Pay No Attention to the Man in the Stairwell!!
What the Geek reader, Sarah Tomesky wrote to fill me in on a discovery she made. While watching the “best of” episode of the Sci Fi Channel’s popular original series, Ghost Hunters, she noticed some evidence that their footage of a chair being moved across the floor in a lighthouse may not have been as paranormal as originally reported. She supplied several screen caps showing what looks to be the figure of a man in the stairwell just outside the door to the room where the chair moves. Adding further validity to her claim is the fact that you can see motion in the stairwell just as the chair moves. The speculation Sarah came to is that someone in the background may be pulling the chair on a string. The string may not be visible in the footage, but if you believe Sarah’s evidence, the one pulling it is. Bear in mind, this is not proof of evidence tampering on the part of the ghost hunters team, but it does seem to cast doubt on the validity of that particular piece of evidence. Furthermore, if the evidence was tampered, that throws their investigative method into question as they claimed the lighthouse to be “haunted”. Read on to see the screen caps for yourself, and get a better copy of the video from the TAPS site here. It’s episode 104.
before grant gets up
Is that a person?
could be a leg… it looks like it’s in front of those stairs
you can see motion in front of that light both times the chair moves…. seems possible that someone’s pulling it on a string to me.
Tags: videos
June 26th, 2006 at 4:47 pm
Wow… I’ve seen this clip before and I’ve never noticed that… I was too busy looking at the chair and being amazed… I totally fell for it. This doesn’t make me NOT believe in the paranormal, but I definately don’t think that a chiar on a string is paranormal lol.
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June 26th, 2006 at 4:58 pm
The Sci-Fi channel is deffinately not a viable source of anything besides entertainment. I saw a special on it the other day of a man who videotaped himself near street lamps when they happened to turn off randomly. This is all well and good except he claimed to have superhuman powers of magnetism or something. I think everyone who has even seen a street lamp has seen them turn off randomly at times. I am pretty sure they turn off after a while in order to conserve the lifetime of the bulb. Any idiot can stand next to a lamp for 30 minutes until it turns off and then edit the video so it looks as if he is walking by at the right moment. He even had footage of one lamp turning on again while he was standing near it, at this point I had to change channels out of sheer rage because I just wanted to punch the guy in the head.
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June 26th, 2006 at 10:21 pm
The thing that makes me mad about this, is that it’s not just the Sci-Fi channel. Taps was a, or rather, THE place to go for real ghost hunting information… I definately heard of them before this show, and I had respect for them as investigators… but after seeing this video I do not. If they themselves (and say not their producers) staged this that’s terrible.. but even if they didn’t stage it, but didn’t catch that it was a hoax, well then they’re not really good investigators and they’re too quick to jump to conclusions.
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June 27th, 2006 at 5:39 pm
I think that Jay and Grant are sincere about their investigations, however if someone was standing there behing the steps, I think Grant would have clearly seen that individual especially since he clicked on his flashlight as he walked out of the room. However the light on the stairs does shift right when the chair moves which makes it appear someone could have been standing there and the chair does slid toward the door. It could have been someone simply tugging a power cable to the camera. Maybe a mistake by the camera crew, but not reported to TAPS themselves, so when Brian and Andy saw the footage they ran with it and convinced Jay and Grant it was real. All the while the camera guys could have been getting a laugh about it. Like I said, I don’t think TAPS fakes their footage, however, I wouldn’t put it past the production team since it is their business to “sell” the show. I think if every episode was cold (as most are) the show would have been canceled halfway through 2nd season like all the other paranormal shows on that station - Proof Positive, Psychic at Large just to name a few.
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June 30th, 2006 at 5:01 pm
I must say that the show’s premise is a producer’s dream: “two pragmatic working-class guys set out to debunk hauntings — yet they capture video of autokinetic moving objects, shrouded figures, and mysterious appartitions”.
It’s a too-perfect setup, very similar to a magician showing you, “I’ve got nothing up my sleeve” as he palms the card and makes it disappear. But this little misdirection is extremely effective, and in Ghost Hunters case, has created thousands of loyal viewers.
I suggest readers look into the Myrtles Plantation, Eastern State Penitientiary, and Moon River Brewery episodes to see the suspiciously similar “caped midget apparitions” captured on video, and TAPS “analysis” of them.
