So. Many. Releases. Normally, we have to drop a couple of titles or so from our feature just so you, our valued reader, don’t want to take an axe to the writer’s head for driveling on and on about the neat new stuff being released. This week involved even heavier cutting as it seems everybody was saving heavy hitters for the last week in June.
Besides what’s listed here, give some serious consideration to picking up X-Men #2 and Fathom: The Elite Saga #2.
Brian Wood begins a new story arc of his near future environmentally disastered (yes, I made that word up) Earth. With the Massive’s trail gone completely cold, another problem arises for the Kapital’s crew. And it lands them in New York. What could possibly go wrong?
We've heard about this one for a bit, but still weren't certain if it was a joke or not. But today Syfy announced it is indeed coming: Deep South Paranormal, a ghost hunting reality show focusing on the territory south of the Mason-Dixon.
Produced by BASE Productions (the same company behind Fact or Faked), Deep South will premiere April 10 at 10 p.m. ET and revolve around a "bayou-based team" and "homegrown blend of Cajun, Creole and self-proclaimed rednecks."
According to the network press release, the show will pursue the mysteries that have baffled Southerners and follow the no-doubt eccentric team as they "take on anything from swamp apparitions to haunted plantation houses and Southern voodoo legends."
"The fun-loving charm of these larger-than-life characters becomes deadly serious when it comes to their investigations, which deal not only with the hazards of paranormal phenomenon," says Syfy, "but with physical dangers like gators, snakes, spiders, wild hogs, and mosquitoes."
You can't help but marvel at the obviousness and brilliance of the gimmick. It's Ghost Hunters meets Swamp People and Duck Dynasty (which has been a huge ratings performer). Although the question remains: Syfy is still clearly interested in producing shows for the paranormal space, but is their faith in the GH brand waning? After all, as the show heads towards its tenth season, Syfy has not yet announced another season pickup.
As for Deep South Paranormal, the 6-episode season will have the team investigating Alabama’s Bear Creek Swamp, the Old Cahawba ghost town, Florida’s Manntown Cemetery and the Mont Helena Plantation in the Mississippi Delta, to name just a few.
Expect a lot more paranormal activity on the Syfy network in the coming year - but don't expect a few familiar shows to be returning.
The channel announced in a press release today that it greenlit Ghost Mine, Stranded and NotoriousHauntings - three new paranormal-themed reality shows to premiere in the first part of 2013. According to Syfy, the shows build upon the net's "popular paranormal reality programming block led by Ghost Hunters, Paranormal Witness and Haunted Collector."
Ghost Mine, premiering Jan. 16 at 10 p.m., focuses on a re-opened, supposedly haunted gold mine where "a colorful team of miners" seek fortune alongside a group of paranormal investigators - on hand to explore the ghostly activity and Masonic connections. Stranded, premiering Feb. 27 at 10 p.m., is produced by Destination Truth's Josh Gates (who also serves as showrunner) and Ping Pong Productions (Destination Truth, Finding Bigfoot), and follows teams of three dropped into famously haunted locales. The teams' experiences will be documented with handheld cameras and stationary cams to create a blend of a POV and docudrama.
Then there is Notorious Hauntings (premiering Spring 2013), produced by Pilgrim Studios - the production company behind the Ghost Hunters franchise. A globetrotting paranormal investigative show, the Notorious Hauntings team uncovers history and explores claims of paranormal activity at locations such as Dracula's stomping grounds in Romania and the sites of Jack the Ripper's murders in London.
Notorious Hauntings sounds similar to another international ghost hunting Syfy show produced by Pilgrim ... called Ghost Hunters International. And Mike Nichols, who has exec-produced GH and GHI, also produces Notorious. For a while now it has seemed that GHI - also produced by GH's Jason Hawes - wouldn't be returning, but this puts the nail in that ghost show's coffin.
