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It's Hungry Ghost Month, which means oranges, food, incense and other offerings have once again become a familiar sight around Singapore.

But while most people leave their offerings and go about their day, one Singaporean decided to bring along something a little different.

An EMF meter.

Self-employed content creator @FTKito runs a social media channel largely dedicated to paranormal investigations and activities around Singapore.

So when he and his friends were making offerings on the 15th day of the Seventh Month, he decided to conduct a little experiment.

Could his EMF meter pick up anything unusual? The answer, depending on what you believe, was rather interesting.

An EMF meter measures electromagnetic fields, and in paranormal-investigation circles, such devices are often used based on the belief that spirits or other entities may affect electromagnetic fields when they're supposedly present.

Scientifically, however, an EMF spike is not evidence of paranormal activity. Everyday sources such as electrical wiring and electronic devices can affect readings too.

Before beginning, he tells 8days.sg that he tested the area to establish whether there were any readings.

"The baseline was none," he says, adding that he has footage of the test that wasn't included in his Instagram video.

He also tells us there were no visible electrical boxes or wiring near the meter, and his phone was on a tripod about five metres away, meaning these couldn't have been the causes of the EMF reading spiking. 

In his video, FTKito is seen going through the offerings while leaving the EMF meter nearby.

When it came time to offer a cigarette, the reading spiked.

According to FTKito, the meter went all the way into the red, registering more than 20 milligauss (mG).

"It remained elevated for some time," he tells us, though he isn't sure for exactly how long.

"I never noticed as I was burning the offerings,” he says, adding that he also didn’t repeat the cigarette test.

Around the time of the spike, an unusual sound can apparently be heard in the recording.

Interestingly, FTKito didn't notice anything while he was actually there.

"I'm not sure [where it came from]. I didn't realise it at that moment until I played back the video while editing," he tells us.

His friends, who were making the offerings with him, didn't mention hearing anything unusual on site either.

It was only after the video went online that commenters began pointing out what they thought they could hear.

In the clip, FTKito is also heard saying: "I think they are here already."

By "they", he was referring to what he believes may have been entities around them.

"I believe there are entities around us. It's beyond the third dimension," he tells us.

But ask him whether the reading means the offerings had officially been "accepted" by spirits and FTKito is careful not to overstate things.

"I'm just a normal person, not a trained spiritual person," he says.

For every person convinced something paranormal happened, there will probably be another pointing towards a perfectly ordinary explanation for the spike.

In fact, when we ask what he'd say to sceptics who believe the reading could simply have come from an electronic source, he had a straightforward answer: "The content I do isn't trying to prove anything. I'm just here documenting what I discovered.”

This wasn't his first time bringing an EMF meter around Singapore.

FTKito says he regularly tests readings at random locations and has even deliberately used the device around electrical sources and brightly lit environments in other videos.

So, did something unseen really turn up for a cigarette that night?

There's no way to know from an EMF reading, and FTKito tells us he isn't claiming otherwise.

Maybe the timing was simply a coincidence. Or maybe someone really wanted that cigarette?

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Photos: ftkito/IG,