Does TAPS Fake Their Evidence?

[sinewave]

I'm going to question the integrity of anyone who tries to capitalize on what is a fringe science at best with a "reality" TV show. I do find it curious how these guys act like they know what they're talking about when nothing in the field has actually be proven, though.

If the Ghost Hunters were the real deal they'd have proven something by now, but most of their 'evidence' consists of "personal experiences" that aren't caught on camera, and shockingly clear voice recordings that aren't heard until after the investigation. How convenient. I get the impression that these guys just want attention, and are happy they're getting it which is good for them if that's what makes them happy. Do they fake their evidence? Probably, but I don't really care... it's not like they're hurting anyone. I do think they give real investigators a bad name, though.

There is huge money in the paranormal. People are naturally curious of the unknown and are entertained by being frightened. The haunted attractions that pop up around Halloween are one manifestation of this. TAPS and all others of the ilk have hooked into that revenue stream and are making money doing little more than playing off these tendencies. Most of what they do is suggestion and inference. TAPS mostly let the viewer extrapolate what they see into validation of their paranormal beliefs. They are careful not to say too much. The sound effects, background music, and other post production editing push the viewer toward the paranormal conclusion. Believers are easy to manipulate that way as they are primed to accept fantastic explanations as fact. That is also how psychics and fortune tellers work.

[devils-advocate]

TAPS does NOT fake evidance! we refuse to believe it we dont care what you say..ITS ON TV!!!! if it was fake it would not be on TV!!!!! I hope you sleep welll at night making fun of Jason ans GRant 2 hard working plumbers that have a second job and do good for all of us! just because some of us didnt finish high school dont mean we dont know good real ghost hunting! THey dont lie!!!

no one can make me believe it!! no one!

[sinewave]

TAPS does NOT fake evidance! we refuse to believe it we dont care what you say..ITS ON TV!!!! if it was fake it would not be on TV!!!!! I hope you sleep welll at night making fun of Jason ans GRant 2 hard working plumbers that have a second job and do good for all of us! just because some of us didnt finish high school dont mean we dont know good real ghost hunting! THey dont lie!!!

no one can make me believe it!! no one!

Ha! Plumbers who bought a very nice hotel spread in New Hampshire. Roro Rooter must pay really well!

[Ryinrea]

I think Sic-fi is the one who runs the show. I'll play the devils advocate here and say it's all Sic-fi doing the faking of "Evidence", not Jason and Grant. Because, of the ratings for the show can't have a show without the people watching it can you.

I do think that some of the evidence is real, not all of it thought.

Edited November 1, 2009 by Ryinrea

[Grape Soda]

I think Sic-fi is the one who runs the show. I'll play the devils advocate here and say it's all Sic-fi doing the faking of "Evidence", not Jason and Grant. Because, of the ratings for the show can't have a show without the people watching it can you.

I do think that some of the evidence is real, not all of it thought.

i agree. SciFi.....ermm i mean SyFy (seriously, WTF does that even mean?) is NOTORIOUS for dictating to it's "original series" what needs to be done and how it needs to go down. i dunno how many of you are fans of MST3K when it used to be on comedy central, but when it made the move to SciFi/SyFy/Whatever, after the first season (and a HORRIBLE time slot) they started making demands and cutting funding. best brains had to meet the demands for a "plot" and were limited to only the VERY bottom rung of science fiction films that were super inexpensive to aquire the liscences too, which was insulting to the series. needless to say, after 3 seasons and a change in management, the show was canned. but they dumped thousands of dollars into "sliders" of all things.....which had prime time slots and was canceled a few months after MST3K.

but i digress....SciFi/SyFy is a pretty money hungry network, and they do whatever it takes to get ratings. i wouldn't be surprised if they offered jason and grant some nice profit shares to fake some evidence (which maybe grant took them up on, and jason declined. which could be why he gets so annoyed at "false" or "inconclusive" evidence from grant) and maybe SciFi/SyFy is pulling the strings in the editing room and changing imagery or adding sounds. they already add enough "mood music" and sounds effects to the entire show. i wouldn't put it past them.

i would like to say that some of the evidence they got (especially in the first 2 seasons) could be substantial. but with hijinx like the "collar pull" in last year's halloween episode, it makes me suspect foul play most of the time.

