Buck's Ghosts and Hauntings

Early Morning Philosophy

2009-12-07T10:20:00.001-07:00

Philosophy early in the morning can be quite energizing. This morning I ran into a former ghost hunting colleague on Facebook who is also pre-disposed to thinking deep thoughts about philosophy and psychology and the implications for paranormal studies. I’ve missed our chats about such matters and was pleased to have the chance to discuss things with him again.

Our chat ranged from the mundane to a consideration of Pascal’s Wager and in between we talked about the Thalbourne Scale and the implications of belief on investigators. It’s a topic that greatly interested me and one of those ideas I wanted to pursue while with my former group. Of course, the idea that belief influences perception of “evidence” was one that went over like a lead balloon with most people in the group.

I’d always wondered whether investigators’ beliefs and where they fell on the Thalbourne could be quantified to show that such beliefs could be an indicator of what types of and how much “evidence” they found in data for an afterlife.

My idea was that the further toward the “sheep” or believer end of the scale a person fell the more likely they were to interpret things as proof of an afterlife and that this could be used to qualify findings.

Personally I fall closer to the skeptic or “goat” end of the scale while not testing out as a hard core skeptic. As I thought more about that test though and my initial responses I began to consider one of the typical questions about PSI phenomena. The questions asks whether you have had episodes of knowing when a phone was going to ring to knowing who was calling before answering (obviously written before the advent of Caller ID).

I’d always said “yes” to that question based largely on an episode when I was a child. Let me detail that event and see if you can spot the fallacy in my early belief it is “proof” that PSI phenomena exists.

When I was fairly young, the phone rang one night while I was sleeping on the sofa. My mother answered but I did not wake up. The call was about a cousin whom we did not see very often. It turned out she was pregnant and it had been a very closely kept secret. She was in labor and having the baby.

My mother woke me up to tell me they needed to go to the hospital to visit my aunt and uncle who were waiting. Immediately, when I awoke I said: “Oh ____ is having a baby!” My mother was taken aback since I had been fast asleep.

I also took this to be evidence of PSI phenomenon. But was it? What did you think?

If you fall over halfway toward the believer in you probably nodded your head and said, “Yes, how interesting!”

But, at this stage of my life I realize very easily how that was far from “evidence” of PSI phenomena. This knowledge came from working in surgery for many years.

I know that patients in surgery who were not given amnesiac drugs often recalled conversations in the OR while supposedly unconscious. The mind was still able to hear and process information while seemingly asleep. It is the same concept as hypnosis.

There was no PSI phenomena involved in my stunning revelation to my mother upon waking. The phone had undoubtedly roused me from deep sleep and my mind that was slowly making its way toward full awakening processed the conversation I could hear my mother having on the phone. While I was not conscious of this information my subconscious processed it and upon waking I blurted out the reason they were leaving before she could tell me. Not paranormal or psychic at all.

Indeed, throughout my childhood and until I began working with surgical patients I assumed this was some type of psychic phenomenon. Now I know better and would need to review my responses on the Thalbourne and it would edge me closer to the skeptic end of the scale.

Such is the problem with paranormal investigation and research, often our own ignorance of disparate factors influence our belief and that belief by extension then influences how we perceive events we classify as paranormal. I think this could even be extended to “serious” parapsychological research where often investigators become so wrapped up in their subjects that they develop a belief system that then influences their further data gathering. I sometimes call it the “New Age Guru” effect and it is distressingly common even at universities where skeptical analysis of data does not bear out the conclusions of the researchers who have become believers and invested in “proving” that their ideas have merit.

Calling Out the Spirits of the Uncreative...

2009-12-06T07:22:00.004-07:00

NOTE: The website in question has removed the content stolen by Ms. Branning. According to their publisher they had no idea that the content was stolen and Ms. Branning plagiarized it. They were very apologetic about the situation and their apologies are appreciated. According to their webmaster, they have severed their relationship with Ms. Branning and she will no longer be associated with them. I am pleased this matter has been concluded and they have shown themselves to be a reputable site.