If that doesn’t convince you something fishy is going on, compare the number of autokinetic doors they have caught on video at various sites. You’ll never see TWO video cameras set up and aimed to cover BOTH sides of a door. It’s always only one.
These are very simple illusions. There’s really nothing on the show anyone with a video camera couldn’t create if given the time. The only thing TAPS adds is a comvincing story. “We don’t know what it was, we can’t explain it’ etc.
PUH-leeze. : (
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July 1st, 2006 at 7:45 am
Yeah, it’s funny that you say “nothing up my sleeve” because the way the introduce this footage seems very ’slight of hand’ to me. They say, “you know that THAT DOOR is the ONLY entrance to that room” as if to say “There’s nothing up my sleeve.” And when they tell you to look in the area of the chair it’s like when someone waves one hand in your face trying to keep your attention away from the other one. That’s sort of why I think even the investigators are to blame here… because the way Grant tells it seems very street magician. I feel kinda foolish that I actually gave these guys credit when I know those tricks and should have known better. I guess it’s a good example that people will believe what they want to believe.
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July 15th, 2006 at 10:32 pm
Great debunking work. I’m glad there is a place for people to voice their concerns here and I hope to see some of the other debunking work on this group published in one easy to find location. Like at the Ghost Hunters wikipedia article, there are several links to other skeptical works, very good ones. I hope you will take a look at them too.
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July 22nd, 2006 at 6:30 pm
While I find the whole thing that you are bring up very interesting, and everything, you do have to realize that there are going to be camera men (people) everywhere in the place that they are investigating.. Therefore, unless you can show me that the “movement” that you are claiming (I am NOT saying that is isn’t there) to see in the video as the chair is moving is ACTUALLY what is causing the chair to move, I am going to believe that TAPS isn’t pulling one over our eyes. After all, if you look at the episode where they investigate the ocean liner that has the bed that unmakes itself, they find that their evidence has been tampered with, and show that on the show. I am sorry to anyone who doesn’t agree with me, but that is my opinion. Thanks for bringing this up anyways.
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July 22nd, 2006 at 6:37 pm
I’ve watched this over and over and the chair doesn’t move in a direction that would be consistent with being pulled toward the door.
Watch the way the light movement reflects across the legs of the chair. It gives an indication of the direction that the chair moves and it isn’t toward the door.l
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July 23rd, 2006 at 8:19 am
that’s just the auto foucus of the camera, and the light in the stair well casting shadows
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July 23rd, 2006 at 11:51 pm
I’m with you on the whole BS idea of TAPS “We’re here to help”… They just munble the rest, “We’re here to help, ourselves by lying to you and everyone of our viewers so that we continue to get good ratings and big paychecks”…
The entire “Ghost Hunters” show was created by Mark Phillips who tried to get legitimate scientists to be part of the show when he was first developing it. When the legit scientists all asked the same question, “99.99% of all investigations turn up nothing so how are you going to keep an audience?”… Mark Phillips reply was simply, “The camera crew AND the Ghost Hunters themselves will fake things and it will be up to the viewers to decide if it is real or not. Sometimes they will fake things and then debunk what they created to show that they are a legit group.”
The weekly episodes of faked and manufactured activity only proves that Mark Phillips was serious about how he intended to keep the audience mesmerized and watching each week.
There are legit groups out there and I am not saying all are there to fake, but look closely before you believe any of them. Look for groups that have no problems with skeptics asking questions (people have been banned from the TAPS site for being skeptical of some of their “evidence.”) and are pretty much an open book. They are out there. I ran across http://www.beyondinvestigation.com , this group broadcasts their investigations live. You can see the same cameras they see while they are watching them. Also, they use cross coverage of their cameras as well. There are others that are legit as well, keep searching for them as they are working hard to find real answers, not a real big paycheck.
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July 24th, 2006 at 11:29 am
Well….. I can’t see the leg that ur talking about and the string…. So TAPS are still number 1…. wutever I’m outie
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July 24th, 2006 at 12:49 pm
If you noticed, everytime there was movement in the attic, the camera went blurry. Also, the camera kept trying to auto-focus. Everytime the chair moved the whole picture went fuzzy. That, mixed in with the auto-focusing, could have made it look like movement in the background.
