Ghost Hunters Jumped The Shark

Last Night, Halloween evening, Sci-Fi channels Ghost Hunters, the widely popular reality television program, conducted a "Live" investigation at the Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Louisville, Kentucky. The camera's went live at 9pm EST and continued to glow until 3am Thursday morning. A full six hours of ghost busting. Captured on camera.

The Atlantic Paranormal Society, (TAPS) headed up by Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, (Lead investigators) chose the Waverly Hills location for its high concentration of paranormal activity and noted as one of the scariest haunted places on earth. A perfect selection indeed.

Sidenote: Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson are ghost busters at night and hold down full time day jobs as plumbers for a national chain, Roto Rooter.

The sanatorium opened in the early 1900's and in that time over 60,000 people died within the walls of the sanatorium and some believe many of these lost souls haunt the hallways still today.

The stage was set to catch some ghosts, or at least some empirical evidence that spirits do exist. TAPS even incorporated the help of their viewers via a Live Internet feed where thousands can watch multiple camera's and if any activity is spotted, click a "Panic" button alerting the TAPS team so they could send a team pronto.

Josh Gates was host to the live airing and made sure to mention his own show, 'Destination Truth' numerous times. They even invited guests to the haunts, ECW wrestler, Elijah Burke to help assist in the investigation.

The catch phrase, "Lights Out" was said and the haunt was on. For six hours straight. Each crew of two selected a floor of the sanatorium walking slowly down the hallways calling out to the dearly departed in hopes of proof that ghosts exist.

A children's bouncing ball was used in an attempt to bait one of the spirits, suspected to be a little boy, to kick the ball on camera. At least half a dozen times, camera's were trained on the bouncing ball sitting still in the hallway, with the investigators egging the spirit to kick the ball, push the ball, move the ball, anything with the ball. The ball still hasn't moved.

Other times, the crews chased shadows that could not be seen on the TV, and heard sounds, a woman crying, a child singing, spirits shuffling along, moans, groans, and wails. All of which could not be detected on television.

Elijah Burke freaked out as he supposedly saw something, a shadow, or a spirit, and felt it touch him. He bolted down the hall way running away in terror. Sadly, that was the high point of the show.

Josh Gates would break in from time to time updating the incredible amount of evidence that was being gathered, (I think he was watching another program) and then cut to commercial.

Six hours later, it was all over but the shouting. But one more thing was left undone.

An obligatory phone call to Geraldo Rivera letting him know that he is now off the hook for his "Live" television program, 'Al Capone's Secret Vault' (And the three hours of wasted film and time) as being the worst reality TV show ever broadcast.

Meanwhile, Fonzie, the hip beatnick from the popular sitcom 'Happy Days' was out in the Waverly Hills parking lot jumping a shark....

Happy Halloween

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Ghost Hunters Secrets Revealed

With it being Halloween week...

The Atlantic Paranormal Society , also known as TAPS, or T.A.P.S., is one of the highest rated Sci-Fi network program this year.

The TAPS crew, consisting of Roto Rooter employee’s actively investigate alleged haunted establishments. Hotels, private residences, restaurants, buildings, warehouses, schools, churches, woods, hospitals, taverns, jails, even entire towns are investigated by this group of drain cleaners.

TAPS receives calls from concerned owners asking them to investigate their property to verify if it is haunted or not. Sounds pretty innocent so far, so let’s continue shall we?

Jason, lead investigator of TAPS, meets the client and he and his crew have a walk through the structure, a tour if you will, as the client explains why they think the place is haunted.

At this time, the crew unloads their equipment and sets up. The TAPS crew has a very impressive array of equipment in their possession. (We’re not talking drain busters and pipe wrenches) The crew sets up many camera’s and microphones throughout the property. They also install infrared camera’s, audio booms, thermal imaging devices, EMF’s, or Electro Magnetic Fields, and EVP’s, or Electronic Voice Phenomenon devices. When they are satisfied, they go lights out turning off the power of the structure.

The crew then splits into groups armed with portable camera’s and the above listed equipment and roam the structure attempting to capture an entity on camera. The crew wanders for hours filming every second in hopes of seeing a ghost. Sometimes, they even try to invoke the spirits to reveal themselves by voice, sound, appearing, or by moving an object.

As each crew creeps through the darkness with spirits on their mind, each sound, creek in the floor, is registered as a ghost presence. Sometimes they see things out of the corner of the camera’s eye, or an object moves, and speculate what it might have been.

The next phase of the show is called, the findings. This is where after the crew finishes filming and investigating the structure all night, they collect their equipment, pack it up and then analyze all the film and evidence from said equipment.

The crew pours over hours of film in what looks like a mobile home, and attempts to refute the findings. Most can be explained as normal everyday coincidences, (Steam moving through pipes, water in lines, pipes rubbing on walls, light reflecting off mirrors)

This brings the show to the final phase, what TAPS calls, “The Reveal.” This is where the crew present their evidence to their client to either debunk or support the claim of a haunting. So far, there hasn’t been any difinitive evidence of an actual ghost haunting, but plenty of conjecture and speculation which merely adds to the mystique to the clients residence.

And this is where the conspiracy begins. The Grassy Knoll Institute asks the simple and obvious questions.

If the Grassy Knoll Institute were the owner of an establishment that was locally known as a haunted place, say, a haunted hotel, how would we drum up business to get more paying customers to come and stay at our hotel? I know, let's call TAPS and have them investigate the hotel to verify if it is haunted.

With TAPS investigating the hotel, it will get national exposure, in essence, an hour’s worth of advertising as the show is broadcast on the Sci-Fi network. It would be a literal fortune to buy that amount of air time on a national network.

Secondly, droves of people who religiously watch TAPS book reservations at the haunted hotels and restaurants featured on the show. These fanatics want to experience a paranormal event and following TAPS clients is their best bet to achieve their quest.

Everyone wins with this scenario. TAPS has become one of the most popular shows on the Sci-Fi network and the crew are raking in the money. The clients investigated are reaping the benefits of the show as thousands of people are filling up their hotels and restaurants. Sci-Fi network is enjoying strong viewership ratings. Everyone wins. Everyone makes money.

I have to hand it to the Roto Rooter plumbers, taking a hobby they did in the evening and turning it into a multi-million dollar hit television series. Do you think they still work at Roto Rooter?

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