I haven't watched the whole video, but I have seen the YouTube clips of the brick analysis. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMzfVgYRWII) Both the analysts talk a great deal about how you can't see a string. However, they don't talk about the much easier possibility.

Here's how I would've done the brick shot:

1. Turn on my video camera.
2. Toss a brick into the corner.
3. Reverse the footage.

Voila! Now we have video footage of a brick apparently taking off of its own accord. No need for cumbersome, potentially visible strings.

It's a VERY old cinematic trick, and the fact that none of their analysts even mentioned it is… interesting.

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Not sure that you'd need to be an expert to splice it in– looks like there are easy splice points right before and after, at least in the footage on YouTube.

I'm not sure that their experts are quite so expert or independent. The physicist claims that you'd need a thick string to lift the brick. If I were going to have a brick thrown at me, I'd make sure it was fake (and very light).

The main thing leading me back toward the string theory is that what Slim the video analyst calls a levitating board looks a heck of a lot like a string caught in the light.

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hehehehehe… string theory.

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A string, possibly. Reversed film, not. If you examine the footage frame by frame (I have too much time) you can see the "brick" twists slightly, is stationary for a second, and then takes off. Obviously, a thrown brick wouldn't settle on something, pause, and then twist the way it did.

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[...] sure when those renovations are coming. Some of you may have seen a two-hour special called "Ghost Adventures" which was received rather well and I believe this location, as well as the next one (The Old [...]

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[...] 23, 2008GH: Old Washoe Club This is another location featured in the "Ghost Adventures" two-hour special. It's got some interesting history behind it. There was a [...]

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Yes, it seems a little to convenient for these two guys to:

1 Waltz into this specific room in a pitch black basement
2. Shine their flashlights in unison,
3. Where their hand-held cameras are pointed
4. In almost the exact location of where a brick sits and suddenly flies across the room.

Its as if it happened on cue.

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On Oct. 17th at 9pm Extreme Ghost Adventures the show will air on the Travel channel. It will be interesting to compare their documentary with their new show.

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To the guy who complained about having his posts deleted: We don't delete posts that disagree with our ideas. Disagreeing is perfectly allowed. We only delete posts that are rude and obnoxious.

Pro Tip: If you're calling people names and throwing out insults, your post will get deleted. Otherwise, generally speaking you're probably fine.

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30 Oct 2008

I just finished watching the show about the Goldfield Hotel and there was a scene where they were walking down the hallway and they saw a shadow or figure and decided to play back what they had saw, mistake. As I was watching and listening the playback and what they had just recorded was a bit different. On the live shot he says, "did you see it and he says woah!". On the playback, on what they just filmed, he says, "did you see that (2-3 second pause) did you see that.". I rewinded my DVR to make sure and sure enough the live and the playback were different. The so called expert should have caught it if he reviewed the video, what a sham!

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Interesting. Is it possible, though, that the dialog (in real life) went, "(1)Did you see that? (2)Did you see that? (3)Whoa!" and maybe the first time they show (1) (2) and the playback was (2) (3)?

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The Ghost Adventures that was just shown on Travel channel was re- edited from the 2006 version. There was a part in the basement where Zak is saying who is making all that noise and throwing all that stuff. The ing on throw was edited out in the original version, there were people who thought he cut the word short and was'nt supposed to say that because the brick being thrown was a set up. In the new version the words all there so it was obvoiusly an edit point. theres actually new footage that filled in the events a little better.

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I have to rewatch that episode,the brick thing was funny scary but the way they yelled and left each other was hilarious…..just like i did scaring a friend of mine….Why didn`t they go back in there? and why was the brick going across and not at them????,,,,If I was a ghost iwould throw at someone to get rid of them,or try to grab them and scare the crap out of them……LMAO

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I just watched the episode in the Abandoned Mental Asylum and the footage of a ghostly hand grabbing Zak's arm.

I have my dvr all set for all the paranormal shows for this reason… it was staged. you see some nice footage of an hand breaking Zak's shadow and then a wide angle shot from about 15ft away to show that it wasnt staged and somehow only Zaks camera caught the footage.

If you look at it closer the footage from Zaks camera you can see where his shadow was in prox to the doorway and where the IR light from his camera was pointed. If you then look at the wide angle shot zak is cleary further from the door and his IR light is against the back wall as opposed to the pilar and sideroom as it was in his shot.

Overall the show is decent for entertainment but as far as being a true documentary, it a sad and depressing attempt.