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July 24th, 2006 at 6:58 pm
Well they even took it to a video clean up and they even said if there was a string or fish line they would have seen a glare in the footage and the person who she claims to see just might of been a ghost
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July 25th, 2006 at 12:03 am
THIS IS FROM GRANT U RETARDS!
—————– Original Message —————–
From: Interplanet Granit
Date: Jul 24, 2006 10:01 PM
hahaha did u put that?
—————– Original Message —————–
From: Interplanet Granit
Date: Jul 24, 2006 9:54 PM
jeeae, I have said a hundred times that our sound guy was out on the stairs and they were interviewing two investigators up higher on the stairs. lol.. whatever.
—————– Original Message —————–
From: KERL IST ES DAEGONA!
Date: Jul 23, 2006 9:22 AM
it in ur defence
http://checkyourhud.com/?p=59
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July 25th, 2006 at 3:44 am
Great debunk site shows how string can be used for hoaxing this effect and not seen in the dark:
http://remievandeross.tripod.com/
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July 25th, 2006 at 1:33 pm
We have no idea WHY the camera is autofocusing. To say it is because of “chair movement” is jumping to a conclusion. It might have been movement in the stairwell. Or even a camera malfunction.
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July 25th, 2006 at 8:06 pm
here’s what grant said to u morons
—————– Original Message —————–
From: Interplanet Granit
Date: Jul 24, 2006 11:01 PM
ya i just said it for u lol i was like STFU! lol
so what’s new? how ya sleepin?
—————– Original Message —————–
From: Interplanet Granit
Date: Jul 24, 2006 10:36 PM
I have said it enough on the TAPS boards and stuff.
—————– Original Message —————–
From: KERL IST ES DAEGONA!
Date: Jul 25, 2006 1:01 AM
hahaha did u put that?
—————– Original Message —————–
From: Interplanet Granit
Date: Jul 24, 2006 9:54 PM
jeeae, I have said a hundred times that our sound guy was out on the stairs and they were interviewing two investigators up higher on the stairs. lol.. whatever.
—————– Original Message —————–
From: KERL IST ES DAEGONA!
Date: Jul 23, 2006 9:22 AM
it in ur defence
http://checkyourhud.com/?p=59
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July 26th, 2006 at 1:35 am
As a “ghost Hunter” myself it’s always challenging, because no matter what we find someone alwyas finds something to complain about. I personally do not get what you are tryin to “show us” in the is clip….granted it’s not the best clip I’ve seen but…still odd.
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July 26th, 2006 at 9:25 pm
What the Fetch? You all are arguing about something that you cannot prove or disprove. This conversation will be going on for weeks, even months on end.. with no resolution. While I do have to say that I am going to believe Grant and Jason, I need to tell you that you are being ridickulus. What is the point of going on and on about whether or not there is a string there or not? HERE’S A HINT! There ISN’T one! *rolls eyes* For those of you who have resulted to questioning the ethic values of Grant and the rest of the TAPS team, you might want to rethink what you do and say on here. That is considered slander as you do not have any proof of these actions that you are accusing these people of doing.
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July 26th, 2006 at 10:59 pm
Nikki. The solution is to just “believe” in Grant and Jason? But that’s called blind faith. You’re not advocating blind faith, are you?
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July 27th, 2006 at 12:56 pm
Folks, this is a TV show. It is entertainment. If you haven’t figured that out with the ‘hipper than hip’ camera moves and Real World-esque drama amongst the cast, then nothing I can say about the show will change your mind.
These guys give ghost hunters a bad name– and given the second-science status of most paranormal investigations, that is really saying something. I’ve given up watching the show because of their shoddy scientific work, and unprofessional attitude.
Regarding the post by a reader: who cares? These guys have zero respect in the professional community… of which I do not consider myself a member, by the way. If you consider holding up your arms on camera and saying ‘I feel a cold spot’ evidence, you’re missing the point.
If you like the show, then fine. But don’t ever consider what they do to be a real invstigation, because it just isn’t– it’s entertainment.
