July 23, 2008
GHI: Charleville Castle
For what I believe is only the 2nd time ever, Jason & Grant appeared on Ghost Hunters International. Robb called and asked them for someone to fill in for Donna while she was out sick. They volunteered Kris, who has apparently always wanted to go to Ireland. Now, I don't mind this little fiction. I'm willing to pretend for a moment that I believe the cameras are always rolling when Robb makes a call on his cellphone and that the cameras on the other side of the Atlantic are also always rolling, just in case a phone call comes in. What I found most humorous was Jason & Grant sitting side-by-side at the same desk. How cute! Or slightly disturbing. People just don't sit together like that unless they're eating lunch in a mess hall. It's just odd.
Down to business, the location Kris Williams had the pleasure of investigating is known as Charleville Castle, a place that had no shortage of stories and even a "functional" dungeon, although since the only time it was used was in the 19th century it does make me wonder if this is a "real" (medieval) castle or just a stylized replica designed as a house for some rich guy. Mind you, the newer "castles" tend to be cooler, but from a ghostly perspective one would theoretically expect better results in an older building.
Barry took it upon himself to cook a good Irish stew for the whole team. I must say, it looked yummy. He says he thinks cooking and ghost hunting is a good combination. Okay, I don't quite get that but cooking is great nonetheless.
The night started off rather slow and annoying. Robb noticed it too, and mentioned it to the client later on. Barry and Kris started off in teh basement while Dustin and Brian were upstairs, and they were all hearing noises, saying, "what was that?" and shining their flashlights in every direction at once. It seemed there wasn't just an abundance of odd noises, but the noises always seemed to come from a couple of rooms away, almost as if someone was playing a game with them.
A little bit into the investigation Barry & Andy heard banging coming from the kitchen and Andy said he heard what sounded like a child's voice saying, "I'm hungry". Barry spoke to the open air and invited the spirit he believed was there to play a game and touch either him or Andy. Moments later he jumped like someone had just punched him full-force, but apparently he was only reacting to seeing a piece of wire on the ground. He said it had just been thrown to his feet from across the room but there was no way to verify this with video and no sound of an object hitting the floor at that moment, unfortunately.
Just as I was wondering where the heck Robb was he shows up at the top of the stairs investigating with Brian. Now, these stairs are very impressive; with the tall ceilings in the building the stairs run fairly long in each direction and there is a gap between them where you can see all the way down to the first floor. Standing at the top Robb seems to see something down below and moves closer to the railing, shining his flashlight downwards. Brian apparently saw it as well because he said, "What was that?" and then they executed what I thought was a pretty good maneuver:
Robb believed he had seen someone or something at the bottom of the staircase duck under the stairs and out of sight so he had Brian shine his light at the spot the object had disappeared from view, making sure they wouldn't miss it if it came out from under the stairs while Robb ran all the way down and then under the stairs where he thought the object had gone. Nothing was there, but certainly if someone had been pranking the team there is an excellent chance Robb & Brian could have caught them with this well-executed play. Kudos to them.
Right after this, while Robb is towards the bottom of the steps they both heard a noise (described as a voice) which Brian believed was coming from further up above them. Moving towards where he thought it had come from, Brian said he saw a "white glowing thing" and moments later Robb reported seeing something similar, but again, and alas, the unfortunate lack of any recording of this evidence makes it just an interesting story.
During the evidence review there were only a couple of interesting things found. One of them was from Barry's new toy, the "full-spectrum" camera, which sees visible light along with some IR and UV bands of light. He had set it up to take a photo every 3 seconds in this one area and when looking at the sequence it became clear that a door had closed, seemingly on it's own, in-between camera shots.
That was interesting, but there really isn't much more to say other than a door closed. We didn't even get to see it in the process of closing. There was, however, a piece of audio that was of mild interest. As "supernatural" audio goes it's pretty week, but I think it's very interesting because it sort of represents a minor phenomenon.
Essentially, Barry asked a question and then a few seconds afterwards there is a sound that Andy described as a muffled child's voice. Keep in mind Andy had also heard a sound earlier that night which he also thought sounded like a child's voice. The woman who gave GHI the tour of the castle also reported hearing children's voices on many occasions when she knew there were no children on the premises. I actually really hearing many stories where people think their home is haunted and one of the things they report hearing are children's voices.
