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Ghost Adventures – The Queen Mary – S10E01

image For this adventure Zak, Nick and Aaron head out to California to visit the floating museum of the Queen Mary, a steam liner that one served as an opulent cruise ship for the rich and famous, but was then pressed into service as a troop transport. While it didn’t see actual combat, it brought back plenty of men who did. And it wasn’t the enemy that caused damage to the ship, but an accident that involved it’s own escort ship. The two collided which killed hundreds of men on the smaller boat. From reports, many of those deaths were caused when men were literally pulled into the wake of the massive propellers of the Queen Mary. Certainly a grim way to go.

There are reports of figures and the voice of a little girl heard in multiple places from the pool to the hallways. Interestingly, there are no reports of a girl ever being killed on board. There are also reports of numerous voices as well as shadow figures. Multiple groups have investigated this location including Peter James who may have done first documented paranormal investigation on board. His video also records the voice of a girl. Some claim it’s the same little girl. Based on the activity, many claim this to be the most haunted ship in the world. Mind you, they never say how many ships are on the list. While the ship didn’t see combat deaths did occur, both from wounded soldiers being brought back and from prisoners who apparently died in the less than spectacular conditions below decks.

Right from the start the team feels like they’re experiencing the paranormal and without any real evidence to support it, they conclude it to be dark energy. There is a claim the voice of the little girl heard by Peter James is the same girl that was captured 20 years later. There was some sort of forensic analysis, but let’s not give out the name of the company that did the work. that would be silly. This feel of dread seems to be based on feeling dizzy in the area by the pool and that the "voices" seem angry. Billy feels he’s choking on smoke while filming and a bad vibe is running through the place. They haven’t captured any real evidence yet, but it’s time to draw conclusions

Zak brings in Debby Constantino to validate the voices they hear. Without skipping a beat she picks out the voices are angry and that since there is no reported death of a little girl, the voice must be an imposter and something sinister. Zak has contacted some friends of Peter James who brought his favorite jackets with them. Zak jumps at the chance to do a séance (which he’s been against multiple times in the past because of the evil spirits that slip through) and immediately states he hears a door opening which must be the presence of Peter. He also concludes that balls of light are heading straight for those same jackets. Any ball of light they see is deemed spirit energy and it always seems to end up in someone. It either comes down on top of their heads or sneaks up and goes in through their backs.

As the investigation goes on they feel the presence of someone, Nick claims to get pushed right around the door 13 where a sailor was killed. And according to Zak it was a suspicious death. No evidence to support that claim, but that’s what he’s going with. They see a figure move in front of an open door and hear a girl calling out to them. Oddly, the voice of the girl sounds remarkably like Debby Constantino who just happens to be off by herself. Additionally, Zak says he sees more orbs making their way into both him and Debby as they work their way around the ship. Clearly a ship of this age can’t have dust or particles flying around, it has to be spirit energy.

Armed with what appears to be a Kinect attached to a camera or some such, Zak claims to get a figure coming right at him. Oh course, he nearly soils himself as it sounds like he’s on the verge of screaming. It’s an interesting phenomenon to be sure, but it could be anything and who knows what their device is registering. They put a lot of faith in an Xbox toy from Microsoft.

So far the ship has revealed orbs, voices, bangs, knocks, pushes and a full figure walking in front of a door. Oh my goodness, it’s the most haunted ship in the world!

From, where I’m sitting, I’m not convinced by a single piece of evidence they caught. I don’t believe the ship is anything more than a creaking, old, metallic boat that makes plenty of odd, but perfectly natural noises and I don’t believe any of the voices they captured are real. They went into this investigation utterly convinced the ship is haunted and as soon as they put a foot on the ship they state their is a demonic presence. How in the hell can they be objective and debunk anything when their mind is already made up? It happens all the time, but is more and more blatant with every episode.

I’ve been less than impressed with how Ghost Adventures conducts themselves and this has pretty much pushed me over the edge. It’s really getting hard to tune in for this nonsense any more. It’s degraded to showboating and overly dramatizing every little thing that happens. Every place they visit is haunted, all the spirits are evil, all the orbs are trying to take over Zak and demons are parading around as kids. And this is what they believe before opening the front door. The idea of waiting for the evidence to come in before coming to a conclusion is a lost idea for these guys.

I used to enjoy the locations they went to and hearing about the history. It’s just become too "emo" for me. Not everything is a portal to hell. As with so many other shows, I think this one has run it’s course.

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Ghost Asylum – St Vincent’s Mental Asylum – S01E04

image For this episode of Ghost Asylum, we head off to Oklahoma City to visit the St. Vincent Mental Asylum – another location I have never heard of. It’s tragic that so many of these asylums have the same checkered past. This one started in the 1940’s as a treatment center for the mentally ill. Things went quite poorly and the story goes that a nurse smothered two patients. It was then taken over by a priest named Frank Dolan who turned it into a drug rehab center. Thing again went quite poorly and Father Dolan was killed on the property by the patients he was trying to help. The facility only lasted until the 1980’s when it was shut down. The property is now in private hands, but it stands abandoned. TWC spoke to the owner and he says it was an investment, although he’s not sure what to do with the place. Perhaps it’ll be renovated, perhaps just turned to rubble.

But many people have come to investigate this location and they talk of shadow figures in different parts of the asylum. They hear creaking and the banging of doors. They also claim to see floating orbs out in the woods. We have to take some of this with a grain of salt. The woods are a stones throw away from a neighborhood with plenty of street lights and traffic. Additionally, this is an old, broken down building with plenty of rats moving around so your going to hear footsteps and hear creaking. This nearly collapsed building will make all sorts of weird sounds.

