The ARGNY Blog

Shadow Playmate

Keep an eye on the doorway to the left.

Ghost Hunters: Back to the Future

The thing that made you love Ghost Hunters in the first couple of seasons was that these were down-to-earth, honest guys, trying to help people. Their mission was to debunk places that were supposedly haunted and were soo not haunted and to only declare a place haunted if it was REALLY haunted. I remember lamenting one time on the TAPS message boards a bunch of years ago that the only way Jason would admit a place was haunted was if a ghost suddenly materialized right in front of his face, whacked him in the head with a sack full of nickels and then helped him up so they could pose for multiple photos and video spots. Well, those days are long gone.

But, last week's Season 5 premiere showed us a somewhat humbled Ghost Hunters team. No more were the crystal clear Class A EVPs, the incredible evidence and the locations jam-packed with activity. This was much more the kind of Ghost Hunters you remember from the early days, when there were some places that just didn't have anything going on. When debunking was still job one.

Jason and Grant obviously heard the complaints of their viewers and even the shock horror of their diehard fans when evidence was cropping up around the web that the team, themselves was faking some of the activity they were reporting. So, they've gone back to basics. It's not as flashy and certainly not as shocking, but it's real and that's what we love about those guys.

Video of the Week: Wave Bye-Bye

Keep your eye on the doorway in the background.

Video of the Week: Ghost? Ghost?! Ghost!!!!

A great example of what NOT to do when you encounter a full-body apparition.

Video of the Week: Gas Pump Poltergeist

Video of the Week: Which is Creepier?

The weird looking kid or the weird looking ghost?

For some reason, the owner of this video doesn't let people embed it on sites, so you'll need to go to YouTube to watch it.

Video of the Week: Dude, Where's My Car?

Hmm.

Video of the Week: Girl on the Stairs

Looks legit, but who knows.

Video of the Week: Waverly Hills When The Ghosts Were The Living

Waverly Hills Sanatorium is considered by many to be one of the most haunted places in the U.S. But, once, it was a state of the art Tuberculosis hospital.

Now you know why some of the patients never wanted to leave.

Are You Talkin' To Me?

There is what seems to be a pretty interesting device produced by Digital Dowsing, LLC, called the Ovilus. It allows ghosts to "speak" through the device by providing an electronic database of words for the ghost to use to vocalize responses to questions, the environment or whatever may be on its mind. The results I have seen are pretty interesting, especially the instances where the ghost is providing direct answers to questions asked, as seen in this video, taken by the paranormal investigation group, U.N.S.E.E.N. Paranormal Research.

As the creator of the device, Bill Chappelle will openly confess, he has no idea how the thing works as a communicator for ghosts. Nonetheless, the results are sometimes pretty impressive.

Video of the Week: A Ghost Walks Into A Bar...

This looks like it just might be legit.

Doin' Time At Eastern State

I've been meaning to do this particular post since November when I did an investigation with the New Jersey Ghost Hunters Society of Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, famous for once imprisoning gangster, Al Capone. If you are a fan of Ghost Hunters, you know that they had some amazing experiences there: cell doors slamming shut, footsteps, voices and a controversial video clip of an entity running toward the camera (see my Video of the Week post) and then back again into the darkness. However, the night I was there the only evidence we could gather was of frost-bite because it was so freaking cold in the middle of that November night.

It was fun to creep around the place in the dark, but as far as an investigation goes, it was a waste of time. This was mainly due to how NJGHS organized the investigation. First, we had to sit in near freezing temperatures (35 degrees, according to my digital thermometer) for 90 minutes listening to a lecture about the basics of ghost hunting and then we were broken up into 3 groups to investigate. I had the unfortunate luck of being in the group that was being recorded by two NYU students for a class project of theirs. So, it was all but impossible to do EVP sessions due to their continual questioning and rattling on. Also, we were being constantly moved on to the next cell block by our guides, so it was not possible to spend any time in any one spot to set up cameras or do any of the experiments I had prepared. So, needless to say, I did not gather any evidence whatsoever. But, it was fun, nonetheless. Although next time I'm going in the summer.

Video of the Week: Ghost Hunters Debunked, Again! (I Think I'm Going to be Sick)

This is a video from one of the many guys that have debunked the video that TAPS recorded at Eastern State Penitentiary. When this episode originally aired, I was very skeptical as to the authenticity of this clip. It looked to me like someone in a cloak running up to the camera and then back again. In fact, I could have sworn that I saw a leg, which this guy clearly points out exists.

I disagree, however, that TAPS staged this. I think it is more likely that ESP staged it themselves, but TAPS turned a blind eye. Something that I think they are doing now more often than not. I also completely disagree with TAPS' claim that it would not be possible for someone to run that fast in the dark on that cat walk. I've been there (see my Eastern State post) and I know that it is perfectly possible. If you want to see the original TAPS footage, check it out, here:

Video of the Week: Paranormal State

Sometimes they are warriors. And sometimes they are late to class.

Video of the Week: Ghost Hunters (Say it Ain't So) Debunked

I know this is a little old, but this is a video clip that, if true, really breaks my heart.

These guys are the rock stars of the paranormal investigation world and seemingly genuinely good guys. I would hate to think that this was all an act. But, it would explain why they never seem to have an off night anymore. Every episode yields amazing evidence, incredible video and "Class A" EVPs. As any real ghost hunter will tell you, the odds of this are, well, paranormal.

