The bald guy, Jason, from Sci-Fi channel's Ghosthunters claims to have had some personal experience with something paranormal that solidified his belief in ghosts, but I've never heard or read him clarify what that experience was. When asked what made him a believer he says "I had an experience when I was young..." Has he ever spoke of his experience at a lecture or on the show? What would turn a plumber into a ghosthunter?

Mushrooms tend to turn plumbers into alot of things.

He probably just saw an apparition or heard voices, if it was something amazing he probably would have spoken about it by now.

If you ever read his and i guess Grants book, There is a section that says green olives ward off spirits. LMAO! Its a funny book from what i hear. So all you ghosthunter remember you daily olives or the ghosties will get you.

I've talke to Jason and Grant both before, and have asked them about this. They both have some major experience from their past that has convinved them that spirits exist. Neither one will talk about it. They just simply say that they don't like to talk about it, although I have head Grant let slip a couple of times that it involves a spirit slapping him across the face as part of it, but there is more to it than that.

I've met them in person too, and couldn't get a full explanation. I don't get why they act ashamed or can't share their experiences? There's nothing to be ashamed of. I don't think they have to worry about their reputation with the way the show has had success? Doesn't make sense to hide it, you know? But hey, it is a personal thing to them, and that's probably why they don't want to share them. I guess not everything is to be shared in public.

Perhaps if they were attacked as children they do not want to cause massive fear to spread among the children who make up many of the fans of their show.

Exactly. I didn't get the impression that the experiences were embarrassing, but rather personal, or traumatic. They simply just don't like talking about it. That's their perrogative, and I respect that.

absolutely... I respect it too.

They have viewers of all ages and you certainly don't want to spread panic or fear into someone's mind that there could be the possibility of vicious or harmful spirits. That's not the purpose of this show. Its to help people, not strike fear into them or scare them more.

He touches on what happened to him a little bit in his book. It is still rather vague, but it has something to do with reiki meditations he was doing, which, is believed to stimulate your chakras, and in turn make you more open to experiencing spirits and the like. He 'saw some things' while doing this and apparently found it to be rather terrifying. He still doesn't say exactly what all he actually saw, though.

Jason has said many times that his experiences that got him into this field are personal & he doesnt want to discuss it & put it out there for the world. You can really blame him, he's got cameras in his face constantly he should be able to keep something for himself... On another note, he's so sexy I just wanna kiss his head... yummy lol

Oy!

EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW Why not rub it and make a wish LOL>..JN

I personally dont care what happened to them, however why not tell the stories so that the public can relate to their experiences, and maybe it would give them a little more credibility at this time? They seem horrified by their events, but seem pretty casual about other's and will go to extremes to debunk it. Wonder how they would have felt if a PI team came in and said its abandonment issues, they miss their mommies, all kids are afraid of the dark, and "sometimes if the parents discuss it, it scares the child causing them to imagine things." Maybe just maybe the public would consider them honest, and experienced, and trust their instincts..JN

Sounds eerily like a conceit to maintain a certain mystique to me. Besides which, if you don't tell anyone what your experience was, no-one can debunk it; fairly cowardly for people who, as JN just pointed out, are pretty cavalier about debunking others' experiences.

If they weren't both so level headed, or down to earth I'd jump on the fact that they ARE exposed to mold and mildew quite often... but anyway.. whatever Jason experienced, it had to rattle his cage enough to give him the initiative to invest such major time, money, etc, in this "calling" if you will... Something tells me it was more than just a small experience with a spook, but apparently, whatever it was it was traumatic/ big enough to give him some kind of purpose behind that experience..

& I respect the fact that they're both discrete about their experiences..

I read their book.from what I was able to gather,Jason, was dating a woman who was into Reiki when he was younger. He started to get into the meditations,and started seeing things,some nice and some not so nice.
He had trouble learning how to control these visions. I forgot where he was at,but this total stranger a woman came up to him and talked to him about it,and told him to eat olives to get rid or at least control this problem he was having,and it seemed to work for him.Grant had some experiences as i guess a kid.And I'm sure they may have encountered something while doing plumbing work around the area, sinc ethere are many old houses in Rhode Island,especially some two or three hundred years old,left from colonial days.

