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there is a show called ghost hunters where a team of people go and check out potential haunting to either debunk them, or confirm them. its an interesting show...but is it reality, or is it all just stuff that is created for a tv show?

what are your thoughts?
~W~

Personally I think that most of what they experience is real, but for t.v. sake they might over exaggerate a little.

Sounds like similar questions we've covered before about ghost shows. TAPS comes off more realistic than most other ghost shows simply because they were apt to try and solve certain cases, either prove or disprove things they do not have an answer for. Others go into it KNOWING they will find something, and automatically assume whatever noise they hear or catch on tape HAS to be ghost related which is ludicris.

I don't understand during certain shows they use particular equipment, but doesn't show them using it every single time, if it worked very well for them before.

They seem to get a lot of answers using the "yes/no" techniques and flashlight tricks more than anything to me it seems. It all goes back to the Ouija board scenerios of "yes/no's" only taking it up a knotch. So why don't they do that every single time? ;)

mopst of the things on there seem to be staged, but there is one episode that i think could actually be real, so i think some times they may get a lucky break and get called in on an actual suspicion but most of the times they have to stage somthing to get ratings and hits.

I watched a esposide where a shovel
and a chain fell over
But as it was falling over
a cameraman was walking through nearby
That started to have me question these
programs
I go on paranormal investigations
Sometimes you get things
and sometimes you don't.

i beleive they are real....their shows are really interesting..

Interesting yes, but hey it's t.v. so if it wasn't they wouldn't get ratings..Some possible over exaggeration can boost ratings.

The two main guys grew up in the town right next to mine...
personally i think it's real. Some of that stuff you just cant fake

i enjoyed the one where they were in the nat guard armory. suddenly all the equipment that one of the crew was wearing flew up and smacked him in the face....then he fell down, and cried.


that really was pretty cool.
~W~

An ideal format would be to find a family that says stuff happens.. do an initial walk through, and have the family specify what occurs, then put mounted cams throughout the house, some obvious, and some not so obvious, along with sound equipment, then leave it there for a week, and collect a weeks worth of vid.

TAPS are not ghost hunters. They are debunkers. I have talked to others in the business and I am not talking about just random groups but professionals and have been told they don't even use their equipment correctly. I wouldn't know but I consider them an interesting bit of entertainment and nothing more. I am sympathetic to the Hans Holzer viewpoint of ghost hunting. He is now passed.

I am sure most have good intensions but these guys go in with a pessimistic viewpoint and they don't believe in the paranormal more or less. I think one has to remain neutral to be truly objective. Some go completely the other direction. I would rather see a show just touring a place and hear about the legends and nothing more because you just can't tell what might be staged or over done to the negative. Sometimes the energy levels are not conducive to anything happening and I believe sometimes it has to do to specific individuals and if they are present nothing happens. It's a complicated topic that can only be answered really with opinions and anecdotal evidence at this stage of scientific knowledge.

one thing that kills me about TAPS is that they only spend a night. you cant debunk (for for that matter...bunk) a story in a night.

setting up cameras in a house for a week...one in ever room and just left alone, but monitored from a distance.

that would be a great set up.

~W~

As a couple of people have mentioned, the best way is to set the cameras up for a week or even longer. One day or one night is not enough to determine if a house or castle...ect...ect is haunted. As for the programmes I feel they are not the best to watch but realise it’s great entertainment.

Personally I think they are all fake. I believe in ghosts /spirits, but i dont think they are going to manifest themselves for all to see. I believe that whomever they are trying to reach, they will be the only ones to get to see them or what they do to get attention.

I have seen episodes where they get nothing at all. I have been watching ghost hunters and ghost hunters international for quite some time. Some seem hokey but there are some that seemed believable.

Ghost adventures on the travel chanel now that one to me seems fake. anyone one else get that when they watch it.

is ghost adventures where the two guys are locked into a building till the morning? they challenge the ghosts, then when something happens, the scream like little girls! lol


i dont think the shows gh and ghi are faked only because if they were, id expect to see more stuff happen.

if fallen asleep during a number of their shows because nothing is going on.

~W~

yes ghost adventures is where they lock themselves in till morning.

I just LOVE how they ask questions or speak louder and saying things in a way that makes ghosts seem "stupid" and believe whatever they are saying as if they have zero intelligence. They believe it envokes the wrath, but seriously, if they had some intelligence, wouldn't they KNOW they are pretending? Just my thoughts.

yes, that is annoying..
but what is more annoying is ghost hunters international.

they go all over the world...and talk to the ghosts in english.

does that strike anyone else as idiotic?

hell...there are languages that someone could speak to me in that i couldnt tell if they thought i was attractive, or if they wanted me to massage their grandmother!
~W~

I do like ghost hunters and ghi is not bad..what I have found funny was a show from ghost adventures when they carry knives and such and state that if they get mess with the ghost is ging to get this and they pull the knife out. what do they really think is going to happen.

you might be interested to know that ghi has started gaining people who speak the native language of the area. last night I watched a new episode and they actually had someone who spoke the language. although they were hearing a lot of noises nothing interesting happened. was rather disappointed.

Well LordWolf, I use to ( key word- use) like how this show was done when it first arrived on the air, and loved seeing unexplained events that they couldn't de-bunk.
But lately I really think this show has gone down hill because it seems to focused on going to famous travel spots more so than common houses now.
Makes me wonder if they made a deal with travelocity?

