# Have any supernatural reality shows ever found anything? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 23, 2011, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-supernatural-reality-shows-ever-found-anything/575697 "2011-03-23T06:38:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2011, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-supernatural-reality-shows-ever-found-anything/575697/21 "2011-03-24T22:31:22Z")
_The Paranormal Files_ bills itself as an investigative show of a more skeptical bent. They have had some inconclusive tests, some that they have dismissed outright in their screening process based upon technical knowledge and experience, and some that they have nailed as false. They nailed one UFO event by not only identifying that a UFO shaped helium balloon in a particular area would have looked exactly right, they actually confirmed that someone was shooting a film of a helium balloon in that spot on that day. They demonstrated in a “ghost car” episode that magically drove through a fence that a chainlink fence with relatively few clips to the support poles could collapse out of the way of the car and then spring back into position and not look damaged at all. I watched the first half a dozen episodes or so, but gave up on it. It’s not that their heart doesn’t seem to be in the right place, and they seem to have crew with reasonable experience and skillsets. The problem for me was the "ghost hunters"esque feel of the show. Particularly annoying was their use of scary music to ramp up the creepiness, their running around in the dark with infrared cameras, and overuse of electronics without justification. But primarily the music and manufactured tension. One episode they were in IIRC Scotland highlands looking for evidence of a giant hellhound from a video clip, so they have just two of them running around at night with their infrared cameras in the dark looking for a possible predator that has been killing sheep and such (like possibly a lion). No weapons, no support staff, just a couple of goobers with cameras and flashlights. And creepy music. That, and even though they claim to be skeptics, and are fairly more skeptical than most shows seem to be (not that I’ve watched any of the others), they still occassionally have too credulous a response to me in places. Like they try to discover what a particular video of UFO lights could be, but they try three different approaches to simulating the lights in the sky and cannot produce a good video match. So they conclude “something is out there”, rather than “we are unable to explain what this is at this time”. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2011, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-supernatural-reality-shows-ever-found-anything/575697/22 "2011-03-24T23:05:32Z")
> [@Maiira](#): > > I believe the former (the shouty, hysterical dude) is Ghost Adventures, on the Travel Channel. > > The latter (the “real” one) is likely Ghost Hunters, on SyFy. > > As for findings, Ghost Hunters has had a couple instances where the only explanation I could come up with was “they faked it.” Which, frankly, is probably more likely than “ghosts did it.” > > That being said, if I were on a show like, say, MTV’s Fear (is that still on?), I’d probably be scared shitless, even if nothing supernatural happened. I like to think of myself as a rational, scientifically minded person, but in a dark, unfamiliar room of a decaying building, I have a VERY active imagination. And frankly, no ghost or apparition can be scarier than that. Oh, I used to like that _Fear_ show! Cracked me up when people quit, though. This is _actual_ money, and you signed up for it, and when they tell you that the only damned thing you have to do to get the money is to go take a nap on the bed in the Haunted Cell and you’re too pussy? Sheesh. Especially since anybody who watched the show knew that you were done if you got asked to do one “Big Scary Thing” and did it - the unlucky ones trudged all over the damned insane asylum for days doing this and that. ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-supernatural-reality-shows-ever-found-anything/575697/23 "2011-03-25T05:24:52Z")
The one incident that proved to me that Ghost Hunters fakes a good amount of their un-debunkable footage was an episode where they were using a LED flashlight to communicate with the entity, they told it to push the back button on the flashlight to make it light up and… It lit up! whoa, scary, it could do it on command… thing is, the flashlight they were using was a second-generation [Inova X5](http://www.inovalight.com/x/x5.php), I have a few of them myself, great lights, if you tighten the tailcap _just right_, you can have it set to be hair-trigger sensitive to any change in pressure or vibration and the light will illuminate momentarily I’ve done this myself, turn the flashlight on, then very, very slowly, turn the tailcap back until the light blinks off, then verrrrry slowly, turn the tailcap forward until you see the light flicker, release the tailcap and it should be set to hair trigger, it may take a little practice but it can be done easily all they would have needed is someone off-camera tapping/stomping their foot or causing other vibrations (preferably inaudible) to cause the light to flicker on and off as the “ghost” touched it… ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-supernatural-reality-shows-ever-found-anything/575697/24 "2011-03-25T05:53:29Z")
