PANICd Articles

Just like the location ranking and badge, the membership rank is determined and updated dynamically.

There are two pages that will automatically adjust the membership ranking.  One is controlled by only DBA’s and the other is when someone brings up the membership profile of a member.

The membership rank is determined as followings:

• Each location you add (and is DBA approved) * 5 points
• Each history record you add (and is DBA approved) * 2 points
• Each story you add (and is DBA approved) * 3 points
• Each claim you add (and is DBA approved) * 4 points
• Each evidence records you add (and is DBA approved) * 10 points
• Each resource record you add (and is DBA approved) * 1 point
• Each time someone views your profile * 1 point

That is all added together, giving the membership rank.

Now… if you add 1 location with the minimum requirements needed for DBA approval… you will get location(5) + history (2) + claim (4) = 11 points. Add some supporting resources for the location and evidence… you could easily get 20+ points for your location.

You can also add additional information to other’s locations to earn (gain) additional points.

So, the more you contribute to the database, the higher your membership rank.

Happy researching!

Plain and simple, PANICd.com is an on-line database of locations with reported paranormal activity.  Although we have other paranormal related information on the site, the build of the site is the paranormal location database.

The PANICd Team is not Paranormal Investigators, we are paranormal researchers.  Once we hear about the claims, we research evidence on the Internet, within books, through multimedia, or through library and historical society archives.  Sometimes we may go out on location and collect research evidence as a normal paranormal investigator would, but this is for research to be added to the database.

All information within the database can be added by anyone; however, it is not displayed to the public until it is “DBA Approved”.   What this means is that a PANICd Database Administrator has reviewed the information for proper formatting and source information and has approved it to be displayed to the public. 

The “DBA Approval” is done for two reasons:

1. To make sure that the information entered within the database is not garbage and is properly cited as to where it comes from either a direct link on the Internet or from an offline publication.
2. To ensure that spam does not make its way into the database and corrupt the records.

Minimum information to be DBA APPROVED, a location must have at the least the following:

• Name and address to location (so it can be geocoded and added to the map)
• A photograph of the location (if none can be found, we have even used a snapshot of Google Maps)
• At least one history record
• At least one paranormal claim

You can always come back and additional information.  Each location will have the following:

• Demographic information
• Address (required)
• Web Address (optional)
• Phone Number (optional)
• Photograph of location (required)
• History about the location (at least 1 required)
• Stories about the location
• Paranormal Claims about the location (at least 1 required)
• Evidence of the paranormal claims as:
• text (journal case log)
• photographs
• audio (EVP)
• video

Finding a location to add to the database is a very simple task. There are thousands of paranormal locations on the Internet, several different TV shows that cover paranormal locations, as well as, several publications that talk about the topic.

You can even construct a Google search for paranormal locations by state or area. Ex: “paranormal Ohio”, “paranormal Texas”.

Verify it is not in the database

Once you find a location, make sure it is not already in the database. The easiest way to do this (at the time of writing this tutorial) is to look at the listing when you go to add a new location. This listing is on the following page: http://www.panicd.com/main.php?p=13 or by connecting as follows:

1. Login

2. Click on Locations

3. On the main locations page, click Add a Location

The listing is sorted by state, and you can quickly see if the location is already in the database or not. IF IT IS IN THE DATABASE, you can always contribute more information about the location.

What is needed for DBA approval

In order for a location to be DBA approved, the following items must be added in the database for the location:

1. Complete demographic information. This includes the name and address of the location, a link to the “official” website for the location, and a phone number if possible.

2. A photograph of the location.

3. At least one historical record for the location with a proper source.

4. At least one paranormal claim for the location. Paranormal claims should be short sentences.

That is pretty much it.  Once you have collected this information, it is time to go ahead and add the location to the database.

The original philosophy behind the membership levels on PANICd will be changing dramatically here in the very near future.  We will no longer require a payment in order to move up in levels of membership.

Regular members will be able to move up based on what they wish to contribute to the database, website, and social networking of PANICd.  All members of the group will be invited to attend any gatherings or meetings that we may have in order to collect additional research or investigation locations.