As the team moves through the building the focus on Father Dolan and whether or not the entities with them had something to do with his death. The meters flash and spike so they feel they’re in the presence of evil. We also get confirmation of the rats in the building.

Armed with some evidence they seek out locals to learn more. Turns out then nurse that smothered the patients was most likely schizophrenic and sadly Father Dolan had his own personal demons and was supposedly arrested for soliciting male prostitutes.

During the investigations they feel they capture several shadow figures moving through the halls. Although this certainly seems like the work of the big rats or perhaps their own bodies casting shadows, they disagree.

Since they firmly believe the asylum is in the grip of a demonic entity, one that has driven the patients and staff to madness, they want to trap it and throw it out of there. The trap of the night has me scratching my head though. I understand the theory of burning sage for good energy and sulfur is supposedly left behind when evil is afoot. However, I don’t understand how they plan to use a wet-dry vac to suck up something from the spirit world. They seem to coat the inside with reflective sheets in hope of confusing the spirit? Can someone explain this one to me? I’m no engineer or scientist, but the validity of this one escapes me. Are they just picking a hardware store at random and basing their trap on what’s available in these small towns? Are we really expecting spirit energy to be trapped by what’s on the shelves of the local janitorial supply store? Good gravy!

Anyway, they burn sage which doesn’t seem to gain any reaction. They then turn to the sulfur which they believe causes more shadow figures. As they chase the spirit around and call it out, the bucket of sulfur mysteriously burns into a roaring fire which "could have burned the building down". A touch exaggeration, but ok, it did flare up. What else was in there? Like an fire, did it just reach a previously unused fuel source? Are demonic shadow figures the only answer?

The meters once again start to go off and they all feel their seeing things crawling the walls and coming to get them. This of course comes with headaches out of nowhere. The team wonders if this is the evil entity trying to get into their heads.

The sage and sulfur don’t draw in the spirits as they had hope so alas the wet-dry vac of demonic holding doesn’t come to fruition. So close though. They feel they have plenty of evidence though and head back to see what they have.

The grainy video evidence shows a blob moving across the wall, which they firmly believe is the shadow figure of the dark energy and they also feel they capture the name "Brannon" one of the investigators on the team being spoken by an unknown voice.

So where does this leave us? Is this place the residence of some dark force that drove the staff and inmates to kill? Are these real shadow figures or just the trick of the light or reflections? Would the trap have worked had the spirit energy moved into the right position?

The verdict is definitely still out on this one, but if nothing else, we have another interesting location. If nothing else we’re seeing some new places. You can check out some really interesting pictures of St. Vincent’s at the link below.

St. Vincent’s Home at AbandonedOK.com

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What lies in store if you live Forever?

image So ABC presents us with a new show called Forever, a slight twist on the old idea of living forever. No, character at the center of our story, Henry Morgan, isn’t a vampire (thank goodness), or werewolf (not that we know of), or highlander (at least for now there is more than one), but rather a man who isn’t quite sure how he turned out the way he did. He’s been around for 200 years and for the most part seems to be at ease with the world around him. He’s used his time to learn, study and try to do some good in the world. He’s even managed to create his own little family.  But now on the horizon something is brewing and Henry comes to realize he’s not the only one.

While the opening story feels a little reminiscent of Unbreakable, there are plenty of hooks that will have me back for another episode. There are some tinges of Sherlock Holmes as well, but that is in no way a bad thing for me. He certainly should be a keen observer after 200 years of watching people. So it looks like Henry will use those powers and the vast knowledge he’s stored up to help people in modern day New York. The Big Apple isn’t too bad a place to pick if you want to be anonymous and working with the police will give him plenty to work on. I wonder if he’ll bump into Sherlock on his adventures?

Anyway, I think this can be an interesting series with plenty of room for some intriguing stories and a look at what it means to be alive. What defines us? What makes us who we are? What will we be known for with the time we have on earth? Perhaps that’s reading a little too much into it at these early stages, but Forever was pretty good. I’ll definitely stick around for another episode of this one. Hopefully, he won’t be a vampire or genetic experiment, that will just ruin the whole mystique of the show. And besides you have to admire a guy who walks around with a 300 year old pocket watch.

Yes, yes, there were tinges of Highlander as well. The first movie in that series was pretty damn good you have to admit.

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The Next Chapter of Sleepy Hollow Begins

image The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is back and things are looking quite dire and the chain of events to bring about the end of days appears have been set in motion.

When we last left Ichabod he’d had a trying day. He had discovered his wife was the principle member in a coven of witches, his son was not only still alive, but had mad a few bad life choices and was now the Horseman of War, his stalwart companion Abigail had to be sacrificed in Purgatory and when all was said and done, Ichabod found himself tied to the bottom of pine box and buried alive.

We jump into the second season and find Abigail and Ichabod ready to fight the forces of evil with the nefarious Sin Eater Henry trapped in the basement. A key from Benjamin Franklin a new alphabet he created can unlock the secrets of Purgatory. But wait, something feels amiss. This isn’t quite how we left things.

Not all is what it appears to be.

I have to say this was a fun start to the new season. We have twists and turns right out of the gate. Ichabod and Abigail are in some seriously deep water and those experiments from Benjamin Franklin with the kite, the key and the lightning, yeah, there’s another explanation for that. And quite a funny one too.

I’ve been looking forward to the new season and had a wonderful time watching Sleepy Hollow from last year. The Washington Irving story is one of my favorites and I’m very fond of the Disney adaptation. I think this series adds nicely to the "lore" with it’s own interesting plot twists, lots of well defined characters and some very interesting supernatural elements. And don’t forget we have plenty of history from the Salem Witch Trials just to keep things interesting. I think this is going to be a great season and I can’t wait to see how Ichabod gets horseman under control and how he’s discipline his son for acting up in a such a dreadful manner.

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