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Ghost Hunter bashing


Moondoggy

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I am glad I am not the only one who thinks the "Most Haunted" series is a joke. I am in total agreement with you all with regards to having a team of Investigators stake out a place for a night or two. I had three experiences in my house over the course of 20 years. I am glad they are far and few. Even though there is an element of exitement with it, I would rather watch it on TV. But the odds of them getting some interesting evidence with a night or two is slim.

I thought when TAPS investigated Waverly sanitorium that they would get tremendous results, but the show revealed otherwise unfortunately. I hope they go back for another shot at it.

My impression of Derek is that he is a good actor. I would almost love to see a "real" enity kick his **** and get it on film.

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There's a reason, I guess, why more spooks aren't being photographed (real ones that is), or recorded, or more seen on SUPERB INGENIUS footage as "most haunted" (HEHEHEHAHAH!!)!

Those suckers don't come around when we want them too, or expect them, just b/c it's night doesn't guarentee anything, I mean geeesh! I know hauntings take place during the day as well.. and not at our own curious convenience. What happend to active hauntings, and from my memory these active hauntings (seem) to occur in spells- of time frames. This how I remember it..

I hear new ghost hunters and I get all into it, then, I get out of it, just as fast.

I liked TAPS, but I always seem to miss them though... and conveniently get to watch DEREK_ GHOST SLAYER, instead!!!

Edited by Sunny98
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I take TAPS seriously, although I disagree whenever they call their approach "scientific." It isn't. Fancy tech gadgets aren't science. Methodology is science. You can do science with a trance medium just as well as you can with FLIR. That's not to say their findings aren't valuable. They just aren't science. More like the kind of evidence-based methodology you might use in court.

As for "Most Haunted": Of course it's wretched! Isn't that why we watch it? I do.

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I cannot say I agree that science can be performed with a medium because you are relying on a person and their behavior especially when channeling. The FLIR technology is interesting but expensive (10 grand or more). The footage is astonishing that is captured with FLIR, whereas night vision or other cameras sometimes cannot get the image.

But back to our friends in England for a moment. What yacks my **** is everytime they seem to encounter some phenomenon, that blond gal always starts screaming and I cannot hear whatever she is hearing or saying, and the camera always pans in her direction and not toward the source of whatever spooked them. I think I watch the show just to p*** me off.

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I cannot say I agree that science can be performed with a medium because you are relying on a person and their behavior especially when channeling.

Of course science can be performed with a medium. You do a double-blind design and see if the medium scores "hits" at levels significantly above chance.

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But back to our friends in England for a moment. What yacks my **** is everytime they seem to encounter some phenomenon, that blond gal always starts screaming and I cannot hear whatever she is hearing or saying, and the camera always pans in her direction and not toward the source of whatever spooked them. I think I watch the show just to p*** me off.

You are talking about my high risk casualty friend, the one if ever in a contact with a real spook she'd drop dead instantly. Her mouth, if she'd shut up for a sec, or two...OR a 1/2 of sec would be greaat, and those freaked out eyes on night vision cam bugs the stew out of me-- She's the one who ALWAYS hears the pin dropping on the floor, the SPOOK'S sound... when WE ARE ALL ASKING .... "what sound!!?" B/t her and that DEREK <ugh>

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I guess what I mean is that the evidence provided is on a tape or film rather than a person saying something. I do not dismiss that mediums are sometimes getting info from the "other side".

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I guess what I mean is that the evidence provided is on a tape or film rather than a person saying something. I do not dismiss that mediums are sometimes getting info from the "other side".

Well, my point is that Derek is not a medium, imo, but a fraud. Amf, I wonder if he knows he should be placed in the comedy section, not the sci fi section on cable? There are most definately real mediums, and frauds like him do not make it fair justice for the real ones...

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Ciaran definitely busted Derek wide open. I have no serious doubt that he's been guilty of fraud on MH. This doesn't rule out that he was ever a legitimate medium. Maybe he's like an athlete who gets caught taking steroids or doping his blood. Maybe Derek just cheated here and there to make things happen for the camera.