Justin

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Justin, I have to agree with you. During that scene Zac and Nick are clearly visible in the wide angle lens being used by Aaron, who is behind them. Later, during the “on the spot” analysis, Zac points out an orb that he claims touched him and made him grab his arm. Now that is excellent documentation for his EXACT location during this “ghost hand” snafu. When he claims the orb touched him and possibly manifested itself into the ghost hand you can see his shadow’s location is around 3 feet from the corner of the wall. Then when we see the replay in Zac’s camera (the only one that was able to catch the haunted hand) you can see that his shadow location is around 1 foot from the corner of the wall. Nice…
Just like my questions about the Riddle house and the falling bird cage (Not a string theory, but who moved all that stuff around in the attic after the initial tour and Aaron sitting up there by himself) I will come to the realization that it will never be answered by anyone “in the know.” Therefore, to conclude, I agree with your closing line, “The show is decent for entertainment, but as far as being a documentary” it leaves much (emphasis on the word, much) to be desired.

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I disagree about the Mental Institution in NJ…I think had a LOT more "facts" in them then other episodes. It doesn't make sense that they would suddenly pay attenton to details…
~~YOYO

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actually your talk about the differences in distance when he's near the corner, the other guy is USING A WIDE ANGLE.. you said it yourself. a wider lens can completely distort size and distance in comparison to a standard lens or even a slightly wider one. I have a a century optics MKII baby death for my camera and i can stand a foot away from objects and it look like I'm 6-7 feet away. just judging distances on cares is ridiculous and pointless. there's many times cameras can make things appear far from what they naturally look like. and all the talk about the brick getting thrown by a string… its not a string, you can see it doesn't drop like if it was "tugged" by a string. when he switches it to what looks to be thermal, black and white. you can easily see there is no string. and also you can see the boards fall in the background. its not that hard to see. they clearly fall a different direction. how many strings did they have hooked up? is geppetto hanging out with the ghost adventures crew?? also saying they oh just happened to be in that room. the kooky lady took em to that room earlier, it was down near where they thought they saw the shadow at, or something move down the hall. everyone is like why didn't the ghost throw the brick at them.. do you want spirits to perform? is he gonna dance and make dinner for them next?

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Scared Stupid. You’re kidding me, right? Have you seen the clip? Go watch it it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNetYXoG4S8 At 2:53 Zac will claim to have seen a shadow hand appear. Freeze the movie and look at the Ghost Adventures’ position. Zac will be in the lead with Nick behind him. Aaron, the guy with the alleged wide angle lens is obviously behind both of them and to the right because someone is filming this entire farce. We know there are only three people locked down in the facility so it has to be Aaron. Now look at Zac’s shadow on the wall.
I’m not going to get pulled in to a discussion about did Ghost Adventures fake evidence or not. Why? Because you have your viewpoint and I have mine and apparently they are not the same. But I will say this: Just to keep it honest, I was not the one who initially used the “wide angle lens” phrase. I was agreeing with an earlier post. I honestly don’t know that type of lens it was or the camera that was used, but I can definitely tell the end result. FAKE!
And here’s and interesting point on using a wide angle lens; if it distorts size and distance (you said it yourself) why would ANYONE use it to document the paranormal? The idea is to present facts as they are, not to distort them (either on purpose or accidently)–)–especially in a field where documentation, even when it's done correctly, is highly questioned.

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Ir'a juar roo bad that some of the skeptics, who have no bias, can't go to some of these places, I'm talking about the ones that have explanatinons for everything, here and on other sites, where I have seen the same names. Myself, I won't believe in a ghost until I see one. I did find the comments before Zak and Aaron (I think, not the scared guy who was put in the showers at Idaho State Prison), s little strange, but maybe they were talking about a room that they had heard something about or "felt heavy" as they put it, when doing the initial walk-through, we don't know this part, so have to give some benefit of the doubt, if we truly want to be without bias. But there was the boards moving in the room as well as someone else pointed out, and I saw on the video too. As to the comments Zak made about the noise and brick while doing the explanation about the room is that later, a News crew went in the room and supposedly caught evps stating they were responsible for the brick throwing. In this day and age of video editing, anything caught is going to be suspect. But I do have to give these guys credit for:
1. Only having 3 in the crew, remember the Halloween Episode this year on Ghost Hunters, when Grant the light cord puller, and Jason were sitting at the kitchen table, only to have that member of the film crew, came out of the door and got yelled at? I could have swore that was the pantry door that supposedly had no exits. But since the infamous Manson episode, and sharp-eyed skeptics, caught the video editing, plus Grant's obvious pulling the light cord in the Myrtle Plantation episode…these guys have no credibility.

