Page 82 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - October / November 2018

82 Why Ghost Hunting Shows Are Fake

Why Those TV Ghost-

Hunting Shows Are

Transparently Fake

Scott Craven

On a fuzzy green screen, you see a T-shirted man
pointing a small electronic recorder toward a
murky corner.
He swivels his head toward the camera,
his eyes glowing like orbs.
“This is where a figure of a small girl has
been sighted on numerous occasions,” the man
says in a hushed voice. “We’re hoping she’s in
the mood to answer some – holy (bleep),
something touched me!”
The frame jumps and blurs before
focusing on the man’s face and his look of
shock.
And it’s largely ghost-hunting theater,
according to one of Phoenix’s longtime
paranormal investigators.

'It never happens like that'

“Most of that stuff on TV is bunk,” Vincent
Amico said. “It never happens like that.”
Amico has the experience to back up his
claim. He’s been investigating the paranormal
for 15 years, and in 2014 he and his wife started
AZ Paranormal Investigations and Research
Society. Amico also leads tours for Haunted
Historians, which attracts fans of the many
ghost-hunting TV shows.
And that’s where these un-reality shows
pose problems, he said. Those fans expect to see
evidence of the afterlife, from an empty rocking
chair moving by itself to shadowy apparitions unfolded. translated as, “Get out.” Or “He's here.” Or any
coalescing in corners. Jay Yates, who with his wife Marie have number of things, most of them eerie.
Such eerie incidents are extremely rare been featured on several TV and radio shows “It’s all about suggestion,” Amico said.
and easily fabricated. dedicated to paranormal investigations, said that “Let’s say he tells everyone he hears, ‘Help me.’
“A guy says he felt something touch him, in some cases cameras are set up weeks before When it's played again, that what you hear.
or you hear a door slam off camera,” Amico the ghost hunters themselves arrive. ‘Help me.’ But it’s only because he planted it in
said. “That’s the easiest stuff to fake. There’s no “I wish that ghosts showed up on your head.”
way to prove he wasn’t touched, or that someone demand but it doesn't work that way,” he said. The on-screen investigators also can
off camera didn’t slam the door.” “Many of these ghost-hunting shows are not manipulate devices that detect changes in the
Specter-chasing TV shows caught on in evidence-driven, but more based upon electromagnetic field, believed to indicate the
2004 with SyFy’s “Ghost Hunters,” which lasted experiences from the cast and crew, not concrete presence of spirits, Amico said.
12 years before broadcasting its last episode in evidence always.” The electromagnetic field (EMF) sensor
October 2016. Similar shows followed in its Amico also takes issue with the way features a series of lights that illuminate one
glowing green footsteps, including Travel hunters interpret those static-filled electronic after another. The more lights, the stronger the
Channel’s “Ghost Adventures” and “Haunted voice phenomena (EVP) recordings. electromagnetic change.
USA.” Viewers are familiar with the setup. The The problem, Amico said, is that
experts either place an EVP recorder in an empty something as simple as a cellphone can disrupt
Following the formula room (the recording is analyzed later) or use it to the field and make the EMF sensor light up like
“interview” any spirits interested in chatting. a Christmas tree.
The recipe is the same. Investigators equipped Since ghosts have no vocal cords, they use their "I remember one time they showed the
with cameras and various ghost-detecting energy to electrically manipulate sound that can device starting to light up, and the guy holding
devices spend a night in a hotel / house / be picked up by EVP recorders, paranormal the device had a huge watch on his wrist,"
abandoned warehouse said to be haunted. investigators say. Amico said. "When they cut back to him, the
Before the sun rises, they’ve seen/spoken In most cases, words are almost device was lit up and the watch was gone. It was
with/found evidence of the afterlife. Everyone impossible to make out amid the static and clearly two different times."
goes home shaken. buzzing, and may be nothing more than Then there are those who believe
Amico said the shows are misleading at background sounds, Amico said. That changes everything about investigations are bunk. They
best, fake at worst. A typical paranormal once ghost hunters put words to those sounds, watch the shows so they can shake their heads in
investigation takes several visits over weeks or interpreting them as voices from beyond the utter disbelief while wondering how anybody
months, he said, and 99 percent of that time grave. could buy the existence of the paranormal.
would set off every tedium monitor in the place, "People can believe whatever they want
if such a thing existed. 'It's all about suggestion' and it makes no difference to me," Amico said.
The “night in a haunted house” scenario "A paranormal experience is by definition is
is necessary to keep viewers interested, though A fluctuation in static, for example, can be something that can't be explained. I've
it’s highly unlikely that’s how the investigation experienced a lot of things I can't explain." []