Following Ghost Hunters Academy, this is the second GH show that appears to be cancelled. After a rotating cast of investigators, coupled with the fact that they haven't filmed any episodes for more than a year (and that last season's ratings were weak), it is reasonable to expect a GHI reboot. But even though GH remains a strong ratings performer (and was recently renewed for season nine), does Pilgrim and Syfy's scrapping of the GHI name suggest a move away from GH as a franchise?
Additionally, it is noteworthy that Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files and Destination Truth are absent from Syfy's list of "popular paranormal reality programming block." Through omission, the announcement of three new shows reads like a de facto cancellation notice of three other shows - all while reinforcing Syfy's continued commitment to the paranormal.
Of course, this could be reading too much into the press release and maybe we can expect to see more of Kris Williams and Barry FitzGerald's GHI team, as well as Ben Hansen's Fact or Faked crew. Whatever the case, Truthies out there can take comfort that at least Josh Gates, who has become a trusted pitch man for the entire net, will still be with Syfy - even if behind the scenes. Then again, this is the TV biz, folks; even cancelled shows can come back from the dead to haunt another day.
So what do you think? Are you a diehard GHI, DT or FoF fan who is riled up over the announcement? Are you stoked to see these new shows?
The team (l-r): Jael de Pardo, Austin Porter, Devin Marble,
Lanisha Cole, Ben Hansen, Bill Murphy, courtesy Syfy
It is time to re-open the files. After debuting on Syfy in July 2010,Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files became a hit by investigating captured video evidence of strange and unusual phenomena. Led by former FBI agent Ben Hansen, the team of scientist Bill Murphy, journalist Jael de Pardo, tech specialist Devin Marble, stunt expert Austin Porter and newest team member, photographer Lanisha Cole, divide their skills to recreate, debunk or validate the videos. Now in its second season, the show has average 1.5 million viewers (up 57% from its first season) and will be returning tonight at 9 p.m., Oct. 19, for six more episodes.
What has separated Fact or Faked from other shows thus far is that it examines all aspects of the paranormal, including ghosts, aliens, monsters and witches. To kick off the new season, the team will be conducting experiments at bigger and more historical locations - and promise to literally use explosive methods. In tonight's episode (“UFO Crash Landing / Graveyard Ghost”), the team will be investigating a reported UFO crash landing as well as a ghostly image that captured in a Nevada cemetery.
We recently checked in with Hansen and de Pardo about the new season, how the show and paranormal field has changed since they began, what they're thoughts are on celeb investigators and Ghost Hunters Live - and we even catch a glimpse of Hansen losing his train of thought.
Breaking:Syfy is ordering up additional episodes of its hit original reality seriesFact or Faked: Paranormal Files. Production will commence on 12 new one-hour episodes, which will be added to the current second season. The popular investigative series is scheduled to return in October 2011.
Says Syfy, "Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files has delivered series highs in total viewers for five consecutive weeks since returning for its second season on March 23, 2011. In its second season to-date, Fact or Faked is averaging 1.455 million total viewers per week (+52% vs. season 1), 859,000 Adults 25-54 (+58%) and 808,000 Adults 18-49 (+53%)."
For a little perspective, this is not the first time the network has been pleased enough with the show to order up more episodes right away.
The show airs its mid-season finale Wednesday night when the team builds its own sea serpent and takes the beast out on the water (clip embedded below for your enjoyment).
Get your paranormal passports out and ready to receive a supernatural stamp because as of Jan. 5, 2010, at 9 p.m. EST, Ghost Hunters International returns to Syfy.
The new team of investigators - led by Barry Fitzgerald and Kris Williams (of TAPS and Ghost Hunters), and includes Britt Griffith (also formerly of GH), Joe Chin, Susan Slaughter and Paul Bradford - will travel the world seeking signs of the paranormal in historically haunted locales.
To celebrate the Jan. 5 season premiere of Ghost Hunters International, ParanormalPopCulture.com* is giving you an opportunity to meet and investigate with the cast of GHI when they all gather stateside for the first time ever for an investigation event at Rolling Hills Asylum in East Bethany, NY, Jan. 14-16.