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July 27th, 2006 at 6:09 pm
Ok I saw nothing that resembled a human in that video nor did I see aleg and Iam a paranormal investigator myself so i do study these things all the time..that was not set up at all..that chair did move by itsself as for the light being blocked jason and grant both said that the camera that was up there was auto ajusting that light blinking off was due to the camera doing that not somone messing around…I think you need to look at the evidence alittle bit clearer nxt time
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July 29th, 2006 at 7:45 pm
I’m the author of this article, and I’m going to chim in with a few opinions. Bear in mind that they are just that - opinions. First of all, I do believe in the paranormal. However, I don’t take everything I see on a TV show at face value. I don’t know for 100% certain whether or not the footage is faked, but from the evidence pesented by Sarah, I do think it’s a strong possibility. That doesn’t necessarily mean that Jason and Grant are the ones doing the hoaxing. They come across as genuine in every episode (and I’ve seen most of them). It is possible however, that the producers of the show hoaxed the footage. Think about it for a second, it’s right in their job title - producers are paid to “produce” television, or more specifically they produce television that people want to watch. No one wants to watch a ghost hunting show where no evidence is ever found. By that logic, I find it believable that some clever producer would rig the chair to move in order to boost ratings, and keep the show (which was in it’s first season at the time) on the air. That doesn’t necessarily mean that Jay and Grant were in on it…. in fact, I would assume that they weren’t in on it…. what better way to get a genuine reaction out of them than to make them think they got such a strong piece of evidence on film? It also doesn’t mean that all of their evidence is hoaxed, or that their method is not a good one. I personally have seen paranormal investigators with methods that I felt were better, but I’m still not knocking TAPS. Yes, the auto focus does adjust after Grant leaves the room. It looks to me like the autofocus is done adjusting when that light in the background is blocked out. It also seems extremely odd to me that the “ghost” waited for Grant to leave the room before moving the chair and making it’s pressence known. It’s as though the alleged spirit was anxious to move the chair but didn’t want grant to see it…. but as soon as he was gone, WHAM the chair moves. This sort of behavior seems more indicative of a sneaky producer than a restless spirit.
As I’ve said, it’s not 100% proof. None of us knows what happened because we weren’t there. TAPS fanboys are always going to stand by the footage blindly believing it’s true, and hardcore skeptics are always going to assume that this footage (and any other footage of a paranormal event for that matter) is fake. As for me? I fall in the middle. I’ve seen footage from TAPS and other paranormal investigators that I believe to be paranormal activity. I’ve also seen footage I believe to be faked. It’s important to keep an open mind, and not to blindly trust what you see on tv. Is Sprite the ultimate thirst quencher? TV commercials have told me that that’s a fact, and I like sprite, but after a workout, I drink water or gatorade. I guess what I’m trying to say here is don’t drink the Sprite because the TV told you to. Drink it because you’ve tried it and found it to be to your liking…… and before any of you big thinkers say “WTF does sprite have to do with anything??” let me say this:
met·a·phor (mt-fôr, -fr)
n.
1. A figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison, as in “a sea of troubles” or “All the world’s a stage” (Shakespeare).
2. One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol: “Hollywood has always been an irresistible, prefabricated metaphor for the crass, the materialistic, the shallow, and the craven” (Neal Gabler).
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July 29th, 2006 at 8:48 pm
FYI: Jason and Grant are producers on the show.
http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/9637/producersod8.jpg
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July 29th, 2006 at 8:54 pm
well I’ll be damned, thanks for the info…. though I doubt that they’re the only producers on staff… like I said, they seem genuine, and the footage does not.
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July 30th, 2006 at 1:14 pm
I also believe in paranormal … but I don’t think that this clip is evidence of paranormal. A few people have mentioned that you’d see a wire in infrared, or that the angle of the person on the stairs couldn’t pull the chair like that… but I think it’s a pulley system that runs out the left side of the door and too the man on the stairs. And yes, I do think that if someone were to plan something like this they would in fact go through that kind of trouble with the set up. It wouldn’t lend any credit to the show if they didn’t make it look believable. I do believe it to be some kind of pulley system because it looks as if there is an arm at almost a 90 degree angle, with the fist held up, and as the chair moves the fist moves to the right… and if they had a wire ran through a pully it would make sense that you would only have to pull the wire toward you to get that chair to move. And the fact that the chair moves very slightly once, and you see a slight movement in the stairwell… it seems that they tried to pull it and realized they had to pull it further, so they pulled it again harder, which explains the 2nd movement of both the chair and something in the stairwell.
