The Occult Section

I was in the midst of looking up ridiculous photos for the story I covered yesterday on the couple who is suing their landlord over their belief that he rented them a haunted house when I came across a startling discovery. It was a roughly drawn picture of Shaggy from Scooby-Doo, running away from something. As a sidenote, we clearly take ourselves and our research very seriously here..

“Who is this reminding me of?” I wondered. I almost kept going through photos, but I was too curious to let this one go. So I stared and stared at it.

Dude. Run.

And then it hit me.

Shaggy from Scooby-Doo and Grant Wilson from TAPS/Ghost Hunters are the same person.

Simply uncanny.

Don’t believe me? No worries. I’ve taken the liberty of changing Shaggy’s hair color to match Grant’s to more effectively expose the shenanigans that have been going on for decades. I think we can all clearly see this is the same person.

It's undeniable. And he thought he'd get away with it...

What’s that? You want even more hilarious picture combinations that prove Grant Wilson and Shaggy Rogers (who, like Grant, is also from New England) are one in the same? The kind of combinations that start off logically (as logically as a post like this could be) and then gradually devolve as I try desperately to prove my point with completely unrelated things (they were all in jail! and have sat at tables in groups!)? You got it.

If this isn't definitive evidence, I don't know what is.

Technorati Tags: ghost hunters, grant wilson, humor, mystery machine, paranormal, paranormal activity, people, scooby-doo, shaggy, shaggy rogers, taps, thoughts, zoinks

Front on visual of the bar upon entering the tavern.

“Once upon a time there was a tavern…” Tucked away in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village is the White Horse Tavern. This longshoremen’s dive turned literary bohemian haven has long been the subject of much ghostly folklore. Rumor has it that in 1953 Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, while on a particularly enlivened bender, drank a record of 18 whiskey shots. Predictably, after he finished slamming shooters, Thomas stumbled outside and collapsed into a deep booze snooze trusting his fellow compatriots to deliver him safely back to his room at the Chelsea Hotel. The next morning he was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital where he was declared dead of “wet brain” or alcoholic encephalopathy, muscle impairment that usually accompanies alcohol abuse. Since that day patrons of the bar have claimed to have seen the full body apparition of Thomas sitting at his favorite corner table or hanging around outside the tavern. There have also been accounts of Thomas’s corner table shoved aside in the mornings when the staff arrives to open shop, as if a drunk, impatient person needed to get around it.

Thomas is buried in the over-spill graveyard of St. Martin's Church, Laugharne, Dyfed, Wales. His grave is marked by a plain white cross. Caitlin Thomas, his wife, is buried in the same grave and her name appears on the reverse side of the cross.

Listed as one of the most haunted places in New York City, The White Horse Tavern is inextricably linked to the last whiskey Thomas ever drank, a fact that the tavern doesn’t seem to mind but actively embraces. Upon walking into the bar, which hasn’t changed in appearance since it opened its doors in 1880, it is hard not to notice the extensive, wall-to-wall collection of porcelain horses staring down at you from their various perches aloft light fixtures, shelves, wall mounts, mirror frames, wall accents, window displays… you get the picture. In addition to the many portraits of Thomas that adorn the walls, a plaque commemorating his last visit to the White Horse Tavern hangs above the bar. Not too far away from that sign, the discerning visitor will spot the ostensibly subtle urn affixed to the wall which the staff will jokingly identify as Thomas’s. The tavern even goes so far as to serve his purported last meal in the back room each year on November 9^th, the anniversary of his death.

If you find yourself at the corner of Hudson and West 11^th streets, the White Horse Tavern is worth the visit, if just for the atmosphere and historic architecture.  And while I cannot definitively say whether or not this bar is haunted, being that I lack any and all training in the field of paranormal investigation, I can say that the White Horse Tavern is a long-standing love letter to the legacy of Thomas to whom they owe their continued success and with such a welcoming audience, how could Thomas turn down the occasional pint?

One of the many portraits of Thomas scattered throughout the tavern.

Technorati Tags: celebrity, dylan thomas, ghost, ghost hunters, ghost hunting, ghosts, greenwich village, haunted, haunted house, haunted houses, haunting, new york, new york city, paranormal, people, poet, poetry, supernatural, the white horse tavern, thoughts, wales, welsh

1. Orbs aren’t paranormal. Period.

2. If you’ve ever paid to do an investigation, you’ve been suckered. (Guess what kids – this includes us in the NYPS as well). Donations to an organization are one thing, outright paying to investigate is another.