2. The Ghost Adventures team's evidence isn't some obviously human coming out and dancing a jig on a static thermal imaging camera (where the haunted water fountain was) then going back where he came or a duck waddling person with a black silk sheet or veil over their head, going JUST to the end of a pool table and back behind the wall, if it's a ghost, why not continue? Their evidence is more realistic, like the mist that formed in the Iron Works. Sure, that could probably be fake video as well, but it isn't so blatenly obvious that it's a person, strangely, which is supposed to be cold, but gives off the same heat pattern as a human.

3. Their evp's suck, they aren't clear perfect voices like caught by Ghost Hunters. In the Idaho state prison episode, the supposed conversation, sounded like "Let me out" to me..but with "matrixing" working with the human ear as well as eyes..we don't know what it was. The screaming and other noises heard outside the prison in the yard, could very well have been coyotes, description sounded like that to me.

I think the turnover that Ghoat Hunters has with their crew, is because these people don't want to be part of the deception that's going on with them, but the contracts they signed, won't let them tell the real story why they left. Even the British "Moat Haunted team is a joke, more so than Grant & Jason. They always have pebbles and such thrown at them, even when investigating a place where Ghost Hunters have been, somehow pebbles fly at them.

But I really wish some of the people here, that have an explanation for everything (not meant derogatory) could get together with their cameras and such and visit these places overnight themselves and give us a realistic assessment of them. Wouldn't that be awesome? You never hear stories about this, people going into these places and coming out only to report it was quiet as a mouse, no shadow figures, no voices, nothing, and get locked in to boot. I'm disabled, obviously don't own any of that fancy equipment, and with just about 8k to live on a year, can't run off and do it myself. I would love to be able to do so, we all have this yearning to know what is beyond the grave, is there an afterlife? I had an experience as about a 12 year old. We lived in a small house, I came home from school, heard someone/thing run down the hallway, remember, very small house, hallway about 10 feet away and maybe 10 feet long, I thought my little sister got home before I did and searched the house telling her to come out..found nothing, sat outside until my Mother came home with my sis in the car with her..to this day I don't know what it was, and never felt comfortable in that house, even when I was 18 years old when we moved out for good. I've never heard anything or felt uncomfortable anywhere we lived since, also several times we moved out of state for a year at a time, even as a teenager, I never felt anything weird until I came back to that house. Overactive imagination? Maybe. Thia was on a reservation in South Dakota, so obvious Native American land, myself being over 1/2. I just don't know..why I guess I'm so interested in these programs. I'm sorry for the very long post, but if anyone who has no belief one way or another, has went to these places and felt nothing, not just a short tour, but got permission to spend the night with recording equipment, it would be interesting to what they have to say. Or someone form a group of skeptics that have all the equipment that the average ghost hunter has, spend time in these same places, not letting the owners know they are skeptics obviously (might not get in for the possiblility of no results and ruining the draw they have so not allowed in to investigate.)
Please pardon my long post, I've never posted to such a site before and just had a lot to get out I guess. Remember, I think what the skeptics do is good, catching the Ghost Hunters was a coup, more like a coup de gras to their show for those who want the real facts and take the time to read them.

TasCat

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Hi, I enjoyed reading your post. You bring up a number of good points, some of which I agree with and others I don't, but that's what a skeptical discussion is about.

Your discussion regarding skeptics going to the same places as, for instance, GH and GA, is a good idea. Heck, I wish I could do it! But there has been a number of people who have gone to some of these supposedly haunted places as skeptics and have come up empty-handed. I'm always suspicious of some of these TV shows who immediately start getting all kinds of evps, objects moving, sightings of all sorts etc. when others before them have gotten little or nothing. What is so special about filming an investigation for TV that suddenly brings out the ghosts? That immediately raises flags that at least some of the time, we are not getting the whole truth.

GA brought a fresh approach by limiting the crew to only three. Most other shows have a whole gang tagging along for the ride, as we discovered during GH's Halloween show. Having so many people around really makes a lot of the evidence questionable; even if it ends up being an honest mistake.

The clear evps present a problem. In fact, what GH supposedly caught during the LIVE show was not an evp at all, since by definition true evps are not heard by any human ear at the time of recording, but only audible upon playback. This phenomena has presented many questions since it was first discovered. The consensus seems to be that most of it is audible matrixing, as you bring out in your post. I am rarely impressed by them, although there is a small percentage that falls into the unexplained category.

We will never know why the personnel of GH goes through such rapid changes. Your suggestion about being asked to hoax something and refusing to do so is one answer to that question. Some may be obvious: a new baby comes along, or a serious illness pops up, as with anything else in life. But unfortunately we will never know if the press release put out by the individuals who left and/or TAPS is true or just a cover story. Those contracts must be brutal.