Some of my fellow writers and I were having a discussion/rant on Facebook about plagiarism. I made the bold statement that since I'd gone after a few "feed farms" for stealing my RSS feed, I hadn't had any real problems. But, then I thought "I'm relying on referrers to really know that."

In truth, plagiarists aren't usually going to link back to your site so how did I really know someone wasn't ripping off my content? I decided to turn to Copyscape, that I'd used in the past to check.

Surprise, surprise... well, not surprising.

I found entire articles I've written here copied for "answers" on forums and "ask the community" type sites. But I also found regular folks plagiarizing my articles. And... I'm going to call them out on it.

Debe Branning lifted my "Paranormal Safety" article and pawned it off as her own. Not only does she lift the points and structure but entire phrases and paragraphs as well. Debe Branning actually has the gall to sign her name to the article! Now to be honest, I'm not sure if she ripped it off directly from this site or from Sonoran Paranormal's website which has permission to reprint it with a link. It was also syndicated in my column on Unexplained Mysteries so it's possible she grabbed it there as well, I suppose. But either way it's not nice and doesn't say much for this "investigative" group with which she works. But in any case... all she did was rearrange a phrase here and there and cut out things that questioned the use of "rituals" and then signed her name to it. Bad form, Ms. Branning.

Again, this points out the level of intelligence among amateur ghost hunting groups as Branning, a self-proclaimed psychic, heads up a group called MVD Ghost Chasers out of Mesa, AZ. You'd think a psychic might be a little leery of theft of content because of Karma and all that stuff. Guess not, though. She is also the "Arizona Haunted Sites Examiner" from what I understand.

Well, Cullan, I suppose I wasn't as immune to plagiarism as I claimed. What's worse is that it's plagiarism by someone who lives with 50 miles of me! And, yes, letters have been sent.

The sad part of all this is had I been asked I would have probably given permission to reprint the article with my usual request for a link and attribution. However, Ms. Branning decided to steal the content and put her name on it.

Random Thoughts…

2009-11-30T01:37:00.001-07:00

I don’t really have a “post” per se on any of these topics. None of them quite seemed to warrant their very own post on the blog so I decided to lump some recent random thoughts together under a single post. Pardon the mish mash.

I realized recently that almost everyone I meet anymore has a ghost story of some type. By ghost story I don’t mean they know a traditional folklore type story but rather their house, their parents’ house, a friend’s house, or a hotel they stayed at is haunted. What once was a fairly rare event, the personal ghost encounter, has become as commonplace as seeing a homeless person in a big city.

Over the past year or so at parties I’ve had or events I’ve attended when people find out what I used to do with SPI they begin to recount their own ghostly encounters. It seems that no matter how mundane the event it is ascribed a “paranormal” cause with the adamant disclaimer that it can’t possibly be anything but a ghost because they watch Ghost Hunters and they have thoroughly checked everything possible ergo ghost.

I can remember growing up that hearing a first hand ghost tale was quite rare. In fact, in high school I did a paper on a local haunting (from a folklore collection angle) and had to really hunt for someone who had actually experienced the haunting personally – although it was quite famous regionally! Today, were I to undertake the same task I’m sure I would hear dozens of first hand stories. In fact, it might make an interesting exercise.

Ghosts have become extremely popular in our culture through the media and substitution for traditional religious beliefs (just read almost any psychic’s website and you will find a theological cosmology as intricate as any envisioned by a Medieval church council). Thanks to this popularity everyone seems to want to be in on the act. Whether it be telling you of “Uncle Joe” who haunts them and moves their keys or peppering you with questions about your own experiences and beliefs, the desire to be part of this synthesis of religion and pop-culture seems to be irresistible.

Of course, this often puts me in a rather awkward position as I don’t fit into their notion of this world based upon television shows. When I tell people that I, personally, do not believe in ghosts within the construct of dead people wandering around chatting us up, they are often struck speechless. After all, surely anyone who studies and thinks about this stuff must have to “believe” in the traditional paradigm of ghosts as souls stuck on Earth for some reason. Honestly, that bit of information has caused more than one person to put me at arms length because I wasn’t their idea of a “ghost hunter” they could show off as a friend.

