STORM2K

It's been on all day, with halloween coming up. People go into these haunted places at night (of course) with fancy equipment, cameras, flashlights etc. As they're wandering around, they hear footsteps, bangs, crashes, etc., they feel cold breezes, their instruments detect analomies, yadda, yadda, yadda.

The people will be stalking into a room saying things like "I really feel a presence coming from this room." Then as they enter, they get touched, or hear a sound, and they react with all the predictable yelps and stuff. Well guess what - the camera is already IN THAT ROOM recording them as they enter! There has to be a cameraman in there, because the camera is smoothly zooming in with them as they enter, panning to follow them around, etc. So how come the camera man isn't getting abused? Huh? You think he'd be running for his life too, dontcha?

My irrefutable conclusion: It's all staged, and made for effect for tv. Once I realized that, these shows turn my stomach.

I'll bet these places are major tourist traps, and after they're done filming, someone flicks a switch and turns on all the lights.

Not at all. I am a ghost hunter, and i've detected, and even SEEN weird things. Even EVP is real. Recording a voice outside the reach of our ears is EVP, along the EMP lines. Its very real..I was once a non-believer, but recent year gave me a different perspective!

Aw shucks, G-Man. Little did I realize that I'd get the input from someone who's been there and done that.

I won't try to discredit your personal experience.

But don't you think that the TV shows employ a bit of "hollywood?" I mean, what self-respecting ghost would cooperate when the place is taken over by tv film crews with all their support staff and accouterments? And I still think that before/after the actual filming, they probably have the lights up so that everyone can get in their "places."

Waddayathink?

Ed - I've often wondered if shows like this are scripted and bogus. They almost seem too staged, as you said to be taken for real. That said, I've never said there isn't ghosts or evidence of ghosts, I've just never seen one. And finally, the one ghost I'd dearly love to communicate with is my dad. He passed away in 1988 and I didn't get to say goodbye. I swear if he appeared to me right now, I'd be sobbing. Not scared. But to get back to keeping this topic, light - yes I do suspect these shows are often staged or the slightest draft emphasized to be supernatural. And it just might be - a draft. Close a door! Caulk a window!

Next........

Mary

I've seen those shows........they play them every Halloween......alot of the places they say there are ghosts at, are really old historic houses.....some had murders happen and etc.....i think they are kinda fun to watch to get "spooked"....i guess we will really never know......until we experience it for ourselves..

The travel channel and the history channel have some of those shows on

Cor, you are right...Those shows make us real hunters look bad. You know what it is though? It is real, not script, but those people KNOW they are in a haunted place. The night time can put a real strain on the brain, and make you hear things that sound like voices, or screams, make you feel different vibes, its all there. That's what those people are feeling when they enter those areas. If they had some real equiptment to show us all what is happening, i'd believe it more. Sure, maybe there are a few entities in the house with them, but sure as heck, 90% of the noises are not from them, rather than small noises in the building, a far distant outside animal call, anything tht would be turned, by the human brain into a ghostly presence.

I like to watch those "Travel Channel" shows about haunted
places - it's fascinating! That one particular show I think
Ed is talking about DOES get on my nerves, though - I
guess that we are all somewhat unbelieving of people who
tend to find something everywhere they go, GeoMan...
of course, then, I'm a sucker for haunted places around
the world.....Halloween, or the middle of April! I used to
subscribe to "Fate" magazine (remember that?), and the
stories were fascinating, true or not!

This is a cool discussion. Personnally I do believe in ghosts. But I also believe that most of these ghost hunter shows are completely bogus. I watched one the other night about dracula's castle. I think the hysterics came from fear that existed in there minds before they entered the house. The girl said an arrow shot at her head and I agree with the earlier remark that the camera person would have ran like the wind. I would be scared by the general atmosphere alone. But the show was really cool because I got to see the inside of a place I always wanted to see.

I'm talking about the show that Linda Blair hosts. The narration is really irritating. They get all the spooky camera angles too.

I just have to wonder what the owners of these places do with them, and have to conclude that they "operate" them for tourists and thrill seekers.

Anyway, G-Man, good luck with your pursuits. I hope that you capture irrefutable evidence. Maybe someday you'll get your own (scientific) TV show.

That's the one I am talking about coriolis, and you have to admit it was nice of them to give the old lady from poltergiest a job too.