Rant: Fake Skeery Shows

[Kinare]

k, so, there's a new show that has been on for maybe a month now called Paranormal Lockdown. It stars Nick Groff, who was part of the Ghost Adventures crew until drama made him leave, and some other gal who used to be a star of some show I don't think I've ever seen (Paranormal State). Because I feel Ghost Adventures is pretty much the only legit show out there (even if Zak is annoying sometimes), I have been watching Paranormal Lockdown hoping Nick would keep up with what GA tried to do. Well, that's partially the case. They do keep the crew to a minimum like GA does (just Nick, the gal, and one camera guy), which is a huuuge flaw in many of the other shows because of all the noise and interference a bunch of people are going to cause. The big concern with PL is they don't put as much effort into debunking stuff. They also ask stupid questions to the ghosts sometimes when they get responses on their box... Not really bad, just a tad annoying.

There's one other really huge red flag with PL: they're working with stars from Ghost Hunters. Two episodes now have featured GH stars. The big problem with that is that the GH people got caught on a live Halloween special doing some very questionable things (basically faking stuff and failing to debunk obvious things), which totally fucked them over and they lost all credibility after that. I'm really trying to give PL a chance because their approach is interesting (they stay in one location for 72 hours straight and they have a couple new devices I've never seen before now that seem to do well), but if they do one more show with GH people or any of these other questionable shows, I'm out.

There are so many other shows out there that just scream bullshit and it really irks me because I do believe spirits exist and the more these BS shows pop up and fuck up the less people will be receptive to real proof. There's one I can't recall the name of that has one of the old GH guys on it and it's an extremely messy show with a bunch of stupidity throughout, I've only watch a couple of those episodes. There's yet another that I can't recall the name of that I sat through a few episodes of before deciding it was rubbish. What really made me call them a bunch of morons and fakers was one episode where they were supposedly communicating via Ouija board... I don't know much about this stuff, but even with the little bit I do know I'm sure they were doing it wrong and if they were actually communicating with a spirit they would have been in huge danger the way they were mishandling it. They also rely very heavily on psychic mediums and "feelings", rather than scientific equipment.

There's also one called Paranormal Witness and another similar one called A Haunting, plus a few others like it. These shows supposedly recount the details of hauntings that families endure. Problem is, all of the people on these shows look like typical white trash assholes who make any little thing into something huge, which totally shits on anyone that might actually be legit. Their stories are always so wild and crazy and typical to what draws massive morons into those types of shows... arg.

There is one show that I also forgot the name of that at first I was ready to discount immediately, but after giving it a chance into a 2nd episode where he called out the family for inviting the bad spirit in and then refused to do an exorcism, that won a little bit of respect. Still, it all could have all been a setup for show and he didn't find any actual proof - just used "feelings" to figure things out.

What makes me really sad though is I think Ghost Hunters did start out legit (and I think the International division was legit up until it stopped airing). I feel that as GH got more popular they were being pressured from the network to keep ratings up, especially since their last couple seasons were pretty dull. That means Syfy is partially to blame for the downfall of a good crew, assuming they were good to begin with.

Woo, lookit dat wall-o-text about ghosty shows being bad~

[Ieono]

I have never believed in the veracity of any of their supposed "investigations". Do people really believe that these guys are finding "evidence" of ghosts and paranormal activity? I like how you phrased it, "fake skeery shows," cause that is how I have always seen them. Fear factor was a hell of a lot scarier to me than Ghost Hunters, and I used to watch both fairly often. 

Sure, there are things that we don't understand, but these people are literally making money off of claiming to investigate and find evidence for these things. I can appreciate it as a form of entertainment, suspension of disbelief of course. But they also are a bit like the fake mediums who swindle people out of their money by rattling the tables during a seance or something. 

[Kinare]

3 hours ago, Ieono said:

Do people really believe that these guys are finding "evidence" of ghosts and paranormal activity?

Apparently a lot of people do. I'm fascinated with the paranormal myself, but since I'm not easily suckered like most people I find these shows more frustrating than anything. =/ Finding a good skeery show is harder than finding skeeries! :L (Har har. I know, I'm hilarious.)

---

Something interesting I forgot to add to the OP: Paranormal Lockdown is gonna let some fan go on a ghosty hunt with them. I do hope it's not a gullible or easily freaked out person. I really wish I had the confidence to enter the contest myself. Not that I'd win, but ya never know. I've always wanted to visit some of these "known" haunted locations so that I could see for myself. As awesome as some of the evidence they capture sometimes is, it's hard to know without being there that they definitely aren't somehow manipulating these devices in some way.