So, moving on…

My new guilty pleasure in reality TV has become Storm Chasers on Discovery Channel. I started watching it last year simply because I caught a rerun late at night. Tornados have always fascinated me because they can be both beautiful and horrible at once. As a teenager I had a close encounter with one just before my high school graduation when a series of tornados ranging from (old style) F-2 to F-4 swept through my hometown. I narrowly missed being in the worst of it thanks to a migraine. Still, I got to see one touch down in the field across from my house as my father was speeding us toward my sister’s house because she had been on the phone when one of the tornados hit her side of town. She was fine, just tore the porch off her house and threw a 200 year old oak tree into the living room of a neighbor.

Anyway, I’ve been watching that show and Michael has gotten hooked as well. A couple weeks ago in an episode the pros were trying to chase a storm and kept running into roadblocks of sightseers and amateur chasers. There were hundreds parked along roads, creeping down narrow highways, milling around in the middle of the highway with binoculars and cameras.

I couldn’t help but think that storm chasing might be the next ghost hunters fad. As the pros cursed the amateurs in the way I wanted to say, “well, this is what happens when you’re on TV today.” See, everyone thinks that if they watch something on TV they can do it. It’s that dumbing down of America. Just like most amateur ghost hunters out there they only know what was on TV last week. They don’t read, they don’t study, they have no training in anything remotely useful in research. Because Jason Hawes proudly proclaimed that being a plumber qualified him to be a ghost hunter because he knew the difference between a leaky toilet and a ghost – everyone in the country thinks “paranormal research” is a piece of cake. No, ghost hunting is a piece of cake. Collecting stories and scaring each other is a piece of cake. Research is hard, long and requires…. education.

So, here are people with Ph.D.’s trying to collect data on storms and every thrill seeker in the state is clogging roads and putting people in danger because they see people chase storms on TV and figure “Hell, I can do that. All I need is my laptop, GPS, and the local weather page!” Because in anti-intellectual America… education is unnecessary!

Next up…

I have not watched the show and will not subject myself to the torture of watching the show. I’m speaking of “Ghost Lab” which is Discovery Channel’s entry in the every expanding basic cable “we must have a ghost show!” lineup.

I’ve only seen the ads for the show and admittedly, the people who make ads for this stuff are usually the most simple of the simple. However, it appears this show centers on a couple of brothers in matching T-shirts and hats (of course) who use all manner of lighted gadgets to hunt down ghosts. Now, it might be interesting if the “Ghost Lab” actually included some type of lab work but it appears it’s just the usual stumble around in the dark formula with a spotlight on gadgetry.

In the latest commercial airing they are knocking around what appears to be some fort or castle in a storm. Their purpose is to “prove” that “paranormal activity” increases during a storm. Ahh, how nice. Of course, they still need to prove paranormal activity exists, but let’s let them have their day. Anyway, in this commercial they are correlating lightning strikes with EVP and happen to get an EVP around the time of a lightning strike. It is their “A ha!” moment as they conclude that this proves paranormal activity is related to electrical energy.

Of course, to anyone with half a brain it would “prove” that coincidences do happen. To “prove” their belief would first require they prove paranormal phenomena and in particular EVP does exist outside the normal construct of the physical universe. Then they would have to show that there is statistical evidence that this newly found physical phenomenon occurs more often at moments when lightning strikes the vicinity. This would require years of study under all sorts of storm conditions.

But, it’s so much easier to find a coincidence and declare to your public that you have “proved” something. And the sad part is…. the ghost hunting groups will believe it.

The Function of Ghosts

2009-11-24T19:33:00.001-07:00

I noticed earlier today one of the search terms someone used to find this site was: “Can one convince a non-believer in existence of paranormal?” It was the perfect entre to conclude the discussion of R.C. Finucane’s Ghosts: Appearances of the Dead and Cultural Transformation.