PRIZES: ParanormalPopCulture.com will give one lucky prize winner a free ticket to the three-day event at Rolling Hills Asylum, which includes a night of exploring with an investigation group and the cast, as well as access to multiple seminars and Q&As with the celebrities throughout the weekend.
Several more winners will receive discounted $99 tickets to the event (which is more than an $80 discount from the standard $179 tickets available for purchase at www.beyondevent.net).*
RULES: Keep checking this space all day on Wednesday, Jan. 5, as we post six trivia questions about the GHI team and their premiere episode. Send in answers to contest@paranormalpopculture.com along with your full name, email address and mailing address. You must get at least three answers correct to be in the running to be randomly selected for the prize drawing (but have no fear, we'll try to give you a couple easy questions).
And that's it! Everyone has a chance to win, and winners will be announced via this site and Twitter (@aaronsagers) once the GHI has aired on Syfy. So stay tuned to Ghost Hunters International on Jan. 5. and keep an eye out for trivia answers.
*ParanormalPopCulture.com nor the ParanormalPopCulture.com "Ghost Hunters International/Rolling Hills Asylum Contest" is affiliated with Syfy, "Ghost Hunters International" or Pilgrim Films & Television, Inc. **Prizes only includes event ticket and does not include travel, accommodations or access to the Chip Coffey "Lecture and Gallery Reading."
The international ghost hunters are gathering together on the domestic ghost front for an investigation event at Rolling Hills Asylum in East Bethany, NY, on Jan. 14-16. The event occurs just days after the Jan. 5 season premiere of the show, which features a pretty impressive new team.
Led by Barry Fitzgerald and Kris Williams (of TAPS and Ghost Hunters), the new GHI also stars Joe Chin, Susan Slaughter, Paul Bradford and Britt Griffith (on the first three episodes).
The event at Rolling Hills sounds pretty exciting (and in the interest of full disclosure, our own editor Aaron Sagers will be presenting there, so we are a little biased). But more than that, what makes it sound fun is it is the first time a GHI team has been together in the States for an investigation. Also along for the ride is psychic/medium Chip Coffey (Psychic Kids, Paranormal State) and documentarian Bill Murphy (Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files), as well as author/tarot reader Scotty Roberts
Plus, according to investigator and event organizer Williams, “Rolling Hills is one those dream locations for investigators ... I am a skeptic and have never been, but when I’m always hearing about investigators and other TV shows reporting disembodied voices or seeing shadow people on the second floor, east wing, I can’t help but get pretty psyched to go there.”
The notoriety of the location that Williams speaks of is possibly connected to its 146-year history of housing lunatics, criminals, drunkards, paupers, vagrants and the infirmed until it closed in 1974.
“A location like this has seen so much misery in thousands of lives,” Williams adds. “It is unfortunate and tragic, but it may also add to a leftover energy surrounding it that could be great for an investigation.”
Griffith, also an organizer, agrees.
“I’m hearing people say the activity there now has really been jumping since [new owner Sharon Coyle] took over this year.”
Coyle, a paranormal enthusiast from California, visited Rolling Hills as a tourist and fell in love with the property after having significant supernatural experiences there. When the building was in danger of being demolished, she swooped in and purchased it. She says her aim is to preserve the landmark for history, but also to afford others the chance to have an experience as moving as hers. And that suit Britt Griffith just fine.
"She has made a lot positive changes to the location, and has really cleaned it up and removed much of the debris from Rolling Hills was converted to a flea market in the ’90s,” he says.
He speculates the cleaning and major changes may have kicked up paranormal activity in the facility, which is why he particularly excited to visit it in January with guests.
In addition to investigating Rolling Hills for five hours alongside the celebrities, attendees will be treated to behind-the-scenes glimpses of their favorite shows like GHI and Murphy’s Fact or Faked. They’ll also be able to attend nine seminars and Q&A sessions that go beyond the supernatural. Though Griffith focuses mainly on the gadgets and technology of ghost hunting, Williams will give a presentation on genealogy. Murphy will also be selling high-tech paranormal tools such as his full-spectrum camera.
