Proof of Ghosts or Wonky Technology?

Ghosts can show up anywhere, anytime, not just during paranormal investigations, right? Yes. Of course. That’s why people go ghost hunting. Someone (or multiple someones) has an experience, shares the tale and boom. A ghost story is born. Others want to investigate and see for themselves if there’s anything to it.

Ghosts –even though they’ve never been definitively proven to exist– could be all around us. Some mediums and psychics will assure you it’s not a matter of “could.” They are.

We’ve all heard the tales of weird voices over telephone lines or on baby monitors, CCTVs catching odd phenomenon, and even people claiming to have caught photos of ghosts on their cameras of deceased loved ones and such.

As technology advances, it’s led to more ways to perhaps “capture” evidence of the Beyond. Perhaps.

Since most (but not all) of the tech that ghost hunters use has not been created with the intent of detecting ghosts, the odd phenomenon it sometimes alerts us to may be ghosts –or it may not be. It could be alerting us to something else entirely within the environment. As yet unidentified energy forms or ions or…whatever.

But whether you’re a believer, a skeptic, or somewhere in between, it does give a person pause when modern technology suddenly operates in unexpected ways. Ways that could be alerting us that, guess what? There’s a ghost around.

Or is it just a matter of wonky tech?

Instead of giving you vague scenarios, let me share three specific examples that have happened to me. Then you can tell me what you think about it all.

1. Automatic Sensors

I had just finished washing my hands at a Carrabba’s. I went to wave my hand in front of the paper towel dispenser. It just sat there.

Sidenote: That’s so aggravating when you’re trying to get soap or paper towels from a machine with a sensor and it doesn’t work, isn’t it? There you are, waving your hands like crazy, and nothing. Thanks for making me look a fool, machine. Score one (more) for you.

Anyway, luckily there was another dispenser on the wall opposite. Even better, it worked.

So I dry my hands, walk around the partition to leave and I hear the whir of the paper towel dispenser –the one that wouldn’t work for me initially.

I backed up and peered around the corner, and sure enough. It had finally dispensed the paper towel.

What the…?

No one else was in the bathroom with me. Well, no one else alive and visible, that is.

I went to wave my hand in front of the sensor again. Again. Nothing. I wondered if it’d work when I walked out again. Nope.

So what happened? Delayed reaction, or ghost? Or just a temperamental machine that liked to mess with humans?

Things that make me go, “Hmm…?” Do ghosts pee? I’ve seen toilets with automatic flush activate when no one’s even in the stall. Which always makes me giggle because I inevitably envision a ghost squatting on the pot, holding her sheets out of the way, but leaving the door open. Then the thought of an immodest ghost cracks me up harder. Which, have you ever burst out laughing for no apparent reason in a public bathroom? The looks I get just make me laugh more!

2. Face Recognition

In May this year I accompanied my husband on a work trip to Orlando. He was attending a conference and his work put us (well, really him; I was just along for the ride) in a pretty nice hotel.

It had an awesome pool. One of those resort types with water slides, a lazy river, zero entry pools, bridges crossing over to different areas abounding with lounge chairs.

The staff did something fun I’d never seen at any other hotel before: they used towels to create a message they’d “write” on the chairs each morning. I had to get a picture of that. Well a couple, because the messages weren’t the same each day.

But a weird thing happened when I uploaded them to Facebook. You know how Facebook identifies faces in your photos with a little square around them and asks if you’d like to tag the people?

Yeah, well Facebook did that on one of my pool pics –but there was nobody there.

Again, not a person that was visible to me. So was it just a glitch in the recognition software, or was it picking up on something else?

3. Home Security Cameras

I recently decided it might be a good idea to upgrade our security system with some modern tech. I bought some home security cameras to place outside and inside our home.

Getting them set up took a couple of stages. First I had to program and sync them and make sure they worked on my phone app. I did that one night, then set them aside.

The next morning when we woke up, my husband said, “Who was trying to get a hold of you last night? Your phone was blowing up.”

I went to see what had happened and saw I had 77 notifications for the new security cameras. One in particular had the most –but it had been aimed at a pillow on the couch.

Upon reviewing all of the video, I saw where a couple of the cameras had caught the cats walking around, even my husband getting up and coming downstairs for the morning, but nothing had moved in front of the camera with the most activity.

Was the camera bad? I was afraid it might be. However, once we got it put up, it’s since only notified us when it detects actual movement.

So what was up with the couch? Camera on the fritz, or unseen presence? Haunted pillows or cushions?

Don’t know. About any of it. Any of this could just be examples of tech on the fritz…or it could be examples that ghosts are perhaps in more places than we know. (And either coming with my on vacation and out to dinner or finding me when I’m out and about!)

Check-In

Have you ever experienced unusual technology issues like any of the above? Were you able to figure out the cause, or did it give you pause and make you wonder if maybe something else –possibly something ghostly– was happening?