Thanks for this post, Logisti. Things around here have become a bit…ummmm….less skeptical. I agree with you that GH's metamorphosis into MH is mostly to blame. (OK. Those weren't your exact words…)

There are a lot of intellegent people on this site, but their potential is being wasted on GH. I look forward to some of it being directed in more useful and interesting avenues.

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Logisti has brought up an interesting point, although one must admit that GH and PS have provided such a vast amount of fodder that they simply can't be ignored. I have been laboring under the mistaken idea that this site was mainly interested in TV shows, and am happy to know that this is not the case. But I agree, discussions regarding other areas certainly would be most welcome. Occasionally threads have been posted that delve into other areas and have always proved extremely interesting.

I myself have quite an interest in cryptozoology, as well as (to me) the mistaken belief that aliens have visited the earth in the past. And no, they didn't help build the pyramids either. So ideas are starting to come to me already….

Anyone else have some subjects that are near and dear to his/her skeptical heart? Maybe if we toss our personal interests around a bit we can get to work on some very interesting articles.

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I'm glad I happened upon this site.I,too have become weary of every dust particle being a ghostly orb, every light in the sky a U.F.O,every mental illness demonic possession,and so on. I'm a skeptical fan of Ghost Hunters, but as far as the others, ie;Paranormal State, Most Haunted,Ghost Adventures etc, let me just say they're the reason, I feel, why all areas of paranorma are taken less seriously. In their efforts to find something, they lose their credibility.I would rather watch a whole season of Ghost Hunters where they find nothing, than when they do, its believable. I hope they don't manufacture evidence, smoke and mirrors are such a turnoff.Has anyone noticed Paranormal States descent into the mindset of "All ghosts are evil spirits"? "Uugh!!Please tell me I'm not the only one who feels like this.

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I have a decent collection of paranormal books; I'm thinking I'll start some book reviews.

I'm quite interested in UFOs. General psychic claims are also interesting, since they should be so testable.

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Stephen, that is an excellent idea. It would make for very interesting discussions. Go for it!

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look i beleave in paranormall activities and i have experiances of my own….i've seen a light that flashed rt in front of me that i cud not explained and im still wondering if my mind was playing a trick on me or i had jus experianced a paranormall.I've been watching TAPS for a long time now but i don't like the fact that these guyz wud add fake encounters that u cud clearly c in sum of their shows…and i don't like the fact that some of these people who call on taps for investigation are all in this.If u notice most of this places are hotels and meusiums! y only hotels and meusiums? OK i understand they pay u lot a money to investigate but is it ok? Whats more important money or the truth? what does hotels and meusiums get out of this?..lol its all about customer traffic for these dying businesses, alit boost from TAPS should do it rt, I don't understand y people lead public in the wrong directions jus for sum ratings for their show.Please cry out load if u gonna do show like this do it out of yo heart, don't put no extras…keep it real and ratings will go up regardless…u kno wat bothers me the most im a big fan of sci-fi and discovery channell and i watch em religiously…when i c they put up shows like Taps and im pretty sure they kno half of they show is fake and they still air it without doing their own investigation..it breaks my heart and trust. I thought watever sci-fi and discovery put on their show is real no fake, but watching taps is like watching a comady show…lol now im second guessing sci-fi and discovery channel i wonder how many other shows are fake like TAPS….

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Uncle!

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I wouldn't go so far as to say that TAPS is a total fake. In fact, I'm sure a lot of their evidence might be easily debunked by us skeptics but in reality, we could also be wrong about a lot of things. It's hard to say since we weren't actually there.

A lot of stuff we see in the movies looks believable but is fake with thanks to digital video technology. Chromakey is the most used and most realistic effect and because of it, it's hard to determine if someone is actually on scene or if they're standing against a green background and being superimposed within a place some 2,000 miles away. Just about everything we see on tv can be faked. Families can even fake themselves standing against the Niagra Falls or having the Grand Canyon as the background in their home videos. There really are no limits, but I think that if we've gotten to the point to where we believe everything we see on TV is fake, including our daily news, then we've become a very fake society.

TAPS is an organization and Ghost Hunters is a TV show revolving around that organization. Is it possible that the off-camera TAPS performs differently than the on-camera one does? I think so. A large national audience is watching them on TV and if they want to keep people interested, what's to say they don't stage a paranormal event here and there just for a bit of added excitement and a hope that it'll boost both interest and ratings. I think it's obvious that the team on Ghost Adventures does this and I don't think it's too far-fetched of an idea for TAPS to do it either. In spite of the fact that there might be some staged events, it hasn't deterred me from watching them. I don't quickly dismiss every bit of evidence because even if I can debunk them, there's always a chance that the evidence very real. Scepticism draws a line between believing and not believing. You can be a sceptical believer without crossing the line into completely not believing in something. Am I a skeptical believer in God? Probably. Millions of people around the world say he exists but yet I haven't seen him. Does this mean he doesn't exist? Not really, therefore, I'm just skeptical that he does exist.