Tickets for the three-day event are $179 and can be purchased at www.beyondevent.net.
We've been hearing rumblings about this for some time now, but it is now official: Destination Truth is going the Ghost Hunters route and doing a live investigation on March 17, 2011.
Since this will be airing on St. Patrick's Day, it's only natural that host Josh Gates travel to Ireland for his season premiere to search for the legendary banshee of Duckett's Grove Castle. Gates returns to Ireland only a year after he investigated leprechauns in Doolin. The episode was also the show's most-watched episode, which may explain why Gates is going live there.
Tonight marks the Season One finale of Fact or Faked(10 p.m., ET), and it's the odd-epsiode out in Syfy's Christmas week. Instead of hunting for proof of elves or flying reindeer, Ben Hansen, Bill Murphy and Co. travel to the Louisiana bayou and Oregon's Willamette River.
According to Syfy, Ben's team seeks the boggy Honey Island Swamp Monster, and "put some popular theories to the test, but before they can render a verdict, an unusual sound lures them into the woods." Meanwhile, Bill's team is in Portland to investigate unexplained lights over the river and "attempt to replicate the lights by launching a variety of illuminated objects into the night sky and are surprised by the results."
A clip follows, along with a panel discussion with the FF team of Bill, Ben and Jael De Pardo at Syfy's Digital Media Press Tour in Orlando, Fla. Also, while the show won't return until 2011, Ben Hansen and Bill Murphy will continue investigating off camera.
It would appear Syfy is quite happy with the most recent addition to its paranormal programming,Fact or Faked. Although the season ended last Thursday, the network has ordered six additional episodes and are rushing filming (beginning this week, Aug. 27) for a series return as early as Nov. 4.
Produced by BASE Productions, the show made an impressive debut with the best performance for a Thursday original series on Syfy since 2006, according to a press release. Moreover, the network boasts that the show's site earned 1.1 million page views at Syfy.com, 184,000 unique visits and 733,000 video streams during its first season; the channel's best first season ever for any reality series in video streams.
Without a doubt, at every event PPC attends, we hear people overwhelmingly call for something new in the reality-TV paranormal genre. Does the show's formula of investigating online and submitted footage of activity fit the bill or not?
Syfy set us up with sneak previews this week's new episodes of Ghost Hunters International and Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files. First up is from the GHI episode entitled "Pirates of the Caribbean." Here, "the team is ready to set sail and explore the Caribbean waters for ghosts." "Pirates of the Caribbean" airs tomorrow, Aug. 18, at 9 p.m., ET.
The next clip is from the summer season finale of Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files entitled "The Caretaker." In this episode, "the team faces its most mysterious cases yet." "The Caretaker" airs Thursday, Aug. 19, at 10 p.m., ET.
All-new Fact or Faked episode tonight at 10 p.m. on Syfy. Supposedly, according to the press release, the FF team "puts startling theories to the test in order to find the truth." Ooh, sounds dangerous. Check out the peek below.
There was a time when you’d gather around the campfire and everyone had a ghost story to tell. Now, thanks in large part to the reality-TV paranormal genre, it seems everyone has a story with accompanying video.
When Ghost Hunters premiered on the Syfy network in 2004 it popularized the notion anyone could pick up a video camera and possibly find evidence of the paranormal - and so they did. Along with the dozen other similar programs that dominate cable, seemingly thousands of amateur ghost busters and monster hunters launched Web sites and YouTube channels to show off their proof of the supernatural. And it would seem just as many set out to spoof or goof those serious-minded investigators with hoaxes.
That’s where former FBI agent Ben Hansen and his team (above and right) on Syfy’s new show Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files comes in.
Premiering tonight at 10 p.m. EST, the show is a paranormal MythBusters; as opposed to other programs in the genre that looks into claims, this one switches it up slightly and essentially investigates the investigators.