Over time many viewers have come to question any evidence involving an object moving. It is just so easy to rig up something and then pull a hoax off. With the advent of ever more sophisticated editing software something can be made to look very real indeed. Every time anyone hoaxes something, it sets the field back another 10 steps or so. It is important to keep in mind that fraud and hoaxing is not limited to the paranormal research field. We have seen such activity within anthropology, paleontology and even faked research results in the medical field. Must be a part of human nature. But research in the paranormal has always been the stepchild of science, or maybe even an orphan that nobody wants to even get near to.

We are starting to get more scientists who are willing to give it a go, but unfortunately none of them are featured on TV at present. Actual scientific research tends to be very boring and time consuming, which does not make for an interesting show.

Finally, the truth is that there are probably many, many people throughout the world who are honest and trying their best with what they have to find anything which can be presented for peer review (and this means across the different scientific fields). They are not TV stars. They go for months and months and are happy to come up with even one evp. It is perhaps from this segment of the paranormal community that the real break will come from.

Until then, we just have to wait, watch and debate.

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I love Ghost Adventures. I want it to be true. But, I must admit the "Shadow Hand" was likely faked. Here's my reasoning:

GA never showed the actual digital HD footage of the Shadow Hand — only a shot of the camera's LCD screen. Had that footage been beyond reproach, they would've eventually edited in some of the most compelling ghost footage ever captured — in vivid HD detail.

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Good point. I really don't know how they expected anyone to take that seriously.

Looks like that game where a person tries to make bunny rabbits and other animals out of the shadow of their hand on a wall. If I were GA, I would have skipped that one.

Isn't anything legit anymore?

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Well, I live in Tokyo and only get to watch Ghost Hunters and Ghost Adventures and others through YouTube. I really enjoy these paramornal related shows but Ga is the worst for me.
Well, here are just my personal opinions.

Zak
> He says before the show that he would love to provoke the ghost trying to show his tough guy image. But he is the one screaming and running out of the place.
> In this kind of investigations, voice control is so important. And it is very annoying when Zak keep shushing others from explaining what happened or just simply wanted to be the one talking all the time.

If the group and the show wants to be more convincing to viewers like me, they would need to seriously consider these points.
I dont think viewers would like to watch ghost hunting shows filled with shushing and guys sreaming and running away from what they suppose to investigate!!!

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i think ga is better then gh.gh has there huge video crew from the +SCI FI+ network the SCIENCE FICTION NETWORK. ghost hunters is fake as hell g and j are lining there pockets off the hopes of others that there may be an after life. jason said in his book that he had to eat olives as he was seeing spirits and that was the only way to stop seeing them, I CALL BS. and steves parents are heavily invested in the "paramag" so he as a reason to fake and keep it going and therefore is the only person who has lasted. ghost adventures while less "scientific" is far more entertaining and thats all that these two shows shoud be viewed as as of now ,just entertainment. while i do believe in some forms of the paranormal i dont believe these will be the venues which show the real true evidence as they lack real credibility.

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Yeah, the shadow hand wasn't very impressive. One other thing I think I forgot to mention about Ghost Hunters, why would they have all the investigators sign contracts to keep them from divulging information about the show and investigations? Also, there seems to be only a small core of devoted people to Jason and Grant, Steve, Kristen (The one who made a fool of herself in the episode on Halloween to determine a person to go on an investigation with them, just railing on that radio guy, not letting him do any investigation and being plain snotty, And of course the rest of the Usual Suspects… But people often leave with no explanation, could they be disillustioned by the actions of the obvious fakery done by J & G…especially Grant, I mean having that cord in his hand at Myrtle Plantation..sheesh. Of course there are many more incidents that are called into question. I think a lot of people joined TAPS to REALLY investigate the paranormal..but seeing the actions of TAPS just causes them to get out of the sinking ship. Sadly, with tape over their mouths on what goes on behind the scenes. The conduct of J & G on their site, claiming to be debunkers, but when someone questions their actions, they are booted off the site, post deleted. The one problem that GA has, is that while they are locked up in the sites they go to overnight, that also means no one can verify what they saw or captured wasn't staged as well…