For as much as I would love to believe that this is footage of real paranormal activity it still seems as though it could have been staged. Even if it WAS NOT staged, the fact that it could have been should be enough. You can’t believe everything you see… it’s really difficult to get paranormal evidence… and to me the likely hood that this was real and not staged is very small.
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August 6th, 2006 at 10:47 pm
I’m not convinced either way by the footage I saw. Perhaps if it was presented frame by frame I could be convinced that there was some sort of “String-puller” hidden in the webby knoll (too much there?) But, as far as the autofocus goes I think that most of the light aberrations can be explained by it. Anyone who has ever used an autofocus lens in low light has dealt with focus creep like this. Clearly TAPS uses some expensive gear because most of my lenses would have been constantly searching throughout their focal range trying to find something bright upon which to focus. It only takes the slightest shift in lighting or movement to get a lens to start searching for something solid upon which it might focus. This is why the “movement” of the light in the background coincides with the movement of the chair. When the chair moved the lens adjusted instantly. This does not mean that it is real, it does mean, however, that the above attempt at debunking really can be debunked as well.
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August 7th, 2006 at 11:20 pm
The Hi8 camcorder they used for this shot wasn’t a cheapie, but it was not exotic or terribly expensive by any means.
This short clip is all that was ever released. Examining the original full-length camcorder tape to see what happened immediately “before and after” would be quite revealing. However, that’s not something we’ll ever get to see, thanks to TAPS secrecy and paranoia.
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August 10th, 2006 at 7:58 am
ok, my opinion. it is not faked. why? because the chair barely moves at all�I think about if u r going to go through the trouble of making a string pulley gag, wouldnt u make that chair fly up ten feet then fall to the ground? or fly across the room? if u want to see some good fake chair moving footage, go rent the st francis experiment(sorry not sure that is right title) in that movie the chair flew against the wall and broke into a dozen pieces�I so again if u were gonna fake it…. the only reason why they even noticed it was because the noise it makes.
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August 10th, 2006 at 9:21 am
If the purpose of the show is to provide evidence–or a lack thereof–of the paranormal, or to debunk hoaxes, the investigators must adhere to rigorous standards and make the results of those investigations available to members of the scientific community for additional analysis. An orb is not irrefutable proof of paranormal activity, although it’s a pretty fair indication that someone needs to do some serious dusting. Anyone with a genuine curiosity about paranormal events will understand the necessity of controls and peer review. The most important aspects of any experiment are the quality and integrity of the investigative method.
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August 10th, 2006 at 6:51 pm
Paul says: “if u r going to go through the trouble of making a string pulley gag, wouldnt u make that chair fly up ten feet then fall to the ground? or fly across the room?”
Too much commotion and noise. Viewers would wonder why no one came to investigate it right away. Then they would have had to show the TAPS crew rushing into the room to see what caused the noise. Which would have spoiled the illusion when the string was seen in the light of day.
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September 30th, 2006 at 3:11 pm
The camera is just trying to re-focus as the chair moves. After the chair stops you can still see the camera re-focusing. Thats what is causing he blur
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October 1st, 2006 at 8:53 pm
Someone wrote that Mark Phillips created Ghost Hunters? I thought it was Craig Piligian and Jason Hawes?
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October 3rd, 2006 at 7:43 am
The Did you hear the word “Auto focus?” and did you notice that the light was moving while the camera was auto focusing? Obviously when the chair move, the camera try to auto focus on it.
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October 10th, 2006 at 2:05 pm
Gee, I have an idea…let’s ask THEM what they make of this! Of course, it is more fun to gossip like little old ladies over the back fence. I emailed TAPS and am sure I will get a reply that will convince me either way. Hoax, mistake or the real thing, I will forward their reply to this blog and you can read between the lines and make and educated decision, unless mud slinging the the real purpose here.
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October 18th, 2006 at 11:30 pm
The chair moves away from the so called figure in the back.
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October 19th, 2006 at 5:16 am
One little piece of black thread is all it would take to move the chair. Nobody would see it, nobody would know for sure but the asst. producer/soundman/production crewmember that rigged it up and tugged the inconspicuously placed thread. Good TV. Good ratings. Jason and Grant aren`t lying when they say they can`t explain it, thus preserving their credibility (not to mention, conscience)
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October 20th, 2006 at 2:24 pm
When they set up the camera in this room earlier in this episode one of the TAPs guys is sitting in that chair while the production crew is in the doorway/hallway. When the camera is set up they all exit the room followed by the production crew. That’s when the chair moves. My guess is that when the TAPtard sat down in the chair he moved it and hooked one of the production crew’s cables under a leg of the chair. The movement of the chair could be caused by the production crew going down the hallway and pulling up slack in the cable, yanking the cable under the leg of the chair.
