March 12, 2008
GH: McArthur's House
It seems like it's been a while since TAPS had an urgent investigation to help a troubled family. Personally I like these episodes because they really do focus on finding ways to help the people, especially the kids, and less on trying to disprove (or prove) the actual haunting.
This particular case seemed pretty severe on the surface. The daughter apparently saw three individual spirits regularly and they reportedly harrassed her in various ways ranging from staring at her, telling her to get out of the room and moving objects such as her bedroom door. The mother and grandmother both reported hearing the daughter (in a room by herself) telling someone to leave her alone and they also had individual experiences, such as the bathroom sink faucet turning on by itself.
Right off the bat Jay & Grant came up with alternate explanations for the moving door and faucet. The door swung very easily and even a small breeze could make it swing fairly quickly. For the faucent, Grant was of the opinion that pressure fluctuations in the local water system could occasionally overpower an old faucet of the design in this particular bathroom and that he felt this might be the probable explanation for that experience.
They also found a huge electromagnetic field coming off an electrical box in the laundry area of the basement right under the living room, and they went through their usual spiel on how high EM fields can cause paranoia (and skin irritations!) but I'm not sure how relevant it was considering I don't recall any major activity being reported in those areas. Nevertheless they felt compelled to bring it up during the reveal.
The investigation was mostly uneventful, but I thought it was a little uncharacteristic the way Jay & Grant "debunked" everything. It almost seemed like they were looking for an excuse not to call the place haunted — which, don't get me wrong, is fine but I just thought it was a little odd. I'd almost prefer it if they kept their bias consistent instead of changing it in this seemingly deliberate manner.
During the analysis there was only one piece of evidence found, an EVP. There appears to be a whispering voice, then Kris speaks. Jay asks Kris if she's absolutely positive that the whisper wasn't also her speaking and she says not only is she absolutely positive, but if you listen closely you can actually hear that the whisper seems to continue even when Kris starts talking, so it couldn't possibly be her.
They played the tape again, and while I think it's possible maybe one of the sound guys was whispering to the camera operator or something it does sound like the whispering continues after Kris starts talking. Bizarrely, Jay just shook his head and said he still thinks the whispering sounds like Kris and that he recommends following the "when in doubt, throw it out" policy — which seems to rarely be invoked under normal circumstances.
In the end I think they wanted to help the family and maybe they felt the best way to do that was to go back and tell them their house isn't haunted and that their little girl has nothing to be afraid of, but frankly I think it damages TAPS' credibility to treat this evidence as weak when there have been so many times they've taken similar evidence (and similar personal experiences) as one-step removed from concrete proof.
The other problem I see is that they really didn't address the fact that this girl consistently has reported being harrassed by spirits — to the point where she changed bedrooms three times and will no longer enter any of those rooms alone, insisting instead on sleeping in her mother's room. By reaching the conclusion that all of the reported activity is easily explained it seems to me they've tilted the mother towards the belief that her daughter is simply lying to her because she's scared of being alone — and it's possible that might be the case but if it's not then they may have done more harm than good. If the girl really is seeing things, her mother is less likely to believe her now.
Filed under Ghost Hunters, Posts by Logisti
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Comments on GH: McArthur's House »
CrowTRobot @ 8:03 am
After claiming the prison haunted (with almost no evidence), it seemed this episode was put in just to show TAPS declare a place not haunted.
Still, I guess all little kids go through that phase and will come up with any reason to sleep with their parents. It actually crossed my mind that the girl found her mother 'bought' the ghost stories, so she embellished them and continued to get what she wanted - to sleep in her mother's bed.
I really liked the idea of having the mother sleep in the girl's room like a sleep-over with popcorn, tv, etc. and eventually using that as a reward if she can sleep in her room alone. Knowing how that works would be quite revealing.
Still, it seems odd that the little girl would continue the pretending when no one is in the room and, as far as she knows, her mother can't hear her.