OH! And I had to comment on the latest episode of Most Haunted USA, going to where the TAPS crew had been, and their "cynic" mentioned the FLIR video that they caught of the "Ghost" peeking around the corner, saying it was most likely a person, which of course I agree…why would a ghost be shy enough to peek around a corner? Or as they saw earlier, walk halfway out and turn around and walk back where it came? Just like that "short Shy Duckwalking Ghost" thst waddles JUST to the end of the pool tahle snd waddles bsck behind the wall. Plus all these ghosts give off heat that's pretty much identical to crew members caught on the FLIR camera….I thought they were supposed to be cold. I got off on a tangent there while talking about Most Haunted, the most hilarious show to watch. Using a Ouija board, a psychic who knows EVERYTHING about the site….hmn, gee, I'm sure they tell him where they are going (Town), he has to prepare for the trip, airports would give him clues as to what's in the area…nothing a google search wouldn't find…I mean, we are landing in Denver, isn't that hotel where Stephen King got the idea for the Shining, he thinks? They cannot go to an area without that guy getting some clues to where they are going…google up on the local haunts, remember a few facts..Viola! A Psychic! I still get a kick on how they go to places where others have been, never had a piece of lint thrown at them, but the Most Haunted team gets everything but the kitchen sink thrown at them…plus all the screaming…and when they caught the "get out" on tape, the psychic is standing there with his hand over his mouth, Get Out can be said without moving the jaw, try it. Bah, I would like to see the GA guys research smaller houses, like homes..these large areas just lesd to more possible contaminstion, of noise, people hiding in there..etc. But some of the stuff they caught on tape does interest me, the mists forming, etc…not a very WARM figure dance a jig like the TAPS guys caught in that place with the hallway that had a water fountain and they put the camera there…dancing ghosts…what next. It's like a car wreck, you got to look.. But anyway, I got a LITTLE carried away..these shows do that to me..I will just let Paranormal State be in a state of rest…or off I will go again..lol. Sorry about the long and not very well written comment, especially sans paragraphs…one of my bad habits.

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It is all faked to me watch this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot9oYpA7FgU&feature=related if they fake this then what else could they be faking?

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Hay…

So i have read all of your comments and would like to add one of my own. I am formally a marine who's speciality is decoding and analyzing digital footage. Ive spent about 10,000 hours looking at the same files over and over, running them through so many types of digital analyzing equipment, in my career. I consider myself a some what expert on digital rendering and photogenic fakery. I have created several "fake" videos for my job and let me tell you to edit out things [-such as the string pulling the brick-] is not a hard thing to do. However trying to mask that, even by editing then re recording is a time consuming endeavor. The equipment i used is far more advanced than that owned by any tv channel or private person. And i can tell you with out doubt that this footage is some what real. So many of you have brought up so many good points here, but i have to say that unless your profession is in exact digital editing and encoding you have no reason to dispute. It is true that many people can do wonderful things with adobe and its products, however the average joe would have a lot of trouble doing it. i challenge anyone to get a free copy of after effects for example and try and re make what was shown on this episode. Now the next point. which you might be thinking that the channel which produces this show is editing the footage with skilled people. This could be very true. But when shooting in an IR spectrum the footage is distorted to allow ambient light to enter the camera and provide a "night vision". IR footage is very very difficult to edit, mainly adding things to it. One example for you. I was sent a video which was not original and had been re recorded several times. and when viewing and analyzing there were tel tale things i could see that led me to the conclusion that the video had been faked or edited to add some properties. When i saw the episode of the "brick" i watched the scene where that guy looked at the footage. NOW there is no visible change in the tine line or in the output waves shown on the time slider on his screen the two match exactly. yes i have screen caped and enhanced to make sure. If anything was done to the video pre or post editing it would show up as a valley not a spike like he mentioned. Those two file time lines he had are the original footage he received and the footage stored in the memory of the computer. and they match. You do not need original footage to defiantly decree if something had been faked or not.

Now the "spirit" who walks behind the guy and through the light. OK this is a VERY difficult thing to do and no matter what you do in editing this is going to take time. You have to shoot the segment two times. Once to get the guy walking away then second to have the "spirit walk by" Now on a still image this is easy. take the picture of the room then take a picture of the guy in the room. Crop out the guy and use a clone tool of some kind to fill in the space of the removed guy. Then on the second image crop the guy out once more and add it to the original image that has been cloned and edited. add a few filters and drop the opacity and viola your done. In video however this is a tough thing to fake. i estimate that it would take me about 60 to 70 hours to edit this together. every layer i would add would make a valley on the time line and disrupt the IR output waves drastically. thus decreasing the video quality, so i would have to run an enhance spectrum filter of some kind and that would change all of the properties on the footage. no matter how many times i copy the file the footage will show up as edited on any basic software. again the expert who viewed the video had two exact timeline's
Now im not saying i believe in ghosts or anything or that these guys are the legit ghost hunters. However in this marines expert opinion i have to say that their evidence is pretty compelling. i know im going to get a shit load of hate comments here and i appreciate the hate. but i stand by my profession and my knowledge of the digital realm. thanks all for reading!!