I’ve now finished the last chapters of this excellent work that dealt with the 19th and 20th centuries. As we have seen, in each era ghosts undergo transformations that reflect the attitudes of the society at large as well as religious and philosophical belief.

During the 19th Century the movement away from purposeful ghosts continued as it had begun in the 18th Century when the Enlightenment began to drive a wedge between traditional religious belief and naturalistic ideas of religion as well as science. Ghosts in the 19th Century began to become strangers to those who perceived them. Rather than asking intercession, delivering warnings or other messages, the ghosts became mute specters wandering around houses. With the exception of the 19th Century spiritualist movement that was predicated on communicating with ghosts through rapping, Ouija boards or mediums ghosts had stopped being concerned with the affairs of the living.

Of course, the large majority of the Spiritualist ghosts would prove to be false and the result of fraud and trickery designed to separate people from their money.

The 20th Century saw ghosts continue in this vein. After the demise of Spiritualism after the First World War, it would be a long time before ghosts began “speaking” again. Finucane’s book was written in the mid 1980’s before the heyday of television shows and the resurgence of communication through electronic voice phenomenon and its attendant devices and gadgets (amazingly similar to early 20th Century Spiritualist attempts).

Finucane makes the case that ghosts throughout history have served a single real purpose: to assure fragile living humans that “we” continue after death.

It is a valid observation since it is almost impossible for us to conceive that we simply cease to exist when our life is done. This even applies to atheists and those rejecting spirituality and religion out of hand. In our self-centered existence we have great difficulty in wrapping our minds around the idea that our personalities which define us as individuals don’t continue to exist when our bodies die.

This leads me to the search term today that asks: “Can one convince a non-believer in the existence of the paranormal?” It is a question that harkens back to the most fundamental reason ghosts exist in our culture – to reassure us that we continue. To remind us that death is not the end of “us” as individuals but rather that we go on in some form forever. The exempla of the early Catholic church that listed ghost stories for use by clergy to reinforce both the belief in an afterlife and also the dogma of purgatory continues today in our search for ghosts and “proof” that we continue. The church used these stories to “prove” the error of heretics who rejected Purgatory or even the existence of the soul. Later, the Protestants would continue in the folklore vein to “prove” to deists and atheists that the human soul was eternal.

Today, those who hunt ghosts and who believe in the existence of disembodied souls continue to use these stories and now their requisite EVP’s, EMF’s, photographs and other technological advancements to “prove” to non-believers that we are eternal. Today’s psychics bearing messages from departed loved ones or seeking justice continue this age old reaffirmation of religious belief in the personality as soul.

When viewed in this light it goes a long way to understanding the almost religious mania attached to ghost hunting by those doing the hunting and those seeking “proof” that they are haunted. Indeed, the paranormal has always been closely tied to religious belief and ghosts and how they haunt us have shifted along with those beliefs. Is it any wonder that in the “Technology Age” we have eschewed mediums for tape recorders, IR cameras, FLIR and other devices to assure ourselves that we go on? Should we be surprised that the 19th Century séance has given way to “EVP Sessions” where ghosts are asked to perform the same feats?

Can a non-believer be convinced? It’s a question as old as ghosts themselves and at its heart is the entire function of ghosts in our society and culture.

Social Ghosts

2009-11-21T13:40:00.001-07:00

I’m about 3/4 of the way through R.C. Finucane’s Ghosts: Appearances of the Dead & Cultural Transformation. This has been an excellent book and I’m looking forward to the concluding chapters on those periods most familiar to modern paranormal aficionados.

However, I wanted to take a moment to talk about this book thus far.

This is one of those books with which most ghost hunters would never bother. The reason for this is that it is a fairly scholarly work (although not nearly as in depth as it might be) and a bit dry at times. It also does not go into the use of gadgets and gewgaws or talk about the best IR cameras or way to record EVP. Rather, it is a social history of haunting phenomena and ghosts throughout history.