Instead of seeking their own evidence or taking on clients, per se, Hansen’s crew of supposedly three years – which includes scientist Bill Murphy and journalist/Destination Truth alum Jael De Pardo along with an effects specialist, photography expert and stunt expert – explores video submissions and famous paranormal footage to determine which can be validated or debunked through experimentation.
For instance, in the first episode, the team tears through a few appetizer videos before selecting on two to investigate: The viral “ghost car” video from Georgia that shows a motorist evading police at “supernatural speeds” before phasing through a solid fence, and a collection of extraterrestrial lights over Phoenix, Az. The team travels to the spots where the events happened to interview eyewitnesses and recreate the video events.
In a recent interview, team leader Ben Hansen, scientist Bill Murphy and Executive Producer John Brenkus spoke about Paranormal Files (after the preview below):
Q: When did you know that you wanted to investigate ... was it when you were with the FBI or earlier in your life?
Ben Hansen: Okay, well I actually was about 10 years-old, my father got me kind of interested in this. We used to watch sci fi movies, we used to watch like The Thing and The Flyand those types of things late at night. And he got me interested in UFOs, he started bringing me books to read on it.
I wasn’t really aware at the time but he had a connection with his father, my grandfather. He worked actually at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, I don’t know if you know about that base, it’s where supposedly some of the wreckage from Roswell was sent.
Well my grandfather worked there as a civil engineer and throughout the years of talking with him he always kept his oath of secrecy that he made with the projects he was working on. But in so many words he let my father know that we’re not alone. So this kind of piqued an interest in my father and in turn he and I kind of bonded on this level where we became just tremendously interested in mostly UFOs.
I remember seeing E.T. when I was younger and really becoming interested in the possibility of life on other planets. So to kind of go back, no, I was not, per se, investigating the subject in any professional or official sense when I was working with the Bureau or with any other agency. But I always kept it as kind of a hobby until I developed a group and we kind of got into the ghost hunting and other aspects of it.
Bill Murphy: I’m just going to comment quickly about what really attracted me to the show. First off I should state that Ben and I had been operating in the same circles for years ... and so when Ben and I met we developed a very quick rapport and we realized we’re on the same page but maybe taking it from different angles.
Ben’s formal experience has been in law enforcement. Myself, I’ve been involved in the paranormal for a couple of decades, it kind of goes way back with my family.
And with my family and growing up as a child with it was very skeptical. It was almost like I’m listening to the older folks talk about the tales and just about sort of skipped through it without necessarily putting a whole lot of weight into it. Until I got old enough to see that these things were kind of going on around us but I wasn’t satisfied with just hearing the tales nor was I satisfied with what I thought my own perceptions were.
I thought I needed to be able to validate these experiences through technology. And so I set about to begin the documentation process. So when Ben and I met and we spoke it was just like instant connection. And so I felt that this opportunity for me was a really good fit because I had been the skeptical believer, if you will.
... And sometimes that isn’t a popular position to take when you’re entrenched in the paranormal community. The community looks for gratification from evidence but is it the evidence of the paranormal? Is it misidentification? Is there an explanation that science more readily accepts? Well this show takes a look at all those things and all those possibilities and we come up with the best possible answer.
Q: What is the most convincing evidence that you’ve picked up off the show that viewers will not see. Also, have you had a moment where you or any of your team, has encountered something that really couldn’t be proven through evidence but you just had to believe it; you just bought into it even though you couldn’t support it?
Ben Hansen: That’s a good question. Two questions. Bill do you have something off the bat, I’ve got a few.
John Brenkus: Let me actually just jump in first ... I think that one of the first things is in the debut show you’ll see that we investigate some mysterious lights in Arizona and we genuinely - I was there on the shoot - we were all there on the shoot and genuinely we caught something that we simply can’t explain.
We all witnessed it and we were extraordinarily fortunate to capture it on tape and you know it’s one of those things that we caught that we can’t say for absolutely certain that it is something paranormal but it’s certainly something that’s unexplainable as of today.
