August 28, 2008
PS: Haunted Ranch
In this investigation the PRS team visits a family that owns a small ranch and has been experiencing some bizarre and frightful things. Not one but two horses were killed by mean unknown. One of them had a deep wound in its side, broken ribs and a punctured lung. The husband said one day he found his dog hanging by its leash. My initial gut feeling on hearing these horrible events recounted was that one of his neighbors might be trying to drive the family away, but if that was a serious possibility it certainly wasn't mentioned.
One reason for this is the water troughs. The family came home one day to find a water trough moved from one place to another with no drag marks on the ground. The husband's estimate was that the trough weighed 600 lbs (it was filled at the time). It occurs to me that someone might have dumped the water, moved the trough and refilled it in an attempt to freak the owners of the ranch out, but again this possibility wasn't even explored as far as I can tell. I would assume dumping all that water out would leave sign as obvious or moreso than drag-marks, so if you were looking for one you'd likely see the other, but seeing as no one mentioned it I think it's worth keeping that possibility in mind.
There is no doubt that some nasty things were afoot and to my mind there seems little doubt that the occurrences are designed to emotionally rattle the owners of the property. There were multiple sightings by the family of a black mass/mist but that's really not enough to sell me on the concept that these crimes are being committed by some incorporeal being.
Enter Chip Coffey. As usual Ryan and he exchanged assurances that he had no prior knowledge of anything this Paranormal State investigation, and as usual the first impression we hear him give voice to seems to be uncannily on the mark, "Whatever is outside, kills."
Now, Ryan took him into the house and he said this in the house so immediately it's flat-out astounding that he would not only know that the issue at hand here is going on outside the house, but also that supposed haunting entity actually kills — not something you hear too often when you've watched 100+ hours of paranormal investigations. I know chip would vehemently deny it, and I certainly have no evidence to support the hypothesis, but there really only seem to be two possible explanations: Either Stephen's suspicion that a crew member or someone else is passing along information is correct or Chip really is tapping into some source of information the rest of us don't currently have access to.
While they're trekking around the woods near the ranch they seem to disturb something and the horses go crazy. Chip believes Sasquatch is the culprit. Before the MonsterQuest crowd gets all excited about the crossover potential here, he's talking about Sasquatch as a being on a different plane of existence that can be solid, but then disappear into smoke. This is the traditional lore of many Native American tribes, who view bigfoot not as a physical being but as a spirit protector of the land. In this case, the Native American they brought in to consult believes the rancher angered the spirits by burning down cedar trees, which are traditionally believed to be the homes of the spirits of their tribal ancestors.
As usual, there wasn't really any information or evidence to speak of, so all we have are stories and speculation but — oh wait, what's this? Evidence? During dead time in the house, a chair moved on its own — and it was caught on film!
Now, the first question on some of your minds is probably going to be, "Was anyone near the chair at the time?" The answer to this is yes. It was the chair immediately to Chip's right as he sat at the kitchen table. Also, no one else was nearby at the time.
To those who are familiar with the history of psychics and mediums, in particular Houdini's crusade to find an honest one and expose the trickery of all others, this looks particularly bad because people in Chip's line of work have a long, rich history of parlor tricks to do seemingly impressive things: like make chairs seem to move on their own. In Chip's defense I will say that the way in which the chair moved did seem rather odd. It seemed as if it were pulled backwards from the corner of the chair farthest from Chip, while the side of the chair closest to him seemed to be the pivot (it barely moved at all). This doesn't seem consistent with what we should expect to see if Chip had bumped/kicked the chair.
I have little doubt that this incident is going to compel people to want to take sides, but I'll point out that (as usual) we have no evidence. We have a circumstantial case, but then again we seem to have a strong circumstantial case that Chip's abilities are real (and impressive). We seem to have the unfortunate honor of being in a perfect purgatory of circumstance, where absolutely nothing can be proven and everything can be alleged. I'd just like to bring it home and point out that someone (or something) killed two horses and a dog, and if there was something worth speculating about and trying to find the truth, it would be who or what is to blame — at least in my opinion.
Filed under Paranormal State, Posts by Logisti
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Comments on PS: Haunted Ranch »
Stephen @ 1:26 am
With all that activity taking place on the ranch, I'm surprised that the owner didn't install a security camera or two to keep an eye on the animals. Again, I'm unclear on PS's MO, but they tend not to put cameras in obvious spots. Why didn't they cover the corral?
There's a camera cut immediately after Ryan confirms that they haven't talked about the case previously. They could still avoid overtly lying and still give a house tour and background briefing.
Why did Ryan just calmly walk away after he saw the horse down?