Maybe some day they will change their mids and reveal the reasons they got into the field,and if not,that's okay with me.

LOL Exactly, its like a big secret. Personally I think they should stick to plumbing LOL, because if they had skeery experiences, that does not make them any more knowledgeable than the rest of us imo..JN

Indeed, one can argue that because no one really knows what ghosts are; no one is really any more knowledgable than anyone else. However, that said, the TAPS fellows do have their own television show, and that does distinguish them from 'the rest of us'.

Their experiences dont make them more knowledgeable than anyone else, it's the fact that when they had their personal experiences they decided to pursue the paranormal & all aspects of it.

Good point, but so does Paranormal State, and Most Haunted..JN

I never understood that either. Like others here are saying, they do go a bit into some things in their book...however, if that's all it was, it wasn't so terrible. And if there's more, maybe something raped them? I don't know. I'm seriously trying to figure out what would make an alpha male type like Jay not want to talk about something.

I still think it's the mystique thing. The TAPS lot take themselves so seriously, with their quasi-military approach, expensive equipment and, as you say, alpha-male personas. People who take themselves seriously often like to have a story which allows them to squint like Clint Eastwood, look off into the distance and say "No, man, I'm not gonna talk about it."

That "back from the 'Nam" affectation.

Jason doesnt owe anyone anything, if he wants to keep some things private, he should be able to without people pushing. I dont understand why people are so obsessed with others lives & need to know EVERYTHING.

I don't know, I don't know....I still say he might have gotten ghost raped. I'm just throwing it out there.

Nah, I'm kidding. I do see what you're saying though. It's for the mystique. It's just weird when everyone they talk to on the show basically has to give their whole life history and get checked out psychologically before they appear on the show. I think if Jay and Grant were more revealing of what they went through, it's possible it could help some people. But, hey, who knows?

Alright, show me on the dolly where the bad spirit touched you.

I can see the reasoning behind the people saying just come out with what it was and all. But maybe they're afraid it will ruin thier credibility? Or that they'll be mocked ya' know?

I mean I've had supernaturaul experiences myself but I do believe in and go along with the science first method for all of them. Maybe they're afraid thier clients will be like "Well you had a ghost experience who are you to say mine's not one to?" Or whatever along those lines?

I dont really care, but I do believe every PI has had paranormal experiences and that is what compels them to enter the field. Being secretive is just silly IMO...JN

Hello Everyone.

I do not remember the episode that Grant said (something along these lines) they had both had their experiences but they were private.

Perhaps it's odd, in the TV/Tell it all/Enquiring minds want to know era, that someone not only would want an aspect of their lives to be private but have kept it so. The public doesn't know that much about their private lives aside from scant details. They keep the focus on the show not themselves beyond the fact that they are investigating/attempting to identify and understand phenomena.
If they went around and constantly said well this does/doesn't resemble my encounter it wouldn't be very open minded and would draw again attention away from the current investigation/s (the show) where it belongs.

Once a person has opened the door to their private life then some people appear to think that they can invade that area and that they have a right to know.
I think that it's wonderful for them to keep something to themselves which has no bearing on the case/s at hand just to feed public interest. Besides telling their personal stories wouldn't make them more credible anyway.

Regards,
Mabon.

Excellent reply Mabon. I'm glad they keep thier lives seperate from thier investigations.

Geeez . I hope the ghost went to the free clinic after.

Honestly, I think it's (with the greatest respect) naive to imagine that hiding a bias is equivalent to removing it.

As self-styled ghost hunters, it is now these chaps' jobs to go looking for phenomena, and then to interpret those phenomena for us, their slack-jawed viewers. Their previous experiences are totally relevant to that process, and not to be up-front about them does obscure much of their reasoning and the interpretive lens through which they examine those phenomena.