I’m really excited to share it with the audience, that was definitely one of the highlights of the series so far.
Ben Hansen: And that’s really big for John to say that. John is actually one of the biggest skeptics ever. I could bring him a UFO on his lawn and he’d say it was fake.
Bill Murphy: You know, I have to agree with John. John, that was an amazing moment to have happen and it was ... to be there while it occurred, it’s one of things where you know can you believe your own eyes? Because seeing is supposed to be believing and in that case we had to believe our eyes. But what I’ve learned since then ... is that sometimes seeing is not believing.
Sometimes you can’t believe what you’re seeing and there’s an alternate explanation but in the case of what happened in Arizona, that was a truly phenomenal occurrence to have happen. And I’m glad it did, to that point it was early in the morning, we were all damp and cold and I think nobody was aware of the environment once our eyes were on the sky and we saw what we saw.
It was quite a sight for us.
Ben Hansen: Talk about something that maybe that you’ve seen not on the show, something the best evidence of something you’ve experienced that wasn’t on the show.
Bill Murphy: Yeah, that was one of the questions. Well something that has happened - and again, I think everybody here on the show is focused on looking for an explanation that you can personally accept easier as opposed to moving it into the category of being paranormal. But with that being said, I went to a location in Colorado where there were reports of some sort of - it wasn’t necessarily TK (telekinesis) what was happening there, it was people were being - reporting being touched and shoved by an unseen force. And I found that to be interesting because I kept hearing thing from a lot of people. So when I was there, I was going through the location and yeah, it’s a beautiful historic place.
Although I was enjoying the architecture, I walked through this area of the hall and it was like I had dozens of vibrating cell phones in every pocket. It felt like all the sudden everything vibrated on my body. And I stopped, I was like, "Hey, what was that?"
And I backed up, took a couple steps back and I felt it a second time but wasn’t as strong as the first time. And I had to sort of just not laugh but I shook my head in disbelief in going these reports have a validity. There is something here but what is it? As it turned out, there could be an explanation for what people described as being touched by an unseen force and it has its roots in hard science. It has its roots in the geology of a location and sometimes there are enough characteristics of a locale that when they come together they can cause a phenomena that can be perceived as being paranormal.
If you took an interdisciplinary approach to it and combined sciences, then you can come up with a rational explanation that can be considered paranormal because it’s hard to duplicate that and that is one of the requirements for something to move from theory to fact. Can you replicate it? Can you replicate this effect?
Paranormal phenomena isn’t always repeatable even in a lab and that’s what makes it confounding. Because you can’t deny the existence of these events but they don’t adhere to the protocols that are in place for something to move out of the theory range. But you have to look at people trend setting of this thing to happen. If something happens over and over and over, you know there’s a certain credibility that comes from the accumulation of witnesses.
And if you can sort of demonstrate how it can happen scientifically then voila, we’ve done our job from a science perspective.
For me, having the experience of an unseen force seeming to press against you, was quite astounding but it wasn’t what we thought it was. You weren’t being touched by an external force, it was a shape change to the skeleton and to the skull as a result of piezoelectric activities of the minerals in the location. So you feel your skin moving but it’s happening under the skin as opposed to on top of the skin.
Q: That still leaves the question of something that you just really had to believe even though you couldn’t back it up with any evidence or any science.
Ben Hansen: Let me give you an example of something well my two examples. The first one was when I was recently out of college, this is actually the very first time I tried doing an EVP session. I had seen there’s a local ghost hunter group that would play their clips on the radio and things, and you kind of take it with a grain of salt, just as everyone else who listens to these things. And you may even somewhat believe, but you just put it in the back of your minds because you get up and go to work the next day ... it doesn’t really change the impact of your life until you actually hear one of these things yourself.
I was in a memorial - a war memorial park with my sisters and a couple of friends - and we were kind of doing the Halloween thing and going there and doing some recordings. And we’re standing next to this war memorial and I’ve got two recorders going and I was telling my friend I really wish I could have brought them there before they had cleared out a lot of the trees because it looked a lot more spooky and I could have showed them something that would really scare them. Well nothing really happened during the whole investigation until I got home and played the set.
