Ghost Hunting shows..

KrangPrime

Master Member
So, we've got alot of Ghostbuster fans on here, what is your take on all these ghost hunting shows?

Personally, I first got hooked on the UK show Most Haunted when I found it on the travel channel. Eventually you grew tired of it, cause it was always the same old tapping noises they caught. But the crew interaction was fun, and so was seeing the locations/history they went too, so I still tuned in. That is, until I think Karl let loose an S bomb on a live special that the Travel Channel didn't catch in time, and that was the end of that show in the US....

Ghost Hunters took a bit longer to get into. In the begining, it wasn't so much about the cases as it was about their personal lives and interaction. If I remember right, case investigations where really short. Then once brian left, more time seemed to be taken in on cases. Of course, GH isn't without it's own controversy, the biggest being the infamous case of Grant's Right handed coat tug. But it's still fun to watch..

Then there's Ghost Adventures. While they seem to get into a bit more of the digustingly gorey aspect of ghost hunting, it's almost like a darker version of most haunted with a fun to watch crew and some of the most interesting evidence of the three, I think. Of course, the 2004 docu with the flying brick is what got me hooked to begin with :).

And lastly, GHI. I skipped the first three or four seasons of GHI. Something about the lead guy with the beard (Barry?) kind of turned me off from watching. When Barry and Kris took over, I started on full time. The evidence is pretty standard with GH, but the locations they go to more than makes up for any lack of evidence found. Makes up for my unwillingness to travel due to the fact you need planes to get too places ..:). that being said, this latest episode with the rocks being thrown at the fort rocked :).

curious what everyone else thinks. I'm STILL astonished that Dan Aykroyd hasn't started his own show called 'GhostBusters' himself :).
 
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I like the TAPS method, try to debunk claims and don't freak out when something happens. I can understand the controversy over Ghost Hunters, but I think that might be a result of executive meddling to sensationalize the show, since TAPS at least seemed to be legit before the show started.
The other shows, I haven't really watched them. A lot of them seem to be a bunch of idiots trying to prove a haunting and getting scared everytime they hear a noise. 'Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files' is a joke, they do a "night investigation" for just about everything, even if they already disproved it. Some of the other shows I've seen, ('Haunted Collector' is especially guilty) take just about anything as evidence and call a place haunted.

Honestly I think the rise of the paranormal shows on air have served more to discredit the field and portray people who actually believe in ghosts as flaky morons who jump at their own shadow.
 
HappyPeck.jpg

And where do they put these ghosts, once they catch them?
 
Words like gullibility, susceptibility, pseudoscience and ignorance come to mind. I think people have their B.S. meters turned really low these days. Many of them are acceptable of one or more types of pseudoscience and unfortunately that makes them more prone to being susceptible to other forms of pseudoscience.

In 2006 the US National Science Foundation (NSF) issued an executive summary of a paper on science and engineering which briefly discussed the prevalence of pseudoscience in modern times. It said that "belief in pseudoscience is widespread" and, referencing a Gallup Poll, stated that belief in the ten commonly believed examples of paranormal phenomena listed in the poll were "pseudoscientific beliefs". The ten items were: "extrasensory perception (ESP), that houses can be haunted, ghosts, telepathy, clairvoyance, astrology, that people can communicate mentally with someone who has died, witches, reincarnation, and channelling." Such beliefs in pseudoscience reflect a lack of knowledge of how science works. The scientific community may aim to communicate information about science out of concern for the public's susceptibility to unproven claims. The following are some of the indicators of the possible presence of pseudoscience.

Use of vague, exaggerated or untestable claims
Over-reliance on confirmation rather than refutation
Lack of openness to testing by other experts
Absence of progress
Personalization of issues
Use of misleading language
 
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Words like gullibility, susceptibility, pseudoscience and ignorance come to mind. I think people have their B.S. meters turned really low these days. Many of them are acceptable of one or more types of pseudoscience and unfortunately that makes them more prone to being susceptible to other forms of pseudoscience.


250px-Winston_GB1.jpg


If there's a steady paycheck in it....
 
Ghost Hunters was actually pretty good, up through the mid-season finale of season 2. Jason refused to say anything was haunted - even when there was pretty provacative evidence (see the florida lighthouse episode). They actually made a concerted effort to debunk everything. After that mid-season finale, though, everything is haunted. Grant farts, the place is haunted. Cameraman spins around too quickly, the place is haunted. The dog looks in a corner, the place is haunted.