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Count me in on any UFO, life on other planets, etc… discussions.

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Crow, considering the situation Tom and yourself are in that goes without saying.
Some days it wanders though my mind as to whatever happened to Magic Voice.

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Stephen, I would love to see book reviews. Oubliette, thanks for suggesting that we share our particular areas of interest. Aliens, I can go along with that having read the Whitley Strieber books about his own experiences. Well, anything else paranormal, shadow people, personal experiences. . . .almost anything.

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[Note from Admin: This poster's identity has not been verified]

Before you try bashing our work, learn your facts. We are a real paranormal group and we investigate, we do not make assumptions. [Personal attacks and insults removed by Admin] We are a regestered company, and have our office in Warwick RI. We Are Very Real. Dont bash something you have no idea about [Personal attacks and insults removed by Admin] and dont talk bad about us, we dont talk bad about you, maybe on our show we should. Quit the bashing here. Thank You

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LOL!!!! Thanks "Dave Tango"! Well said or is that well written? Share with us your "investigation" techniques and under what name you are "regestered". I had no clue you were in Warwick, RI and WE had brain cells missing? Yes, maybe on your show you should talk bad. That would work wonders.

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Ok 'Dave', I'll play along - First, Welcome. I hope you stick around. Second, I have a question: Are you and Steve disappointed in the way you've been portrayed on GH recently? It seems like you two are there just for comic relief. You guys use to be (probably still are) good investigators, but the last season or two don't show that.

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@ blinddog50

RE Magic Voice. It's a sad story. I won't go into detail here, but her relationship with Torgo became strained and……well….maybe another time.

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"…dont talk bad about us, we dont talk bad about you, maybe on our show we should."

@ "Dave Tango", I'm going to go with alicat on this — if TAPS bad mouthed "Skeptics" on the air that would hurt their credibility, not just because they claim to *be* skeptics but also because they'd essentially be saying Science < Gut Feeling… and of course you just specifically said they "do not make assumptions" so I'm sure they wouldn't want to suggest that they in fact *do*.

Alternatively, they could just bash SkepticalViewer.com by name during an episode or three, but of course we'd love it if they did that because our readership would skyrocket and I'm fairly confident many of them will be more intrigued and enlightened by what they find here than offended. Even so, there's the old story that people who hate Howard Stern listen to his show on average twice as long each day as people who love him, so I'm sure a lot of people who do find this site offensive still read it. After all, you're here.

No, TAPS wouldn't do either of those things but what they might do is point the finger at the anonymous "some people" who Jay or Grant will claim are never satisfied no matter how much evidence there is. In fact, they've spoken of such people more than a few times, although I can't be sure if any of those times they were referring to the folks at this site in particular. In any case, even this makes them look bad to many people because in most cases it's fairly clear to the clear-minded that they're overselling the value of their evidence on a given case. Saying a piece of evidence might be proof of the paranormal is one thing, criticizing people for saying it also might not be is something else entirely.

Really, the only smart move for TAPS is not to say anything at all, because they have nothing to gain from it and only viewers to lose. That's the basic reality, but at the root of that reality is the reason behind it: painting us as the bad guys is a tough sell. That's because all we're doing is trying to get as much truth as possible. Any "bashing" that goes on is hog-tied to a good reason and anyone who disagrees is welcome on any of the posts to present their own opinions with their own good reasons. On the other hand there are certain *other* forums in which there is much discussion of TAPS and on *those* forums expressing certain opinions, no matter how politely or well-reasoned, can get you banned. I don't think they'll mention *that* on the show either, though.

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Gee L,
Wish you would have left the personal attacks and insults in.
It would have made an otherwise dull post more interesting.
I was married once and lived across the street from my in-laws. I can take it.

Maybe if you had a special forum for 'double naught' skeptics.

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Mr. Tango:

First, let me welcome you to the site. We welcome all point of view here. If you're Dave Tango of TAPS, I would certainly like to hear your view on many of the things we talk about here. If not– well, it's a useful exercise to write this message anyway.

I don't think that anyone here has doubted the existence of TAPS as a corporation or claimed that its members weren't real or weren't in Warwick, RI. We do, however, have legitimate doubts about the evidence for the paranormal we've seen on the show.

I think that this place is more reasonable than you might imagine. Here we try to deal in facts. If we've got our facts wrong, then I'd be happy if you show us exactly where and how, and backed up your arguments with verifiable evidence. After all, you have all of the case files and tapes at TAPS headquarters. It should be easy to prove to us that, for example, Grant Wilson couldn't have moved the lamp at Myrtle's Plantation.

On the other hand– well, could what we say be true? Isn't the Grant List a bit odd, for one thing? (See our forums for that one.) It's easy to say that we don't know what we're talking about. If you want to move us to your side, though, you need to give us evidence and facts. Things we can verify or at least analyze.

I hope that you do so. It would be great to be able to learn more about it, and maybe you'll change some minds.

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Wow, "Dave", what a thin skin you have. I have seen no attack from this site on your "corporation" from RI.
I am new here and I can tell that this group of guys have an open mind which is far more than I can say for you.