[Thorn]

TAPS does NOT fake evidance! we refuse to believe it we dont care what you say..ITS ON TV!!!! if it was fake it would not be on TV!!!!! I hope you sleep welll at night making fun of Jason ans GRant 2 hard working plumbers that have a second job and do good for all of us! just because some of us didnt finish high school dont mean we dont know good real ghost hunting! THey dont lie!!!

no one can make me believe it!! no one!

What you are stating is your opinion and not fact, and when you are that closed off to the truth and evidence and the debate at large you are better of not being a part of it. Quite frankly having a conversation with someone who says "I don't care what you say this is what I feel" is not much of a conversation it is a stating of positions. There is nothing more to talk about if you are not willing to entertain both sides of the debate and it is not very mature.

Also not to be mean but any position made with an army of smiley faces loses all credibility in my opinion. Just state your opinion listen to others agree, or agree to disagree.

This kind of childish posturing and line drawing in the sand is not conducive to a free form conversation.

You believe! Great! I don't. They are plumbers. They have been called out on a few cases where some would say blatant trickery is involved. They have every reason to cheat (profit, continued fame/employment). Their practices are not fully tested, and they do not level set their equipment first.

A lot of their claims are gut feelings, which have lied to us for years and can easily be chalked up to real and tangible things.

[Pauly Dangerously]

@Thorn

I would venture that Devils-Advocate's post is facetious.

[Thorn]

@Thorn

I would venture that Devils-Advocate's post is facetious.

Oh god I hope so...

[Pauly Dangerously]

As do I, as do I...

[Neem]

I think some things they catch are fake, but a majority of the time, I believe them. Some of the videos are computer generated. However, I believe they are right about 90% of the time.

[sinewave]

I think some things they catch are fake, but a majority of the time, I believe them. Some of the videos are computer generated. However, I believe they are right about 90% of the time.

Interesting. But they "catch" nearly nothing. I broke down the Fort Henry case, a place they decided was haunted. The accounting of the evidence is pretty disappointing for a place that is supposed to be so active. Read through my analysis and tell me where the 90% is. I sure as heck can't find it.

Edited November 5, 2009 by sinewave

[Thorn]

Interesting. But they "catch" nearly nothing. I broke down the Fort Henry case, a place they decided was haunted. The accounting of the evidence is pretty disappointing for a place that is supposed to be so active. Read through my analysis and tell me where the 90% is. I sure as heck can't find it.

I tried to find your post on it and failed do you have a link, I would love to read it.

[Pauly Dangerously]

Click on the underlined Fort Henry in his post.

[Thorn]

Click on the underlined Fort Henry in his post.

Thanks much, didn't notice it before.

[Neem]

Interesting. But they "catch" nearly nothing. I broke down the Fort Henry case, a place they decided was haunted. The accounting of the evidence is pretty disappointing for a place that is supposed to be so active. Read through my analysis and tell me where the 90% is. I sure as heck can't find it.

Ok, so maybe I exaggerated. They are skeptics after all, and I guess I should have said that they catch NOTHING about 90% of the time. The other 10% is where they catch stuff. Sure, there are instances where they can't explain things, but most of the time, they come up either not haunted or inconclusive. Some of the "evidence" captured is doctored to fit in with TV Land. Sorry for the mix-up. I am recovering from a cold, so I can't think straight.

[sinewave]

Ok, so maybe I exaggerated. They are skeptics after all, and I guess I should have said that they catch NOTHING about 90% of the time. The other 10% is where they catch stuff. Sure, there are instances where they can't explain things, but most of the time, they come up either not haunted or inconclusive. Some of the "evidence" captured is doctored to fit in with TV Land. Sorry for the mix-up. I am recovering from a cold, so I can't think straight.

They are not skeptics, they just play them on TV to make the findings seem legit. Seriously, the show uses lots of sound effects, background music, misleading information, and inference to facilitate and validate beliefs. The paranormal is in the eye of the viewer. They don't capture anything that is truly convincing because there are so many possible mundane explanations they never explore. They like to debunk, as they say (I really dislike that word) but they should spend some time "debunking" their methods. They still walk around with those cheap EMF meters making note of every tiny fluctuation like there is some significance to them (inference). If they took the time to understand the nature of EM fields, they would realize the spikes they record are virtually useless as evidence or scientific data. The same goes for EVPs. They have no way of knowing what caused them but they are always happy to present them as evidence (more inference). Just when I thought it can't get any more absurd, they added a Geiger counter to their tools. WTF!!! Now ghosts are radiological phenomena? They make stuff up as they go along and have no real understanding of anything other than there are lots of believers out there eagerly awaiting their weekly does of validation.

