56 replies to this topic

[Korbus]

I spent dozens of posts on this topic before.  All I can really say is once you sign on the dotted line, use your team name on the show, and call it reality...you don't have ANY excuse when you fake evidence.

Your fans can blame the contract, but you signed it.  Your fans can say that your team and the show are two different things, but you used them in conjunction.  And your fans can say it's "just for entertainment purposes" but its still called reality.  This team signed their integrity over, that's the bottom line.

Funny how few had any of these excuses thought up until this once loved and admired team got caught red handed faking evidence.  Once that happened, all of a sudden there's all these reasons why it's still ok to fake evidence just because it is YOUR favorite paranormal team on television.

Ive said this before, but I've got to say it again...I don't see many people defending Paranormal State, Most Haunted, Ghost Adventures etc on these same grounds.  Can anyone explain why that is?  Why it seems to be OK for one group to fake evidence because of "contracts" and all that but NOT OK for another group?

[csspwns]

The Long Island Ghost Hunters have been exposed as fakes[and i use to love that show:(]. A family in an old house has decided to test if the GH was real or not. The house was not haunted. So one night the family called the police and said that there was a poltergist in their house throwing things around. The police went to check but found nothing out of ordinary until a little boy threw a pencil at a police officer. The police officer turned around but the little boy was already hiding. Then the police called the ghost hunters. They brought two physcics and a team of ghost hunters. They investigated the unhaunted house. The next day, The GH said that they had made contact with the "ghost." They said the two pyshics sensed the ghost was angry and was bound to the house by murdur. Thats when the family and company that sponsored the project of exposing the ghost hunters came and said the house was not haunted! Boy the GH was sued for frauds and disgraced. How sad. So as u see the GH is fake!  

[Painnsufferin]

Real or not, People are watching, that is why they make them. It is your choice to watch, or yours to change the channel. I like the show for the locations, the history and the legends behind them. The hosts, I could care less.

[Grape Soda]

 csspwns, on 08 April 2012 - 03:30 AM, said:

The Long Island Ghost Hunters have been exposed as fakes[and i use to love that show:(]. A family in an old house has decided to test if the GH was real or not. The house was not haunted. So one night the family called the police and said that there was a poltergist in their house throwing things around. The police went to check but found nothing out of ordinary until a little boy threw a pencil at a police officer. The police officer turned around but the little boy was already hiding. Then the police called the ghost hunters. They brought two physcics and a team of ghost hunters. They investigated the unhaunted house. The next day, The GH said that they had made contact with the "ghost." They said the two pyshics sensed the ghost was angry and was bound to the house by murdur. Thats when the family and company that sponsored the project of exposing the ghost hunters came and said the house was not haunted! Boy the GH was sued for frauds and disgraced. How sad. So as u see the GH is fake!  

that's hilarious.  is there a source for this? if this story was true, it'd be pretty awesome!

[Spky777]

If you go into a house that is supposedly haunted and sometimes nothing happens.  Things like this are tricky and don't just do things on cue.  Sometimes the things that happen are completely random and surprising and there is not one set way.  If it is a true haunting you really don't need all the electronic things they have, just a camera and a sound recorder.  They will do activity during the day and night.
Some of the places they investigated do Look very creepy and as a show, they have to move things along.  All of it is edited and ghosts or noises don't necessarily do things on cue, so further investigation is needed.  I can see why some of their evidence can be staged, but all?  
When their show came out, I can relate to all the things that were happening.  But as time got along, all the it touched me things or I swear I just saw it move, while the cameras is looking at them and not the event wears you down.

Edited by Spky777, 14 April 2012 - 03:57 PM.

[ColoradoParanormal]

Not sure how I"ve missed this thread. Ghost Hunters, GHI, Paranormal State, Ghost Adventures etc etc are all frauds. This has been covered here quite a lot on this forum my friend. These shows are simply entertainment. That's it.

For example: Ghost Hunters has been proven to hoax "evidence." Grant was caught creating a "Ghost pulling his coat."



Just one of multiple examples of hoaxes done by all these groups. Remember, as I said, these shows are simply for entertainment. The entertainment is to laugh and train yourself to find hoaxes and become educated in the ability to spot this sort of junk.

Allow me to just add something else. What we have in society regarding the issue of the Paranormal is something similar to the Spiritualists from the 20's and 30's. Frauds were using simple tricks and the uneducated masses to milk millions from society. Claiming they would contact their deceased loved ones and do all sorts of super natural things for money. This only stopped after Houdini took it upon himself to expose this fraudulent behavior.