3. The Stanley Hotel is not haunted.

Yet another harsh truth

4. Competition between groups is pointless and ridiculous. Nobody’s “evidence” is better than anyone else’s. Nobody has exclusive claim to a location (unless it’s actually a location owned by a person in the group). And since nothing in the field has ever been proven, nobody “knows” any more than anyone else.

5. With that said, no group gets along with every other group. It’s impossible; and anyone who says they do is a liar.

6. With THAT said, your group is in no way unique. There are THOUSANDS of groups all over the world. Most likely a few of those groups have the same exact name as yours. And there are more groups popping up each day.

7. Most of your “evidence” is likely explainable as non-paranormal. If you ever claim outright that anything you have is “proof” of a ghost, you don’t understand the actual definition of the word proof.

8. Most likely, the only reason your group exists is because you want to be like Ghost Hunters/Ghost Adventures/Paranormal State/Whatever the hell else is out there.

9. Those shows aren’t based in any way on reality, despite having the ironic classification of “reality TV.” Anyone with even a peripheral experience with any major television show has seen the many ways things can be twisted.

10. Even after reading this, and knowing this, any member of any group who still wants to get on a TV show and is actively trying is lying when they say they aren’t in it for the fame.

11. You can be Facebook friends with as many “para-celebrities” as you want. Doesn’t mean you’re actually friends with any of them, will ever be on TV, or will ever be in that “circle.”

12. There is no such thing as a “professional paranormal investigator.” Does the paranormal investigating pay your salary? Do you get health benefits? A retirement plan? No? Then you’re not a professional paranormal investigator.

13. If you are vacationing to a supposed paranormal site, you are not “investigating.” You are vacationing. Calling a vacation with your spouse a weeklong investigation just makes you look foolish.

14. If you list your car or your iPhone app as a piece of “equipment” on your website, then you are an idiot.

15. You cannot put “Inc.” after your group’s name and magically make it so.

16. You CANNOT define your group’s “years of experience in the field” in the following ways:

• with a start point dating back to the first time you heard about ghosts (e.g. a 40 year old man claiming 30 years of experience);
• by totalling each group member’s individual experience (e.g. 5 members with “over 45 years of combined experience”).

17. You know those three cases you had of demonic activity? Yeah, those weren’t demons. A pentagram found at the location does not a demon make.

18. You wrote a book? BFD. Most likely I’ve read it, thought it was poorly written and didn’t offer up any original content, and then sold it on half.com. If it was a book on orbs being paranormal, I didn’t even buy it.

Technorati Tags: celebrity, ghost, ghost hunters, ghost hunting, ghosts, humor, paranormal, people, supernatural, syfy, thoughts, tv show

My Paranormal Rant!

Now that we got introductions out of the way and you got to know me a little bit, now I’m really going to rant! Actually, I am going on vacation and won’t be back until October 1^st. So I thought I would put out another column before I go on vacation and have my readers thirsting for more.

The K-II Meter

Starting around the 3^rd season of the hit SyFy Channel show Ghost Hunters, the two Roto Rooter Plumbers Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson debuted the device we know as the K-II Meter. If anyone remembers the episode, it was actually Psychic & Paranormal Investigator Chris Flemming who introduced the meter.

What is the K-II Meter? It is an electromagentic field meter built with multiple LED lights that reads high or low E.M.F. Mr. Flemming claimed that we could train spirits to use this device to communicate with Investigators on investigations. During the episode, they asked a spirit a question and miraculously the meter lights responded accordingly. I think its a great concept. But, I know that myself and other investigators have been using this method with other devices way before they introduced the K-II meter. You could basically use any device and try and train a spirit to communicate with. The K-II meter just happens to have pretty LED lights that light up when a spirit is present.

But what annoys the heck out of me the most is that they neglect to tell investigators that these meters and devices we use are NOT intended to detect or find a ghost. You are supposed to use them to detect an EM field and rule out whether or not it is caused by natural EMFs. If your location has a high EMF reading, it isn’t healthy for the client. You can experience health problems and other issues. It causes nausea, paranoia, feeling of being watched, irritation to the skin, blurry vision, blackouts etc; If you have what they call Hypersensitivity you will experience these things more than others.