This wouldn't be a case of an ever-intrusive media feeding the gossip-hungry masses the dirty laundry which makes up a good proportion of their staple intellectual diet; this is equivalent to the authors of a clinical drug trial paper admitting at the end of their paper that they were funded in their research by Pfizer. If I were a TV paranormal investigator, I hope I would be fairly clear that I haven't had experiences I still consider to be paranormal, and that on balance, I see no reason at present to believe that many, or any, of others' experiences reported as paranormal are such. If I didn't come clean about my sceptical approach, I think that would be pretty dishonest.

It's not irrelevant to the process in the same way as some sort of revelation about their sexuality or criminal records might well be; it's totally relevant simply because whatever those experiences were, or whatever they believe those experiences were, inevitably colours their present experiences.

Preconceived opinions are fine - indeed, they're inevitable, since we all have them - but they need to be admitted to for the purposes of intellectual honesty.

Hi Mabon, Because they are "ghost hunters" and plumbers, I believe it would benefit them to just say what happened, and they dont have to give every detail. IMO they dont keep their lives private. Jay has talked about his wife and children, and very upset when his son broke his arm. They have shown his home and family. Also they have made Brian's problems TOO public, and argue on locations.They also laugh at Steve for his phobias, so everything about others is public knowledge. Everyone knows how many children each of them have, and ages, and how Jay's wife is upset that he is away so often. There was one episode where a medium revealed to Jay that he knew he had a painful experience, so its out there. If it wasnt, no one would care. Public figures are always under the gun so to speak. I believe if they told a short version, then the clients could be rest assured, they really know their stuff, because they've been thru it. It makes the public wonder what they are hiding IMO. I watch them even though I dont know what to make of them, but I truly feel they are a bit arrogant in thinking they are better than the clients, by keeping secrets. Because it has to do with their show, to me, it does make them a little more credible..JMO...JN

Hello Nucular! No offense taken! and hopefully it doesn't seem that any is intended (by me either).

Well.... here's my opinion.

LOL! All ghost hunters are self styled. No degrees, no exceptions anywhere. Even the clergy (using the term as all inclusive, regardless of faith) have their own agenda/bias to promote too.
If TAPS were running scientific trials or Ghost Hunters a scientific documentary rather than a TV show, I would agree with you. However, it is a TV show about paranormal investigations (TAPS) edited for time and content but does not show the entire process. (Personal opinion, I do find it the best of the breed of like shows out there but even it has it's flaws.)

The viewers of TAPS/Ghost Hunters do know that both men Jason and Grant plus several of the team had past experiences. It is what got them interested in the phenomena in the first place. To my memory none of the members past or present have gone into elaborate detail about their experiences. The only two that I remember talking about personal experiences which happened prior to the work they are/were doing with TAPS was Donna and Dustin and then because it related to a case they were working. Donna talked about her personal experience when it related to an episode/investigation the teams trip to Salem and Dustin about his father's experiences on another case TAPS worked.

It is impossible to divorce personal experience from the person who had the experience. I simply don't agree that the public knowing the complete details of the members personal experiences would enhance current or future investigations. If they told their experience would that satisfy the public or would they be expected to trot out the story every episode (for comparison) every speaking engagement etc.? Or after talking about it once would they get a line like this if they declined to talk about their experience/s, 'well you talked about it once... why won't you talk about it now?'
If they are there to help their client how would the revelation of their personal experience help their client beyond the client not feeling alone? That can be accomplished by "we've had personal experiences" left it at that, then on to ask about the client and the client's experiences. They are there to put a client at ease and to try and find out what is going on. Telling a client events other than or beyond what the client is experiencing could plant a suggestion in the client's mind that their experiences is more than what it is. Especially, if they don't find anything which indicates that there is paranormal activity at the clients location. One of the reasons why I like TAPS is them looking for alternative answers.

Also remember when they had their experiences they weren't investigating they were experiencing them. To talk about the past can only be viewed as anecdotal evidence at this point. I doubt as young persons they had the presence of mind to document their experiences, so another reason to keep it private is the same thing they often say about other's experiences, if you have no documentation there is no proof. It makes a cool story but doesn't further the research which it seems they are attempting to do.

Regards,
Mabon.