The only reason to tune in anymore is the banter between Steve and Tango. Those two are funny, together. Kris was another reason to watch, but they had to ship her over seas, so more than one person would watch GHI.

My biggest gripe with GH is the fact that they do everything at night, which really doesn't make sense to me. Most of the reported "incidents" are things that happened in the middle of the day. Wouldn't good science dictate that you do your investigations at that time, to see if you could recreate the scenarios?

Ghost Adventures, is rubbish. They never try to debunk anything. Everything and anything is either haunted, or proof of a haunting. My god people, try to be, at least, a little bit, discerning.

Paranormal: Fact or Fake - it's not science NOR entertaining. It's six idiots who once read a paragraph on the scientific principle and think they can debunk something by trying an experiment which has nothing to do with the incident. If they can't debunk something with their first, heavily flawed, poorly planned attempt, it must be true. Their idea of science is like "I'm going to prove that paper is fire proof by putting this stack of newspapers out on the porch, on a sunny day.". "Oh look at that, the paper has been on the porch for 6 hours and it hasn't burst into flames. Paper really is fire proof.".

-Fred
 
Well said.

I suffered through Ghost Hunters for 2 years with an old girlfriend of mine untill I could'nt take it anymore! :lol





Honestly I think the rise of the paranormal shows on air have served more to discredit the field and portray people who actually believe in ghosts as flaky morons who jump at their own shadow.
 
Though I have been very interested in all aspects of the paranormal since childhood, I can't stomach most of the "hunt/investigate" shows, no matter what they are hunting.

They rely on manufactured suspense. After the obligatory introduction to the venue being investigated, they dive in to perform their "science". This consists of night vision filmography of the researchers wandering around and saying 'What was that? Did you hear that? Holy *&^%, that was like right over there!"

Slam cut to commercial. We are supposed to wait on the edge of our seats to see the amazing revelation to come after the act break. One errant sound or perceived movement is stretched into 20 minutes of content, consisting of repeats of the "what's that?" chatter and a lot of meaningless speculation, all spaced around the commercial breaks for maximum dramatic impact.

When the investigation is over, there is no real advancement of the science they claim to practice. Some interesting questions may (rarely) be raised, but there are no gains in knowledge.

One can make any house seem haunted or woods seem rife with furry humanoids by just repeating a legend and putting a bunch of jumpy, chatty people there at night. To me, that's all these shows accomplish. That's a shame, too, because these topics fascinate me and many many other people.

Sadly, a show that restrained itself from focusing on the characters reactions to phenomena and instead devoted itself to seeking real evidence and information would be entirely too dull for the average viewer and therefore dead on arrival.
 
Every time when I'm in the USA I'm watching one episode of "Ghosthunters", this is such a ridiculous TV show with fake suspence....

Dietrich
 
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The only reason to tune in anymore is the banter between Steve and Tango. Those two are funny, together. Kris was another reason to watch, but they had to ship her over seas, so more than one person would watch GHI.

My biggest gripe with GH is the fact that they do everything at night, which really doesn't make sense to me. Most of the reported "incidents" are things that happened in the middle of the day. Wouldn't good science dictate that you do your investigations at that time, to see if you could recreate the scenarios?

Ghost Adventures, is rubbish. They never try to debunk anything. Everything and anything is either haunted, or proof of a haunting. My god people, try to be, at least, a little bit, discerning.

-Fred

GA actually did a short investigation during the day and pointed out why it's better to do it at night. as they stated though, they wanted to show that ghost activity happens all times of the day, it's just easier to catch it at night (no sun glare, less ambient noise, etc)

Steve and Tango are like laurel and hardy together sometime :). It's almost a drinking game anytime steve jumps and it cuts to commercial. Is it a spider, or something else? :)

the other thing that bugged me about GH recently was the meatloaf episode. Meat placed a water bottle on a sink and said that if you want some, move it. About 4 minutes later, one of them noticed the bottle had mysteriously moved. either they where playing a joke on Meat and didn't fill us in, or someone moved it.