The book begins in the classical period where it was difficult to separate literary ghost stories from actual accounts. However, as the author notes literary tales can be useful for gauging popular sentiment and thought about ghosts. We find that during the classical period ghosts underwent some transformation as religious though shifted. In this period we got the idea of haunted graveyards and ghosts returning to beg the living to undertake some action on their behalf so they could rest peacefully. These ghosts were not scary and people often treated them with some contempt.

Later on in the Middle Ages, the church got into the ghost business as they tried to square several theological circles. For instance, in the Bible we have the notion of the bodily resurrection upon the Second Coming. At first in the late classical period this wasn’t much of a concern because it was expected that no one living would have died before the Second Coming. Unfortunately, as time passed what happens to the soul in the interim became an issue. Did the soul stay in the grave? Did it stay in the grave a certain period of time? Did it go to Heaven? Did it go to Hell?

The result was the doctrine of Purgatory that tried to satisfy all requirements. This sent the soul to a “no-man’s land” between Heaven and Hell where they languished until Jesus decided to come back. But, this idea had some flaws. It wasn’t particularly comforting. After all, purgatory was where you had to atone for any leftover sins. So, the church adopted a doctrine whereby the living could either pray the dead out of purgatory and into Heaven or buy them out with indulgences. This became big business and ghosts returning from purgatory to ask for help became a common theme. In fact, the church relied upon these stories to sell the idea of Purgatory to the masses. Stories were collected in volumes to be used in sermons.

By the time of the Reformation these ideas had also had some warping. The church was weakened and the Protestants refused to accept Purgatory. It was Heaven or Hell, immediately and for all eternity. No coming back asking for help. Ghosts were demons sent to trick the gullible and lead them astray. This, interestingly, is still a facet of many fundamentalist protestant churches who eschew ghosts as demons and communication with them as witchcraft.

However, the Catholics hit back with their tales of ghosts from purgatory and a war of words began in the ghostly realm. Over time, while the Protestant dogma did not shift on purgatory, ghosts began making their way into popular lore and tales began to be collected and told once more. While church position did not shift, it seems that folklore tradition and centuries of religious instruction were difficult to overcome in the new religions.

I’m now reading about Baroque and 18th Century ghosts and will write more as well as a technical review of the book when I am done. However, this has proved a most interesting book and quite enlightening as it has opened my eyes to some Roman Catholic ideas about ghosts that I was unaware of, being raised a Protestant.

What I did find interesting is the way in which ghosts in each period reflect the ideas and beliefs of those period. As religious thought shifts, the type of ghosts and what they have to say to the living shift as well. In each period their appearance also shifts. I suppose many ghost hunters should they deign read this book would look at it and assume that because ghosts seem to have existed throughout our history it “proves” they do exist outside our own minds and beliefs.

However, what I am seeing in this is the fact that each idea builds upon the previous one throughout history. We can see shades, pardon the pun, of the earliest graveyard haunting ghosts today when groups return from the local cemetery full of tales of EMF spikes, orbs, ghostly fogs, etc. No longer do we have the ghost with pallid, sad face, rags and chains binding them to the grave, but the idea still remains buried in our psyche and passed down to us through folk tales.

For me, being able to understand and assess the folk influences on perceived encounters with ghosts is very important. So often we are faced with a story about a ghost in a location and must decide whether it merits attention or can be filed away simply as a folklore story.

I’ve often pointed to the ubiquitous “hitch hiking” ghost that so many report and so many books include. Generally, this ghost is of a young woman (rarely a man) who waits by the roadside asking for a lift home or to some address. When the person arrives at the address the person is gone. Upon knocking on the door they are told that the person they describe was their daughter and she died in a car wreck at that very spot. Sometimes there are intimations that drinking was involved, sometimes the teenagers are doing something deemed morally wrong. Whatever the case the story’s meaning is that one should live righteously and fully for tomorrow you may die.

This is not so very different from the stories collected by early clergy who bound them up in books of Exempla to be told to the congregations to reinforce belief in an afterlife, establish the doctrine of purgatory, and remind people to live righteously. It even echoes the Medieval motifs of tombs where the visitor is reminded “As you are now, so once was I, follow me and prepare to die.”

