about ghost hunting during the winter. These are some of her suggestions:

If it's too cold outside for outdoor ghost hunts, investigate indoors.  Check haunted theatres, hotels, restaurants, museums and haunted houses.

Review last year's investigations.  Re-read your notes, review your photos and EVPs, and see which sites should be revisited for more research.

Plan the upcoming year.  Include a ghost hunt at one location you've been planning to visit, but haven't investigated yet.  If it's a popular location, make your travel reservations now.

Research other locations using new and popular ghost-related books.  Also skim 19th century histories of your vicinity, looking for references to ghost stories, haunted places and other paranormal phenomena.

Practice with your ghost hunting tools.  The better you understand them, and the easier it is for you to use them in the dark, the more you'll be able to observe during future ghost investigations.

Schedule ghost hunts starting the week before April 30th.  In many cultures, that's a night when -- like Halloween -- the ghosts walk among us.  Discover Walpurgisnacht (or Walpurgis Night) traditions and make the most of them on this second eerie and magical night for spirits.

For more information, visit HollowHill.com, the ghost hunting website.

Psychic ghost hunter Fiona Broome discusses ghost hunting tools.

Using the K-II meter as an example, she comments on the benefits and liabilities of highly sensitive, high-tech ghost hunting equipment.

The more sensitive the equipment, the more it will detect normal -- but often unnoticed -- phenomena, in addition to the paranormal.  For this reason, researchers must do far more extensive baseline studies before relying on sensitive equipment to document ghosts.

The more complex the ghost hunting equipment, the more it can hold the attention of the researcher.  This is a liability as well. 

Fiona suggests that EMF surges, orbs, cold spots, etc. aren't the ghosts; they could be signs of ghosts, or an indication that the door between the worlds has just opened.  If you're busy watching the flashing lights on the meter, you might miss seeing an actual apparition or other spectacular paranormal display.

Fiona also notes that the absence of EMF could be as important as EMF spikes in haunted settings.

Fiona recommends relying primarily on your five (or six) senses.  Ghost hunting tools can support and document paranormal experiences, but they shouldn't be the only way we connect with the ghosts around us.

Links

Grant Wilson (as Grant-o-Lantern): What We Know About the K-II Meter

Ghost Hunting Tools, an article by Fiona Broome

Basic tools every ghost hunter must have, by Fiona Broome

Learn about the ghosts and haunted graves of South Street cemetery in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Hear psychic ghost hunter Fiona Broome describe the haunted hill where the gallows stood, the strange and unmarked grave of Ruth Blay, and the female apparition near the eerie second entrance to the cemetery.

Link: Ghosts of Portsmouth, NH - South Street cemetery

Looking for a really haunted place?  In this podcast, HollowHill.com founder Fiona Broome describes the kinds of places that are most reliably haunted.

In a nutshell, you're looking for locations associated with death or intense emotions, or places where people were in the spotlight (sometimes literally) in the past.

Related link:
How to find local ghosts, a Hollow Hill article

Got ghosts?  HollowHill.com founder Fiona Broome discusses ways to deal with the most frequent type of haunting: Residual energy.  In this podcast, Fiona describes general approaches and some very specific ones.

Related links:
Dealing with a problem ghost, more detailed solutions from religion and folklore
Also see Hollow Hill's other articles about ghosts in your home

In this Hollow Hill podcast, Fiona Broome talks about the difference between an active haunting (where there is a ghost) and residual energy hauntings, which are simply stored energy.

Links:
Gilson Road Cemetery, Nashua, NH - HollowHill.com reports
The Myrtles Plantation - official website
The Myrtles Plantation - the first of Fiona Broome's five-part series of podcasts about the ghosts of The Myrtles

People often ask how long they should wait for a ghost to make contact.

In this podcast, Hollow Hill founder Fiona Broome talks about the importance of patience when you're ghost hunting.  Using shows such as 'Ghost Hunters' as an example, she points out that ghost contact can take hours... and sometimes multiple visits.

She shares tips to make your ghost hunts more interesting and productive.

(Note: Hollow Hill will be on the road when this podcast is broadcast. We're moving from Texas to New England.  Sound quality will be more consistent when we set up our office in the new location. The podcast is fine, but the closing music sounds a bit tinny.)

One of our Hollow Hill visitors, Amy, asked if it makes any difference if someone sings (peacefully) to ghosts.

In this podcast, Hollow Hill founder Fiona Broome talks about singing to ghosts and talking to them. 

Fiona's advice?  As long as you're respectful, communicating with ghosts -- as if they're friends, neighbors or family -- can improve your rapport with the spirits.

(Note: Until Hollow Hill moves from Texas to New England in early May 2008 and we set up our new office, the closing music is going to sound a little tinny.  The sound quality of the rest of the podcast is generally fine.)

Charlie, a Hollow Hill visitor, recently asked about contacting ghosts.  He wondered if some mediums can contact one age group more easily than another.

In this brief podcast (less than five minutes), Hollow Hill founder Fiona Broome discusses the factors that influence the contacts you'll make in haunted settings.

Many people write to Hollow Hill and ask whether their experiences mean that they've contacted a ghost.

We're not able to answer that because we're not there to see what's happening.  But, we are confident that many people are encountering ghosts, whether they realize it or  not.

In this podcast, Hollow Hill founder Fiona Broome discusses a few general issues related to contact with ghosts.

Link: Hollow Hill, the ghost hunting website

(Note: In this podcast, we're having a few sound problems, but they only affect the concluding music and standard comments after it.)

Fiona explains why hotels are great places for ghost hunting, and describes ghosts at two hotels:  The Wentworth Hotel in NH, and the Hotel Monteleone in the French Quarter.

Links:
Wentworth-by-the-Sea Hotel, New Castle, New Hampshire
Hotel Monteleone, French Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana
Hollow Hill, the ghost website, sponsors of this podcast

Fiona talks about the differences between haunted places that are good for research, and haunted places where you can help ghosts to "cross over."

Here's the bottom line: If you're in a cemetery or another public, haunted place, you aren't the first person to try to help the ghost you've encountered.  You may not even be among the first 100 people who've tried to help them.  Cemeteries and frequently visited haunted sites are best for research.

By contrast, you can find success at private residences and businesses if your primary goal is to help spirits trapped on the earthly plane.

Planning a ghost hunt?  Here are two important things to think about:

1. Why are you ghost hunting?  To help the living, to help ghosts "cross over" or simply for fun/curiosity?

2. Who should you include in your group, and who can have a negative effect on your research?

*Important note:  When Fiona talks about cemeteries, no ghost hunter says, "There's nobody there."  The issue is about who you can help.  Fiona talks about this more in her next Hollow Hill podcast.

Links:
Hollow Hill, the ghost website