As for psudoscience, you can't have a new field without experimenting. Isn't that what science is all about ? :)
 
the other thing that bugs me about GH lately, is it's all business locations they check out now. all the family houses seem to have been forgotten. Maybe it's tougher to get clearances for those after it airs? who knows..
 
well if thy did a show at your house and found some evidence. every yahoo and the mothers would want "to stay the night" to see a ghost. so maybe that is why they have cut back on the homes.


i think all those shows are fake.......the GA brick toss in the "documentary" was complete BS. if you do a ghost show and no ghost show up = low ratings, ghost show up = higher ratings........

it is entertaining. i watch GA all the time for humour. i atleast get one....."get the f&*( out of here" and a laugh each episode.....
 
GA actually did a short investigation during the day and pointed out why it's better to do it at night. as they stated though, they wanted to show that ghost activity happens all times of the day, it's just easier to catch it at night (no sun glare, less ambient noise, etc)

But you see, that's just it. You want to be able to show somebody that what they saw was caused by the way the sun glints off the mirror, in the hall. Or that the "voices" were caused by the front desk clerk, getting toilet paper from the supply closet. You can't explore these possibilities if you don't perform the expeiriments under the same circumstances.



Steve and Tango are like laurel and hardy together sometime :). It's almost a drinking game anytime steve jumps and it cuts to commercial. Is it a spider, or something else? :)

the other thing that bugged me about GH recently was the meatloaf episode. Meat placed a water bottle on a sink and said that if you want some, move it. About 4 minutes later, one of them noticed the bottle had mysteriously moved. either they where playing a joke on Meat and didn't fill us in, or someone moved it.

Maybe it was an entity - isn't that the purpose of the show :cool?


As for psudoscience, you can't have a new field without experimenting. Isn't that what science is all about ? :)

The show isn't about pseudoscience, though. I could see if they were using psychics or clairvoyants - that would be pseudoscience because those aren't predictably reproduceable. These shows are premised on the use of actual, true science, to find proof of the paranormal.

But all of these shows fall prey to one thing - the "laws" of ghosts. Like ghosts can only make contact through EVP; ghosts create cold spots because they require energy to manifest; ghosts give off EMFs; certain types of rocks or running water, give ghosts more power; hauntings are either intelligent or on eternal loop-back. My question is - says who? There has neer been a single ghost in captivity for us to study, so how do we assign it, physical capabilities, and behavioral characteristics?


My resposes are in bold, up above :cool

-Fred
 
Words like gullibility, susceptibility, pseudoscience and ignorance come to mind. I think people have their B.S. meters turned really low these days. Many of them are acceptable of one or more types of pseudoscience and unfortunately that makes them more prone to being susceptible to other forms of pseudoscience.

I couldn't agree more.

They are not doing anything scientific. I wish there were more shows like myth busters that utilize critical thinking, science, and skepticism instead of sensationalism and pseudoscience.
 
Agreed.

When I started watching these sort of shows I got caught up in the monitoring equipment.

Night Cams: Sure why not, it is dark after all.
Thermal Imaging: Good start, almost scientific.
EMF detectors: Oh, an sciency acronym! Still, plausible, even useful.
Geiger Counter: (No seriously, I saw one used) Uhm... why?
EVP: ...
Divining Rods: Well it was just the once.
EM Pump: Wait, what?

I had never heard of an EM pump before. So I did some (actual) research.
Its a neodymium magnet epoxied to a hobby motor. Available on the bay for $50. The investigators are invariably astounded to discover that the batteries have been drained after less than an hour. Supposedly this feeds poltergeists, ghosts and other assorted paranormal phenomena.

I am in the wrong line of work.
 
I'm stunned that anyone watches these shows for anything other than comic relief. I mean, seriously? If they put out a show where they went witch hunting, would people watch that too? Oh wait, we all know witches are fake. right? RIGHT????
 
I generally don't believe in supernatural stuff... I think there's often a rational explanation for most things. But, I still get spooked at things that go bump in the night at times and get those creep feelings every once in a while... something I credit to an active imagination.

I started watching Ghosthunters because they seemed to go out of their way to debunk and rationalize things. This seems to have all but stopped and now they seem to go out of the way to find things that aren't there.

It should only take a quick search to find alleged evidence of their tampering to falsify readings, etc.
 
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