October 15, 2009
GH: Fort Henry
This investigation began with what seemed to be a parody of South Park's Ghost Hunters parody — except this episode was filmed before South Park aired so either Matt Stone and Trey Parker are psychic or their impressions of Jay & Grant are right on the money. It was literally, "What was that? What was THAT? OH WOW WHAT WAS THAT?!" The only thing missing was the urine running down the leg and the assertion that the yellow fluid pooling on the floor must be of paranormal origin.
Jay & Grant are up by the officers' quarters when Jay notices a door was opened. I think the idea was he remembered it being shut, but as observers we can't be sure of that and even were that the case we can't know why or how it opened. it's an old door, maybe the latch doesn't work properly. Then it seemed like a series of barely audible sounds got the duo more excited than usual, leading to Jay knocking and a sound heard a few seconds after being categorized as a reply.
To be fair, after the initial display of overexcitability it seemed they repeated this experiment at least 3 times, each time not only hearing a single knock shortly following Jay's knocking on the display window glass, but Jay reported he could actually feel the vibration in the glass, which does strongly suggest the sound was created by someone knocking on the glass as Jay did — and we can see Jay & Grant both fully in frame; neither of them moved a hair when those sounds occurred. If we were to trust Jay's observations and our own were accurate then I must admit I lack a good explanation for these knocks.
As a bonus, Jay & Grant both had K-II meters (because one is never enough) and neither showed any activity at all (just prior to this knocking), so they're definitely mixing it up — although they may had inadvertently either proven that K-II meters don't detect ghosts (since one is apparently in the room with them) or that they're getting better at mixing up what sorts of evidence they "catch" from investigation to investigation. Oh wait NOOOOOESSSS! They whip the K-II meters out again after the knocking and suddenly they show activity! Maybe the ghost wasn't in the room the first time! But then Grant said the K-II readings were "sporadic" and had "no rhyme or reason to them". Man, I'm really confused, this must be excellent science they're doing.
Now, the humorous thing is that later we see Kris & Amy go into this same area and almost immediately have a similar experience/reaction. They hear a noise we can't really hear and Amy seems to take an unusual interest in it and remarks that it doesn't sound like "settling" (I'm assuming she means a wooden house settling, but she needs to realize she's in a stone fort) and then a few additional sounds elicited a "what was that? What was THAT?" and at that point I have to admit I felt a little harsh for poking fun as Jay & Grant (but the resemblance to the South Park spoof was uncanny) but then again we really have no idea what Kris & Amy were reacting to, so I suppose it's possible they simply caught the same overexcitability illness. No urine on the floor just yet, though.
What was really interesting, Kris & Amy's experience continued almost exactly as Jay & Grant's: They started getting K-II activity when they'd apparently had none initially, then began hearing noises from the other side of the display window glass, including what they both described as someone tapping/knocking on the glass itself. By the end I either had to concede some very odd pattern of events was occurring and recurring (which was due some very serious, close study) or this was an expertly orchestrated group hoax — and I was leaning heavily away from the hoax possibility.
I want to give Steve & Tango an honorable mention here for coming up with what seemed to be a reasonably solid debunk in the wine cellar. I'm not sure whether or not they had the specifics right, as to which wall someone had seen shadows on/near, and without getting into the physics of wind and the construction of castle/fort windows I think Steve was a bit overconfident in a somewhat inaccurate hypothesis he had about the wind entering the room, but overall I think the conclusions were pretty good and certainly good enough to present to the client as a possible scientific explanation for an event that was believed potentially paranormal.
Elsewhere Jay & Grant heard some noises, followed them, Grant reported seeing a figure in a white shirt pass in front of a window (later during the Reveal their host told them others had the same sighting in the same window), and while they were in that room the door shut slowly, re-opened, and then forcibly closed. Jay then opened the door, both of then stood back and Jay asked the alleged spirit to shut the door again — and the door shut. Jay said he felt resistance trying to open the door the second time, and they entered the room behind it again to re-confirm no one was in it. Steve & Tango had a similar experience later when they investigated the same area.
Jay & Grant also had a reasonable, if somewhat uninspired debunk: Some audible phenomena had been reported in the reverse-firing chamber, a stone room with an arched ceiling in what is likely a series of stone rooms with arched ceilings. Essentially the debunk concept is that the acoustical properties of the area are such that sounds are magnified and the source of a sound is difficult to accurately determine, therefore the sounds may seem like they're coming from nowhere but are actually not anything odd or exciting. Pretty solid logic, but not really a tough one.