And this was one of the old analog recorders and I played it back and I didn’t even need to slow it down the first time; very clearly I heard the voice of either a small child or a woman. It sounded like it was whispering right against the microphone which really creeped me out because you’re thinking if this is like a person they would have to have been right at my hip.
That’s where the recorder was and it says, “Get brother.” I knew where the females were in the group and my sister was about 15 feet away; we went through every elimination, it couldn’t have been this person, couldn’t have been that person. It gave us the chills.
I played it back for my family over and over and I had to face the realization that quite possibly I had captured something that was not a living person ... there are many theories on to what EVPs are, but the phenomena is real in the same sense I’ve witnessed objects in the sky that - I myself am a licensed pilot, I love going to air shows and things - I’ve seen aircraft that have done things that conventional crafts do not do. And beyond that, I can’t say what it is but the phenomena is real.
So I think I forgot the original question!
Q: Just what would make you a believer even though you couldn’t back it up with evidence.
Ben Hansen: Not just in a paranormal sense, but there’s a lot of things like Bill was starting to say. You know there’s this dichotomy of seeing and believing. Can we believe everything that we see, and if we don’t see something does that mean we shouldn’t believe in it? So I think a lot of people, especially the viewing audience may never have had an experience of their own but there’s a lot of people who believe. And kind of, by proxy or vicariously, you’re able to see through the eyes of what these people are seeing and that’s the great thing about our show.
Many people would not be able to go out to the places we’ve been to. And by bringing them our experience through our eyes I think there is a way that you can believe without actually seeing yourself.
Q: So it’s the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence scenario then.
Ben Hansen: Correct. I think all discoveries, major discoveries started out with a phenomena that they couldn’t quite explain. Look at electricity and how it was discovered, well you saw the effects of it but did you actually see electricity - what it was doing? And so people started setting up controlled experiments to find out well how can we test that. And I think that’s where we’re at in the paranormal field a lot of times.
We believe it because we know something has happened, has affected one of our senses. Whether we’re able to capture it on film or audio or some other way to demonstrate it to somebody else may be another question.
Q: So what’s the challenge with the tools you have in the field to spot something that could be faked?
Bill Murphy: Okay, well one of the criteria that we have ... is a strong eyewitness. And so if there are multiple witnesses ... that makes for a really strong case because you’re talking about something that is not just a piece of video ... where they shot it but something that physically is there that other witnesses have come forth and said they’ve seen.
And there could be 911 calls or news reports or whatever it takes, reporting an object or a sighting or some sort of event that’s happened. Those are strong cases, so the video is bolstered by multiple eyewitnesses or if there are limited eyewitnesses then there’s a credibility you have to look at.
What are the motivations for this video being posted? And if we get there we really don’t pull any punches to try to replicate the video. So the challenges are something that I don’t think we’ve had stop us. Generally we try to stop at nothing once we’re there to demystify the video. I mean we stop at nothing. Really extreme stuff and it’s a lot of fun.
Ben Hansen: When we do come up against those cases that are very difficult, either they’re done very well in CG, we’re just not sure, that’s where I like to use my experience and focus on the poster or the witness who shot this video or provided this photo. For me, it’s a lot easier sometimes to find the signs of deception through the person themselves, and with my experience, I’ve conducted thousands of forensic interviews. On the show, it’s no exception. I like to isolate the witness and use the neutral questions and everything that I would do in a real criminal investigation and try to see if there’s deception there. More likely than not, when people are pinned down and asked if they faked something, most people are not good liars.
So I rely more on that. Bill usually heads up the clarification of images and things like that. I focus on the human aspect. When you finally encounter someone that is faking and you pin them down, I mean you kind of need these people to do your job, they make you sharper and they help put the truth out there.
Q: So are you kind of happy when you find the fakes? Are you happy when you encounter the people that are trying to pull off fake fraud because you need them? And have you examined other paranormal shows and looked at what they consider evidence? Have you made judgments based on that?