What I’m really going to rant about is the fact that they don’t tell their viewers that cell phones, walkie talkies and radio signals on the same frequencey as the meter can interfere and make the device detect those signals. Yet, they still continue to use them and act like every time the LED lights turn on that there is a spirit communicating with them. A colleague of mine from Pennsylvania who is an excellent technician in electronics proved that devices with a certain frequencey would interfere. He also built what he called a faraday cage which was a material shaped like a box that blocked any kind of radio interference. Wouldn’t you know it that the darn thing never lit up. He wrote an article about how he broke down the K-II meter and asked Jason & Grant why they insist on using it on their show knowing there is interference. Needless to say, they never responded to his letter or article. But it did however open up a can of worms. I’m not saying it was what caused the K-II meter controversy. I do find it funny that they never responded to him.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not implying anything here. But why would two famous ghost hunters who have a TV show continue to use a device that is surrounded by controversy? I also find it odd that right after the K-II meter controversy came up they stopped using it on the show for a little while. Soon after, they started to use the flash light trick.

What really pisses me off is that ever since the show started to use the K-II meter, everyone has to copy them and use the K-II meter. I have to be honest here. Even I was a sucker and bought a K-II meter as a gift to my fiancée. We took it along every investigation and the damn thing never lit up. I even brought it to a very haunted location and it never worked. It has only lit up at two haunted locations we investigated. Yet, I’m still skeptical toward the meter.

The proper way to use any EMF meter is to do a base reading where you are investigating. Document what your base reading is. If you have a high reading, try and pin point it or rule out where its coming from. Don’t assume its automatically a ghost.

In the end, take my advice strongly. Use your own judgement, use your own methods, use your own techniques. Use what works best for you and what gets you great results. You’ll gain much more respect and your evidence will speak for itself.

Technorati Tags: debunking, ghost, ghost hunters, ghost hunting, ghosts, haunted, haunted house, haunted houses, haunting, hoax, syfy, taps, tv show

There’s not a lot of real information about the Cerro Azul monster found in Panama back in the fall of 2009. Beyond its vaguely extraterrestrial looks (a cross between the Montauk Monster and an albino seal), there isn’t much indication that it is even an alien creature at all. But when a few teenage boys spotted it, they freaked out and threw rocks at it until it died. Good job, dudes. Later on, the media-savvy kids realized they could make something out of their “discovery” and a short-lived news story was born.

Note how the Cerro Azul monster poses like an old-timey lady on a fainting couch.

Not surprisingly, the boys changed their initial rendition after first getting the news’s attention. Originally they claimed it had crawled out of the water and towards them, which initiated the rock-throwing hysteria. Later, one of the boys stated that he had been playing in the water and felt something grabbing at his legs, that something being the Cerro Azul creature. (“Monster” is such a harsh word, no?) Just note that in both versions, it was out to get them, and duh, they had to kill it. After leaving, taking a few deep breaths and assuring themselves it was dead, they went back, dragged it out of the water and took the photos that were sold to Telemetro. Although in other versions they took the pics before dumping it, but who knows?

You can watch a video (in Spanish) of the boys telling their story here, but be warned. They’re like a really boring, dazed boy band that clearly does not want to be interviewed about this same thing again, and who have not yet hired a stylist or a media trainer. The poor interviewer tries to dig in to heart of the story, but no dice. Although at the end he manages to get the appointed speaker a little more riled up (by which I mean it’s like he only took one Valium instead of four) by getting him to talk about how other news stations have treated them like if they were ignorant. No comment.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news for you believers, but an autopsy was performed and indeed, it was proven to be a sloth. Why was it as smooth as the legs in a Nair commercial? Apparently, after its murderers tossed it in the water, it was submerged for a few days, which most likely caused it to go prematurely bald. Not a fun life for this little guy. One thing that always gets me about these types of stories is that amongst all the theories that start flying around, there is always someone who says it’s an animal that’s never been seen before. I can buy it when people claim these creatures are mutated versions of other animals, or that they are bloated from being dead and exposed to the elements, sure. I’m not a zoology expert by any means, but are there still that many types of sloths yet to be discovered?

Lastly, can anyone explain to me what is up with the background music in this video? It’s like one of those video collages tween girls make about what they wish would happen in Twilight, but a little more upbeat. YouTube is totally the fanfic of the new generation.

Technorati Tags: alien, aliens, cerro azul, conspiracy theory, cryptozoology, debunking, extraterrestrial, media, News, panama, paranormal, people, picture, thoughts, video