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I like your post marine22.. I agreed with a lot of these posts.. I believe the hand shadow was fake.. notice that zaks body is half hidden of camera.. it was simply done with his left hand.. look at his hand positioning when he starts to go crazy.. his left hand is touching his left arm on the right side of his body.. FAKE… I just watched an episode of them in the yesterday neighborhood and stuff kept on moving without explenation.. and they caught it on camera.. however.. why is it that these guys get this crazy stuff and the other shows dont get as good of footage.. here is my problem.. I know that the shadow of the hand was fake so that tells me it is all fake.. if they fake one thing it is all fake.. lots of money involved in doing this stuff and they are willing to decive us for money.. I wish I thought of it..

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At ease, soldier. No need to worry about hate comments here, your analysis and input on digital video is appreciated. A couple of things though, the fact that it takes a lot of time and skill to fake video footage does not mean it is not done. On the other hand, the fact the trio behind Ghost Adventures presumably have the skill to fake video does not mean they do. Personally I find there is not enough information to declare fakery or hoaxing in the case of GA as of now. And while you analysis seem to indicate that the hand, or brick or whatnot was not added in post-production, and it seems reasonable, it does not exclude other form of visual effects. Sometimes a fishing line or a well-placed shadow is all you need, no matter how expensive or inexpensive equipment you have. (Case in pont, low-budget horror films.) Personally I do not have the cinematographic knowledge to reverse-engineer what has been seen on GA (or GH), but others have and I hope they as you will share their knowledge.

So again, thanks for your input which does seem to narrow down the possibilities, in finding an answer to if and then how eventual fakery was committed. It would be wonderful if you was given the opportunity with the machinery available to you to view the original footage and analyse it. In fact, it would be nice if any ghost show took their footage and voice recordings to actual experts, rather than other paranormal investigators claiming to be experts.

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bullerspoke is quite right. Analysis by experts in various fields who have no interest in, or opinion of, the paranormal is sorely needed. Perhaps the evidence gatherers might not like what they hear. I believe Fuji or maybe Kodak has gone to the trouble of explaining away what orbs really are. Orb lovers hate that.

As far as taking quite a long time to produce a fake video–well, if there's the prospect of making a tidy sum of money from it and/or the possibility of getting a show out to the TV audience, I'm sure this would not deter a lot of people. Especially if they are already in that field and have the equipment and the knowledge to do so.

Your post is very welcome. This is the type of information that gives us something to think about. Appreciate you taking the time and hope that you will continue to chime in on this and any other subject discussed here.

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A lot of people have mentioned fishing line and such. as a device to move the brick. But if you have "night vision" on any of your cameras do your own test. Go to the basement, and try and recreate the lighting conditions of the actual shoot. pitch black i assume. then have a friend off camera pull the brick. tie the line around the brick or insert some type of masonry eye let. you assuming your using an actual brick you will need about a 10-50 pound test line. maybe more because your going to use force to create inertia. Newtons laws here folks… anyway you will clearly notice the line under night vision because we all know that like a spider web it creates a prism effect in normal light. Now imagine that ambient light is passing through it. it will glow like a light saber! In darkness under "night vision" anything that takes on light in natural light will also take on light in complete darkness. i said light a lot there…. Now assuming that were using a plaster or foam brick. remember energy equals mass right. So there for the weight of the object will pass a natural "free fall" pattern. the amount of force will be the objects trajectory. In this video the brick follows a arc trajectory. put an object on the ground, anything. tie a string to it and see what happens. in this instance just to be sure i was right i used my Iphone and head phones to pull it. it goes up then almost straight down, it does follow a line or arc however after you stop applying force the object will fall in a more downward line. OK next point. the room is square and had no windows. if it had windows there would be a light side of the room. again you cant hide the light. now assuming someone was in the room or they have an elaborate system of pulleys anything like that. To achieve this you would have to apply a significant amount of force to move the object then throw the boards. almost a running force. remember energy=mass. so what ever i use in my arm is how the object will move. and anyone who has kids or was once a kid lol knows that throwing a brick a long distance is a hard thing to do. anyway if anyone has questions please ask me. this is fun to talk about. and i am glad i could throw my opinion into the mix and maybe just maybe give some kind of hope that what we saw was real….

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did anyone see the stuff tonight with zak getting claw marks on his back.. this is too much bull for me.. as soon as they do that I become less of a believer.. it is easy to fake… can someone agree with me that this is fake… why is it that these guys get so much more then anyone else.. this is crap..

for the guy who says.. "why are you watching it if you think it is crap".. I am done.. tonight was the last episode that I will watch.. crap.. smut.. lies.. ghosts dont exsist.. that is what this and other shows have taught me..

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hay brother. Yea the scratch things are kinda [lame]*. But at first glance it looks pretty real. But ill agree that something is up other than ghosts…… The reason they get a lot of press and a lot of viewers is they produce to non believers and believers. I find i watch it to see whats gonna happen next. Often in life we pay more attention to what we dislike as apposed to what we like.