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October 20th, 2006 at 10:07 pm
I think that the initial response of most people is to try and find something…anything…that can explain something that doesn’t seem possible at first glance. you see a tiny glint somewhere within the video, you start suggesting it’s a person who was hiding and pulling a string.
If that was someone pulling a string, then the movement of the chair is all wrong. That’s pretty obvious, and you’d have to be either flat-out jealous of the attention Jason and Grant are receiving to immediately believe it’s a hoax, or you’d have to be a really stupid individual.
These guys go to great lengths to disprove all of the claims they hear…from “banging noises” being caused by air in pipes, to Grant debunking the “soccer ball sized orb” people saw in the Palladium (it was really just car lights coming through a window and reflecting off a tin can).
The next comment from those who will not believe anything to be real is “Well, they’re going to “disprove” some things, so that when they have a chance to really point out something as paranormal, it will seem more credible - my question is - why would they travel to some of the most haunted places in the United States, meet with people who WANT THE PLACE to be haunted, only to tell them they find no evidence it’s haunted.
If you go to one site, you’ll read 15 people saying that the Ghost Hunters give the “field” a bad name because they work too hard to disprove something. You go to the next site, and you have people claiming a chair was pulled by a piece of string from someone standing outside a door -when common sense and physics suggest the chair moved in a way that would be impossible for someone to move it without being seen.
What does that tell us? It tells us, again, that people are either really jealous that Jason and Grant are getting the attention, or they simply are unwilling to believe that there are things that can’t be explained.
I am a skeptic…and that audio recording of a woman in the St. Augustine lighthouse saying “Help Me” — well, I’ve heard it a bunch of times, and i still haven’t heard anyone, let alone a woman, saying “help me.” What I do know is that if this were about getting attention, fame, and making money - the boys and girls in TAPS would do a lot better if they just showed up in some of these places and said “Yeah, it’s defitinely haunted here - because most of these places WANT them to find evidence.
As for me, I watch the show because Donna is super hot.
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October 28th, 2006 at 8:01 pm
Non-worshipful Ghost Hunter Episode reviews.
http://www.mondoskepto.com/taxonomy_menu/5/12
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October 30th, 2006 at 12:30 am
At least they’re better then, say, Most Haunted and Scariest Places on Earth (of which I’ve seen obviously staged “hauntings”) I truly believe that TAPS tries to debunk “hauntings” and also tries to throw off the stereotype of “Ghosts are evil, spooky things that we must all scream and hide from because they’re scary”
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November 6th, 2006 at 5:43 pm
I’m not going to go on record as saying this is real or fake. Just consider this. If someone went to the trouble to set up a pulley system to make the chair move wouldn’t it have been good sense to not stand in a place where the camera could have even had a slight chance of picking them up?
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November 10th, 2006 at 5:50 am
After sifting through all the evidence which I will not make a moral judgement on Jason or Grant, I have to say that I do believe that most of the events portrayed in the show as paranormal are actually set up. I also read that Mark Phillips actually pettitioned the idea to Beyond Investigators and they turned him down. I believe in the paranormal. I believe there’s obviously something there that we as humans are yet able to percieve fully. I also believe that some people are more in tune with this aspect of themselves than others are. But based on the gag order and the lack of full evidence being released to the community to be examined, I can’t say that I can believe anything that I see here, whether or not it’s Grant and Jason’s fault. I do like their characters on the show and I don’t think that they would be involved in this, but if that’s all they are on the show is characters then they might be completely different people in real life. Who’s to say? If they are involved in making these hoaxes, I would have to say that they are definately the best actors I’ve ever seen because they do very well portray genuinely honest characters.