The way to answer this question would be with controlled, double-blind studies of Derek's supposed abilities. Other high-profile mediums have subjected themselves to such scrutiny. See for example The Afterlife Experiments.

But mostly I watch Derek for the comedy.

Edited by boorite
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EEK! I'm behind the times, I missed "Ciarian!" Who/what is that? LOL! Don't have a clue. :o

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the ghost hunter guys are total jokes!the sci-fi investigates show that comes on after it,and even the celebrity paranormal thing on mtv

is better during its worst episode than ghost hunters on it's best!

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Yo Mongo! Just curious why you arrived at that opinion. Is it entertainment value or something else? I find the footage that TAPS has archived to blow the others out of the water. I have not seen anything on the other shows other than people getting scared at apparantly nothing.

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...I find the footage that TAPS has archived to blow the others out of the water. I have not seen anything on the other shows other than people getting scared at apparantly nothing.

Which archived footage are you referring to?
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Yo Mongo! Just curious why you arrived at that opinion. Is it entertainment value or something else? I find the footage that TAPS has archived to blow the others out of the water. I have not seen anything on the other shows other than people getting scared at apparantly nothing.

it just seems like the whole show is staged.none of the other shows are great,but the one on the sci-fi networks called sf-invs

is a better show than the others!

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Are you kidding me? Sci-Fi investigates ends up spending 60% of each episode with crap like "dressing up like big-foot" and trying to have near death experiences by laying in water. It's not interesting and you don't learn anything from it. And the MTV show? They aren't trying to find evidence of the paranormal, it's just more celebrity reality TV! Give me a break!!

And I can't believe I missed more Derek bashing. I'm glad so many people agree with me that Most Haunted is garbage. Sunny, you hit the nail on the head.

Also, thank you Anvil for the Derek clip. That made my night/morning, and it will make my fiancee's day tomorrow.

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if you take most of them for what they really are,entertainment,

i guess thay all really stink!i just enjoy watching sci-fi investigates,above all the others. :D

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Any show has to be 'hollywoodized' to a point to making it interesting enough for the viewers to keep coming back.

Do you really think television takes paranormal study seriously? I highly doubt it.

They are in it for the ratings, and right now viewers are showing interest in the paranormal and they need to cater to that to make some $$.

Hence, the more 'hollywoodized' shows like Ghost Whisperer and Medium.

Take for instance the show "A Haunting"....one of my favs......they show the reenactments to 'hollywoodize' it a little, and it works for this show because the 'real' people are also on 'vocalizing' their accounts of the whole ordeal.

True some of the other shows seem a little corny...but piloting them and getting feedback tells the producers what the people really wanna see.

I say...if you don't like it...don't watch it.

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From the episodes I HAVE seen of TAPS they've been skeptical, not so eager to say "genuine haunting" and I like that.

I want a REAL HAUNTING PROGRAM... forget the hollywoodized stuff. I want REAL- REAL -REAL!! nobody cares for actors, and fakes, and fillers... GIVE US REAL!! Something like COPS, but REAL GHOSTBUSTERS or something like that. lol. woohoo.

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Are you kidding me? Sci-Fi investigates ends up spending 60% of each episode with crap like "dressing up like big-foot" and trying to have near death experiences by laying in water. It's not interesting and you don't learn anything from it. And the MTV show? They aren't trying to find evidence of the paranormal, it's just more celebrity reality TV! Give me a break!!

And I can't believe I missed more Derek bashing. I'm glad so many people agree with me that Most Haunted is garbage. Sunny, you hit the nail on the head.

Also, thank you Anvil for the Derek clip. That made my night/morning, and it will make my fiancee's day tomorrow.

Obviously the people are demanding programs such as these haunting shows but are becoming somewhat disappointed-- there should be some channel designated for these programs.... such as (TPC) the paranmormal channel, or something such as that. Emphasizing spooks, and unexplained... it would be great.

Oh heck yeah, don't get me on DEREK-- One episode I remember the most was an incident in this bedroom upstairs of a house that had a library full of books... the books were flying out by themselves (real spooks of course!! :/).. and there was a pet dog in there with them, they were at the saince table, and that incident where DEREK becomes possessed was absolutely hysterical....never forget it.