> [@MacTech](#): > > The one incident that proved to me that Ghost Hunters fakes a good amount of their un-debunkable footage was an episode where they were using a LED flashlight to communicate with the entity, they told it to push the back button on the flashlight to make it light up and… > > It lit up! whoa, scary, it could do it on command… > > thing is, the flashlight they were using was a second-generation [Inova X5](http://www.inovalight.com/x/x5.php), I have a few of them myself, great lights, if you tighten the tailcap _just right_, you can have it set to be hair-trigger sensitive to any change in pressure or vibration and the light will illuminate momentarily > > I’ve done this myself, turn the flashlight on, then very, very slowly, turn the tailcap back until the light blinks off, then verrrrry slowly, turn the tailcap forward until you see the light flicker, release the tailcap and it should be set to hair trigger, it may take a little practice but it can be done easily > > all they would have needed is someone off-camera tapping/stomping their foot or causing other vibrations (preferably inaudible) to cause the light to flicker on and off as the “ghost” touched it… It’s not necessarily even intentional. I’m not gonna put it past them to fake it, but I also wouldn’t rule out a combination of nerves and subconscious cues doing it for them without trying to intentionally fake it. ---
**Author:** ![Batsinma\_Belfry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@Batsinma\_Belfry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batsinma_Belfry)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-supernatural-reality-shows-ever-found-anything/575697/25 "2011-03-25T07:22:17Z")
I love Destination Truth, mostly because of the locations. There have been a few episodes over the years, where they have found hair/fur, bones, tracks etc… that could not be identified by zoologist. That doesn’t mean they found evidence of the critter they were looking for, but just the fact that it’s currently unknown makes it interesting. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-supernatural-reality-shows-ever-found-anything/575697/26 "2011-03-25T07:37:44Z")
They’ve certainly found one thing: a dumb, receptive and gullible audience. ---
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-supernatural-reality-shows-ever-found-anything/575697/27 "2011-03-25T12:55:39Z")
There are some YouTube vids which pretty strongly suggest (if not outright prove) that Ghost Hunters has staged/faked dramatic “evidence.” I think their “level-headed skeptical believers” bit is mostly to sell the act. Destination Truth, as noted, has recorded or discovered some interesting things, but they oftentimes go into an investigation with tongue clearly planted in cheek, like when they went looking for Leprechauns in Ireland. To someone who has never seen the show, that sounds like hucksters pandering to a gullible, moronic audience, but host Josh Gates makes it pretty clear every step of the way thathe doesn’t for a second think that they’re going to find Leprechauns. Instead he takes the position of, “people around here really believe they’re seeing Leprechauns, let’s see if there’s anything odd going on around here that could explain it.” He also got points from me for commenting on how convenient it is that the supposed EVP voices recorded in non-English speaking lands somehow always communicate in English. They did find some odd animal tracks in some episodes that might suggest displaced wild animals or especially rare animals being spotted, which I think is pretty cool. ---
**Author:** ![Marlitharn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Marlitharn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlitharn)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-supernatural-reality-shows-ever-found-anything/575697/28 "2011-03-25T20:42:45Z")
Plus Josh Gates is hot and funny. I like that show, but it seems like for the past couple of seasons they’ve been focusing less on creatures and more on “ghosts”. There’s enough ghost hunting shows out there, let’s go find el chupacabra! > [@Sampiro](#): > > I never watch any of these shows on a regular basis but I find them sometimes when I’m surfing. One is hysterically over-the-top with a guy basically yelling at the “ghosts”. One time it was a theater supposedly haunted by John Wilkes Booth and he actually went into “You were a gutless murderer!” rant. (Why JWB would haunt any theater other than perhaps Ford’s [which would still be a strange choice since he got out of there as fast as his good leg could carry him] I’m not sure, but it’s good to know that this guy was against the Lincoln assassination.) Was it a frat boy douchebag with spiked hair and baggy pants or a heavyset Texas good ol’ boy with a ball cap and a beard? The former is _Ghost Adventures_ (which I watch with my daughter because the way they scream like little girls and say “Dude!” 956 times an episode amuses us), the latter is _Ghost Lab_ which I think may have been canceled due to boringness. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-supernatural-reality-shows-ever-found-anything/575697/29 "2011-03-25T21:33:56Z")
[QUOTE=Marlitharn] Was it a frat boy douchebag with spiked hair and baggy pants or a heavyset Texas good ol’ boy with a ball cap and a beard? The former is _Ghost Adventures_ (which I watch with my daughter because the way they scream like little girls and say “Dude!” 956 times an episode amuses us), the latter is _Ghost Lab_ which I think may have been canceled due to boringness. [/QUOTE] Frat boy douchebag. Very good description in fact. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-supernatural-reality-shows-ever-found-anything/575697/30 "2011-03-25T23:37:33Z")
The BBC’s Ghostwatch is the great grandaddy of all such shows. It’s first and only episode can be viewed on youtube. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPTDHEeLI0A) Those wishing to believe in such things can find convincing evidence here. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-supernatural-reality-shows-ever-found-anything/575697.md?page=1)