…oh, we also got a brief discussion on how paranormal activity is somehow tied to limestone. Are there any building materials not tied to paranormal activity? Maybe asbestos.
There wasn't any additional evidence caught during the analysis, but this was certainly one of TAPS' most interesting investigations to date.
Filed under Ghost Hunters, Posts by Logisti
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Comments on GH: Fort Henry »
Learjet @ 7:29 am
Was watching the K-II antics this episode, as I usually do, and notice they continue to make the same old mistakes of placing a digital voice recorder near the K-II.
J & G do it. http://yfrog.com/5udvrk2j
Kris and Amy do it. http://yfrog.com/5udvrk2bj
And they wonder why the K-II is going off. It's a ghost of course. It's always a ghost, except that it isn't.
I did some spectral analysis of my Sony USB DVR and found it to be a source of broadband EMF "noise". Noise as in RF hash that covers quite a large chunk of the spectrum.
http://yfrog.com/5ucapt0910161940cj
This spectrum graph shows that my Sony DVR produces a full spread of hash from just above DC to 24 KHz plus, the limit of this device. The top half of the graph shows the DVR turned off, the bottom half on. When I say plus I mean the thing spews RF digital noise well into shortwave as I tuned around with a communications receiver.
It's very poor practice to put any RF device anywhere near an EMF meter. Even if it doesn't initially set it off, it raises the noise floor that can lead to spikes and activation.
Considering the equipment misuse these people make with basic toy EMF meters and toy dictaphones, can you image the mistakes they would make with more professional equipment?
I have often wished they would use better equipment than what they presently use, but what's the point. They would find some way to mess it up!
Lar @ 10:52 am
J talking about the door during the reveal, "It CLOSES, & then OPENS, & then CLOSES, slamming itself shut."
His words. VERBATIM!
Heavy solid wood doors closing on their own are a common problem. Talk to any contractor. The heavier the door, & the more out of plumb the door or wall is(in a fort which is well over 200 years old)the more likely it will swing ON ITS OWN.
Jay never asks the entity to OPEN the door. WHY NOT? He only asks the spirit to CLOSE the door, and (Drum Roll) it does! I'll explain that too in just a moment. They don't leave the door closed but unlatched & ask the entity to either open the door slighty, all the way, or to latch it? WHY NOT? They can't. They know it can't happen.
It's much easier to claim a door swinging closed is paranormal then attempting the same "magic," by asking the spirit to open it. Unless the door swung open by itself which this one does not.
They do not show us how long the door is open before Jay asks the spirit to close it. If the door closes on its own as I believe it does, if you knew how long it took before doing so you could COMMAND the entuity to do it. If the door closes in 30 seconds, you ask the ghost to close it with 10 seconds to go.
The door only swings open when it bounces off the frame, only to swing closed. It is not paranormal. It is PLUMB-ABNORMAL!
Raphael @ 11:37 am
At one point J saw the KII lites blinking and said "Look the KII went of by itself" does that mean:
A) he slipped up – went off by itself as opposed to when we set it off?
B) he is innocent – went off by itself
You might say if it was "A" why didnty they edit that line out BUT GH could be clever enough to know that a good percentage of the audience would think that if they left the line in they couldnt possibly be trying to fool us – Am I too skeptical?
The Doctor @ 12:13 pm
Interesting that the rooms they are shown "have been setup to show what an officers life would have been" They are NOT the actual rooms, nor is there any indication that the furniture was original. A dining room would not be adjacent to the wine celler ( which does not appear to even be in the celler )
Jay becomes nauseous and lightheaded in an area where he has been told that people report similar symptoms.
Do you think that perhaps a REAL investigator would take a few seconds and get actual EMF readings using a digital meter in the area to document the levels ?
… Where were the digital EMF meters and the FLIR ?… we didn't even see them using a thermometer in the area where there are reported cold spots.
The Doctor @ 3:17 pm
Using the numbers of posts to the Taps Forum watch party, this episode ranks far and away as the most boring, un-commented ever. The last 6 episodes are in the bottom 10.
Surprisingly enough, I think believers and skeptics are for once in agreement.