During one of their investigations at the Stanley Hotel, Jay & Grant were crawling around in a tunnel underneath the hotel when they heard what they thought was a child say, "Hello" several times and then subsequently laughed. For this case in particular I have heard two non-paranormal suggestions: a frightened kitchen worker talking into a vent she'd been hearing noises out of, and a cat. Certainly, with the right acoustics I don't think it would be difficult for a meow to sound like, "Hello".
While watching this Reveal, my wife — who never says much of anything about these matters — said, "It's obviously an owl". Now, I don't know if there are owls living in that part of Ireland, and of course they were in "the dungeon" at the time so unless there is an opening to the outside it's not likely to be an owl — but there could be an opening to the outside. We don't know.
We don't know if there is was a cat either, but we do know there have been cats hanging around during other investigations and there has been some serious speculation about evidence Jay & Grant labeled as supernatural, because what if it was really just the cat?
So since we had these reports of hearing children and got an actual recording of a sound that does sound like it could be a child, but also sounds like it could be a known animal, I figured I'd take this opportunity to start a discussion on the "child's voices" phenomenon. Some very sane people have reported hearing them where there are no children — but is it possible they're hearing something that sounds like child's voices, but isn't?
Hmmmm…..
Filed under Ghost Hunters International, Posts by Logisti
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Comments on GHI: Charleville Castle »
bill kelly @ 11:23 pm
I'm sure Jay and Grant were sitting side-by-side waiting for someone to call!!! Interesting how Dustin is on the show and on the 2nd half of it Barry was the "Tech Manager" not Brian. Did I miss something?? Not that I'm complaining Brian is gone. Barry actually understands and has said it a few times that if there are ghosts in certain places they investigate they might not speak english. No one else ever brings that up. Ought to be interesting too to see how Brandy Green does.
Lar @ 1:44 am
It's obvious what they see is not what they THINK is seen. 11,000 hours later we've NEVER seen one shadow, outside of the blatanly bad GH - E.S.P. "figure."
What they hear is not what IS heard.
Try this. Spend a night in an abandoned building, or cemetery. Preferably one that's "haunted." You'll see & hear things, especially when just before doing so you're TOLD of specific sightings or noises which haunt the location.
You're pulling an all nighter. Your senses are not heightened. They're weakened. You're already anticipating the haunting. You'll see more shadows then you do at high noon. When you hear things your brain will tell you, it's "what or whoever," you were TOLD haunts the place.
Which is why the best camera evidence is often the worst. A brief light flickering does not a haunting make.
EVP's are all too short & distorted. They are the UFO's of ghost hunting. Often elusive, rarely captured. Short & almost always distored. 195,000 GH EVP's later, not one is a complete sentence or conversation.
You often hear what sounds like a faint no, yes, growl, or mutter..excluding the GH episode where Jason's "talking," to a female spirit who replies, "Who are you?" But that was without a doubt a cell phone.
They don't allow a 3rd party to decipher the evidence. Audio or evp's are often heard through the laptop's internal speakers. Video is often seen only on their laptop screen. This better creates the illusion through distortion.
Sci Fi /pilgrim films must make their production crew sign a no talking clause. If they too experienced all of the above as GH /GHI alledges they'd REGULARLY feature the production crew on the show itself to better solidify the experiences seen.
Jef @ 6:52 am
It bothered me that Robb called this a "good EVP." I thought of it as more of a crap EVP. When they get something that sounds like a responsive voice what is he going to call that???
Dustin wore a hat that wasn't backwards or upside down or both this week. Just trying to regain my position as the as the hat guy since I forgot to say anything about it last week.
There was a lot less Andy this week and he didn't seem to bother me so much except he still wears the wrist rocket flashlight even though we didn't see him using it this week.
As far as the full spectrum camera picture of the door closing, gee a door closed. WEAK SAUCE!
There seemed to be less hunting and more calls to home and making full spectrum stew so the hunters could do their job on a full belly. I'll roll with that punch, but I'd rather see more hunting and none of the other stuff.
I enjoyed Barry talking about how food and ghost hunting go well together. The only thing I've found that doesn't go well with food is, well… not eating I suppose.
Did the GHI team wait half an hour after eating before ghost hunting as to avoid cramps? That's the clip I wished they had shown.