Finucane’s book is certainly a must read for anyone who is serious about understanding how society and religion relate to the paranormal. More on this book shortly.

More Schoolyard Fun from GH

2009-11-20T11:38:00.001-07:00

Recently, I posted about the Donna LaCroix blowup on her appearance on an internet radio show.

Fast forward to the promised “press release” from Ghost Hunters, TAPS, and the production company that still hasn’t come (to my knowledge). But, sharp eyed Cullan noted a posting at Scifake.com that purports to be from Jason Hawes addressing the issue.

Now, Scifake seems to be a bunch of amateur ghost hunters out to “expose fakery”. Yet, they remain committed to belief in the traditional “spirit of the dead” paradigm in paranormal research and the usual BS and suppositions attendant upon it. In short, it sort of strikes me as a place where amateurs level accusations at TV shows and have pissing contests as the fans of one show square off against those of another show. Now, that’s just from a very cursory look at the site. As you know, if you read this blog, I do not frequent these places at all.

Anyway, you can read the alleged response by Hawes here.

The gist of it is this was all someone else’s fault. The Ghost Divas are evil. They haven’t scared Donna into recanting her statements. The Ghost Divas are evil. No one has ever done anything remotely hinky on their show. The Ghost Divas are evil. There is no staging crew. The Ghost Divas are evil. Donna loves them and they love Donna. The Ghost Divas are evil. This isn’t the first time this has happened. The Ghost Divas are evil. People have called them who have been on the same show and since the Ghost Divas are evil they’re calling the police!!

It’s the usual crap from these amateur ghost hunting types. Despite being quasi-famous the folks at TAPS and Ghost Hunters remain rank amateur pseudo-scientists given to flame wars, dramatics and overreactions. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen amateur ghost hunting groups threatening to call the police on each other because someone got their feelings hurt over something someone said. Honestly, it’s like those people who go on TV court shows to sue each other for “slander” because during an argument someone called someone else a bitch.

Here’s my advice to anyone who is remotely serious about studying the paranormal. Stay way from this stuff if at all possible. Don’t frequent the websites of these amateur ghost hunting groups and fans. Don’t watch the TV shows, don’t listen to the ghost hunting radio shows. There is nothing any of these people have to contribute that is even slightly of value to anyone other than themselves.

Brutal I know, but that’s the way it is. There is nothing they will possibly uncover that will be useful to science because they don’t bother to quantify, qualify, or correlate their findings and their “theories” are usually based on incorrect reading of true scientific findings. Most of the amateur groups are very secretive about everything they do unless they find some questionable EVP or something they want to use to get famous. Other than those they keep everything secret and private. Part of that is that 99.99% of the time they don’t bother with anything else. The other part is just what I noted above – the dramatics and general silliness. Another frequent “I’m calling the police!” cause is one group claiming another group stole the top secret design to their latest blinking light whirlygig piece of uselessness.

So, read, think. Take some classes at your nearest college in psychology, physics, sociology, folklore, religion, medicine, or pretty much anything that helps you understand how the world and our minds work. But by all means: stay away from amateur ghost hunting groups and their sites, ghost conferences, classes offered at community centers or community colleges by amateur ghost hunters, sycophantic fan sites for TV shows, and sour grapes amateur sites devoted to creating drama.

If you are “looking for answers” you aren’t going to find them. You’re only going to find more questions and if any amateur ever tells you they are getting closer or “moving forward” in finding one…. they’re deluded.

It’s Enough That YOU Believe…

2009-11-16T05:47:00.001-07:00

I’m well into R.C. Finucane’s excellent work on the sociological aspects of belief in the paranormal., Ghosts: Appearances of the Dead and Cultural Transformation. I’ve been very impressed with the book thus far as it tackles the social perception and role of ghosts and hauntings and how those have shifted over the centuries.

It’s a serious book for serious people. While it could possibly be even more in depth, it’s not something you’re going to find on the shelf of most ghost hunters. Why? Not a single thing about EVP’s, EMF meters or the other gadgetry du jour. Just a lot of footnotes and comparative analyses of ghost mythology.

