Have you ever wondered why paranormal investigators on shows like “Ghost Hunters” use flashlights to communicate with ghosts, spirits, and other paranormal beings? In this post, I talk about why they use this method, how it works, and how you can do it as well.
If you’re wondering what the best flashlight for ghost hunting is, check out my guide here.
How Do Ghost Hunters Use Flashlights To Communicate With Spirits?
Here is a common example of what you might see on a ghost hunt. Let’s say you’ve just arrived at a haunted building with your team, or perhaps with a guide. You’ve arrived in a room that you believe to be inhabited by spirits, perhaps you’re EMF meter is giving signals, and would like to communicate with them.
Although you can use devices like a spirit box or other devices to communicate, you’ll often see what are called “flashlight sessions.”
Usually you’ll see three or four flashlights used, often with different color filters on each, which allows for more direct communication.
If you’re with a guide, or even by yourself or with your own group, you’ll lay the flashlights down a few feet apart from each other.
Now let’s talk about the flashlight you need to do these, and then we’ll get back to performing the sessions.
Using The Correct Flashlight
The show Ghost Hunters made this type of flashlight communication famous by doing this often. If you look close when you watch those episodes, you’ll see they always use the same flashlight, and this is for good reason.
The flashlight they always use is a Maglite, like this one. The reason that this type of flashlight is always used is for good reason. Besides being a great flashlight, which is why it was my top recommendation, the Maglite has a twist top to turn it on and off, instead of a button. This is extremely crucial.
Before the flashlight sessions begin, ghost hunters will twist the light just to the point where it turns on, and then turn it back the slightest amount until it is off. This leaves it sitting with the transistors that power the light the minimum distance away.
How Ghosts Turn Flashlights On and Off
This is a bit contested, and i’ll tell you why in a second. Most people that do this type of communication believe that spirits are able to turn the light on and off for the same reason that EMF meters are able to detect their presence in the first place, they are made of energy.
Since they are made of EMF radiation, they can help bridge the resistors on the flashlight and turn it on and off to communicate.
Letting Sprits Communicate Using The Flashlight
Ok, now lets get back to our scenario. You’re out with a paranormal guide, or out to try this yourself. You have 3 or 4 of these Maglites with you, each with a different color filter, and you lay them all on the floor.
Now, you can ask questions like, “if you passes away in this home, turn on the red light”, or “if you would like us to leave, flash the blue light”, etc.
This gives the spirits another medium to communicate with.
Not only has this practice been accomplished on shows like “Ghost Hunters” but there are many testimonials of this providing an unbelievably way to communicate with ghosts and spirits.
Here is a video example of a ghost hunting team from Ohio State performing a simple flashlight session at the Sedamsville Rectory in Ohio.
Skepticism About Using Flashlights For Ghost Communication
Althought many professional paranormal investigators and ghost hunters have used this method for many years to communicate with spirits, not everyone is convinced that this works.
Notably a German YouTuber named Burkhard Reike believes that there is a simple scientific explanation as to what is happening.
Just like we talked about above, the way these Maglite flashlights work, is that there are two small pieces of metal, and when they are touching, the circuit is complete which turns the light on. When they are disconnected, it turns off.
Burkhard ran trials for weeks trying to figure out how this process worked, and ultamitaly decided it all came down to the reflector. The reflector is the mirror like piece of metal that surrounds the bulb.
He decided that when the flashlight is turned on, the bulb produces a large amount of heat, and given enough time it can actually get quite hot. As it gets hotter, it slightly expands. This expansion can cause the head of the flashlight that controls the on/off mechanism to slightly turn, enough to disconnect the two pieces of metal which turns the light off.
As the flashlight cools, it contracts, which brings the pieces of metal back together, cause it to turn back on, and this process continues back and forth.
Here is a video of Burkhard demonstrating how this works.
Does This Mean That Flashlight Sessions Don’t Work?
Not necessarily. Believers in the process argue that they have had personal experiences where no warm up time was required before the flashlight began flashing on and off to their questions.
They also say that this expansion theory would equate to a consistent pace of the light turning on and off as the expansion occurred. However in many people’s experience there is no pattern to how the flashlight flashes, making it more likely that it is actually communications.
Final Thoughts On Flashlight Sessions
Ultimately how well flashlight communication efforts work takes effort and experimentation. Some people are skeptical but from the stories i’ve heard, as well as seen, I personally believe that it is totally plausible spirits could use flashlights to communicate.
Since spirits are made of energy, it is completely plausible to me they could bridge the small gap in a flashlight to help them talk with the living.