[Sinker]

Season 1 episode 1 of Paranormal Lockdown

About 16 minutes in, nick sits in a room and asks the spirits if ther are scared walking in the dark.     Notice there is about 5seconds of silence after the question.    On both playbacks where he got a "yes" you can hear What sounds like Nicks voice right after the " spirit's yes" answer....well within the 5 second window of original silence.   It would appear to me the tape was edited.  If it was a "second spirit" seems to me they would point it out.   Decide for yourself.....  

[Socketosis]

On 3/26/2016 at 1:19 AM, Ieono said:

Fear factor was a hell of a lot scarier to me than Ghost Hunters, and I used to watch both fairly often. 

But Fear Factor isn't scary, it's just... gross.

[FlynnCoyote]

Mind games and the power of suggestion work well with actual ghost tours, added to which I hear there's a subsonic frequency they can broadcast which induces a higher chance of hallucinations and just makes it all feel more real.

That advantage doesn't have as much weight on TV shows, so naturally they're all just faked. They probably rely on their viewers tracking down the aforementioned ghost tours and likening what they see on the shows to their own most likely artificially induced experiences.

Then of course some people are just easily suggestible to begin with.

[Osrik]

I'm not really a big believer in ghosts, and none these shows have certainly not increased my belief in them. From what I have seen of them, most such shows feature poor acting and transparent fakery, while even those that do somewhat better on these fronts can't provide evidence that couldn't have been faked with video and audio editing, so i remain unconvinced.

8 hours ago, FlynnCoyote said:

Mind games and the power of suggestion work well with actual ghost tours, added to which I hear there's a subsonic frequency they can broadcast which induces a higher chance of hallucinations and just makes it all feel more real.

What you are referring to is infra-sound, a range of sound slightly below human hearing that as you say can be used to induce visual hallucinations:

http://gizmodo.com/some-ghosts-may-be-sound-waves-just-below-human-heari-1737065693

Interestingly enough, it can actually occur naturally in locations with the right dimensions, with it found that many locations reported as haunted also produce infra-sound, providing a pretty good explanation for many of the haunted locations that otherwise seem to defy reason or explanation, with suggestibility certainly playing a large part to. Here's a study of the connection between infra-sound and apparent ghostly apparitions in a "haunted" cellar:

http://www.richardwiseman.com/resources/Something-in-the-Cellar.pdf

[Hux]

There's a spooky ghost in my bathroom that I think watches me. 

One night I was in the shower and I felt a rush of cold air running down my back and I saw a distorted reflection in the tile. I immediately turned around and saw nothing. The house began to rumble intensily before instantly dying down.

An eery silence consumed the area.

And then I heard "Hi, Billy Mays here and I want to tell you about Oxiclean!" 

Then I heard grunting coming from inside the the toilet. I looked inside and my face was blasted with gooey ectoplasm. It got in my eyes, nose, and mouth. It tasted really weird and gave me wicked cotton mouth.

I was horrified. I jumped out of the second story bathroom window and landed right on my erection. I ignored the pain and fled into the woods wet, naked, and screaming as my feet clumsily stamped through the ice.

 

[Fossa]

On 1/7/2017 at 6:00 PM, Hux said:

There's a spooky ghost in my bathroom that I think watches me. 

One night I was in the shower and I felt a rush of cold air running down my back and I saw a distorted reflection in the tile. I immediately turned around and saw nothing. The house began to rumble intensily before instantly dying down.

An eery silence consumed the area.

And then I heard "Hi, Billy Mays here and I want to tell you about Oxiclean!" 

Then I heard grunting coming from inside the the toilet. I looked inside and my face was blasted with gooey ectoplasm. It got in my eyes, nose, and mouth. It tasted really weird and gave me wicked cotton mouth.

I was horrified. I jumped out of the second story bathroom window and landed right on my erection. I ignored the pain and fled into the woods wet, naked, and screaming as my feet clumsily stamped through the ice.

 

I'm not sure why, but reading this reminds how hard I laughed though the entire move, 'Poltergeist'. For some reason, when I first saw it, me and my brother thought it was the funniest thing ever.

[Red Lion]

I tended to view shows like that sort of the way I did pro-wrestling. I know it's fake but it's entertaining and some of the stories and scenarios can be kinda spooky. I can't say I've ever watched a paranormal show with more in mind than being entertained so I'm not really concerned about the credibility. It's probably for the best I don't believe in ghosts, while I'd definitely be afraid of them, it'd be one of those things where my curiosity would probably get the better of me and I'd go running around in a haunted house just because I HAD TO KNOW. 

R.I.P Red Lion.
To stupid to "Get ooout" when the walls started bleeding. ;n;