The moving chair #2. I like Chip Coffey, and I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt as long as I can. Still, it's the ultimate shy phenomenon. It's supposedly visible from two angles, but they're both crappy security cameras, and Coffey's feet aren't visible. If Chip kicked the back leg of the chair, that might produce the movement we saw. That could have happened accidentally or purposefully. Also, Chip sent Ryan (and a cameraman) out of the room just before it happened (I think)– always a warning sign.
Their occult specialist claimed that it was bad that they'd cut down and burned the cedar trees. When asked why cedar was special, she looked blank for a second, then replied that cedar was used to make incense. Uh… don't they burn incense in their purification rituals? Aren't they essentially cutting down and burning cedar themselves?
All in all, somewhat entertaining, but should come with an even bigger warning label. It's a shame that the animals were killed, but this investigation certainly didn't shed any light as to the cause.
bullerspoke @ 4:46 am
I had some serious issues with this case. I have that with many PRS cases, mostly due to their methodology, or lack thereof, and their use of psychics but mainly due to their overzealous behaviour and Ryan's total lack of perspective on what he is doing.
But back to the case at hand, what was disturbing was that two horses died from what seems to be wounds inflicted by something external. Wounds that even dropped the jaw of the vet, which would indicate this is not a common predator attack. I have personally seen sheep striken by wolf and it was not a pretty sight, and I understand if a violent death to beloved animal is upsetting. However, if I was a regional government predator inspector (these do in my country investigate claims of wolf and bear killings to pay out compensation) or a cop I wouldn't even begin to think of paranormal creatures or angry indian ancestors, unless I was standing without any other explanation. Because anyone who uses scientific methods and proven investigative methods would firstly rule out any predator, vagrant or based in the surroundings or angry neighbours (native american or not) or the owners or a culprit who passed through with the intent of harming animals for his own sick fun. I know of such cases were individuals has attacked horses in particular, cutting them up and rendering them helpless and forced to lay down and subsequently die. It's no fun to entertain that possibility, but it is sure as hell more likely than ethereal monsters.
Now, I put little or no stock in Chip Coffey, or any psychic for that matter. They might be honest people believing in having a an ability or simply showmen, or good psyhologists, but my conclusion is that they are not communicating with anything ethereal. It might be fun to watch them in action (especially when they get possessed by fictious characters), but their ability reaches no further then reading notes and/or qualified guesses grounded in experience.
So what are we left with if we leave the psychic's stories and the stories of the homeowners which in all cases can be debunked or put into question. Two dead horses. They are a fact. Something violently killed one horse and then another died without explanation. That is disturbing and needs to be explained, Someone or somethings needs to take blame or the owners need closure and understanding of what happened, I for one, can't get around three explanations that are disturbing but probable. I'm not saying they are the definite answer but they need to be taken into account. And they are more likely than ethearel monsters.
1. The horses were killed by a predator, vagrant och based in the surroundings. This was not explicitly dismissed in the show, might have been of camera, but can't really see this actually being dismissed.
2. The neighbors or someone passing through killed the horses. This explanation would be the first the cops would go for but I did not see that either actually being investigated or dismissed. Has more people been affected? Has it happened before? Who had opportunity and motive? And so on. It might have been investigated but I did not see that on the show.
3. The owners killed their own horses. A disturbing thought, but as in murder, the culprit is often close to the victim, and it must be taken into account. I must stress that I do not claim that is what happened and saw nothing but honest distress from the owners, even grief, but if we are left with this theory after being able to dismiss the others it must be considered. Again, I do NOT believe this theory to be truth, but it is a possibility.
All of these theories also fits with the fact that no more horses were killed afterwards. The neighbors might have gotten cold feet, the vagrant predator or human might have wandered, or the based predator found another foodsource. And so on.
The paranormal occurences sourrounding the death of the horses is really hard to not attribute to heightened suspension and worry, when victim of a crime you do get worried and stressed and might experience things that are not there or overread occurences. The first horse dying so violently and unexplainable would throw anyone off. The horses being spooked at times is intriguing but does not lend itself to a paranormal event per se. I would as pointed out by others put up a security cam or motion lights to finds out if there is predators lurking around, if nothing else so for the safety of the horses and some peace of mind. But again, horses can be spooked by many things and there is actually no good evidence to suggest them being spooked by paranormal phenomena, only circumstantial.
And again, the question of help. Was PRS able to help the client? Well, yes and no. They were listened to, taken seriously, they got to reconcile with the native americans who seemed slightly distressed by their actions. They got a tangible foe and remedies to fight that foe. However, it is probably all placebo or pure psychology. That does not make the help or the remedies less effectual, but it really does not solve the primary question: Who or what killed the two horses? Yes, the owners got some closure, all good in itself, but as far as answers really nothing.