M. Roget @ 7:27 pm
As I mentioned over in the Ft. Henry forum thread, I've been to the Fort a couple of times as a kid with the family. We crawled all over the place, which was great fun. That recreation of officers' quarters I don't recall, but the huge parade yard & ramparts were very cool. Do remember one thing, though- many of the doors seemed both heavy & ill-weighted after all the years, some swinging closed by themselves. When you're a slightly built kiddie straggling at the rear of a tour group, you don't forget a heavy door catching your leg & arm & the resultant bruising.
K2 interpretations were absolute bunk in this ep, as per usual. Lose the K2 meters entirely, GH, you might gain some much needed credibility. At this point in the show's run, who am I kidding.
Mugs @ 12:22 am
Fort Henry is huge. IDK how many reports Glen/others shared with TAPS, but some of the ones I've heard and/or read about over the years were not noted at any time during the EP. With reports going back over 6 or 7 decades it'd be difficult to cover them all. And Pilgrim may give a time and/or story limit to keep things on schedule.
However, even with what we'd seen/heard I was surprised [yet not] to see only '3' DVR cams placed – when 3 if not 4x that were needed – and 'apparently' 2 stationary minidv but Steve didn't say where – we later learned one was in the bakery.
Amazing isn't it, of all the room/areas deemed hotspots and of all the doors that had [allegedly] slammed shut one after the other [per the claim by the docent], TAPS manages to put one of only 3 dvr cams used in the 'right room' and aimed towards the 'right door' in that room to capture the action.
One would thing they 'knew' it was going to happen since they also put a minidv in there, positioned so the door was in view – albeit not great could only see it when fully open, with a mostly washed out [glare] & obstructed view at that….AND J/G go to the bakery – after G allegedly sees a figure in the schoolroom window – 'before' the door closed G puts the minidv he had on the table, 'aims' it at that door even though he was 'facing the other way'; back to the door. 2 cams already covering that side of the room and door, why didn't he use his minidv to cover the other side, or leave it to cover the window he'd seen the 'figure' in or outside covering the area in front of the window, or aimed at 'that door' but from the schoolroom side?
The way he just stood there looking down or at his radio after clicking his FL, saying and really doing nothing, while Jay stood at the front door trading his glances between G, the door and outside only to walk outside so his back was to the room right before the door slammed…it just looked so staged to me. 3 cams became 4 when the cam guy turned to film it after it closed the 1st time – at least he gave us a full frontal.
You'd think J/G would've at least had G's minidv covering the other side of the door 'before' asking the entity to do it again. But they didn't do that, or try to recreate it or conclusively rule out any/all possible causes including trickery. The quick pan right of the schoolroom by the cam guy didn't 'prove' no one was in there, besides the footage being dark – why didn’t he use the larger cam light? – no pan of the left side or the wall the door was on. Why didn't J or G quickly check outside the front door of that room to see if any one ran out?
Because IF trickery was involved, IMO it was 'not' done unbeknownst to them but for them. Now even IF manipulation wasn't required, it had a natural swing as Lar has explained, I don't for a minute believe J/G would not have known/discovered that. IDK if having the front doors open helped the swing, or maybe someone was at the schoolroom door moving it in a fan motion to create air flow needed – is that why Jay kept stepping/leaning out looking towards the schoolroom and checking the inside door [for movement?]? The way Grant kept stressing 'there was no breeze' etc – including at Reveal – actually sent up a little red flag for me. I guess the storm with the wind/rain swirling in front of the cam outside cleared in a jiffy, so nary a breeze was even felt.
Steve/Tango go the bakery with just a compact cam that Tango used to take 'one' photo with…since the cams were focused on the other door there was no footage of the 'front' door when it allegedly moved enough for the hanging frame to create a knocking sound. Of course the cam guy was focused on Steve so we didn't get to see Tango – to be sure he didn't knock – much less the door. Poor S/T get barely a nudge, all the main action happens to non other than Jay/Grant. Alas a broken record that has become a real nasty residual; playing over and over again! All IMHO – sorry for the long post.
Katie @ 2:55 pm
I know this episode is pretty old, but I actually live in Kingston (where the fort is). First of all, our town is pretty legendary for paranormal activity and I loved how they acted like being in Canada was such a big deal. As for the debunks, I appreciated how they acted like Canadians had never seen shadows against a wall or heard echoes in stone rooms. I find it so ridiculous that TAPS finds reasonable 'debunks' as basically 'these locals are retards'. As for the so called activity, I found it rather uninspired and agree it was so terribly over acted.