Wondering about "ghost hunting" TV shows

[MorningGlow]

Hi everybody,

I have been given the task to write an article about ghosts for my favorite freelance gig. (Can you see why it's my favorite? :D ) Part of the article needs to address the phenomenon of "ghost hunting" TV shows. Trouble is, I have never seen any of those shows. (Funny thing--I have lived with ghosts most of my life with no problems, but I can't watch "creepy" shows like that--it revs my imagination too much, and I start freaking myself out.)

I'm going to be TiVo-ing some of these shows anyway (I promise I'll watch them in broad daylight), but I was wondering how many of you watch these shows, and if you do, which one(s), and what do you think of them? Do you get anything out of them other than a quick "boo" fix? Is any one better than the others, and if so, what makes it better?

Thanks, gang! :hi:

[mandyky]

1. I've seen 2 - Medium and Ghost Whisperer

I like medium the best, and it isn't really ghost hunting. She's a psychic who has recurring dreams, mostly about murders that have already occured, or may occur in the near future. It is on NBC Mondays at 10 PM. I am not sure what night Ghost Whisperer is on, or even if it _is_ on this season.

[MorningGlow]

2. Oh yeah those too

I have to check out the fictional stories AND the nonfictional. Damn, I have a lot of work to do! Thanks for the input, Mandyky!

[Shallah Kali]

3. I sometimes watch Most Haunted on travel ch. & Rescue Mediums on WE

I get too creeped out to watch programs like these regularly. For some reason these are the most tolerable for me.
Most Haunted http://www.travelchannel.com/TV_Shows/Most_Haunted can be a little funny sometimes as I think the crew is so nervous that they are jumping at their own shadow and other times I tune into where they are and can feel there really is something to the situation.

Rescue Mediums http://www.wetv.com/shows/supernatural/rescue_mediums/ is one of the better programs I have watched other than for the fact that someone thought it a brillant idea to interject all sorts of herky-jerky deliberately creepy reenactment flashes. I do like that they try to help any stuck spirits cross over instead of just leaving them miserably reenacting traumatic events.

One show that scared the dickens out of me watching it in broadday light with my Mother was 'A Haunting' on Discovery ( http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-schedules/series.html?paid=1.14710.25513.31742.x&start=20 & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Haunting_in_Connecticut#Specials ). This is a reenactment show and the episode I saw a young couple moved into big beautiful house being sold for a song and the current owners camp out in the living room with all the rooms upstairs nailed shut. The realtor wouldn't even go in the house. All kinds of stuff started happened and years later they finally get in a psychic team who says there is some sort of demonic portal in their kitchen and call in an exorcist that clears the place. I didn't care for that program as I felt it was much more than the others it was trying to scare people half to death unlike the other two.

I once caught a bit of a ghost show on bravo I think with a group of collage kids investigating hauntings. It rubbed me the wrong way with the young guy heading up the group being rather self-important and pretentious IMO. They would be up in the middle of the night trying to bring out the bad entity they thought might have driven a young man to suicide trying to get their gizmos to pick up something :crazy: Yeah lets provoke a possibly murderous entity and see what happens!!! :banghead:

[MorningGlow]

4. Wow, there certainly are a lot!

And that says something about the nature of folks these days right there. Back when I was a young 'un, all we had was In Search Of. Now look at 'em all!

I just watched a couple eps of Ghost Hunters, and it was pretty much as I expected--thrumming suspenseful music, some whipping around going "What was that? Did you hear that?", and such. I felt pretty manipulated with the HEARTBEAT they had running under!

But I've been suckered all the same, and now I can't go in my 176-year-old basement to do the laundry!
:rofl:

I just queued up the college ghosthunters on YouTube (Paranormal State)--I'm put off by their logo--looks like the same kind of design they use for the Saw franchise--like the letters were made by claws.

Thanks for the other recommendations and links, Shallah--I hadn't heard of Rescue Mediums before, and I forgot about Most Haunted. I don't think I'd want to see A Haunting either--sounds terrible--I don't like it when they capitalize on sensational cases like that.

