A big shout out goes to Autumnforest for sending me this link: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/videos/feeds/cv-seo/Science–Technology/American-Paranormal/.
American Paranormal sort of quietly burst on the scene, but it’s slowly gaining buzz as it spreads from blogger to blogger and paranormal enthusiast to paranormal enthusiast. There’s two episodes so far:
- Haunted Prison, which is an investigation of Eastern State Penitentiary where “scientists try to answer the question: what are ghosts made of?”
- Bigfoot, which examines what Bigfoot may be and has many Bigfoot enthusiasts (such as the Blogsquatcher,see “American Paranormal Bigfoot episode hits it out of the park,”) giving Nat Geo’s treatment of the subject a standing O.
It’s similar to some other paranormal TV shows in that, like with the “Haunted Prison” episode, there is a quest to find ghosts. But it’s BY FAR the most authentic effort that’s aired to date at truly using technology and science in the hunt.
There are hypothesis, experiments, controls…yes controls! It truly utilizes the scientific method. They examine it from the angle of physics (as opposed to psychics, which I’m not opposed to either), engineering and technology. (Something I’ve been screaming for. I mean, it’s fine for people to hunt. But that’s not actual research. So many ghost hunters, regardless if they have shows or not, claim they’re doing “research.” What they’re doing is not true research. But this show? YES! They get what “research” actually means and bring in the researchers to do it!)
And I have to say, this episode proved to me Autumnforest is a ghost hunter to pay attention to. (Something I already knew, that’s why I follow her! It just cemented the deal.)
Last year she wrote about something the researchers in the “Haunted Prison” episode delve into: neutrinos.(See “Riding the Paranormal Highway: Neutrinos” and “Dark Matter Discovery: Paranormal Broth?”)
Oh, and she also wrote about the “Haunted Room Experiment” which examined something else the researchers in the “Haunted Prison” episode hypothesized about: infrasound.
If you have access to cable and get the National Geographic channel, they’ll be airing both the Bigfoot and Haunted Prison episodes again this Sunday, January 31 at 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. CST respectively.
Here’s one of the clips from the beginning of the “Haunted Prison” episode.
Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.
Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.
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I don’t have NatGeo, but I found it on the net anyhows…because I’m savvy like that.
I thought it was somewhat well done, they did really try to cover the sciences involved in ghost hunting, and what ghosts are made of, while experimenting with preconceived ideas/notions.
I was still disappointed in the fact that they just showed up for a one night gig, like a prostitute does, and I really think they jumped the gun on a few points. The evidence at the end appeared pushed through for example. They had the sound spike at 315am and a thermal hit at the same time, and just stated it was nothing more than rain. Well why would the sound meter ‘spike’, shouldn’t it be continuous? The thermal hit shows a collaborating cooling, yet does rain really cool the roofing material that fast? Does that prison have any sort of external security? Ask the gaurd if it rained! Seems obvious to me…
Now I’m not saying that it was any sort of activity, just that they seemed to push through the facts to finish the show, whereas it would have been nice for them to have a little more discussion about it, before making a conclusion.
It would be nice though if they NatGeo had made this a weekly ghost hunting show. It’s way better than anything out there currently.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Gary, you area freaking RIOT! Between the “savvy like that” remark and the prostitute crack…you so busted me! I was supposed to be paying attention to a friend talking. Instead I was surreptitiously reading your comments and busted up laughing. My friend was not saying anything funny at the time to provoke such a response, so I had to fess up I was reading your comment instead.
Oh well, it was worth getting busted. Great insights. I wonder if they could only afford 1 night? (ESP is the prison that charges quite a lot per night for an investigation so…maybe it was too budget-busting to do more?)
And great point about the rushing. I’m curious to see if they film anymore like this. Hope so!
I’m still waiting for a show much like this one that takes the most hard-core of evidence from many different sources–I mean the things so hard to explain away most people have no other choice but to believe it was anything but paranormal–and gets it analyzed by train professionals/scientist much like the ones found on this show.
I really hate I don’t have NatGeo. This is really something I would LOVE to keep up on.
And I really have to read ALL the posts on neutrinos autumnforest has up. The idea insanely makes sense. I’m still trying to understand though how she figures that objects made of atoms hold some sort of neutrino “charge” in order for her to read them? And if that’s so, what’s her theory on how neutrinos adhere to objects made of atoms?
Always, so many questions.
Wow. You have some deep thoughts, Grim. GREAT questions. I’m curious now to hear what she says about that too. And maybe you should tap Gary as a source for where to find the show online to watch. I have a feeling it would BIG TIME spark your neurons firing. But if you find out any info from Autumnforest about the Qs you have, tell me will ya? Now I want to know too!