In fact, Finucane’s introduction quotes famed psychologist Carl Jung who noted that it does not matter whether ghosts exist but whether one BELIEVES that ghosts exist. (paraphrased)

Now, if you make the mistake of visiting many of the amateur groups who like to give a thin veneer of respectability they’ll note an anecdote about Jung “seeing” a ghost. But few, if any, will dwell on that profound statement.

It is enough that you believe in ghosts. Perhaps, that is where our amateurs fail, for they believe in ghosts but are searching for “proof” of something that may not exist outside their own construct of reality.

I think that’s why I shifted out of the amateur field of ghost hunters (I refuse to call my former field “research” or “investigation” because it is neither). For me, it is enough that you believe. It is not required that I also believe. I am much more interested in why you believe, how you believe and what effects that belief has both internally and externally. After all, is it at all possible that “ghosts” far from being otherworldly entities are just reflections of our own psyches? Could all this so-called evidence simply be a combination of psychology and some unexplained PSI phenomena? Could it be nothing more than psychology?

At any rate, the book is excellent and I’m enjoying the historical look at social attitudes toward hauntings and wish some of the folks who get so wrapped up in the BS of amateur ghost hunting would put down the EMF meter and pick up a book too.

Which brings me to the latest blow up in pop culture land! This comes to me via my good pal Cullan over at Strange State who reports that Donna LaCroix, late of Ghost Hunters and GHI made a little appearance on some internet chat show about ghosts and the usual stuff. Seems Donna intimated that TAPS and GH have been fudging “evidence” for quite awhile.

I didn’t listen to the show, but I did read a rather long and rambling regurgitation of the whole controversy on the blog of one of the hosts. Long story short: Donna says fakery. Anti-TAPS people jump up and down “ah ha’ing!” each other into a stupor. TAPS people and production company to issue a press release (coming soon to a fan or anti-fan site near you!). Internet talk show host tries to play humble while dislocating shoulder to pat self on back for causing a stir. Usual amateur ghost hunting suspects wreck the English language trying to sound intelligent by dropping names of other notorious scam artists and media hucksters in comments as evidence their non-GH heroes would ever be publicity or money whores.

Honestly, fascinating people when you get right down to it. I love the way the hostess goes on about it being a TV show and what do people expect but then feigns outrage on the part of the “community” that they would fake something. The motivations are just too easy.

Speaking of which, before they hitch their wagon to Donna LaCroix, they might want to remember that she has some pretty dull axes to grind with the folks running that show. She was dropped fairly unceremoniously and punted to GHI which seemed to be the original realm of the problem children from Ghost Hunters. She was only there a short time (less than a season?) before she was dropped from the franchise completely. She then attempted to launch her own money making empire with none other than tireless self-promoter Brian Harnois that included syndicated radio and internet shows as well as ghost tours, seminars, and other things. That seems to have not panned out (last I heard) so now she’s doing the minor league talk circuit selling her “inside scoop” – book in the offing?

I don’t say this to defend Ghost Hunters. Honestly, I think that show is about one good writer away from being a movie called Paranormal Activity. But, what I do find interesting are the people who feel that if it’s fake they must somehow get in on exposing it and then pretend indifference because “it’s a TV show. What did you expect?”

I further think rank amateurs need to be wary of getting themselves manipulated by a group of people who know how to play a “celebrity fight” to the max. LaCroix, Harnois, Hawes, and Grant pulled a similar stunt last year when they were all launching new projects. The infamous MySpace feud was all the rage for several weeks last Fall.

Ahhh, don’t you love it? As for me, back to Mr. Finucane’s work and thinking about the sociological aspects of the paranormal and what they’ve meant at various times in history. Hmmm… wonder if he would revisit the work 25 years on (it was originally published in 1984) and perhaps add a bit more on this latest pop culture fad.

PS: Out of curiosity I did a very quick (less than 5 minute) search to see if LaCroix has any projects bubbling at the moment. Nothing really leaped up online… but keep your eyes open.