Revenant said:

Also…back to GA…does anyone know the specific program that GA uses to evaluate their EVP's?

No, but whatever it is it doesn't work.

No one has talked about the door yet. After the shadow play of last episode, it looks like GA has discovered the multiple uses of fishing line. Either that or it was a ghost. That door slams shut so hard it bounces back a little.

This is no "stupid door trick" of GH style that moves on it's own due to crooked construction. The acceleration of movement is just too quick.

Thoughts?

Learjet said:

No one has talked about the door yet. After the shadow play of last episode, it looks like GA has discovered the multiple uses of fishing line. Either that or it was a ghost. That door slams shut so hard it bounces back a little.

This is no "stupid door trick" of GH style that moves on it's own due to crooked construction. The acceleration of movement is just too quick.

Thoughts?

Well…you have the door and you have the "skeptic EVP challenge."  I haven't reviewed any film.  I really don't want to….  But maybe we can do this really quick like…

The Door –

Learjet, you're absolutely right about the acceleration rate.  This isn't your daddy's GH type of door swing.  This is the Vegas "You're money and you don't even know it" chest-pumping kind of GA door slam.  Taking the wires off the brick that launched a television series would work nicely here.  To create that sort of force, the string would not only need to be on the outside edge of the door…but probably at a couple of points.  I mean…if it was just one point, the starting movement might be "jerky."  A couple of points along the door would provide a smoother swing. 

I highly doubt that any strings will be visible.  I mean, if they were…why show the clip?  I suppose one can look for editing effects.  Beyond that…the string just might be invisible at that distance, shot with an IR light and filmed with a night vision camera.  If anyone thinks that they see something odd…give a shout.  But…as with ambiguous evidence…I'm not sure what it proves or disproves.

The Skeptic EVP Challenge –

Sleight of hand is fun.  Picture myself on stage (very tall, devilishly handsome, and not covered in bling like Chris Angel).  I call for a volunteer and Nosfer steps on stage.  I ask Nosfer for a $20 and foolishly…he gives me one.  I show him the bill.  I show the audience the bill.  The twenty never leaves my hand and is always in plain view of the audience.  I then have Nosfer follow me stage-right.  My assistant, Kate Beckinsale (Hey!  This is MY example…my assistant can be anyone that I want…), appears on stage with a black box with a tiny red curtain.  I hand the $20 to Kate, she places it in the box, she pulls the tiny red curtain and it magically turns into a giant, and fake, $100 bill.  Amazing…applause, applause, applause…

Let's look at what Zak did.  He called the skeptic into the room.  Showed him the recorder and showed him how there were no files in the folders (notice that Ray only looked and didn't check himself).  So…they go around and talk to an empty house for a while.  Eventually, they exit stage-right and what does Zak do?  He hands it to his "EVP expert" who already has his EVP program booted up and ready to go.  Um ….does the "skeptic" get to check THAT for pre-recorded files?  Did he watch the expert to make sure that he didn't lay down any tracks over their original recording?  Did the "skeptic" have that sort of expertise? 

Zak makes a huge deal of that fact that the recorder never leaves his hand.  Oh…but it doesn't have to when you hand it to the "EVP expert" and don't even bother to check the files within that EVP program or see what it's capable of doing.  And what do we get?  Earth-shattering EVP's.  Color me shocked…

Like I said…sleight of hand is fun.  And did anyone notice that even in my  example…Nosfer never got his $20 bill back?  Even in tame examples…that sort of sleight of hand works beautifully…just like it did on the show…

Nosfer said:

Unfortunately for this show they've been caught in out and out deceit so showing something on television to prove something, well, doesn't prove anything.  Haven't watched this one either, find it really hard to get into it (not easy spending a quarter of an hour or more watching Zak preen himself)  Did this Ray person have any credentials to establish who he really was?

Ray…from what I remember, and someone please correct me if I'm wrong, was a police officer for quite a long time (over 30 years I believe).  He was featured on the show because he had written a book about this specific case.  Ray seemed intelligent and rational…a rarity on GA.

Ray never made the claim that HE was a skeptic in the true sense.  He simply did not believe in ghosts and did not believe anything was going on in the house.  Again…that's not skepticism.  It was Zak that went on and on about this "skeptic."  For quite a while in the show, he kept referring to Ray as "the skeptic" instead of simply 'Ray."  Maybe he just forgot his name.  But Zak was definitely out to prove something to the audience at Ray's expense.  As if…dare I say…that Zak knew what was coming.  Something that he would need someone credible to verify.  How fortunate that they got tremendous EVP's isn't it?  Kind of makes you go "hmmm…" doesn't it?

So my intention was not to "call out" Ray.  He seemed decent enough.  Yet…and this is a terrible generality, but given his age, I do somewhat question his expertise with electronics and computer software.  For example, if I was in Ray's place…I wouldn't need Zak to "show me" his recorder doesn't have any pre-recorded files on it.  I'll take the recorder myself and look myself.  And once we're with that "EVP expert"…I'm politely asking him to move over so I could check out the program myself and look at the files that it contains (another thing that Ray didn't do).  Maybe Ray is tech-savvy and I'm just out of line saying that he isn't.  He just didn't seem so to me…which isn't a slight to his character, just a skill-set that he may not possess.

Would have Zak had been so generous with his gear and such with a tech-savvy so-called skeptic?  I seriously have my doubts…