The Skeptical Viewer - Group: Television Shows Discussion

Huntress on Ghost Hunters Drinking Game

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:55:19 -0700

This is a two-fisted shot: how about one for each episode ending where Jason and Grant are in the car and Jason says, "Good job, man" (shot one) followed immediately by "On to the next" (shot two).

Azathoth on Paranormal Cops S01E02 Women's College

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 22:10:18 -0700

In general, I find this series funny. The main guy is a complete caricture of Sipowitz (sp?) from NYPD Blue. A little rotund, he speaks like him, and likes to chomp on cigar. At the beginning it's like an interrogation of the claiment, and at the end there is this official form were they mark stuff off. Also love the evidence seals on the doorts!

It's like they watched every ghost hunting show before and somehow combined them into one big mess. PC "evidence tape" = GA's "locked in". (Though I found the plantation episode with the cabin's flashing lights, even though that was so obivously faked. "The door's locked! I can't see anyone through the window!") The standard "Did you hear that?" Orbs (c'mon). The research guy? What he does instantaneous research on the fly rather than look it up earlier? At least their medium doesn't go all Chip Coffee on us. "Boogers and demons, from the left!"

GH & GHI are the same script in new areas (at least for the last 4-5 years). I like GHI just for the architecure and history of the places.

I still like GA the best because they give the best show. Whatching Zak(?) getting possessed every other episode and acting like a puppet is pure gold. The first time he did it he was great with the just staring around and not saying anything. Almost had me convinced. 4 eps later he's ranting and raving like a 'madman' while just twirling around in circles. Oooh, spooky!

Fun thing, I watched 'House of Bones'. Story about a fake ghost hunting show that runs into a real haunted house. A scifi channel type film, but they lampoon the 'real' ghost hunting shows nicely.

The Doctor on American Paranormal

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 12:41:37 -0700

cheeky skeptess said:

I REALLY liked that they just set it up and let it run overnight with nobody in the building. At least any visual or sound anamolies that might have been captured wouldn't be caused (even accidentally) by the investigators. Makes much more sense to me.

Welcome,

You've brought up a very good point, as any "residual" activity or anything such as door openings should happen regardless of the presence of the living and the least possible contamination the better.

I'd like to see a combination - an overnight hunt, then leave the equipment running the following day and night. No doubt software is available or could be devised to perform an on-the-fly analysis of the unmanned segments, and any interesting bits could be flagged for human eyes or ears.

( whatever happened to the concept of having someone at "command central" actually watching the static cams during a hunt ? )

baratgrd on Paranormal Cops S01E02 Women's College

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:03:57 -0700

I graduated from Barat College, where they shot the episode. There are plenty of stories about the 100 year old building. But the one story I've never heard is the one they told in the episode. I researched the murder they were taking about in the episode. It actually occured in the vicinity of, but not at Barat College. I would've liked them to investigate some of the stories I've heard. All in all, I think someone looked through a book of Chicago stories and picked this out. It was convenient since the murder occured near the school and the school has been closed 5+ years.

cheeky skeptess on American Paranormal

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:21:30 -0700

Hi everyone, new here! Found this site recently after my relatively new found "interest" in paranormal shows prompted me to do some skepti-googling. :) Actually, it's not so much "interest" as an inability to avoid coming across such shows on the teev these days, so…if you can't avoid 'em, watch 'em and make a bit of a sport picking out the nonsense, I guess!

I was looking forward to these two shows, actually, hoping for a more sensible approach from the Nat Geo channel as, of course, I've long given up on getting such from the likes of Discovery, TLC and THC, sadly.

I thought the Ghost episode was well done on the whole, with only a few "ummm…" moments and only one real "WTF!?!" moment that I recall. The Bigfoot epi…not so much.

I'll just go with the things that struck me in particular, although I did delete these shows from the DVR, so feel free to correct me if I remembered incorrectly.

GHOST EPI:

Had an actual bit of a LOL moment from the prison maintenance man because what he said just didn't make sense - that he was trying to fix a lock on one of the doors. In the dark. Without a flashlight! Ummm…that makes sense. Or not. Really, I couldn't even get past that part of his story, never mind the ghosty stuff. Hee! Anyway, I thought the show's FX recreation of his experience was overdone because it seemed that it was presenting the supposed events as more than what he was actually saying, but, whatever. I'll admit it was spooky though!