And as for Grant and Jason sitting next to each other I too got a chuckle out of that one. At least they weren't fixing a water heater. But maybe that's only cause their roto rooter uniforms were at the cleaners.
Lar @ 9:41 am
Maybe we can create a list of questions for them too. How many times do we have to hear & do they ask
"Give us a sign of your presence."
What about:
Hey Stupid. I bet you can't drop a 2×4 on Brian's head.
Hey ya' Moron, I dare you to push Brian down the stairs and then toss a brick at his head just like Home Alone 2.
Scare Donna so badly she jumps right out of her shirt.
Mess up Andy's hair until cries (this would be OVER in seconds).
Continue the list……….
Logisti @ 12:00 pm
What about, "Hey stupid ghosts, I bet you can't make Shannon and Brian disappear into thin air and then all the team members will behave like they don't remember them ever existing in the first place"
…oh wait, I think we might have gotten a response that time.
CrowTRobot @ 3:56 pm
The EVP: Sorry, that was me screaming when I saw Bimbo Kris on GHI. Apparently by the time it made Ireland it came across muffled. Again, I apologize.
The opening door: Granted, it's just a door opening. Still, I'D LIKE TO HAVE SEEN IT!! Perhaps it's my age, but I couldn't see the door opening…hell, I couldn't see a door. All I could see was the room/hallway/whatever getting darker. I'd like to have had a little more time to figure out the photo.
Which brings me to a new….thing….the producers seem to be doing now. They take a piece of "good evidence" (Just work with me here, ok?) and spend the last 15 minutes of the episode teasing the audience: 1) one of the grunts going over the evidence: "WOW"…cut to commercial. 2) grunt shows it to Robb: "WOW"…cut to commercial. 3) Robb/Andy shows it to client…cut to commercial/fire alarm. 4) Finally, we get one look at it.
Oh, and while I'm venting…Wait. I'll be right back. {Now where did I put that dead horse…Oh….here it is…ewww, I've got to find a better place for this thing….} Sorry. I'm back. Anyway, I am sick and….SICK and tired of not hearing anything GH/GHI hears because of the stupid background noise/music. We already never get to see what they see; now we never hear what they hear.
Hey Jef. When GHI started out with the whole Barry making dinner thing, I turned to my wife and said, "I hope we don't have to watch them eat it." And when we did, I said, "Well, they're just filling time because they didn't find anything."
EDIT: Oh, and back to the "If that was you….." crap. God….Look, Barry (I think it was), it's knocking over stuff on that table behind you; it's fricken' throwing stuff at you,…..I think you've made contact. Ask it a damn question for Christ's sake, you idiot.
CrowTRobot @ 4:38 pm
I think I should make a point here. I don't really believe Barry was communicating with a spirit. But if he thinks he is, then he needs to go for it and quit this weak, "Show me ANOTHER sign" crap. And granted, they ALL do it; not just Barry.
scooterwrench @ 11:36 pm
"Hey Stupid. I bet you can't drop a 2×4 on Brian's head."
-Lar
Funnist thing I have heard, apart from the knitting question from Donna in the Romania show.
Oubliette @ 8:53 am
I happen to like this show and think they are way ahead of GH in debunking. The IQ quotient is much, much higher, sophisticated etc. I have other reasons why I place them WAY above GH but about the show last night:
Why does Pilgrim play these obviously fake scenarios, regardless of the show? Yea, they're down a member (never bothered anybody before, including TAPS), and request help from J & G? And they say they'll send Kris without even contacting her…yea, right. When she got there, she did practically nothing. A waste.
Can't wait to read the TAPS board for the cultists take on this one….All involved in that phone call are definitely not actors. Pilgrim should consider offering acting lessons to all involved.
My hubby and I enjoyed watching Andy throw very quick daggers in Kris's general direction in the van. Methinks she brings back bad memories of his (and others) collisions with the big J when they were still TAPS members. Like…why her?
Something tells me the new girl was the runner-up in the casting call auditions. Too early to tell anything about her or what is up with the whole thing.
Love the way Pilgrim either plays roulette with team members and/or gives bogus reasons for their disappearance. This goes for both shows.
Would write more but have to go right now.
