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Spirit Box

Ghost hunting for beginners: run a baseline, then a question session

Skipping the baseline is a common first-timer mistake — an ordinary boiler or fridge noise gets mistaken for a voice. Start every ghost hunt with a baseline instead: a few quiet minutes that tell you what the place normally sounds and feels like before you ask it anything. Then run a short, repeatable question session and write down what actually happened. Spirit Box has both steps as free protocols, Baseline Sweep and Direct Question Loop.

3 min read · Updated 2026-09-16

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Beginner equipment: what you really need

  • A phone with Spirit Box for sessions, notes and a log.
  • A flashlight and a spare battery or power bank.
  • Headphones if you plan to try Ghost Box later.
  • A partner. Two people catch contamination one person misses.

Step 1: the Baseline Sweep (3-5 min, free)

  1. Open the home menu, tap Protocols and choose Baseline Sweep.
  2. Put the phone in the middle of the room and stay quiet for 30 seconds.
  3. Go back to the home screen, tap Sound Analysis, then Start Listening. Watch the level percentage to learn the room's normal noise.
  4. Do not ask questions. This is your control session.
  5. Write down electronics, people nearby and the weather in your notes or the Investigation Journal.

That level percentage is just microphone loudness. A quiet room at -45 dB reads 25%; a sharp sound at -18 dB reads 70%. A word only ever appears on a genuine peak — louder than -20 dB, and at least 10 dB above the average of the last half second. Know what your room's usual level looks like and a later peak becomes much easier to judge fairly.

Step 2: the Direct Question Loop (5 min, free)

  1. Choose Direct Question Loop in Protocols.
  2. Start a Words session with Start Session.
  3. Ask one yes/no or short-answer question aloud.
  4. Wait at least 10 seconds before asking again.
  5. Note any repeated words in the summary.
  6. Ask the same question twice to see whether an output repeats.

The protocols suggest 3 to 5 minutes. A free session lasts up to 3 minutes; tap Watch Ad for +2 min once to reach 5 minutes, or use PRO for up to 20.

What the Evidence Report measures

With PRO, Session Complete adds an Evidence Report: a score from 8% to 96%, with a tier attached. It climbs with session length, the number and rate of outputs, sound peaks, repeated words and words seen in earlier sessions. All it describes is how busy your log was, not whether anything paranormal happened — which, oddly, is exactly what makes it useful for comparing a quiet baseline against the question session that follows.

The moon and the clock: for fun

Tap the moon chip on the home screen for the Lunar Calendar: phase, illumination, and a Paranormal Activity Estimate. It is pure calendar arithmetic built from moon phase and hour of the day, nothing sensed, and the app is honest enough to mark it entertainment only.

Paranormal Activity Estimate examples
Moon phaseHourEstimate
Full Moon23:0094% (Extreme)
First Quarter14:0038% (Moderate)

Beginner mistakes

  • Skipping the baseline, then treating ordinary noises as responses.
  • Asking long, open questions. Short ones are easier to match with an output.
  • Keeping only the good outputs. Log misses too.
  • Going alone or without permission.

Questions and answers

How do I use a spirit box for ghost hunting?
Record a baseline first, then run short sessions with one question at a time and a pause of at least 10 seconds. In Spirit Box, the Direct Question Loop protocol lays out those steps.
Does the full moon really matter?
The app's estimate rises at full moon and late at night because that is how the formula is written. It measures nothing, and the app says so.
What is a baseline in ghost hunting?
A quiet control period with no questions, used to learn a place's normal sound, activity and conditions, so you can judge later changes against it.
Is the beginner toolkit free?
Yes. Baseline Sweep, Direct Question Loop, Sound Analysis, Words and the Lunar Calendar are all in the free version.

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