No, that’s probably not a ghost in your apartment
Talking to an NYC ghost hunter about false alarms and what to do if you actually might have a ghost
Nearly everything of practical value that I know in this life I’ve learned from Sex and the City, not the least of which includes the proper way to get rid of a ghost. “Confront the ghost, acknowledge its presence, then release it. Everybody knows that,” per Samantha in Season 4, Episode 5.
As it turns out, that’s pretty much the exact same advice recommended by real world paranormal experts. One of the key steps if you think you have an unwanted spirit in your home is “opening the windows and saying ‘leave,’” Angela Artuso, director of the Gotham Paranormal Society, told The Groove. “Let any type of negativity flow out.”
Artuso herself, a longtime paranormal investigator and author, got into the field after growing up in a home with a long list of unexplained phenomena.
“As I got older I wanted to learn more — what caused this, why does this happen,” she said. “I wanted to help people, especially families if they had children seeing the same things I saw. To let them know you can get over this, to try to eliminate that fear and help them.”
Her team does their work with a variety of tools including audio equipment, full-spectrum cameras, EMF detectors, and thermal imaging cameras to pick up unexplained hot and cold spots, though that last one comes with a caveat.
“You have to test a location first to see what your control is,” she said. “If equipment is going off [for a cold spot] and you’re near an AC system, chances are it’s the AC. But if you’re in an old historical building, chances are there’s no [or very little] electricity going through it.”
Since it’s now that the time of year when any reasonable person’s thoughts turn to ghost hunting, we decided to check in with Artuso about why most of the time Hell (or a haunting) is really just other people, the city’s most haunted sites and yes, what to do if you really do think you’ve got something supernatural living your apartment rent-free.
Why your apartment probably isn’t haunted
Even for single-family homes, calls for investigations at private residences have fallen off significantly since the heyday of paranormal investigation shows when Ghost Hunters started airing in the aughts.
“I think a lot of people thought they had hauntings in their homes and thought they’d be on TV,” Artuso said.
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