Pilgrim must think if they don't discuss something it will just go away. They underestimate us.
bill kelly @ 2:10 pm
I agree about them always saying "did you see that?" and the cameras focusing on the hunters and not what they had just seen. that happens way to much on both shows. the best thing about GHI is the places they go. I have never been overseas so this is my way to see such old places.
Brandy has a myspace page and says she is from Minn. but you cant read more because it is private. IMDB says she was an actor too. um…..
Donna must be better now because her and Brian hosted a radio show in Rhode Island July 23rd. Maybe thats why Brian left, he had to do a radio show.
I didnt catch Andy's look at Kris. I thought when Donna left she would play a larger role but she adds nothing outside of possibly eye candy. As for Andy, ever since that fight with Steve when GH went to Arkansas (I believe) he didnt get along with too many from GH. He like so many is over the top sometimes. Dustin, Lisa, Paula and those brothers who I forgot their names now, seem to be the only ones who keep their emotions down while investigating. JMO
Oubliette @ 10:59 am
It's interesting that Lisa and Paula haven't been seen or heard from and may no longer be with TAPS. And Dustin may not be also; it's hard to tell.
Looks like a lot of good people have jumped that ship. I have my own theories, some of which involve Jason's intimidation by anyone who appears more intelligent than he is. Grant is an exception as he is very unassuming, never really challenges Jason and there seems to be some sort of symbiotic relationship there.
bill kelly @ 4:08 pm
Lisa, Paula and Donna have a website, I believe it's called the Divas of Darkness. Whether or not it's still live or not I have no idea.
Didn't Dustin leave because he has a new kid? Not sure because he was on the Halloween special in Louisville.
I agree. Jason probably chased off most of the good people. Like I wrote above, I believe after Steve complained Andy went on the walk-through not him, that was the end of Andy.
Some did leave due to their other jobs, but I bet Jason did scare away most. He was on Larry King and other shows so I think he bald head is getting way too big.
Stephen @ 7:49 pm
Re: child voices
I agree– I've heard that particular ghostly symptom over and over, particularly outdoors. So the question is, assuming that these aren't real ghostly voices, what's the explanation?
Wildlife are one explanation. Many animals make sounds that can sound like a crying child, for example. There are "crying bridges" throughout the country where people mistake bird or frog sounds for ghostly wails. (I think Jay and Grant's radio show is my source on that one, so take that for what it's worth.) Young children's speech is less distinct, so an indistinct sound would be more like a child's voice. Here's a link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crybaby_Bridge
There might be something else here to do with acoustics– higher frequencies carrying better, or more likely to be generated by small animals or wind in a house– but that's so beyond my expertise I'm not even tempted to fake it.
SZ @ 12:58 pm
i haven't read all the responses yet, but just wanted to quickly make a note about crazy nightime noises. the first time i ever heard a pack of coyotes chasing something was when they came thru my yard in the middle of the night. that is a crazy sound almost like kids voices laughing, crying in a way and it travels fast and is then gone. i was quite startled and I grabbed my gun. just a couple coyotes can sound like a whole pack, and this yipping crazy whining sound they make with many different sylables is like nothing else. i have heard this a number of times since but never that close. i can see how someone sleepy might never know what this sound was and think it was paranormal…. almost like matrixing… they could almost put words together out of it. if you were to hear this once or twice, in the right state of mind someone could say they heard something paranomal and be totally convinced.
Oubliette @ 1:32 pm
It is amazing what strange animal sounds one can hear in the outdoors.
When I lived near woods, sometimes I would walk down the trails after dark, and it is the strangest experience to hear the weird rustlings, branches moving and unrecognizable sounds that can either belong to a bird, a mammal or any other living creature. One night there was a strange, loud calling that seemed to be everywhere at once. There was no way to make out where the animal was as the sound simply seemed to fill the air around me from up above.
This is where once again, experts in different fields need to be brought in. A zoologist, for instance, may be able to help with the strange vocalizations picked up by equipment. But then again, this is a time restricted TV show whose focus is to investigate, quickly run through evidence and move on.
Destination Truth had a different approach and would submit evidence to outside experts, but the thrust of that show was very different from those that involve ghost/paranormal investigations.
bill kelly @ 6:30 pm
whatever happened to Destination Truth? did they disappear looking for some weird animal?
Logisti @ 10:09 pm
Season 2 just ended a couple of months back.