I know we're a few episodes into the season (and the series) but I finally decided to sit down and watch one of the new Ghost Adventures investigations. Starting from the beginning seemed like the right move until I realized anyone that's actually been following the series watched that one a month ago and has the most recent episode fresh in their minds — so I decided to start there instead.

The Riddle House, for all you Harry Potter fans out there, was abandoned and once had a caretaker that suffered a tragic fate — although to my knowledge there were no snakes involved. The only tragedy mentioned in connection with this house involved a man hanging himself in the attic, but apparently that was more than enough because pretty much everyone associated with the place had stories to tell about things being moved, knocked over, gone missing, and even a two-by-four that flew across a room.

When they brought the psychic out, I wasn't thrilled. Zak did say (repeatedly) that this was the first time they'd ever worked with a psychic and it was just something he wanted to try out because he was open to it. Fair enough.  For her part, Sheila Powell was quite impressive.  Ghost Adventures intercut footage of the investigation team getting a tour of the place with Sheila's psychic impressions during her own walkthrough and not only did she come up with a lot of highly detailed information without prompting (including that the house had been moved from somewhere else, the original location it had been moved from, reports of noises coming from a specific room) she also apparently knew something even the tour guide didn't know: the name of the man who hanged himself was Joseph.

That tidbit of information was in the diary of the former homeowner, currently in posession of his grandson (neither was named Tom), who told Zak's team but apparently hadn't shared it with the home's new caretakers.  Of course there were parts of what Sheila "sensed" that couldn't be confirmed (why the man hanged himself, etc) but the parts that could be confirmed seem to line up nicely.

…which leaves us with a familiar quandry: The Ghost Adventures team says they gave Sheila no information on the location and I'm sure if asked Sheila would insist she'd done no research whatsoever, which means we would have to take her ability at face value — which would seem very impressive. Yet, I have yet to see a credible study under controlled circumstances where psychics were able to demonstrate that these abilities are actually real. At some point I'd like to look deeper at psychic phenomena in general because the dichotomy of it, how it can be simultaneously impressive and yet somehow still not credible, probably deserves some Skeptical Viewer attention.

In any case, to the investigation proper: One of the first things I noticed, which I thought was terrific, is that early on when the team heard a noise coming from a door they were able to show the door from both the inside and the outside of the house, because they had cameras covering it from both sides. Coming from Ghost Hunters, seeing that setup was like a breath of fresh air.

To bring it home, when the team began experiencing cold spots they immediately broke out thermometers. I might be in love. One caveat: they didn't really seem to have much to report temperature-wise except for one incident towards the middle of the investigation, and when they compared a 69 degree reading to the previous readings they'd been getting of 80+ degrees (this place was in Florida) I couldn't help but notice that the'd been using IR (surface) thermometers all night but broke out a non-contact (ambient) thermometer this one time. Unless I'm misunderstanding the equipment they were using, that seems like comparing apples to oranges, which is unfortunately all too reminscent of GH.

For the uninitiated, the Ghost Adventures team consists of three guys (Zak, Nick, Aaron) who like to be padlocked into the place they're investigating. This might seem like a cheesy "oh noes! we can't get out!" gimmick but I think it's also useful for keeping any would-be hoaxers from getting in (or sneaking out if they were in already). Also, these guys work their own gear so it's just the three guys and no one else in the building.

This came into play twice as the team stood in the main hallway at the foot of the steps. Zak placed a two-by-four on the stairway landing and (after being told the spirits didn't like American Flags) they had put a flag in the corner of the parlour. The two-by-four moved (it fell down a step or two) seemingly of its own accord and we could see exactly where everyone was when it happened. When Zak went up to the landing to check it out, he noted that it felt cold and called the other guys up — when the flag in the parlor was knocked over and fell to the ground. When that happened we know exactly where everyone is as well, and unless there was a secret accomplice up the stairs and another one hiding in the parlor, I don't see how anyone could have hoaxed the two events.

…with one exception: both objects "fell".  If someone had deliberately placed them precariously they might have been able to pull something like this off, but that seems like a bit of a stretch. Overall I found no reason to suspect hoaxing, but if there are a lot of things that seem to be "falling" then I'll start to keep a bit of a closer eye out.

At least one more object did fall later in this investigation. Sheila told Aaron that the spirit in the house disliked him the most, so Zak basically made him stay up in the attic alone. While he was up in the attic, Zak & Nick were in the parlor and they (and we, via the recording) heard a crashing sound that seemed to come from the kitchen. Running in there they couldn't find out what it was though. They set up an additional camera in the kitchen to potentially catch any further activity and they did catch a few more odd sounds (like objects being moved) but nothing visual.

Meanwhile in the attic Aaron was asking questions like, "Don't you know hanging yourself is a cowardly way to go" all the while grimacing and holding his eyes shut tight (at least while he was talking) as if he expected someone to smack him across the face at any moment. He finally lost his nerve and ran down out of the attic when a birdcage fell down from a shelf (or on top of another box?) further back in the attic. The team said they didn't even know what caused the sound until they reviewed the tape, but it seemed incredibly convenient that the birdcage was actually about dead center and clearly visible on one of their camera angles as it fell.

To be fair, they actually had three cameras (two static and one handheld) in that room all pointed in basically the same direction down the length of the attic, so their chances of catching something were probably much better than we're used to with some other paranormal investigators (*cough*) and if that was placed precariously in some deliberate fashion then it sure did take its sweet time before falling down. I certainly don't see any easy way that could have been rigged to fall on cue.

And if the Ghost Adventures guys are reading this wondering why I seem to be obsessed with scrutinizing the possibility that any little thing can or may be a hoax, I apologize for my cynicism — it's what I do; especially after the latest batch of "paranormal" occurences from TAPS. Overall I really like this investigation, I love the format and I thought the technique was perhaps the best I've yet seen. I'll be watching more — although I can't promise any sort of regularity to these write-ups.  I'll be watching, and of course nitpicking as I go

ALSO: Be sure not to miss Oubliette's review of the Riddle House investigation and discussion of this episode in the forum!