Ben Hansen: That’s a really good question ... I’ve seen on blogs, I’ve read people saying you guys should investigate this show or this show, kind of funny.
No, we’re not in the business of telling other people how to investigate or what to do. And as far as being happy about catching a hoaxer, I think sometimes the initial discussions I’ve had with people and the title of the show, sometimes they’re a little confused that we are just trying to evaluate hoaxes or not.
And that’s not the case. When we say fact or faked, faked could also be not that they purposely faked it but that it was a phenomena that is naturally occurring that they captured. In fact ... I’m not going to throw a percentage out there but there’s a great amount of cases we’ve gone out on where I find that the witness is very credible. Even from the start I’m not out trying to prove that they faked this video. Moreso, I’m trying to find out what it was they captured on video. Does that make sense?
So it’s not always was the video hoaxed or not, it’s was the situation a fake situation in that was it natural or other explanation or not.
But yes, if you do find someone who’s purposely gone out of their way to try to pull the wool over your eyes and you’re able to show them that it’s not real, it is kind of satisfying because I think in the professional community of people who really give their whole professional life to investigate the paranormal, it’s disheartening. It really detracts from the real work that’s going on when someone wastes someone else’s time doing this.
I love the fakes if people add a disclaimer: "Look what I was able to produce!" But that’s where the responsibility and accountability comes in so I think it is kind of fun to maybe catch someone every now and then if they really had that intention.
John Brenkus: I think when you see the structure of the show we have this situation room where we sit around and discuss clips. That’s really where you find a lot of the blatant fakes ... When we go out to investigate it we have the cooperation of everybody involved with that case from the people that shot the tape to the eye witnesses to everybody.
So I think that unearthing something that was intentionally faked is probably going to be the rarity because we have the cooperation of everybody involved with the case. It won’t rise to the level of being a case that we’re going to investigate if we can determine that it’s fake before we ever go out in the field.
There are just too many cases out there that meet our criteria that we wouldn’t really waste our time going out into the field and investigating it if we already know that it’s fake. So the cases that wind up being the meat of the show are the ones that we feel are compelling footage with a credible eyewitness and something that is testable.
Bill Murphy: Many occasions evidence of paranormal activity is recorded by accident. Somebody is out there shooting the birthday party in the backyard for example and then something happens and the camera was rolling. They capture that, so those people, they’re looking for either validation of their material or they’re looking for an explanation. So there are many times, just as curious as we are ... it’s not like a lot of people that are out there just trying to fool the team.
I mean I’m sure the Internet is full of that but we do use that filtering process that John mentioned and those are kind of fun to look at but they’re easily dismissible.
Q: You’re not necessarily going to set out to investigate other shows, but on the flip side, are there either shows or investigators doing things you respect?
John Brenkus: Not just because it’s on Syfy, but Ghost Hunters does a great job of bringing a scientific approach to the ghost hunting world and really looking at it. And I think Syfy is doing a great job of covering this topic in a way that an intelligent audience can really enjoy. I think they’ve been very intelligent about not just pandering to an audience and saying, "Look, this must be a ghost." They really like to explore and get into it and I think that that whole group has done some really good work. And we’re really looking to build on the success that Syfy has had and take it to the next level.
Ben Hansen: For me, I just watched an excellent documentary last night, and it was on Syfy, but the one about inside the secret government warehouses. I think it was really well done. They got as far as I think they could in researching that. I like the work that George Knapp in Las Vegas has done breaking the Area 51 story and the Skinwalker Ranch - The book that he co-authored about Skinwalkers. I love reading those things because, especially in books, you have a lot more time to get in depths of the details and see their methodology and what they do.
I try to build on that and I would love to be able to - we’re kind of constrained in some senses. We can’t go out for months to a location and set up an experiment. But those pioneers of the field are those that I really try to follow and respect.
Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files airs Thursdays, 10 p.m., EST on Syfy.
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