Ghost Hunters TV show review

 Ghost Hunters TV review of November 19, 2022 show: The Sayre Mansion B+B.

I decided to begin writing about the paranormal again, and the backbone of this blog was always my reviews of Paranormal TV shows. I guess it's the one topic that gets my blood going. Don't get me wrong. I love Paranormal TV shows. Ghost Hunters was the first show that I watched way back in 2004. I was fairly new to the field, and Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson were an inspiration to me and many others. They introduced paranormal investigating to the layman. If they could do it, so could I. 

Well, it's almost 20 years later and things have changed. There are now nearly a hundred paranormal investigative shows on TV. A lot of them follow the same template as Ghost Hunters. Many have been great, some even innovative. Many have been terrible, fake, stupid or just plain boring. 

I don't watch the shows as much as I used to. But I still watch Ghost Hunters. I have met and spoken to Jason Hawes at the Gettyburg Paranormal Conference. I heard him speak. He's knowledgable and kind. But something has changed over the years, especially recently, and I don't understand it.

There were a few episodes with his younger daughter and her boyfriend, who joined the TAPS team on an investigation. During that show, his daughter and boyfriend held an evp session by facing each other, holding hands, and asking questions to the spirits, asking them to answer them by knocking once for yes and two or no. What happened defies explanation. Every time they asked a question, they got an immediate response of knocking once or twice. After dozens of immediate responses, they asked the spirit to indicate letters of the alphabet by responding to knocks. They got responses that made the investigators able to spell out words. This also went on repeatedly for quite a while. 

Now, I have been investigating for over 20 years in at least 100 different locations. I have used the knock back technique, and occasionally I did get a response. But, here is how it went. I would ask a question and ask the spirits to knock back. I would then wait for a response. I usually never got one. If I did, it was as long as 5 minutes later, sometimes longer. I don't recall if it ever repeated a response more than once. No matter how hard I tried or how many times I knocked, I usually would get one, maybe two responses, then nothing. 

Based upon my own experiences using this technique, what I witnessed on the show is highly unlikely. Based on probability, I would say it is impossible. It never, and I mean never works this way. I challenge any investigator reading this to tell me I am wrong. 

So, what was going on? The only conclusion I can logically draw is they faked it. 

A few episodes later they did exactly the same thing again. 

Last night's episode all of the investigators were getting multiple knock backs to questions. Highly improbable. No way. Doesn't happen. Faked.

Why would TAPS, after all these years, resort to faking? Ratings? I don't know. What happened to Jason's integrity? I don't know. It angers me and it also makes me sad. He was a hero of mine.

The investigation was the usual two night's long. Dustin Pari joined them. The equipment which was used included a full spectrum camera, an Ion pump, a thermal IR detector, a blue/green light, a periscope type emf detector, and cameras and recorders. They were able to catch a few evp, one disembodied voice, and, of course, the knocks, as well as other odd noises, including a whistle. 

During the reveal, Jason and Steve declared that the haunting was not dangerous. They were safe. This is what they always do, after only two nights. It's their script now. Nothing there is ever dangerous or risky. They are good ghosts, friendly and kind. No worries, ladies and gentlemen. Feel free and safe to visit our lovely B&B. Free advertising.

There is so much I could write about this. But I will restrain myself to a few observations. First, nothing is ever decided after only two nights in a location. You need many more days, weeks, and a lot more work to conclude anything.

Why do they do a historical investigation after the first night? Why not before, or after? That makes no sense.

Why do they assume what spirits will be there? How do they know? In this investigation they only tried to contact the Sayre family, wives, kids. Why? How can you assume that? 

I will only rant about one technique that drives me nuts. The "yes or no" thing. If you are using a rem pod or an emf meter, or a flashlight, and you ask it yes or no questions, if you sit for 2 minutes or two hours, you are likely to get an "answer" in the way of a blink or two, a red light or green light, a beep or two. It's random AND, if you then form your next question based upon the yes or no response you just got, well, you will be able to form a full story, won't you? Example: question #1: Are you one of the children of the Sayres? Answer: yes. Question #2: is your name Mary? Answer, yes. #3:Did you die in this house? No. #4: Did you die on the property somewhere? answer: yes. Question #5: Did you die of TB? Answer: yes. 

Etc. You can build an entire story on these yes or no answers. Are they accurate? How would you know? My question is, how can you know that these "responses" are not random? They use no other form of validation. On investigations I would ask the spirit to make the lights flash only when I ask them to and they only have 3 seconds to respond. You can set up any kind of test you want to validate your responses. But to just go with one or two beeps or flashes at random is silly and meaningless. 

End of rant. Get your investigative protocols together.

Please dear readers, feel free to disagree with me or comment here. You may also message me directly on FB messenger. Hope to hear from you! Happy Hunting.

Pam Wellington