Also, didn't her mother say something about talking with the grandmother about ghosts/spirits/something but never around the little girl? Anybody with kids will tell you, if you talk about something often enough, your child is going to found out what it is.
Overall, I was disappointed with this episode. It was obvious TAPS's mind was already made up: The prison was going to be haunted and the house was not.
Wes @ 8:59 am
Agreed - the "evidence" in the house was no weaker than at other locations deemed "haunted." Anyone who's spent time around young children knows there is often no dilineation between reality and fantasy. Also, it seemed Jay and Grant were implying the EVP was the sound of Kris on a previous recording that "bled" through or somehow wasn't erased from a previous recording — which makes sense. If that's possible, then, how can any EVP be deemed solid evidence?
CrowTRobot @ 11:10 am
Oh, and another thought (HEY! I got time). When trying to communicate with the spirit of the child that was harrassing the little girl, Steve talked about provoking the spirit to get it to manifest itself. If, IF, the spirit is that of a child, wouldn't provoking scare it away? Shouldn't he try speaking to it in a gentle, calming, non-threatening manner?
Also, I don't remember if the little girl was at the house that night, but shouldn't she have stayed in her room, with TAPS waiting in the vacinity? Then, when she claimed the ghosts were there, TAPS could come in and do their thing?
Yea, yea, I know. It's just a tv show….
D @ 1:08 pm
I know people may not want to go here, but there are psychological explanations for some of the girl's experiences as well. I'm not generalizing beyond that, but it is something to consider in this particular case.
Logisti @ 2:05 pm
That crossed my mind as well, but it fits with my general opinion that, all ghost hunting aside, TAPS seemed to pick a conclusion (the girl is pretending to see ghosts because she is scared) and ran with it — and if that conclusion isn't the correct one then the family will be farther from a solution than before.
I could forgive them for their hypocritical approach to this investigation if they were actually doing a thorough job helping the family but it just seems to me they took everything that's wrong and unscientific about their approach to ghost hunting and used those tactics to reach similarly unsupported "conclusions" about this family's problem; then acted on those flawed conclusions in a way that could be potentially damaging.
salem @ 3:05 pm
I also recall that Jay or Grant mentioned that the little girl knew who they were and asked if they were going to get rid of the ghosts. Is it possible that the mom watched the show and the girl had seen this show and gotten frightened that there were ghosts in her home too?
My thoughts? If they found no evidence they could have sat down with the little girl afterwards and told her they took care of everything and then maybe followed up in a few days and see if she had anymore problems.
Todd @ 8:36 am
As I was listening to the explanation, the one thing that I couldn't avoid thinking was, "Okay, this is a personal haunting experience and not a location haunt." It reminded me of the investigation they did in the home with the moving statuette of William Shakespeare or something. They finally resolved that it was the teen-age daughter that was the catalyst of the experiences. Or the case of urn of the mother's ashes being connected to the daughter.
Salem, I agree with you. My son, who is 8, started watching GH and began to experience sounds and other "haunts". We had to constantly remind him that our house is not haunted. But it was very real.
CrowTRobot @ 11:07 am
Some excellent points. Todd, I was about your son's age when I'd stay up to watch old horror movies. Usually I'd be scared a night or two and that would be it. But one movie, The Invisible Man, bothered me for a long time - simply because I couldn't see him. And every sound for nights had me looking for some moving object. It is very possible this girl does watch GH with her mother and is having the same reaction. And an earlier GH episode or two had ghosts bothering a little girl.
Also the fact that the mother believed enough in ghosts to call TAPS implies to me that she and the grandmother may very possibly have put alot of the fears into the girl's head. Indeed, that may be where the girl got the idea to use ghosts as a reason to sleep with her mother - if that's all this is.
And I agree with Todd that, if this is a haunting, it seemed like a personal haunting which is why I thought the little girl should have stayed in her room that night.
But I think D may have nailed it. While a lot of what the little girl said and did could be traced to her desire to sleep with her mother; according to the mother and grandmother, they would overhear her in the room by herself talking to the ghosts. THAT bothers me. Whether she's REALLY talking to ghosts or just THINKS she is - there's an issue that needs to be addressed and - on tv, anyway - TAPS did not do that.