Stairway to Heaven

This appears to be actual ghost footage.

And when she gets there she knows if the stores are closed.

Let's Get Reaaaddyyy to Rumble!! Or, Just Run Away

What happens when you take a professional wrestler out of the safety of a wrestling ring and put him in a dark, haunted TB hospital?  Well, this is what happens, not when he sees a ghost, mind you, but when he drops his own cell phone.

This is one of my favorite videos ever.

Gettysburg Re-Address

The footage here looks to me like a true residual haunting. Watch how the movement seems to be repetitious. First from the far left, moving close to the ground to the left. Then, from the middle toward the right. Also, the apparition (if it is that) seems to appear and then fade as it moves.

Of course, it could just be a couple of rednecks hunting possum.

Orbilicious

For an explanation of orbs, please see my other posts. But take a look at some footage of the best orb phenomena I've seen, captured by the paranormal group, Haunted Earth UK. This truly seems to be the genuine article.

The Pope and a Floating Orange Alter Boy Walk Into a Bar...

Not sure what to make of this. Some Canadian kid captured a weird orange apparition hovering over the alter of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.

Sometimes apparitions show up on electronic equipment, while not being visible to the naked eye, which would explain why the apparition wouldn't be visible to the crowd that was there. Of course, the footage  hasn't been been checked out by an expert to see if there are any video shenanigans afoot, so I can't rule out fraud. But the kid does seem earnest. So, who knows. That's why they call it "paranormal."

Streaming Spirits

The Bay Area Society for Paranormal Research has created a new site dedicated to broadcasting live paranormal investigations. It is called LiveSciFiTV and they will be broadcasting live tonight (midnight, EST) and Saturday (9 PM EST) from the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. For those of you that aren't familiar with the Stanley, this magnificent hotel opened in 1909 nestled in the beauty of the Rocky Mountain State Park. However, the Stanley is probably best known as the backdrop for Stephen King's chilling novel, and Stanley Kubrick's film, The Shining. It is also considered one of the most haunted place in the country, so it will be exciting to be able to watch LiveSciFiTV's investigation as it takes place. To get a sense of what's in store, here is a clip from The Atlantic Paranormal Society's hit SciFi Channel show, Ghost Hunters when they investigated the Stanley. The best part is the employee passageway (fast-forward to 2:23).

Now, of course, there could have been someone down that tunnel, other than someone that was dead. But remember, this was recorded in the middle of the night, in pitch darkness (the only light is the one mounted on the camera) and no one knew when or if the TAPS crew would go down there. Also, The TAPS guys are incredibly legitimate. They try hard to de-bunk what they encounter and always approach their cases with healthy skepticism. Sorry, but those guys make me gush like a school girl. Anyway, check out LiveSciFiTV and Ghost Hunters. Both are very cool.

Polterjugendmädchen

Although the German word "poltergeist" is translated as "noisy ghost" this does not seem to be the case. Research seems to indicate that the moving furniture, the pots and pans clanking together, the knick-knacks crashing to the floor is not the work of a rambunctious spirit with a yen for weinerschnitzel, but the psychokinetic temper tantrums of pre-teen and teenage girls. This is because the activity is usually centered around a tween/teenage girl or within the same household of the girl, as this amazing (if its real) video illustrates. I say "if it's real" because I cannot confirm the source and in many of the shots, you can't see the entire table and chair, which makes me very suspicious. Either way, it illustrates my point. It's just not very good evidence.

The feeling is that the unique mix of hormonal surges and intense emotion of girls of this age somehow manifests unconcious psychokinetic abilities. How this happens is unknown. But the girls don't even realize that they are doing it , nor do they want to be doing it. Once the hormones calm down and the girls have their MySpace page all set up, the activity tends to subside.

I've Always Been Like This

This amusing beer commercial illustrates the opposite of what Dr. Stevenson has found in the majority of the cases of reported reincarnation.

Unlike the person in this video, common belief and the teachings of Buddhism, it seems that people tend to reincarnate into bodies that are very similar to their previous ones, in all respects. So, an Indian boy from a small village close to Mumbai will reincarnate into an Indian boy from a small village close to Mumbai. It probably won't be the same village and he may or may not be from the same caste, but he will probably be similar to his previous personality in most respects.

So, boys come back as boys, girls as girls and humans as humans. You probably won't come back as a tree or a wombat or as a stick insect, unless you were one of those things previously.

Also, if you died in Mumbai, you will come back in or near Mumbai, not in Tokyo or Albuquerque or on a distant planet. What's interesting about that is if you are, say, American and you die while traveling in Italy, you will come back as an Italian in Italy, close to where you died. You will not come back in America, close to where you lived or were born. Dr. Stevenson writes of the case of a Bulgarian sailor who died in a bar fight in Sri Lanka and was then reincarnated as a Sri Lankan boy, who was able to innately speak Bulgarian.

Sources: 20 Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation by Ian Stevenson, Old Souls, by Tom Shroder.

Flipper, The Friendly Ghost

This video, which originally aired on CNN a couple of weeks ago, is currently making the rounds. There are already spoof videos that have been made of it. It is classic fraudulent ghost imagery, in the tradition of the fake seance, but with digital flair. Someone managed to digitally super-impose what looks like a dolphin onto a surveillance camera feed.

Have a great Thanksgiving!