We will be posting the different levels of membership on the Become a PANICd.com Investigator page shortly, so please stay tuned for more information and how you can increase your membership level.

In October of 2011, members of PANICd took a trip to California. Our first overnight stops was the Queen Mary.   The PANICd organization is not a paranormal society or investigation group, but a group that has the focus of documenting and collecting information about paranormal location and paranormal history.  This trip was a great fact finding mission.

We did have several personal experiences while on board the ship.  On of the members heard voices during the night in our state room and another member was pushed during one of the ghost tours, and we had one member get their hair touched within the elevator going down to one of the tours.

We took two tours while on the ship.  The first one was one for the general public with somewhat of a “Hollywood” type production; however, we were able to get a photograph of the infamous door 13, where John Pedder was crushed and killed by watertight door number 13 and later has been seen as an apparition in this area.

We do not recommend the first tour, but the behind the scenes ghost story tour which was absolutely full of information and history.  Just want PANICd loves to see and hear.

During both tours, we went down to the First Class Pool Area; however, on the second tour, we got to spend more time in this room without all of the special effects.  Here we were able to capture some great photographic evidence that will be added to the database archive.

First, look at the following two pictures.  One of our members was taking pictures and noticed a black shadow in the photograph preview on the camera.  She immediately took another picture as you can see the people in the photo are in the exact location and positions.  On the second photograph, the shadow is gone.

Also, after reviewing all of the photos from this area, we found only one picture that had what appears to be an orb hovering over the pool.

In the photo above, we do not think this is dust since it is the only photo of the hundreds that we have taken in this area that has an orb like picture.  Also, we do not think this is a reflection or lens flare cause you can clearly see the lights lit up to the left and the flash reflecting off the tile.  Again, we do not claim to be investigators, just collectors of possible evidence.

Throughout the ship, there are several plaques that explain the claims that took place in the designated area.  Here are a few of those plaques.

Room B340 is considered to be one of the most haunted rooms on the ship.  In fact, they no longer rent this room out since most people who stayed within the room either left the ship or asked for their room to be changed.  The following is not a video that we took, but one that we found on YouTube. 

Here are some of the photos we took of Room B340…

The morning before our tours, there was a fog around the ship (the local call the marine layer) which helped create the following photo.  As mentioned above we have several hundred photos from the ship and will be adding more to a board on our Pintrest Page later.

I have found that video evidence is among the most common evidence recorded and posted about paranormal activity; however, it is also the target for those who like to fake or spoof evidence as well. One should keep in mind that there are those out there who do not believe at all in the paranormal and love nothing more than to waste their time (and yours) by creating prank videos to spark off great controversy and debates within the paranormal investigation community. With this being said, one should take caution while searching for video evidence on the Internet that may prove (or debunk) a paranormal claim.

Another caution I should mention is, there are those that even use this medium to prank researchers or investigators by adding footage to their videos that is shocking or disturbing in order to scare them while they are viewing the video. As a researcher, watching these videos late at night can come close to stopping your heart. On several occasions, I have been viewing video and someone with Halloween make-up pops-up and they are screaming at the camera. I have even come across videos of people who have recorded other’s reactions while watching these videos and they just find it be hilarious. Now, don’t get me wrong, they have the right to do this, and these videos have their own place. I am just warning you that these videos are out there, and they may be titled or labeled as exactly what you are looking for in the way of video evidence. Again, be warned.

Video cameras are now considered to be one of the most important items to have in your “ghost hunting” kit and just about anyone can get their hands on a video camera. As a paranormal activity researcher, one must be cautious when looking for video as evidence of paranormal activity. Through my research of paranormal claims on the Internet, I always stop by YouTube and do a search to see if there is any paranormal evidence already posted by creditable paranormal societies or researchers who have an established web presence.

