Investigation Done In Old Style

I has with my friend's uncle and his team of "old" investigators, my friend's uncle wanted to show me how they used to investigate during old days and so he have gathered his "old friends" whom used to work with him as a team of local investigators.

My friend told me not to bring any electrical devices sine they have equipment that could make modern devices malfunction. In a long term he is trying to say that those methods his uncle wanted to show me is very inaccurate.

I brought with me a pen and paper notes like an old days student (or even modern in some place). I meet up the guys in a local church and that was where we started our investigation on that night.

My friend's uncle, Uncle M has talked to the priest of the church that we will be doing an investigation. The priest of the church (or was he the coordinator stuff manager?) seemed very appreciative and said that there are lots of activities these few weeks, not to mention that it is seasonal (Halloween).

Our local, Liberdade, were called Campo da Forca during the old days, the area used to be a place where people executed slaves and convicts. This church we were in used to be the place where the victims said their last prayer.

We separated in to 3 teams (2 in pairs 1 with 3 persons). The pairs went investigate the outside of the church, backyard of the church and front yard (?) of the church. I remained inside the church and walked with the 2; Uncle M was checking the paper strips that he placed in between the benches, he has tied long strings from the ceiling to the floor and down the very tip, he hung some blue-tag with a piece of lead from a pencil, so if there were any activity the strings will move and the pencil tip will mark the paper strips. Yes, I notice the method is very not accurate at all.

Uncle M notice that the strings had been moving slightly due to wind and things but he realize that the closer it gets to the cross, the more the marks are active and unusual. I was trying to debunk it as some air movement the other guy, K, was holding 2 L-shaped steel rods and he also had a record on unusual activities around the stage (?) where the cross was. No, no one was talking or communicating that time, we cannot even whisper in case of any misjudgments.

K's method was strangest that I had ever seen (if anyone know of his method explain to me please). I was with him the first half an hour, he was walking slowly pointing the rod forward as he gets close to the stage, the rods start to move away from each other, K will then mark the map he have in hand, that kind of reminds me of people detecting for undug hot springs or underground water, yes one of those old inaccurate methods used centuries ago, I am not sure if those are related.

Uncle M, hung more strings around the stage and on the stage. He then called me and K to retreat and check the 2 teams outside. K took out his rods again; as he walked he was checking on his rods, I kept quiet just in case I will interrupt him. We met the guys at the front yard, they had a huge cylinder which seemed like a light bulb to me, they called the equipment Edison's lost invention, again I do not know the accuracy of that and in what occasions it was used, many strange old method. K explains that the equipment will show images of ghost if there is any around. Well... To say the truth I don't trust such "inventions".

Guys who were at the back yard also meet up, K explained to them that it is active inside and will wait for Uncle M's result. Uncle M came out and told the guys with the "light bulb" to investigate the inside, I wanted to see what image will the bulb show and so I chose to go back inside. I kind of felt a little temperature change, maybe it was because of the wind? The strings were moving crazily as if there were strong wind. The 2 guys, J and T, turned the equipment on. I smelt sometime burnt and strong sparkles in the bulb. T was frustrated and said that the "bulb" failed because of overheating.

Suddenly the 3 of us heard a wispy scream from the outside, we went back out and asked uncle M and other guys whether they herd it, strangely all 4 of them out side said that the scream came from inside the church. Wait, I have heard such stories either from other people around me or stories I read here. I personally wanted to ask what the Edison's lost invention will show in the bulb right now. So you guys want to know the other 2 guys were doing? They were securing the area to see if there will be people fooling around and making a prank (hmm...).

Little mysterious and very uncommon ways to do an investigation... I do not know whether I can consider this as an investigation at all, but there were results and priest did said that there were activities inside the church... With the historical information about the church, I surely think that there are spirits... But I am not sure if we had encounter any during the night. I did a research on the rods and the bulbs and the tagged pencil tip method... I found a similar method used by mediums during old days, the place a crystal pendant just like the pencil tip blue-tag. Instead of paper strips they will watch the movement of the pendant, yes, inaccurate I know...

Does any of you guys and gals have strange methods and believes to consider if there is ghosts or spirit? Do you know any of the methods the uncle M and his teammates had used? How accurate can those old methods be?

Do share your thoughts and if anyone can explain anything from what I have written please do so because it will be very helpful! I am also happy to answer questions if there will be any.

Thanks for reading!

Love from São Paulo

E.Lynx