Good explanation of why atoms can't pass through solid objects, but that particles such as neutrinos can, although then neutrino ghosties could not then be detected by typical ghost hunting equipment such as EMFs, cameras, etc. Damn those Catch-22s! But here is where my "WTF?!?!" moment happened - the narrator follows this up by saying that neutrino ghosts could explain the maintenance man's sighting. Excuse me? The physicist just got done explaining how neutrinos couldn't be detected by say, a camera, so how would they be visible to the naked eye? Oh right…they WOULDN'T! Duh.

Overall all good explanation of how things such as FLIRs and EMF detectors actually work and why they therefore couldn't really be used to conclusively detect ghosts. Not anything about digital recorders, etc and capturing EVPs that I recall, but can't have everything I suppose!

Of course, they set up shop anyway with all such equipment, but what the heck, they were already there, right? I REALLY liked that they just set it up and let it run overnight with nobody in the building. At least any visual or sound anamolies that might have been captured wouldn't be caused (even accidentally) by the investigators. Makes much more sense to me. And such a relief not to see a bunch of doofuses running around shrieking "OMG! DID YOU SEE/HEAR THAT?!?!" and pooping their pants. Although the explanation seemed a tad drawn out for suspense, I appreciated the ultimate and reasonable conclusion of the only anamoly being caused by perfectly normal rain.

I think they could have been a bit more clear with the whole infrasound part though. The explanation of IS and its effects, and the IS generator they made was fine, but they spoke rather disjointedly about the geometry of the building, IMO. I'm pretty sure that the point that they were trying to make was that the geometry of the building could provide an acoustical environment that may propagate or amplify normal infrasound present in the surrounding enviroment, but they didn't specifically state that to my recollection. It would have been good of them to rattle off at least a few things that could possibly produce infrasound in the enviroment. As it was, it could leave one saying, "What's the point, then? Obviously that IS generator isn't normally there, so….?" Help out us folks that don't know much about audio and acoustics, k?

Over all very rational and well done. Such a refreshing change from the usual, I must say! But WHEW! This post turned out A LOT longer than I expected, so I guess I'll leave the BF show for another post.

Buffy on Paranormal Cops S01E02 Women's College

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:54:16 -0700

I was really disappointed in this episode. I thought that they were going to improve, even the slightest bit, from the first episode, but alas, they got worse! After I got over the disgust of all those library books being left there to get demolished with the place, (sorry it's the librarian in me speaking) I too cringed at the stun gun theory. It's right up there with the lightning theory or the muddy waters of the Mississippi theory of Ghost Lab. Does that mean that anyone who is stunned by one sees dead people? Also, I was a little annoyed at their quick thinking of "ghost" when they saw a cold spot on the FLIR walking down the hallway. It looked like a window to me and they didn't even try to debunk it. They also didn't show them scoping out the place when they "saw" someone walk into one of the rooms while setting up their equipment. They just yelled down the stairwells. I want to see "cop mode" again! Securing the area! All in all, they seemed to have cut out a lot of video to get it into 1/2 hr show and maybe that had something to do with it, but I highly doubt it. I know someone who had a sister that graduate from this school and I don't believe she had any ghostly experiences. What I like about this show, is that they are doing places that no one has investigated before, and hopefully, they keep it that way and just do a better job at investigating. There a plenty of spots in Chicago that are reportedly haunted. Maybe they will bring in some of the K9 units for an investigation.

It would be interesting to get everyone on this site to investigate a "haunted" location together and see what we come up with.

Learjet on American Paranormal

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 19:59:44 -0700

The Doctor said:

The bigger question is … How long before the Paranormal community decides that the presence of infrasound ATTRACTS Casper … or feeds Casper … or Casper creates it ?

Oh gawd, please don't give them any ideas lol. "There's this theory that infrasound........."

jcarton on American Paranormal

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 14:33:20 -0700

I agree with you Doctor and found your comment funny.