Throughout the PANICd database you will find several videos that are linked to YouTube. The videos that we have posted have been reviewed several times by our researchers and are considered to be evidence that prove or debunk paranormal claims. When I select a video to post as evidence, I perform the following checklist before I even consider the video, and some of these items are just common sense:

1. Is the video posted by a paranormal research society? – A paranormal society would not endanger their reputation by posting a video that is a spoof. In fact, they do quite the opposite. Normally these societies will post their videos for others to critique or make comments. These are great videos to use! (I have come across and used videos that were not posted by paranormal societies due to their quality and how it relates to the particular claim).
2. How many times has the video been viewed? – Normally I have found, if the viewing numbers are large, the video is probably a spoof. This is because several people have forwarded the video to other people around the Internet; however, it could be real… it is worth watching and consideration.
3. Read through the comments – This is a great way to determine if the video you are about to watch contains those pop-up creatures or not. If they do, normally the comments have expletives stating how much the creator or poster is an idiot.
4. Consider the quality of the video – I have rejected some videos just based on quality. Either the quality of the video or the quality of the cameraman. If the camera is all over the place, it is just too hard to view evidence. Also, a person who has set out to capture paranormal activity on video would take extra precaution on recording efforts.
5. Note the evidence – I find it an added bonus to provide the time on the video where the evidence is actually captured. When this information is in the comment sections, I find that to be awesome.
6. When in doubt, throw it out. – Just common sense here. If you don’t see the evidence after viewing the video a few times, others will surely have problems as well. Also, if you are looking for potential evidence and cannot quickly determine if it debunks or proves a given claim, then it is better to just pass over that piece of evidence in search of something with better quality.

It is theorized that spirits draw on energy sources in order to manifest or attempt to communicate with us. This is the reason for higher EMF readings, or even cold spots wherever an entity is thought to be present. With this theory being stated, a good natural resource for energy is our sun.

Our sun emits different levels of radiation, and is extremely active. At different times, the sun can emit solar x-rays and solar storms. This is called geometric activity. This activity will increase the energy within our atmosphere and it is thought that paranormal investigations can be better performed during these times since this radiation increases the earth’s electromagnetic field.

The Long Island Paranormal Investigators (establish in 2003), had put together a very good article that covers the effects of Solar and Geometric Activity on paranormal activity.

“It is theorized that paranormal entities (ghosts, spirits etc) are at least in part based on or composed of energy. This theory is strongly supported as many encounters with the paranormal coincide with measurements of relatively high or unusual energy levels (electrical, magnetic, thermal etc) at the same time and location. It is theorized that entities somehow tap into available ambient sources of energy, drawing on them to help constitute and manifest themselves.

We typically think of energy in the form of electricity. Our modern world is full of high electric sources. But there are other sources of energy that are similarly potent and occur naturally. Two such sources are solar and geomagnetic.

Solar energy is most commonly thought of as simply light. While light is a component of solar energy, the sun also emits a constant stream of highly charged particles that shower the Earth everyday: X-Rays, Gamma Rays, Cosmic Rays, Alpha radiation etc. It is these high energy particles that interact with the atmosphere and the Earth’s natural magnetic field that cause the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights).

Fortunately for us better than 99% of these particles are blocked by the Earth’s magnetic field and filtered by the atmosphere (see the movie “The Core” for a fictional example of what would happen if the magnetic field stopped). It is theorized that ghosts and spirits might be able to use this constant shower of high energy particles as an energy source to manifest themselves.”

Connect to the Long Island Paranormal Society for the complete article.

If you are investigation a location and do not recover any evidence, make note of the atmospheric conditions at the time of your investigation. Ask yourself, “Is there enough energy for the spirits to manifest themselves?” Could results be different if there was a change in weather conditions or solar activity?

Remember, paranormal investigating is a relatively new field, but with a larger amount of energy to use, it is theorized that the frequency of paranormal activity is increased.

Here is a quick tutorial (and guideline) for adding a location to the database. I have wanted to get the manual out there, but in the essence of time, I am just creating a quick article to get this posted to everyone.

Once you get into the hang of this procedure, it should only take about 10-15 minutes to research and add a location. Just keep in mind, you can always come back to a location and add more information at a later time.

Note: Please keep the following standards before the location is shown to the public (dba approved).