Sandsy04 @ 6:22 pm
I couldn't help but think there was more going on than Jay and Grant were letting on. It seemed that they were alluding to it being more personal and family related. I'm not sure if there were more issues that we didn't see or hear about, but that seemed to me why Jay and Grant were leaning more towards it being non-paranormal. Of course, I have no way of knowing that and it's completely based on opinion. But it seems more plausible to me that the girl's problem stems from personal/family related issues rather than it being paranormal.
Robbin @ 8:28 am
There were several things about this episode that I found unusual.
1. The mother said the daughter was out of the house and I thought unaware that TAPS was coming. At the end they show Jay and Grant interacting with the daughter. Then they show Grant saying when we met her she asked if we were coming to get rid of the ghosts (something to that effect).
2. If this child was so frightened for over 7 months was it and had to change rooms three times, don't you think the mother would have tried to get her child to sleep in her own room.
3. How many of us right now are living with a high EM field and have no idea it is there nor are we seeing ghosts? How would that EM emitting box effect the second story of the house where the child's bedroom is?
4. It seemed to me that they did not consider their previously explained theory that girls tend to draw spirits to them when they reach a certain age. Granted this child is younger but is that not a possibility?
While there really may be a psychological or family issue taking place that would cause this child to be so terrified (my personal feeling), it seemed like they did not take this seriously at all, and perhaps did toss in a non-haunting for good measure.
numyer @ 8:43 am
I just have the same feeling as Sandsy04, that there was more going on than we know about which caused Jay and Grant to lean more toward the family/personal troubles. If I am wrong about that (which I of course have NO idea if its correct), than maybe they did rush to judgment on it not being a haunting.
Veronimica @ 1:21 pm
I have to agree with numyer there; they mentioned that the mother and daughter moved in there about a year ago, which leads me to speculate that something rather drastic happened in the girl's family life; emotional trauma manifests in children in various ways. But, like Jay and Grant, I'm not a psychologist. I would be offended if they tried to diagnose anything like that… I think when they have situations like this, they do their best to handle it delicately. Also, this story was only shown for about 10 minutes of the episode, so there could have been a lot more conversation between the mother and the guys that we didn't see. Just my thoughts.
Lil D @ 11:55 am
What I thought was most disturbing about this episode is how quick they were to point out that the girl was making things up. Sure, that's a possibility. But given the number of times J & G have said a commercial site or tourist trap is haunted, I'm a bit skeptic to that.
Actually, I tend to be skeptic about a lot of things. But this one really bugged me. Especially, in light of what you pointed out, that TAPS hasn't been investigating private residences.
I'm really not that sure about this season.
Oh, and one more thing, leave Tango alone!
Ghost Hunters: Attleboro House, MA @ 12:22 am
[...] with a very strong reputation and not finding anything, this reminded me a little too much of the McArthur's House investigation in that they seemed to decide ahead of time that the best thing for the family was if [...]
Tonya @ 11:05 am
First off I want to say that I am not here to try to change anyones opinions of the paranormal.
I am part of a paranormal group that formed because of this investigation. The way that this family was left after this investigation was awful. They were left with many more questions. The evidence(evp) was presented to the family and they were told that they could not say one way or another if the house was 'haunted."
The way that the show was edited was to "debunk" every thing they could have found.
The family did inform the little girl that TAPs was comming and there purpose for being there. She does not watch there show or scary movies, she is four.
They did not include that the people that live in the other side of the house(it is an apartment)also have had the same experiences,and they have live there for 25 years,they did not wish to be exploited on tv.
Also they did some shotty research saying the house is 200 years old, the house was built in the 20's.
I also want to put out there the little girl is still not sleeping on her own.
Reguardless of anyones beliefs this show was badly done and the support given to the family was horrible, a person who is away from their family so much should not be giving giving parental advise.