I got a kick when the guy looks at the display and says " Here's a big hump that sounds like it might be rain " … " is there any evidence that you guys might have seen ?…"

Well, one clue might be this puddle over here under the broken skylight ….

Since they must have stayed in the city or nearby over night wouldnt they have known it rained and wouldnt there be signs it rained outside as well as inside?

Myself, I would still like to know what the psychologist meant when he said they learned a lot from the investigation and that ghosts are unexplained phenomena and we dont know what ghosts are in a scientific sense? I googled this guy and his claim to fame is writing for on line dating services. WTF?

The Doctor on American Paranormal

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 12:38:01 -0700

Learjet said:

It seems I'm a bit of a skeptic of the skeptics in this show!

I know how you feel, they spent a lot of effort to map the cell block - not really sure how the map allowing them to pinpoint any location of sight and sound would allow them to " see if they scared up any ghosts".

One of them explains how anything that blocks the IR radiation will show up as a cold spot on the FLIR, but then makes the leap to say "an appirition, a ghost if you will would cause a similar effect" …. ??? where does this statement come from ?? Does he have some knowledge fo the physical characteristics of ghosts ?

I got a kick when the guy looks at the display and says " Here's a big hump that sounds like it might be rain " … " is there any evidence that you guys might have seen ?…"

Well, one clue might be this puddle over here under the broken skylight ….

The bigger question is … How long before the Paranormal community decides that the presence of infrasound ATTRACTS Casper … or feeds Casper … or Casper creates it ?

The Doctor on Chernobyl Evidence Analysis...Yet Another GH Tie-In!

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 09:46:21 -0700

Moofers said:

All electronic equipment they used had metals that could be interferred by the radioactive enviroment they where in.

Hmmm - wonder what they make the raqdiation monitors out of ?

Learjet on American Paranormal

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 04:16:42 -0700

I remember that episode. It seems that myth was busted.

The Doctor on American Paranormal

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:52:32 -0700

Learjet said:

That's very interesting, thanks. I'll keep those frequencies in mind.

Watch out for this one when you experiment - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_note

The Doctor on Paranormal Cops S01E02 Women's College

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:54:40 -0700

Janell - I found one of your suggestions refreshingly honest with their completely blank "evidence" page.

Getting back to Paranormal Cops, it appears that they do not even subscribe to the generally accepted definition of EVP as being something that was NOT heard at the time. The Ghost Hunting community can not even agree on terms they make up.

I visited Jason Sullivan's site and found it pretty laughable that he says -

"No one is 100% sure what a ghost really is, if they really exist."

Then goes on to tell us -

"Here are the tell tale signs of ghostly activity: "

So Jason, if they don't exist - what would be causing all your tell tale signs ?

Bobarino on Paranormal Cops S01E02 Women's College

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:05:37 -0700

I must agree with Learjet.

Please don't take it the wrong way, but only in the spirit it is meant. I have a scientific background. When all the shows started to pop up on tv, esp. GH, I was happy that someone was finally taking a "scientific" approach to ghost hunting. At first I was one of the sheep and loved the show.

Then I started to see the problems. Eventually I could predict the whole show, and actually SEE how they were faking it.

Now with all the shows on TV, and all the conventions, etc., I have absolutely no trust or faith that there is a single legitimate "paranormal investigator" on the planet.

Perhaps there are some out there. But due to these shows their credibility is in the toilet, and no serious scientist or rational person will believe them.

So when you say someone is "best in the field" in the THIS field, it means nothing to me. Just another person making money.

...

Before I hit the "save new post" button, I re-read what I typed, and come to realize that these shows have tainted me...made me jump over the skeptical deep end. These shows are so horrible that I doubt anything can be done to ever make me believe there are such a thing as ghosts ever again. Thanks a lot GH :-/

Learjet on Paranormal Cops S01E02 Women's College

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 07:01:05 -0700

First link doesn't work.

Second link I see they use K-II meters. Blech. Plus the website hung the PC.

Third link. A wiccan website? You're kidding. They also use K-II meters. I see they are on the right track. Not.

Last link. Yet even more K-II meters and a paranormal puck.

I have a brush and some tar....