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Hello Marine22. I was impressed with your post on digital rendering. Good to have someone with your expertise around. I appreciate your views, although my view is somewhat different.

I have a few problems with the "Brick Throw."

First, the flashlights. It was truly forunate that the first light is on the starting point of the brick and the second light is pefectly in line with the flight path. Lucky that was. Really lucky. Almost unbelievably lucky. As if they knew what was going to move, how it would move, and where it would move. I'm not saying this was the case, but when you start thinking about it…yeah…REALLY lucky that was. And why two men would stand in the doorway of a fairly large room, completely void of light, would shine their flashlights at the same point in the room, well, I can't explain that.

Second, it bothers me that I can't get a good look at this room. All I can really tell is that it's unfinished (showing beams on the back wall). I can't see the ceiling and I can't get a good look at the wall on the right. This would greatly help in dismissing the "String theory" but we don't get that chance.

Third, the movement of the brick at the start of the flight. It seems to turn a bit counter-clockwise and then a bit clockwise. That is a very unnatural movement. Kind of like two strings that are being pulled on the edges of the brick and are not quite in synch. Again, I cannot prove strings were involved. I am only pointing out one possibility that could cause that odd movement.

Lastly, and I think the biggest one…I cannot say with any certainity that it even was a brick. We have a piece of film with an object moving and two guys running away and screaming. There's no investigation of the object, the room, or really anything. That simply isn't good enough.

I've seen Chris Angel walk through a steel door. I can watch the film forever and never really figure it out for sure. But…let me examine the door and I'm pretty sure that I could come up with a few answers pretty quickly. Without examining the object and without flooding the room with light and trying to look for other possibilities…all I see is a cheap illusion with grown men screaming. I simply cannot consider it to be anything more.

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Yes, the levitation trick is usually a standard for any magician/illusionist. It doesn't matter what the object being levitated is, I'm sure the principle is the same. Also, we really don't know if a confederate is involved. After all, we are taking them at their word that there is only the three of them.

I've also seen it mentioned on the internet somewhere that we don't know if the brick is real or a trick one made of some light material, hence making for an easier levitation.

And remember the Professor's comments? After this was shown he had stated that his comments were taken out of context, as they didn't show that he prefaced his opinion with "IF the brick were a real one", so he was just making a conjecture based on a possibility, not the actual event shown here.

It does have the label of "illusion" written all over it. Sometimes I wonder why some magician or illusionist hasn't come forward to debunk this and other events (not just from GA). Randi, Blaine, Angel etc. could easily re-create this trick. As could any less well-known practitioner.

Just my 2 cents, and I respect opposing opinions.

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Where is Harry Houdini when you need him?

Whenever I combine the paranormal and skepticism, I always think of him. His debunking of self-proclaimed psychics and mediums is the stuff of legend. If he were still around today, I'm sure he would be casting an eye towards these ghost shows. I can't even imagine how fun that would be.

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i want to say i enjoyed your comments as well. But recently and thanks to this "blog" ive gotten ahold of the most genuine copy of the tape. Simply i put it into photoshop, then maya, then into another program, which sorry i cant talk about [-hope i dont create doubt with that!!!-] anyway. Pretty much i enhanced the light, and i gotta say that the original showing on tv [-where the expert looks at it-] they were zooming onto a tv with a camera and the quality was not very good. The image i looked at was pretty clear and was easy to take a peek at. What i saw actually made my skin crawl a little. There is absolutely no one in the room. The way the brick moves i gotta say does look a little "strange" in a lighter condition. Again remember they are not using actual night vision. But a IR filter on the camera. Its usually green for real NVG's [-night vision goggles-] so the footage is easy to enhance. OK back to the brick. It does look like its being moved in two different axis both x and y But when i did a frame by frame its moving up falls slightly and then goes flying. Its a really weird visual effect i really dont have time to get into. I still gotta say that i really think something threw that brick. But im looking at it with a "who the fuck cares" attitude, and we all know skepticism, and believers are always bias. The 2×4's well i think they just fell, the way they were resting it does not appear that something moved them. Now since all this ive actually had the opportunity to meet zak and let me tell you hes NO actor lol. [-i just met him for about 5 minutes-] If you look at straight audio, and working for the GOVT were using a voice analyzer thats pretty damn good at detecting various levels of voice stress, something i think all us guys would love to try on our girlfriends and wives Their friggin scared! The mountains on the audio peak at sever stress levels. Wether Fake or Not these two guys are genuinely scares, in this marines opinion. Im gonna stick to my knowledge here and say that i can not in all my years doing this figure out how it was pulled off if indeed faked. Ive faked stuff on video that would make a mother believe her own son was blown up… I just cant see any trickery here……. I dont know if i am allowed to show you any of these images ive uncovered, which is killing me!!! And i apologize to you all, you have no reason to take my word here…

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Hay on your levitation theory, i gotta say this.