If I was a cop (god forbid!) or an animal inspector I would not be satisfied and see the case as unexplained as ever before. And I do feel there is someone or something who needs to take blame. If nothing else, we need to make sure it does not happen again, there or anywhere else, and for that we need the case thourougly investigated with scientific investigative methods and not by college kids calling themself paranormal investigators . We need knowledge and better understanding of the natural world. Not haphazard biased "investigations" of implausible phenomena. I do understand the distress leading to PRS being contacted, so no shadow on the client, but I strongly question PRS ability to handle the responsability.
(And what really eats me is that this case most probably is taken as confirmation and fact by PRS and other believers, no matter the lack of reliable methodology and the haphazard way evidence is collected and investigation is conducted.)
Addendum: The moving chair. Personally I do love moving objects, they are always intriguing, but in this case Chip Coffey, with or without intent, consciously or unconsciously, kicked the chair. Nothing in the chairs movement or position exlude that possibility. You could actually try it out yourself at home, do a reconstruction, and you will see that you can kick the chair so that it moves like on the footage. And since a kick can not be ruled out, like if a camera had shown Chip's feet being stationary, we are left with nothing tangible. Other than a good explanation to why it is not paranormal.
John Q. Private @ 4:44 am
This is the first PS episode I had seen, and it will be the last. How they can even claim the veneer of investigation is beyond me. Their methodology ranges from the illogical to the completely irrational.
A friggin psychic? Seriously?
Oubliette @ 2:40 pm
Having been around horses for a long time, including two years on a South Dakota ranch living in a trailer right near a herd of semi-wild horses, I have seen terrible damage inflicted by horses on each other.
I wonder if there was a stallion on the ranch, and was he allowed to be among mares and geldings. Stallions can kill. The worst injury I have ever seen on a horse was made by a stallion who savaged a mare's chest. She was entirely deskinned and parts of her muscles were ripped away. Surprisingly, with the proper medical care, she did survive, permanently scarred.
That's something that should be taken into consideration. As stated, since the wound of that one horse was so intense that the vet was shocked, there should have been an investigation done on possible dangerous predators in the area, including human ones. Yet nothing was mentioned.
Was the horse that Ryan found on the ground in any distress? I can't remember. If not, it is not uncommon for a horse to lie flat out on the ground in deep sleep when surrounded by an awake herd. Horses usually sleep on their feet, but occasionally grab some real zzzzz, if only for a short time, completely lying on the ground the way that horse was. I would have to see it again to see if that was the case.
It has been determined that, with horses, there is no difference in activity, whether during the day or the night. Horses can see just as well in darkness as in daylight, just as an FYI. Their behavior that night indicated a possible predator in the vicinity, rather then anything supernatural.
The calls of night animals and birds are usually very strange and often not recognized, as most of us are only familiar with animals that are active during the day. Living near dense woods, I can vouch for the fact that you will hear the most eerie and unsettling cries that sound like creatures from hell! And in the darkness, it is often impossible to pinpoint the sources.
Ah, Chip Coffey. With all due respect to his fans, I find him not only extremely irritating but nothing more then a cold reader with a fantasy prone personality. The only question I have is whether he is putting it on or truly believes himself to possess an "ability".
Note how many questions he asks, rather then telling people the "facts". When he comes into an area, he is picking up on sometimes not so subtle clues, makes often good guesses based on the environment, and in other ways shows all the signs of someone who is as creative as a child when making up stories. (Perhaps that's why he clicks so well with the Paranormal Kids, since he seems to have not advanced much emotionally from their age group. This is again a typical sign of a fantasy prone personality.)
As far as "arriving with no knowledge", I find that hard to believe. The same was established with the infamous Derek Acorah, who also claimed no prior knowledge but was later exposed as a fraud. Always keep in mind the fact that "what one person can find out, so can another discover".
All in all, this was one of the most bothersome episodes, and that to me is saying a lot. The lack of investigation (as far as we know) into the awful attacks on the animals, and the conclusion that it had to be Indian Spirits or some such nonsense, bordered on the absurd.
Good call on the burning of the cedar. Where I lived, sage was considered the most sacred substance, usually burned and waved around to purify an area. In this case, you would think that planting a CEDAR tree instead of a cherry tree to replace the one that was destroyed would have made more sense.
And if I hear anymore about Indian burial grounds and such I think I'm going to scream.
PS really has its priorities way out of whack.
Robbin @ 7:15 pm
I too watched this episode and was again really bothered by this show. They don't do any real investigating at all nor do they try to debunk. The first thing I thought about when they explained that their animals had been harmed was by whom, not what.
This show finds people that are obviously disturbed. Did anyone happen to catch the Altoona house (I believe) where at the end of the show, the man exercised his demon because it was telling him to harm his family.
While I found it amusing to watch him spit all over himself and the look on Ryan's face was priceless. This man was an admitted recovering addict. Hello someone call 911 before they make the headlines.