• Each location must have a picture.
• Each location must have the latitude and longitude coordinates.
• Each location must have at least 1 history record.
• Each location must have at least 1 paranormal claim record.
• The web address under the demographic information must be the official web address for the location.
• Each location should have a demographic rank.

The following are optional items:

• Official web address.
• Phone number.
• Stories.
• Evidence.
• Resources.
• Comments.

So here is how I do it:

• Find the picture and save it to your desktop.
  

   

  Once I find out a location name (either web, Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures, books, magazine… etc), I immediate do a web search to see if I can find a picture of the location. If the location is not a popular place, this can be tricky… you definitely want the right picture. Once you have the picture, save it to you desktop. (i.e. Right Click save as… )

   

• Find the official website (if you can).
  

   

  Now, 7 out of 10 times, when I find the picture of the location, I find the official website for the location. When you add the URL for the demographic information for the location, it should only be the office website for that location. If you cannot find an official website for the location… just leave that field blank. The reason is, when you look at the design of the website and database… naturally flowing, that should be the office website of the location. Not saying that if you find a website that is NOT the office website that you discard it completely… these should be added to the resource section or used as sources in the history or stories section.

   

• Seek out the address.
  

   

  If you find the official website, in most cases there will be the address and phone number for the location. If you don’t find the official website, you may have to dig a bit more to location the address and phone number. If all else fails, then just add the city and state.

   

• Add the demographic information.
  

   

  Once I have found the information in steps 1-3, I then start the record on PANICd. I go to the location page, and click on the submit a new location button. I enter the name of the location (Please be sure to use correct capitalization here) and move onto the edit screen. Here is the steps I use to enter the demographic information and it cuts down the steps tremendously:

1. Upload the location’s picture first. This way you don’t have to save the information then come back to the screen.
2. Enter in the address.
3. Click the GEOCODE button (or enter the lat and long if you found that instead)
4. Calculate and enter the Demographic Rank:
   1. Name = 1 point.
   2. Picture = 1 point.
   3. Address = 1 point.
   4. Latitude and Longitude = 1 point.
   5. Phone = 1 point.
   6. Official Web address = 1 point.
5. Now click the save information.
6. You will have to go back into the edit mode and dba approve if you are a database administrator entering the location.

    

• Find at least one history record.
  

  The first history record should be the history of the location. Save paranormal stories for later history records or for the stories section. As you read through the location page, the next logical information that should be found is the history of the location. The history information does not have to be long, just something that includes: who owned the site, when it was built, what purpose it served. In my readings of doing paranormal investigation research, they say that this is important since this information may help explain paranormal activity. A site should not be dba approved without a history location record.
  

  After you find the history record, add it to the location by doing a copy/paste. Please be sure to perform the following while copying the information:

  • Make sure you strip out all links within the text. You can do this easily by right clicking on the link and selecting remove <a> tag. In most cases, these links only point to pages on the website that you copy from and do not work once you copy it over to our database. If the links work, keep them. If they don’t, it is just good practice to remove them.
  • You can include images if they work. If they do not show up when you view the page… just remove the images.
  • YOU MUST INCLUDE A SOURCE – It would suck to be shut down for copyright infringement. Please include the source to your information, especially if you copy/paste it verbatim.
  • Make sure you DBA approve the history record.

     

• Add a claim (or claims).
  

  Realistically, you would not be adding this site location if there wasn’t a paranormal claim. So make sure you add the claims to the location.

  A few notes about this, and this is important since I didn’t mention it in the beginning:

  • The paranormal claim is the main index for the evidence records; therefore, the claims should be short once or two sentences. For example: If you come across something like: Strange voices were heard, toilets flush by themselves, and shadows were seen. This would be three separate claim records:
    • Some people have reported hearing strange noises.
    • Toilets have been reported flushing by themselves.
    • Shadows were seen in the (would be nice to have the area within the location).
  • So in short, the more claims, the better.
  • If you have a large chunk of text, I suggest putting in the large chunk under stories, then go through and pull out the individual claim records. Under the stories you can cite the sources.

     

• Add stories.
  