I totally agree with you on what your saying. And i dont recall the cut outs of what the professor said, but ill defiantly take a look for it… But simply remember energy equals mass right… Google some of newtons laws and you will get a slightly better understanding or weight and velocity. But just a little thought for ya, if you throw a piece of paper just as it is how far does it go? Crumple it up it goes a lot further. So if it were a paper mache brick or foam, well its not going to travel as far. We can get scale reference in this room, the studded wall the 2×4's that move the hight of zak against the door way. Nothing to definite but we can get an estimate scale reference to gauge the size of the room. So we can then calculate the mass of the object moving within this space. Seriously try it yourself in your basement, or living room set it up. Ive tried it, with foam, paper,cloth, and a balloon. [-i know i know-] Yea its really hard to debunk. I want you all to know im not a real believer of this tv stuff, but the show is still fun to watch…

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Ok Marine22, I have a few questions for you. And I'm not being antagonistic, simply curious.

String in the dark- You mentioned in one post that you can see normal fishing line using "night vision" because ambient light would pass through it and glow like a light saber. Is there a way to use the fishing line and not be seen, for example, by painting it a particular color? What about using piano wire and painting that? In another post, you state that they are not using actual night vision but an "IR filter on the camera." Could something be done to fishing line or piano wire so it is not seen using that?

The Room- In another post, you state that you have a copy of the film that you were able to lighten. Can you clearly see the ceiling? Can you clearly see the wall on the right side? I am asking because if any sort of string/line was used, it would probably be accompanied by some sort of pulley system most likely using a counter-weight. Neither of these truly would have to be in the room I guess ( the pulley system could be one room above and the counter-weight outside the room) but it would still be nice to know. I should state that the pulley system/counter-weight thing is simply some speculation on my part (trying to think of how a magician or an engineer would do it).

(Just batting around mondo-bizarro ideas with friends, we came up with the idea of cutting two thin parallel grooves in the ceiling. Above, have a rolling rack (like they have in bowling alleys) that follow the grooves. On the rack, two wheels connected by an axel. Attach 2 wires to the outside edges of the brick. Wire the brick to the axel. Then attach the axel to wire that follows along the ceiling and down the right wall where a counter-weight is attached (probably 2 bricks). Take the counter-weight off its resting place (which would account for the odd movement at the beginning of the flight, since it's virtually dangling) and drop the counter-weight. The wheels move along the rolling rack a short distance, cut the strings (using the blade of a large paper cutter). The brick is released, gravity instantly does its job, and the brick descends. In theory, with enough testing, a decent and believable fligh path could be achieved. It would be a 2 man job, one to cut the strings, one to drop the counter-weight. Is this extreme? Yeah, sure is. But then again, we were trying to think like Magicians… )

Their Voices- I can't say much on audio peaks and stress levels. I can say a whole lot on screaming "men"…but I won't. Whether they were actually scared or not really doesn't matter that much. Maybe they weren't in on that particular event. I recall a show called "Fear" where they would take college kids to spooky places and scare them. The show was fake, but their fear was real. Good TV is was.

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Of course ghosts are fake to those who have never seen one before.
I used to be just as skeptical if not more so until I filmed several orbs of light, (yes I said "orbs"), shooting into tombstones at a local cemetery.

I have to conclude that what I filmed is real because of the intelligent behavior of the Orbs. They would sit outside by their graves and shoot back in as I approached.
People who've never seen or experienced a spirit or ghost simply haven't gone looking for one with the correct equipment or attitudes.

You can be skeptical all you want, you're free to do so but remember, there are some of us (I suspect a lot more than would let on), who know for a fact this phenomena is real.

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Thomas: You can believe all you want, you're free to do so but remember, there are some of us (I suspect a lot more than would let on), who don't believe. And furthermore, noone knows for a fact that ghosts exist. Period. Some believe, some don't. You believe and that's alright, but your belief in itself says little or nothing about the existence of ghosts and has little to do with fact.

In short, everyone is free to believe or not, but noone knows for a fact. Mainly because there are very little if any fact available. And again, to Thomas and others, I am not skeptical of you as a person, or that you believe you had experiences what I am skeptical of is the claim that what you experienced was a paranormal phenomena.

As for orbs, in my opinion they are bunk (camera artifacts) and this website clears out most of the confusion: http://www.theorbzone.com/evidence.htm

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