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Wow, now if that was Dave Tango of TAPS, I might be secretly pleased we got his attention. But as I hear there are many people out there who just troll the skeptic sites with the nod and wink of TAPS (Just a rumor, doesn't mean it's true, the fact that skeptic sites are trolled isn't, however), I seriously doubt it is. But on the offhand chance it really is the sidekick and second banana to Steve Gonsalves, I would really be interested in some of your techniques of investigation. Like how did EMF and Ghosts become intertwined? Where does the theory of EMF Hyper-Sensitivity come from, and why does it affect Jason and Grant at 3 milligauss instantly, while you and Steve feel nothing? Have you ever known Jason or Grant to get an MRI and hallucinate since they are so sensitive? The World Health Organization actually used MRI machines to test this theory and found it lacking. Why do ghosts never seem to come out in the open, even in dark situations like the Moon River Brewery? If it was dark, why would it come out from behind a wall (Not from inside a wall as asserted on that episode) duckwalk behind a pool table, making sure not to emerge out past it and quickly duck back? What was it afraid of? Why do some apparitions, like the Moon River Brewery and Eastern State Penetitentiary appear to wear black, silk-like sheets? These are just a few of the questions I would ask, oh and there are many more, but did I curse at you or deny that TAPS is an organization? These are questions asked in a normal tone of voice with sincere interest in the answers that would get me thrown out of certain forum sites. But here, I can question these and get input from other people who have similiar questions about the same things. But is TAPS forthcoming with evidence? NO. We are still waiting for the official explanation of the Manson FLIR video tampering that Jason promised to get to the bottom of it's happening. Instead, when we try to get answers from TAPS, who assert themselves as a "Debunking" group, we are shunned without explanation. Delete that account, no more worries. If you had taken the time to actually research THIS site, you would have found that Nosfer, while a skeptic, did defend TAPS in the Isle of the Pines episode with Meatloaf and the water bottle as just bad editing possibly. Defended TAPS against a very anti-TAPS person no less, keeping that possibility in the mix. If you are indeed Dave Tango, read the Isle of Pines topic. Yet whoever you are, you just come in here and throw down insults and tales of non-research on our part. Hardly seems like an open-minded person, had you taken the time to research the site, you would have found that most have had a paranormal occurance, but just disagree with some of the "evidence" TAPS has brought out on television in front of millions of viewers when obvious things, by no fault of ours, have come out quite fishy, like the Grant & "slave shack" lamp, I quote "slave shack" because I have heard it isn't even of pre-civil war origin or even part of the original Myrtle Plantation. This by one of your own "TAPS Family" members, Southern Louisiana Paranormal. It's things like this that cause us to take every piece of evidence with a grain of salt now. We didn't push Grant closer to that table or alter the lamp cord's angle from the previous angle it had been hanging. We have the right to question what we see, and that's what we do. TAPS brought it on themselves. No fishy videos, cords, collar tugs, etc…oh and solid figures on flir curiously reading human temps in degrees automatically put forth as "entities" with no second thought, maybe there would be a right to complain. But as of now, I see none.

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If that was indeed Dave Tango from TAPS commenting on this thread:

May I suggest to Mr. Tango that he go to school on how to conduct himself on SV by reading the thoughtful/helpful comments of Keith Johnson (formerly of TAPS, currently of N.E.A.R.).
Mr. Johnson's comments can be read in the "Book Review: Seeking Spirits" thread.

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Tango's post was over 4 months ago. Probably a single flyby post never to be seen from again.

Don't know why they would come here when they don't even visit their own TAPS forums.

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"Don't know why they would come here when they don't even visit their own TAPS forums."

They have mods over there that keep people in line, thus his admonitions there are not necessary Not that I believe for a second that that was Dave, but anywho!

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Sadly, I didn't realize until I had finished posting…went "Hey! Wait, that was a while ago!" UGH…a rant for nuttin' My pinkie going to sleep for nuttin', so sad…

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@TasCat…paragraphs are our friends

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Yeah, I looked back at the "Tango" comment before I made my own. July it was, & I thought well, so what. Troll types, of which "Tango" is most probably one, are always skimming back by to see what skeptic sites are up to. I want this person (or any others skimming here) to read Keith Johnson's measured, courteous responses to our questions when he/she/it next feels the need to take another dump on SV. If by some remarkable chance it was Dave Tango, then I doubly want Keith's responses read by this commenter.

I almost re-phrased that last bit, but crass is warranted in this case imo.

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All Paragraphs are belong to us!

Yeah, when I get on a roll, I do tend to forget to enter and indent. Enter and Indent, Tas…Enter and Indent… Bad Cat!

I claim the recently discovered opthoparagraphafarsightesness, simply put, paragraphs are further away than they appear…I blame EMF.

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And yes, Mr. Johnson is most polite, compared to some pseudo wannabe taps members…

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If it was anyone connected to the show, most likely it was Steve posting using Tango's name

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