I do how ever like the new show fact or faked, have you seen it yet?

I feel their whole approach is skewed.Plus you cannot investigate something like that in a matter of hours.
I dont watch them but have seen bits here and there.From what I can tell,some are a little more realistic about it than others.

i believe that they are real...as with anything though it is in the eye of the beholder...if this is not something that you believe in then no matter how much proof there is you will find a way to prove it is fake...there are many instances in the show where they actually prove when there are things to explain what is happening in a building or house to show that it is not always something paranormal.

i havent seen fact or faked yet, but its on my list.


i agree with oceanne (as i so often do) about the methodology...however i really do like how they first try to debunk the story rather than try to prove it.

the time period just isnt a realistic approach to research.


i also agree that they seem to be trying to hit more famous places of late.

what are the best gh episodes youve seen?
for me the best were:
the light house where you could actually see humanoid shapes up at the top...when the cameras got there, there was nothing...and no where to go

the "shining" hotel in colorado where they had a glass explode on camera, a door close (also on cam) i think a table also fell down.

i really did like the national guard armory as well, where the equipment hit a guy in the face.

~W~

Ghost hunters is an interesting show. To put it the best, any TV show needs a good rating to stay on the air. So most of their events are fake. Out of all the times I viewed their show, which has been at least 20 or some episodes, only one time did something ever strike me as so odd that there was no possibility of being fake.

So...It's real, yet only bits and pieces are. In my honest opinion though.

I have always thought they were real, especially their earlier shows. However as time progresses at least during the LIVE events... things seem way to off for me..

The earlier episodes I really think are real and genuine and I loved their purpose. The newer episodes I still think are good, but I notice they don't show as many where they find NOTHING anymore. I liked how they use show that that is common. I have been a paranormal investigator for years now, and more often than not... that's exactly what you find. Nothing. The Live special events they do, those I think are fake. I think those are held just for rating purposes. There are to many little things I've seen and noticed that make me think that those live shows are staged.

I think that in the initial beginning of the show that they really did put at least a rather concerted effort forth to try and locate or disprove what they considered to be either ghosts, OR phenomena of a different sort. Not so much to brag or boast but to bear witness as well as find inner understanding from their own personal experiences. Whether we believe it or not I think as per usual is only going to be a matter of perspective........ However, to put my two cents in..I think it legit, at least so far as THEY believe.

LW,

Not implying that the exploding light was rigged, but I have done that trick, and it indeed made present company scatter from the spooky den.

Its not that TAPS does not believe in the paranormal or life after death they simply try to look for the obvious cause first since original hauntings are much more rare then common and they do this for the client with hopes to put their minds at ease, I have seen many times were they have infact gave the seal of approval on a haunting. Sometimes people who have so called hauntings go way overboard in making an assumption without really looking for the true cause and this is were debunking comes in, I mean they would look like idiots if they agreed to a haunting and then investigated it to find out they were wrong. Its kinda like this when I was growing up and worked on cars and my engine would not start my Father always told me before assuming you need a whole new emgine and changing it out look for the simple obvious causes first, it is a common sense approach and works for Ghust Hunting as well.

I do think that there is real phenomena occurring but given that it is a TV show, I am sure some is exaggerated. Given there are some shows where really not much occurs would lend credit to there being real phenomena occurring at times. But I do have a cousin who is a photographer...there are so many techniques that can be used to make a "ghost" pic.
I absolutely believe that supernatural phenomena occur, but as for the shows, likely some is just smoke and mirrors so to say but with occasional real occurences.

Dream

As a Paranormal Investigator myself I can with clear sound mind say yes there is life after death, what life after death is really like or what it defines I cannot say and even if I produce pics and scientific proof there are still the hard core critics that will still attempt to discredit it until there is one day a concrete way of proving it. I will say that manifestations from the deceased in our world is a rare occurance and I would be hard pressed to believe everything I see on TV, some maybe true and some false, after all they have to keep their ratings up but who really knows for sure, it boils down to what you wish to believe and if you have faith in the afterlife until we can devise a more practical method of gathering evidence.

As much as I am a follower of the show, I tend to think some of it is complete hooplah. It is SyFy, meaning it is over dramatic and they try to disprove everything, meaning they are more or less profesional skeptics. But that is my opinion.

Lately I have also been watching Ghost Adventures on the Travel Channel. They, last night, re-aired an episode they did live (extremly condensed). If they were not faking it, they were talking to a ghost or two in real time using some other famous paranormal investigator's/mediums invention. It was intriguing, but It still bugs me as to whether they are truly showing us what is going on or putting on a show.

I enjoy watching these shows, but due to today's television standards, it is hard to decipher what is real and what is not anymore.

frankly i think its a plus that they play the role of professional skeptics.

i also think there must be alot of stuff out there to see. the house i once lived in had all sorts of weird things going on. we saw something that was unexplainable every few weeks.

also how many people have claimed to see something paranormal?
if you discount 9 out of 10 tales, you are still left with a large number of unexplained things out there.
if you then just say that 1 out of the remaining 10 tales are actually paranormal then you still have a huge number of things that might actually be ghosts.

my point...do enough shows where they are set up in supposed haunted houses, then statically they will from time to time find something.
~W~