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Dr Ciaran O'Keeffe, the show's parapsychologist. DAGS for more info.

I hate I missed this one...

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  • 1 year later...

The thing you have to realize about Paranormal TV shows is that they are, in fact, TV SHOWS.

It's not really fair to judge any paranormal team based on their Reality Show...or whatever they may participate in...because there is such a media spin on everything.

I was told by Steve Gonsalves of TAPS that they're not allowed to even see the shows before they air, because Sci-Fi wants it done a certain way, whether or not that's what the TAPS guys want to air. They're not on Sci-Fi's payroll, either...at least not in the way people expect. They're definitely not getting rich off it.

Also, in regards to the comments people have been making about not spending enough time in a location - the challenge of every paranormal team is spending enough time in locations. You can't predict when there will be activity unless it's happening every night like clockwork. My team, for example, will go to a location several times and half of them we'll find nothing and the other half we'll have all kinds of bizarre experiences and great evidence to present to people. It's the luck of the draw, really, and while I wish that every episode that airs was packed full of great evidence...that's not a realistic expectation...because whether they hit the locations on a good day or not, that's still people's time that's being spent filming and they've got to air something.

TAPS, in their defense, DOES do follow-up investigations if they are needed. This is stated in Jason and Grant's book. Also, they have the luxury of being "famous" and are invited to investigate places that have regular, nightly reported activity. This is how they often end up finding good evidence. They've got the option of being selective with their cases. What you see on the show looks like they go to these locations and only spend one night there and then review everything...but if I remember correctly, it takes about 10 days to film one episode of Ghost Hunters. A lot of the time, they spend more than one night at a location and wear the same clothes for the sake of editing the show. Sci-Fi does not present the show in that way because, I was told, they think it will take too much air time to pop up a screen that says "day 2" unless the location is obviously too huge to be done overnight.

You have to be careful about judging what you see because you are watching a TV show...and the goal of any TV show at some level is ratings...and they will twist things to suit what will attract viewers. I don't think TAPS is behind any of that...that's the network.

TAPS is a bigger group, too, than the people we see on TV. They have the "Ghost Hunters" cast as well as a "home team" kind of thing that continues with local investigations and such. So they really have more opportunity to follow up with their cases and spend more time in locations than it looks like on the show.

And just from knowing how a lot of that works with TAPS, I'm pretty sure that every paranormal group that's on a TV show is subject to the same sort of thing.

And since the paranormal is a theory based pseudo-science (technically), it's hard to say who's approaches are right or wrong. Each team takes the approach that works best for them and the people involved. Some people prefer a "scientific" approach and some people prefer a team of mediums going through their house speculating. It's all relative.

And there are schools that teach classes on the paranormal. (I was watching a documentary just the other day with a Professor of Parapsychology speaking on it) and there's a Parapsychology department at The University of Edinburgh. I'm not sure if you can Major in it, but I know you can study it. Actually I'm fairly certain there is no where, at least in the United States, that you can major in "Paranormal Studies," lol. But you can gain certification in things like parapsychology through Flamel College...which, depending on your point of view, may or may not be lame.

But back to the subject at hand....just make sure you're being careful when you judge groups based on TV shows.

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Where in the world does one get educated to become a "paranormal expert"?

You say "I'm a paranormal expert". That's it. Its the same requirement to be a UFO, crop circle, big foot, etc, expert.

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You say "I'm a paranormal expert". That's it. Its the same requirement to be a UFO, crop circle, big foot, etc, expert.

Well That explain how two plumbers became "experts."

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You say "I'm a paranormal expert". That's it. Its the same requirement to be a UFO, crop circle, big foot, etc, expert.

There are no experts in the paranormal.

But there are peope with expertise based on years and years of real hard investigation and research work. John Zaffis, Adam Blai, Rosemary Ellen Guiley, the Johnsons, Patrick Burns, Jason & Grant of course, I'll even toss in Chris Flemming.

You can choose whether or not to believe them. But there is little question they've been around the block more than once and aren't just repeating what they hear others say or what they think will sound good.

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