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November 14th, 2006 at 7:16 am
You know I’m not a ghost hunter I’m a psychologist, but I can tell you this. My field as well as the field of the paranormal will always be a subject of debate. The old “If I can’t see it it must not exist ” Please pardon the pun will always “haunt” those who investigate what is not readily seen. I strongly believe that the investigations done by the TAPS team are done in a professonal manner. I seriously have my doubts that they’re major objective is to fake us all out. I’m sorry but I don’t see really any plausible evidence in the above pictures to make me question the investigation. In fact why should I believe you anymore than I believe them? According to you it’s apparently fairly easy to fool the public. Leslie
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November 17th, 2006 at 1:17 am
If you’re a psychologist you should know that the human senses are fallible and self-delusion in true believers is a more likely scenario than ghosts, aliens, demons, and the virgin mary.
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November 22nd, 2006 at 1:03 am
To clear up confusion there is nobody standing in the stairway door, what you are seeing is further down the stairs where a camera crew is shooting an interview being - that’s what the light is you’re seeing. The light being blocked is the interview subject and other objects between them and the camera blocking out the light.
Grant
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November 29th, 2006 at 2:48 pm
Grant,
Thanks for stoppigng by to pitch in.
To the best of your recollection (I know it was a looong time ago) were there any wires running down that stairwell that in any way could have been involved in the moving of that chair?
As I’ve said before, I’m definitely a believer in the paranormal, and I’m also a believer in the truth. Any additional insight you can offer would be appreciated by myself, and I’m sure by every other commenter on this post.
PS - I’m relaunching this site today, so expect me to be more active in the comments, and (obviously) posting more often.
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November 30th, 2006 at 1:18 pm
To clear up the confusion, I was told to get some black thread and deliver it to Grant and then we (the crew and other TAPS people) were told to stay out of the attic room while Grant was up there. When he came down, he told us the chair had moved.
Brian
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December 14th, 2006 at 3:27 pm
I think that last comment suppsoedly from Brian is totally false!
I will say 2 things on this subject:
1) I have met Jason and Grant (and Brian, Steve, Paula, Donna, Lisa, Mike, Dustin et al) on several occations and message with them often. They all seem like stand-up people. Yes, they are making money off the show (mainly Jason and Grant, most of the others have regular full-time jobs too) but it’s thier goose to be cooked if it comes out they are purposely faking evidence for the show. I don’t put it past the production crew to be doing something behind thier backs. But even still, it’s really thier reputations that get hurt.
At a recent speaking engagement Grant stated they went twice to the light house in order to film that episode. He said for most episode’s investigations they are on-site several days and the footage you see it a compilation over the course of those days in order to get enough good activity for the show.
(footnote: Some people just are better at finding paranormal activity than others. I can’t explain why scientifically but it is true. I’ve seen it too often to deny it.)
Which leads me to the next point:
2) If they are faking evidence or allowing evidence to be faked just to make the show look good, they are playing with fire (so to speak). TAPS is a major national (and international) force in the paranormal investigation field. Being a TAPS family member is the “gold ring” to many groups (I know one guy who spent the last 1.5 years traveling the country to every conference and engagement brown-nosing to finally get his group in!). If it comes out there is fakery not only will Jason and Grant loose reputation but all of TAPS will be forever tainted and all the groups who are affiliated with TAPS will be stained too. My point is that I just don’t feel Jason and Grant are that greedy to risk loosing everything for a quick buck. I don’t know either of them personally and this is just my opinion. But I can’t see it happening. I agree Ghost Hunters is entertainment, not reality TV (which is rarely reality anyway). But I just can’t fathom them putting thier names and reputations like that on the line and posiibly taking down dozens of groups and hundreds if not thousands of other innocent people with them. Both of them have been in the paranormal field for too long (long before TAPS and the show) to risk it all like that.
My $.02
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December 15th, 2006 at 7:31 am
MasterPo,
Thanks for the insigtful comment. After giving it a lot of thought, I think it really could go either way. Believe half of what you see and none of what you read right? Or something like that…
Anyway, I know that it’s EXTREMELY difficult to provide solid evidence for the paranormal… my best friend is an amatuer ghost hunter and she’s seen some wierd things, but you can’t always prompt things to happen again.
I take this whole thing with a grain of salt and I think that the paranormal is something that we will probably never have a clear answer on, but I think it’s fantastic that people are trying. It’s just makes it harder when you could look at a video and question whether or not it was tampered with… even if it wasn’t. Especially since its so easy to edit things… it gives skeptics more ground than ever.
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