Last night after the UFO season finale they showed the episode with the really attractive mother and her 9 year old son. The son was seeing someone out of the corner of his eye. They bring in this psychic and she is going about doing what they do. Suddenly, the mother begins to feel trapped and yadda, yadda, yadda. It was just too much.
Apparently, PS will take on cases where people are just looking for a little camera time and will whore out their own children to get it.
Harsh maybe, but it does not seem responsible to me at all.
Tim @ 11:02 pm
Concerning Paranormal State and the "Ranch" episode I just have one thing to say as a amateur astonomist. The excitement over the "UFOs" in the sky dismissed from being satellites is BS. They were satellites. Yes, there are alot of online Satellite tracking sites such as Celestrack, ESA Standalone popup orbit viewer, http://www.space-track.org ,Bester Tracking Systems, FlyOver, LogSat Professional,..etc..etc.. People don't seem to realize that there are literally thousands of satellites orbiting the earth and anyone of those could be missing on any of these tracking servers. They can't catch em' all folks…not to mention the sensitive Military and of course the NSA intellegence Sats that are forbidden to be listed…
So…, suffice it to say that PS is creating that much needed drama to make their program attractive to the public and of course,..it certainly can't hurt in the ratings…
As I scan the night sky with my reflecting telescope I usually see scads of Sats fly over and many more I'm sure I miss because I'm there to look at stars and planets.
It was amusing to see how excited these people get simply because they think they saw a UFO that was really just a Satellite….
Oubliette @ 8:13 am
Tim, you are the voice of reason.
IF that area were a hotbed of UFOs that performed on cue, there would have been plenty of researchers out there already. It has never been mentioned before in the media (national) to my knowledge. Now that this episode has aired, "ufologists" will probably be swarming all over and that guy will be sorry his property was featured on the show.!
Robbin @ 7:48 pm
Recently, I was 'up north' in WI on some remote land that friends own on a lake. They had me look up to show me the satellites. There were scores of them and they looked just like round balls of light and moved around. Just like what they saw on this show. I had no idea there were so many satellites in the sky but there sure as heck are.
This episode like most of the others was shameful. If you like it for Ryan and the way that he dramatizes things watch it. But we know for sure satellites are not UFO's.
One more thing here.
Oubliette – you mention Chip Coffey in a prior post and I must say I agree with you on him. In general I like your posts a lot, you are well thought out.
I used to like Chip and then began really focusing in on him. I don't know if you ever saw the Paranormal Kids show he hosted on A&E over the summer. But there was one show where they took the kids to a B&B in Racine WI about 15 minutes from my home.
Chip Coffey in all of his great psychic powers lands in WI and as they are heading north in the state, where all the Indian Tribes are, he says he is reading Native American. Really, Native American in WI? Was it the casino you passed on the freeway, the fact that you were headed toward tribal lands or did you see Wayne's World, remember the Alice Cooper scene (Mil-e-wau-kee)? Load-of-crap-eh!
Oubliette @ 11:25 pm
Thank you, I am glad you like some of my opinions.
That's hilarious about the Indian Tribes in Wisconsin and Chip picking up on the "cues". That is exactly what he does most of the time, on camera and off as well. I don't remember that particular "Psychic Kids" episode but how he acts and influences those children IMO borders on some kind of child emotional abuse. If they weren't spooked out before he got to them, they certainly were the longer he was around.
Not exactly the best role model. And if you check out his web site, like Sylvia Browne and others of that type, a person can have the privilege of talking to him on the phone for $$$$. Check out his rates:
******************
General Readings:
$200 for approximately 30 minutes
Spirit Contacts/Crossing Over Readings:
$500 for approximately 30 – 40 minutes
(This rate is for one individual. Additional family members or friends may participate at a cost of $250 per person.)
http://www.chipcoffey.com/Readings.html
*****************
I really wish more people were aware of how these "psychics" work. This is why I've gone from finding him hilarious or amusing to actually making me angry every time he shows up on TV.
Robbin @ 12:10 am
I have to admit that I love watching these types of shows, but when they started doing this thing with the kids it bothers me.
Chip does lead them to come to his way of thinking. He asks them very leading questions. The kids may be taking that queue from him and providing the answer they feel he wants from them and not what they really feel.
Does this mean that some of these kids are having real paranormal experiences, they sure could. But after revealing such a personal thing on TV I can't imagine what they must be going through. People can be cruel.
That huge place in Racine they filmed at is a B&B. So I am betting the family that owns the place thought this would be a great way of helping to get business. It is seriously beautiful and I drive by it a lot. By the way it always looks very friendly to me.
I am so shocked that he does readings over the phone for money. I am not sure why I am shocked but I am! He does not impress me with his abilities at all and I have been watching him for some time. I also think he is pretty smarmy and self interested.