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Our Investigation Process

After contacting Tennessee Ghost Hunters (TGH) regarding a possible investigation, a case manager will be assigned and will contact you either by email or phone. A pre-investigation interview will ensue, usually by telephone, and a date and time convenient for you will be scheduled for a walk-through or investigation.

When scheduling an investigation with the TGH team, it is important to document any unusual event you notice by keeping an activity log. For your convenience, we have created a simple activity log you may download here . In the log, invlude the date and time the event occurred, describe the event and document any other information you feel might be important about this event. (i.e. What was happening just before the event, Who was present, etc.). During your interview, we will review your activity log.

If it is determined we should schedule a walk-through before the actual investigation, a member of the team will contact you to schedule this appointment. They will walk around the area to make note of the layout or your home or office, take photographs of the location and possibly talk to you further about the phenomena you are experiencing.

Prior to the Investigation

When we arrive at your home and after introductions have completed, we will select a "base" or where we will set up our "headquarters" for the duration of the investigation. This is usually a living room, but it is preferable to be a spacious location in the home or office where the least amount of activity has occurred.

 

The Interview

We will conduct an official "sit down" interview with you and any other witnesses present. We prefer to record this interview for future reference. The interview consists of basic questions concerning your case and activity you experience. If, at any point, you would rather not answer a question, you may decline. We will ask you to sign a release form concerning the level of confidentiality you prefer regarding your case. We also have a release of liability form to sign which releases you from all liability in the event an investigator is injured - even though this has never happened in our fifteen plus years of investigating. Also, any investigator coming to your location has been required to sign this liablility release form. You will be provided copies of these forms.

The Walk-Through and Investigation

After the interview, we will conduct a "walk-through" of your location with you. We will take photos, shoot video and take meter readings as we continue the tour of your location. During the walk-through, it is important to point out activity you have had in each room or area. Upon completion, we will determine which rooms seem to be most active and station smaller teams at these locations. At a specified time, we will all meet back at the "base" and compare any evidence we have gathered. We will then determine if the investigation should be concluded based on the level of activity we detect. We may ask for permission to stay a while longer. This decision is totally up to you and understood if you had rather our team leave for the evening.

Investigation Analysis

After the clinical investigation has completed, the members of the TGH team spend the next few days or weeks reviewing the evidence collected and rule out natural causes for the occurrences. The team will review numerous photos and hours of video looking for anything out of the ordinary and keep logs of those visual accounts. We also listen to hours of audio tape for any type of unusual sounds or voices. This is the longest part of the investigation process. It can take weeks to identify all the paranormal evidence and we appriciate your patience.

Post Investigation

Once all the investigators' field reports have been collected, they will be compiled into a report (either digital, paper or both) and your case manager will contact you to report any findings. You will be provided a copy of the report. In some cases, it may be necessary to make followup visits or schedule further investigations. It is possible that our first investigation yielded no results. Also, it is possible the abundance of evidence collected warrants ongoing research if you permit it.

Before We Come, What Can You Do?

Now you have an idea of what to expect from our team, we ask that you help us before we arrive at your location to investigate.

    • If you have any children, we ask that you make arrangements for them to be off-site for that evening if possible. Children are unpredictable and can contaminate any evidence we collect. More importantly, our presence alone can confuse and upset small children. In our experience, it is just better to have children not be there during an investigation.

    • We understand the excitement surrounding a paranormal investigation. We ask only the occupants or witnesses be present during the investigation itself. The equipment we use is extremely sensative and crowding, excessive talking or any other noise can hinder our ability to confirm evidence being from an unnatural source.

    • All dogs with a history of being aggressive (or even if you are unsure how they will react to the investigators) must be restrained or placed in their crate or pen during the investigation. We do appreciate your invitation to your home, but safety is a top priority for all involved.

    • We take the investigation very seriously and do appreciate your cooperation in giving us the same respect we give you. If anyone on the premises is suspected of being intoxicated, either by alcohol or drugs, we will discontinue our investigation.

    • We also ask you to inform and have consent from all adults living in the household regarding the investigation. We do not want to be investigating a location and have an "uninformed," angry family member arrive home to find us there. It would make the situation very uncomfortable when it could have ultimately been avoided.

    • We will not investigate a location where Black Magic, the Black Arts or Satanism is being practiced. If we find evidence of this at any location, we will ent the investigation and leave immediately.

Privacy and Confidentiality

We do like to feature some investigations on our website. If the investigation of your location is chosen to be featured on our site, we will honor the level of confidentiality you chose when you completed the confidentiality form. If you chose to remain anonymous, we will create a fictitious name for the location and not use last names or make up ficticious names. Photographs will not show any identifiable address, faces, etc., without express permission.

All correspondence with Tennessee Ghost Hunters will be treated as confidential, unless we are given permission to display such information. Examples of what we may display, with your permission, are letters stating paranormal circumstances, submitted stories, photographs, etc. Your email address will never be displayed on our site.

Again, thank you for inviting us to investigate your location for possible paranormal activity. Should you have any concerns or questions about anything listed here, please contact us .

 

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