Ghost Hunting Gadgets: What’s Really Going On? (Inspired by Kenny Biddle’s Talk)
Ghost Hunting Gadgets: What’s Really Going On? (Inspired by Kenny Biddle’s Talk)
If you’ve watched any ghost-hunting show, you’ve probably seen investigators waving around blinking lights and beeping boxes like they’re holding a direct line to the afterlife. REM pods go off, EMF meters flash, cat balls dance on the floor — and the ghost hunters gasp like they’ve uncovered proof of life after death.
But after hearing skeptic and investigator Kenny Biddle break down these devices during his talk “The Flaws of Ghost Hunting Gadgets,” I realized I needed to share this information. Investigators need to be honest about what their tools can — and can’t — do. People watching ghost hunting videos on YouTube think what they are seeing is real, and it is not.
I agree with him completely. I’ve used a lot of this equipment myself, and I’ve seen firsthand how easy it is to misread false positives as “paranormal.” Let’s dig into why most of these gadgets aren’t really ghost detectors at all.
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1. EMF Meters: The Old Faithful That Measures Everything Except Ghosts
Almost every investigator has one. They’re supposed to detect electromagnetic fluctuations — because someone, somewhere, decided ghosts must mess with EMF fields. Actually, it was Edison and Tesla who suggested it.
Here’s the problem:
We don’t know what a ghost is. So how can we measure it?
EMF meters only measure magnetic fields (not electric), and they pick up things like wiring in the walls, refrigerators cycling on, or your phone. Unless you’re scanning in all three axes — up, down, and sideways — your readings mean absolutely nothing.
In other words, if your K-II meter spikes while you’re near a wall outlet, congratulations — you just found electricity doing exactly what electricity does.
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2. REM Pods: No, They’re Not Surrounded by a Ghostly Force Field
These flashy little domes with antennas are supposed to create an electromagnetic bubble that ghosts can disrupt. But here’s the kicker — they don’t actually produce a measurable EM field at all.
Kenny tested it with multiple EMF meters pressed right up against the pod. The reading? Zero. Nada.
So what are they detecting? They’re basically toy kits — simple electronics that respond when something (like your hand, static, or a nearby radio) changes the electric charge, a theremin board. He even built his own “Kenny Pod” using craft supplies from Michaels and a kids’ circuit kit.
And yes — a simple walkie-talkie can trigger them from another room. That dramatic TV moment when the REM pod “responds intelligently”? There’s a chance someone’s pressing a radio button off camera.
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3. Motion Sensors: Blame the Draft, Not the Dead
Infrared and ultrasonic sensors can both go off for completely ordinary reasons — a draft, humidity, temperature changes, vibrations from trucks passing outside, even a bad muffler or a squeaky door hinge.
The cheap versions ghost hunters use are especially unreliable. Some manufacturers literally stopped making them because they’d trigger from random noises. So when a motion sensor goes off in an old building, it’s not proof of a spirit. It’s proof your equipment needs calibration — or your location needs better insulation.
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4. Cat Balls: Adorable, But Not Haunted
We’ve all seen them — those little glowing balls ghost hunters scatter around, waiting for spirits to make them flash.
Here’s the secret: they’re just $2 pet toys with a tilt sensor. A tiny metal ball inside makes contact when it jiggles. That’s it.
One ghost hunter tried to market them as “specialized paranormal tools” for $12 each — claiming they had upgraded sensors. Kenny busted that myth wide open, proving they were the same cheap toys sold at Target.
If you want your cat to think she’s catching ghosts, fine. But these balls aren’t spirit communicators — they’re cat toys with good PR.
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5. Dowsing Rods: The Original Yes/No Game
People have used rods for centuries, claiming they can locate water, minerals, or missing objects — and now, spirits.
But when tested under controlled conditions, every dowser fails. Every. Single. Time.
What’s really happening is called the ideomotor effect — tiny, unconscious movements in your hands that make the rods move. It’s not ghosts guiding your hands; it’s your brain doing what it thinks it should do.
Want proof? Film yourself using dowsing rods and speed up the video. You’ll see those subtle twitches clear as day.
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6. Voice Recorders: The Birthplace of Audio Pareidolia
EVPs are one of the most popular tools in ghost hunting — and one of the most misunderstood.
When we record questions in a quiet room, every shuffle, fabric rustle, and breath can sound like a whisper on playback. Our brains automatically look for patterns — if we ask, “What’s your name?” we’ll start hearing names in random static.
The infamous Panasonic DR60 recorder even created its own “ghostly” sounds — the firmware literally filled in missing audio with digital noise. So those eerie growls investigators get excited about? They’re just machine glitches.
Our ears are tricksters. Always double-check what you think you heard.
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7. Spirit Boxes: Radios Gone Rogue
Spirit boxes are basically radios with the mute button removed. They scan AM/FM frequencies and let all the static, ads, and DJ chatter pour through.
Of course you’ll hear words — it’s radio!
Our brains naturally connect random snippets into answers that fit our questions. That’s pareidolia and confirmation bias at work. If you want to test it, drop the spirit box into a Faraday bag (which blocks radio signals). If it goes silent — you’ve just proven it was never ghosts speaking in the first place.
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8. The Ovilus and Other “Word Generators”
These gadgets spit out random words and claim spirits choose them using environmental energy. But testing shows they’re just random word generators — with a disclaimer on the packaging: “For entertainment purposes only.”
And yet, people still use them as serious tools. If a toy literally tells you it’s for entertainment, believe it.
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9. SLS Cameras: The Xbox Ghost Tracker
These cameras, originally made for Xbox Kinect, use infrared dots to map movement. When ghost hunters started seeing stick figures appear on walls or chairs, they assumed it was ghosts.
In reality, the software just misreads shapes — backpacks, furniture, lamps, anything vaguely human-shaped. It fills in missing data with guesses, not ghosts.
So when you see an investigator reaching out to “hold hands” with a stick figure, remember: the camera’s not reacting emotionally. It’s glitching exactly as it was programmed to.
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10. Full-Spectrum Cameras: Not So “Full” After All
The name sounds high-tech, but these cameras don’t see the full electromagnetic spectrum — just visible light plus a little infrared and UV.
And most digital cameras already do that! They even have IR filters built in so your photos look normal. Without them, pictures appear blurry or distorted, and long exposures can make moving objects look transparent — explaining countless “ghost” photos.
In short: it’s not a spirit. It’s bad lighting and physics.
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So What Do We Take From This?
Here’s the truth: none of these gadgets can be proven to detect ghosts.
What they detect are changes in the environment — electrical, magnetic, thermal, or sound-based — that we humans often interpret through our own biases and expectations.
And that’s okay! Curiosity is good. Testing ideas is good. But calling pseudoscience “proof” only hurts serious investigation.
Kenny’s message — and one I completely agree with — is that understanding the science makes us better ghost hunters. The more we know about how our tools actually work, the better we can separate real anomalies from false positives.
After all, if we’re ever going to find genuine evidence of the paranormal, we have to rule out everything else first.
Until then, keep your skepticism sharp, your batteries charged, and your REM pods far, far away from your walkie-talkies.