[Shallah Kali]

5. Most Haunted is alot of 'what was THAT?!?!?' but I felt like there were really stuff there

at least part of the time. Plus like history and it is most about wandering around old british castles. Rescue Mediums are a pair of British psychics who I believe are sisters-in-law and they are flown to Canada to deal with cases without being told anything ahead of time. As I said before I like this one best because they don't try to get their gizmos to detect stuff but actually help the spirits.

I never got the urge to watch Ghost Hunters and it sounds like that is just as well :P

btw if you want a good laugh google "Most Haunted" +snl

[MorningGlow]

7. I will check out Rescue Mediums, definitely

That's more of the stuff I'm used to--sensing a ghost and helping him/her.

I watched an ep of Paranormal State, and I was pleasantly surprised. Their team is made up not only of scientists, but also a counselor and a psychic, so they cover all the bases. I was actually touched by the one I watched--a young teenage girl was being contacted by a ghost who had died at about the same age. The girl had a rough life--spent time in juvie, was pregnant, was abducted, and her abductor strangled her to death. Very sad.

So they dealt, quite well I thought, with the possibility that the (live) girl was crazy (she had been assaulted in her younger years) or making it up for attention (she looked quite punky); then when they realized she was telling the truth, the psychic stepped in to help her control her gifts. Very nice. I actually liked it better than Ghost Hunters. Then again, I only saw the one ep. I'd need to see more to make a more fair assessment.

[Cleita]

6. I occasionally watch "Ghost Hunters" on Sci-Fi channel that

airs on Wednesday. Basically, they try to debunk hauntings with technology. Sometimes though there are some that they admit they can't debunk. However, I think their method is flawed because they are trying to catch something that is existing in a different dimension on film or audio in our material reality. Sometimes they do get unexplainable EVPs (? I think that's what they are called) though and other phenomena that they can't explain.

[MorningGlow]

8. THANK you for saying that!

I was just involved in quite a detailed debate with a skeptic here on DU about ghosts. He didn't understand that our electronic gizmos can't pick up something that is on another dimension. This is what I wrote to him:

And I think someone SHOULD invent mechanisms that detect ghostly energy, but the spanner in the works on this is that ghosts do not exist on this plane of existence; they are in another dimension that our (for now, limited) electronic equipment cannot locate or measure, and they can occasionally reach through. Is the equipment at the correct frequency and in the right place when an entity manages to reach through? That's the challenge.

He responded that we have all kinds of gizmos that can pick up pretty much everything, even stuff beyond what humans can pick up, so it doesn't make sense that humans can ick up something that a machine can't. Umm...

[oceanspirit]

10. MG You know how much I love those shows!!

We've talked about this before. I know you don't like to watch these things. I'm just so glued to them once I start watching them. The one I really don't like is "Ghost Hunters" I haven't seen an episode that they've proved there was something "else" living or not (LOL) in a house. Yes, it's suspenseful, but I just want them to find something. They never really do. There was a show on a couple of years ago, my kids used to watch. I don't remember the name of it, but it sure was GREAT! It was on the premise of a family or friends going into a known haunted castle, home, pys ward old prisons or something, and they have to spend the night in there. It would scare the crap out of me. LOL I love crap like that. LOL These were old castles in Ireland, or Britain, it was very cool Anyways, I love all the new links i have now.
Good luck with your new article. Let me know when it comes out. I owe you a long phone call. So much to tell you. Miss you honey

Oceanspirit

[MorningGlow]

11. Hey you--yes, I recall you love watching these shows!

And no, I don't watch them much, because my imagination gets going and then I can't walk around in my own house after dark. I'm such a wuss!

Since I started this thread I've watched Ghost Hunters and Paranormal State online. Ghost Hunters is setting itself up for failure because they only spend one night in a haunted place, where according to most witnesses, activity is sporadic. So how can they nail a ghost that ONE TIME they spend in the house, when the ghost likely won't come out with all that equipment and all those strangers around anyway? :shrug:

I hear you on the phone call--the longer we let it go, the longer the call is going to be!
:rofl:

Miss you too! :hug:

[rumpel]

9. I have seen some of them

and they do not impress me at all.

It feels like none of them come close to the essence of it. They are all based on the same old perceptions and techniques, which I believe are all outdated and do not contribute much.
They concentrate way too much about trying to prove or disprove the phenomena, rather than going into the possible fascinating issue of dimensions, space and our physical existence.
The only value I see is to hear of all the various sightings and places...