Do Ghosts Prefer It In The Dark?

There seems to be a distinct split of opinion between paranormal investigators when it comes down to lighting conditions. Many investigators whilst staking out a haunted house will turn the lights off whilst others will keep them turned on. Personally I always leave the lights on. I don’t see how anyone can have scientifically controlled conditions if they turn all the lights off and as there are many witness testimonies that clearly show ghosts can be and are seen under normal lighting conditions, is there any justification for doing vigils in the dark?

Little justification for doing it the dark other than that it would be more fun. The difference would seem to be one of paranormal investigation as sport/adventure or objective/scientific research. Take caving for example, navigating underground using just your caplamp is all part of the challenge for a sports caver, whereas a caver with the objective aim of producing a commercial survey of a section of cave would take down a much more powerful lighting system so he/she could do the job properly.

with the absence of visual information the mind is a wonderful thing at filling in the blanks with interesting stuff, so a darkened haunted house is great entertainment, but a quick watch of a horror movie and a trip to bed in a darkened home will provide no end of strange sightsand sounds.

Experiments are best done in a well lit room
There is no proof to suggest ghosts prefer the dark, merely that some television ghost hunters do in absence of any documentable evidence.

Better with the lights on I say.

Vigils in the dark or vigils in the light....

The group i used to do investigations with did vigils with lights on, unless outside of course.

One of the first indoor vigils i was part of used full lighting downstairs and muted lighting in the upstairs area, just the wall lights not the ceiling ones so we could see what we were doing and not fall over anything whilst moving around. All in all a good vigil, we got sounds from upstairs where myself and my team were without our shoes on so as not to make any noise for the people downstairs to hear. We were asked what were we were dragging across the floor.

I went on an investigation with another group who did them in the dark, or more accuratly what they said would be normal lighting conditions i.e. If a light is normally on it stays on as in lets say a corridor light in a hotel. But in individual rooms at 1am the occupant would probably be asleep so the light would be off (unless they are scared of the dark). The mind doesnt half play tricks when your awake at 2-3am and can't see your hand in front of your face, or are you more receptive

Both approches have their own merits, on one hand if you have the lights on you are less likely to make noise falling over something you cant see so less chance of something inadverantly going bump in the night, and if you have the lights off or "normal lighting" you would get a better impression of what if anything has been seen by previous sightees.

The really big question is, why do ghosts only come out at night ? Do we regress to a primal stage where the dark contains all sorts of horrible beasties that will drag us out of our caves and eat us alive ?

The key benefit to doing vigils at night is that the location will be generally quiet, deserted and the environment easier too control . But I believe having the lights off just leads to an experiment in sensory deprivation.

I always thought it had to be dark for a ghost to appear.