So much of the really outrageous stuff revolves around Grant. Except for some scratches on Jason once, the big stuff is always Grant's. With such a large team it is a bit odd that all of the cool stuff happens to or around him. The coat tug, blanket tug, slamming doors just off camera, moving water bottle. He is always right there when those things happen. I just can't take anything they present at face value.

Edited November 5, 2009 by sinewave

[Neem]

They are not skeptics, they just play them on TV to make the findings seem legit. Seriously, the show uses lots of sound effects, background music, misleading information, and inference to facilitate and validate beliefs. The paranormal is in the eye of the viewer. They don't capture anything that is truly convincing because there are so many possible mundane explanations they never explore. They like to debunk, as they say (I really dislike that word) but they should spend some time "debunking" their methods. They still walk around with those cheap EMF meters making note of every tiny fluctuation like there is some significance to them (inference). If they took the time to understand the nature of EM fields, they would realize the spikes they record are virtually useless as evidence or scientific data. The same goes for EVPs. They have no way of knowing what caused them but they are always happy to present them as evidence (more inference). Just when I thought it can't get any more absurd, they added a Geiger counter to their tools. WTF!!! Now ghosts are radiological phenomena? They make stuff up as they go along and have no real understanding of anything other than there are lots of believers out there eagerly awaiting their weekly does of validation.

So much of the really outrageous stuff revolves around Grant. Except for some scratches on Jason once, the big stuff is always Grant's. With such a large team it is a bit odd that all of the cool stuff happens to or around him. The coat tug, blanket tug, slamming doors just off camera, moving water bottle. He is always right there when those things happen. I just can't take anything they present at face value.

I understand your point, and it's viable. However, to play Devil's Advocate, if what you say is true, then why haven't there been any lawsuits against them? Why do they have such a large reputation as "ghost hunters?"

[sinewave]

I understand your point, and it's viable. However, to play Devil's Advocate, if what you say is true, then why haven't there been any lawsuits against them? Why do they have such a large reputation as "ghost hunters?"

I imagine there are LOTS of reason for that. There probably are not any liability laws in any state applicable to the commission of a paranormal investigations. Besides, there really are no right or wrong outcomes if you think about it. First, the majority of their cases are tied to tourism, entertainment, or hospitality. Any exposure they give the client is regarded as a net positive. The owners of those establishments are not shy about using to show to promote the business. Second, if there is a kid involved on a domestic case they always downplay everything out of deference to the kid (and probably because the lawyers tell them too). It is the right thing to do and very prudent. Other than that, they tend to say very little and let the beliefs of the client set the tone. Seeing as the client reaches out to them, TAPS liability is probably pretty minimal or nonexistent. The SyFy lawyers probably insist on LOTS of release forms before production begins. The biggest concerns are probably personal injury and property damage caused during the investigation.

As far as their reputation goes, it derives from ratings and the opinions of believers. They certainly would not have a favorable reputation among legitimate researchers from any other field.

Edited November 5, 2009 by sinewave

[Thorn]

Let me ask all the people who feel they have captured honest to god proof of the paranormal to list exactly what that proof is?

What have you ever seen on that show that to you said "That is concrete evidence that has no other possible explanation"

[JonathanVonErich]

love the show....maybe some evidences are fake...i don't know that, but i doubt it...

[Fastwalker]

I agree with Sinewave, theres a clear pattern to their shows.

First of all, they don't seem to fake most of their evidence. It's impossible to back this up, but most of the things they catch are phenomena that could very well happen to anyone walking around in those places. Not necessarily because they are paranormal, but because most of them can be explained in a ton of different ways. However, they do not try to explain most of them on their episodes. If they would, no one would watch anymore, so I can live with this.

Grant however, does seem to fake quite a bit. All the big phenomena seem to center around him, not to mention there has been visual evidence where he appears to be faking things. The reason that I think the rest of the crew does not do this (as much), is because of the look on Jason's face when these things happen. He looks clearly annoyed, like when he got something thrown on his head, which came from grant's direction.

What we are left with is a show that, if you discount grant, presents phenomena in haunted locations. These are perhaps too often considered unexplainable, but this is understandable in my opinion. In fact, it gives us something worthy to discuss, as we are doing now.