Fast Forward to modern times and the masses watching GH, GHI, GA and the like and all of a sudden you have thousands of "Professional Investigators" stomping through cemeteries, people's homes, abandoned buildings and with simple equipment they've purchased off the internet, and without and scientific knowledge of how to actually gather data or use any scientific standards,  they go about making great claims of the Paranormal.

Some go into people's homes and validate that their "loved one" is still in the home, or even worse, they scare the living daylights out of the children involved. Most is harmless, some isn't.

There are a very VERY select few whom are actually educated, connected with higher education entities and are using true scientific method to research this. The field of Paranormal Research is in a very infantile stage at this moment. Where they are simply setting up  the procedures and protocols for going about the research.

Edited by ColoradoParanormal, 20 April 2012 - 02:51 AM.

[TheEVPman]

Honestly, I've been used several times as a consultant concerning the paranormal by media. Many times the casting directors and producers are looking for "entertainment." When these show stop being entertaining, the ratings go down hill and the show goes off the air... Plain and simple. So, no ratings no show...

Edited by TheEVPman, 29 April 2012 - 06:13 PM.

[VC-10]

I've watched GH since Season 1 and in my opinion they're legit. As they got more popular they became the target of people who wanted to ruin their reputation and spoil the show. They've managed to catch some fairly impressive video/EVP evidence. Do I wish they'd equip the investigators with personal cams so we can see what they instantly? Yes.

[Sheetz]

Let's not forget more than one of the former "cast" members now coming forward admitting tons was staged and moreover, GH even had a whole separate staging crew to pull off hoaxes...according to them.  There is even a clip (I'll have to find) of a staging crew's voice bleeding over into the shows actual audio giving commands of when something should happen.  sad and embarassing really.

[VC-10]

 Sheetz, on 10 July 2012 - 06:28 AM, said:

Let's not forget more than one of the former "cast" members now coming forward admitting tons was staged and moreover, GH even had a whole separate staging crew to pull off hoaxes...according to them.  There is even a clip (I'll have to find) of a staging crew's voice bleeding over into the shows actual audio giving commands of when something should happen.  sad and embarassing really.

Which former members have come forward?

[Brian Topp]

 csspwns, on 08 April 2012 - 03:30 AM, said:

The Long Island Ghost Hunters have been exposed as fakes[and i use to love that show:(]. A family in an old house has decided to test if the GH was real or not. The house was not haunted. So one night the family called the police and said that there was a poltergist in their house throwing things around. The police went to check but found nothing out of ordinary until a little boy threw a pencil at a police officer. The police officer turned around but the little boy was already hiding. Then the police called the ghost hunters. They brought two physcics and a team of ghost hunters. They investigated the unhaunted house. The next day, The GH said that they had made contact with the "ghost." They said the two pyshics sensed the ghost was angry and was bound to the house by murdur. Thats when the family and company that sponsored the project of exposing the ghost hunters came and said the house was not haunted! Boy the GH was sued for frauds and disgraced. How sad. So as u see the GH is fake!  

Edited by Brian Topp, 15 July 2012 - 05:30 AM.

[Marcus Aurelius]

My opinion of Ghost Hunters and TAPS in general is that they started out on the network legit; when sci-fi picked them up I think they were initially just 'tagging along' on their real cases. If you watch the first two seasons, you will see a VAST difference from what it is like today. Why? Because then it was nothing more than a cult hit.

In the first couple seasons they went to every place as a skeptic, looking to debunk activity...whereas now they clearly state they want to 'experience something'...that alone is a vast difference.

Also, in one of the early episodes they captured something like a shadow figure, but they couldn't quite determine whether it was paranormal or not, and the whole team got into a heated debate and argument...over one piece of footage. Jay and Grant felt it would damage their integrity if they showed something inconclusive....and now that seems to be their MO.

It is worthwhile to note too that they rarely had personal experiences, and when they did they often discounted those too. Now they are always hearing things, seeing shadow figures etc....reminds me of Most Haunted, really.

I doubt scifi ever anticipated this, but the show became massively popular...and I think that's when the network stepped in. They probably figured that viewers would get 'bored' if things weren't happening on their investigations and they didn't turn up any evidence, which seemed to happen at least half the time on those first two seasons.

I think the network exerted their 'creative control' over the show and made them start faking things, to the point where the whole show became a mess, and they got rid of a lot of their good investigators like Brian Harnois.

If you want to see some good episodes of Ghost Hunters, ones that I do think are legit, get the first two seasons on DVD. Beyond that, it's mostly crap.