  The stories section is designed the same as the history section. It is actually verbatim since I copied it from the history section, so the same rules apply here. If you have a paranormal story, I would place it under the stories section instead of the history section. If you have a story section that explains the history of the location, then place it under the history section.

  Just make sure, you site your sources.

• Add resources.
  

  As you are performing your research, you may come across other website that refers to the location. Remember that our website is a collection of information for paranormal locations, so the more information the better.

  As time permits, I will add validation to these forms, but for now please make sure you enter all of the information for the resources:

  • URL
  • Display As
  • Description

  This information is there for a reason, it is actually to give kudos to the other website in hopes they give us a link back, plus the more information we have for SEO the better. Even if it is redundant information… add all three things.

• Add evidence.
  

  I know we have not started investigations yet, and I know we have not got other paranormal investigators on board yet… but believe it or now, this is the most important part of the entire database. This is what people are looking for, and this is how we are going to sell the website.

  It just so happens, that Marianne and I did have some evidence when we started this project that I was able to add to a couple of locations. Funny thing is at the time we didn’t even know we had it… but I digress on that.

  Here is how I find some evidence…. Once I have my demographic, history, and claims. I pop over to YouTube and do a search…. Example: tolomato cemetery paranormal evidence

  You will be surprised what you find.

  A note about video evidence:
  

  When you add the video evidence, get the embed code from YouTube, not the link. Make sure the settings are no wider than 480px X 385px, and select the look of the grey background.

  What I do is:

  • Click the embed button.
  • Take the check off the Include related videos.
  • Check the second box for the grey/dark grey colors
  • Copy and paste the code into the embed code box
  • Before I save the information… change the width=”640″ in the code to width=”480″ then add a description and save it.

  This will keep continuity throughout the database.

• Add comments.
  

  Adding a comment about your location is a good way to get a conversation going… once we get more members, and traffic to the website.

• Vote for your location.
  

  Doesn’t hurt to submit your opinion about the location, and this surely will add to the location’s rank. Start off the votes but adding your own.

• Make sure all is dba approved.
  

  Once all is said and done, go through all the records that you have added and make sure that they are all dba approved. I am working on a quicker way for database administrators to do this… but if they are not dba approved, they will not show to the public.

As you view the location information, you will notice an entry under the Database Summary called Demographic Rank.

The demographic rank serves two purposes. The first, it tells the database administration team, how much demographic information has been collected for the location, and second, it aids in the calculation of the database rank for the location.

Here is how the demographic rank is calculated:

There is a total possibility of six points for this indicator.

• Name of location = 1 point
• Photograph for location = 1 point
• Street address for location = 1 point
• Phone number for location = 1 point
• Web address for location = 1 point
• Latitude and Longitude for the location = 1 point

As mentioned above, the demographic rank also contributes to the calculation of the database rank for the location.

The demographic rank will be calculated and entered by the database administrators.

If you have a Word Press account on a blog, you easily setup Word to easily publish your document as a Word Press post. (Your Word Press administrator must turn on the XML-RPC option within the Settings/Writing section of the blog for this to work correctly). To publish from Word:

1. The first time you will have to setup your account. Do this by:
   1. File New Document and Select Blog Post.
   2. These click on Manage Accounts
   3. Click on New
   4. Under Blog Provider, choose Word Press
   5. Click Next
   6. Enter http://www.panicd.com/articles/xmlrpc.php under site location
   7. Enter your username (YOU NEED AN ARTICLE USRENAME AND PASSWORD, supplied by PANICd)
   8. Enter your password
   9. Check remember password (or you will have to enter it every time you post)
   10. Click Ok
   11. Word will then go out and establish the connection to Word Press and notify you that the connection is good.
   12. You only have to do this the first time.
2. Enter your article.
3. Enter a title
4. Select a category by:
   1. Clicking on Insert Category at the top.
   2. Select the appropriate category
5. You can insert pictures into your article as well.
6. Once you are ready to publish, click on the publish button.

From this point on, you only have to do the New/Blog Post and select your account. You will not have to establish your account again.