This is often not the case with other shows, which go so far over the top it becomes unwatchable. The only other show I watch is Ghost adventures. The regular episodes are funny, as these guys are big as hell but scream like little girls. The live version is actually very interesting and seems sincere. I'd recommend you (Sinewave) to watch their latest live, is has some fun stuff in it.

Edited November 7, 2009 by Fastwalker

[Keari]

I don't know if this has already been said, I certainly haven't read all 52 pages yet, but I sometimes find this show hard to believe. I really appreciate how the investigators critically examine some of their evidence, and don't try to play everything out as paranormal.

I haven't seen every episode but the thing that really bugs me is that whenever one of the investigators "sees" something, the camera is never pointed at the location they saw something. It always whirls around afterwards, but then it's already "too late". The camera is always pointing in the opposite direction or at their faces for reactions, I would like to see at least one time when the camera is pointed exactly where the investigator said they saw something at the moment they did. I have also heard around that most paranormal investigators with all their gadgets rarely have the education to understand how to use them, how to read the data, and know what the instrument really measures or what it's for.

Again, I haven't read all the replies or seen every episode of the show, just some things that put me off about the whole thing.

[sinewave]

I don't know if this has already been said, I certainly haven't read all 52 pages yet, but I sometimes find this show hard to believe. I really appreciate how the investigators critically examine some of their evidence, and don't try to play everything out as paranormal.

I haven't seen every episode but the thing that really bugs me is that whenever one of the investigators "sees" something, the camera is never pointed at the location they saw something. It always whirls around afterwards, but then it's already "too late". The camera is always pointing in the opposite direction or at their faces for reactions, I would like to see at least one time when the camera is pointed exactly where the investigator said they saw something at the moment they did. I have also heard around that most paranormal investigators with all their gadgets rarely have the education to understand how to use them, how to read the data, and know what the instrument really measures or what it's for.

Again, I haven't read all the replies or seen every episode of the show, just some things that put me off about the whole thing.

Yes, reaction shots are far more important to the camera operators than collecting evidence. Sometimes things happen very nearby and the camera remains fixed on the investigator.

[Grape Soda]

I don't know if this has already been said, I certainly haven't read all 52 pages yet, but I sometimes find this show hard to believe. I really appreciate how the investigators critically examine some of their evidence, and don't try to play everything out as paranormal.

I haven't seen every episode but the thing that really bugs me is that whenever one of the investigators "sees" something, the camera is never pointed at the location they saw something. It always whirls around afterwards, but then it's already "too late". The camera is always pointing in the opposite direction or at their faces for reactions, I would like to see at least one time when the camera is pointed exactly where the investigator said they saw something at the moment they did. I have also heard around that most paranormal investigators with all their gadgets rarely have the education to understand how to use them, how to read the data, and know what the instrument really measures or what it's for.

Again, I haven't read all the replies or seen every episode of the show, just some things that put me off about the whole thing.

you're not too far off. the past few seasons have become very sensationalized. scifi channel....errm... i mean syfy channel (WTF DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?) is out to sell ads and get ratings. so, the show has become pretty over the top. i was actually surprised that the wild bill episode aired because nothing happened on that investigation. i was waiting for grant to get possessed by wild bill and start shooting invisible six shooters everywhere.

i don't think scifi/syfy really knew what a rating hit they had on their hands, and i am certain that their dirty little claws are all over GH and the editing, as well as direction to the cast (grant's over eagerness to be molested by spirits...aka string magic).

[sinewave]

you're not too far off. the past few seasons have become very sensationalized. scifi channel....errm... i mean syfy channel (WTF DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?) is out to sell ads and get ratings. so, the show has become pretty over the top. i was actually surprised that the wild bill episode aired because nothing happened on that investigation. i was waiting for grant to get possessed by wild bill and start shooting invisible six shooters everywhere.

i don't think scifi/syfy really knew what a rating hit they had on their hands, and i am certain that their dirty little claws are all over GH and the editing, as well as direction to the cast (grant's over eagerness to be molested by spirits...aka string magic).

Yes, I agree. Grant is way too lucky. I forgot to mention the lamp and picture that moved in plain sight of the camera a while back. Both in rooms occupied by Grant. Why haven't any of the others experienced anything like that? That is a serious statistical anomaly and certainly suggestive of deception.