Paranormal

The Fades

I just watched a very unusual show called "The Fades" from the BBC. It combines a whole slew of elements, but the main premise is about a boy who can see the dead, specifically those who haven’t passed on. There is also a struggle going on, the dead can’t ascend because the ascension points have been covered by man and all his buildings. There are also some other creatures which are slipping through and getting stronger. Did I mention there’s an apocalypse coming?

Quite honestly, it’s very bizarre and interesting at the same time. The whole thing plays out like a very slow moving horror movie. There are lots of dark corridors, figures moving in the background, dead souls walking the earth, heroes and villains and even amusing sidekicks. I have no idea where the show is going, but I’m intrigued. It has some elements of "Priest" and "Underworld" with flavors of M. Night Shyamalan throw in. I’m really curious to see where this goes. Like most BBC productions the plot is the important thing. They’re building up the atmosphere with dozens of characters coming into the show and unraveling the story bit by bit. I can’t tell if this brand new or aired last year, but if you have access, it’s worth a look. It definitely has plenty of paranormal elements going on.

The Fades from IMDB

A teenage boy named Paul is haunted by apocalyptic dreams that nobody can explain. As if that weren’t terrifying enough, he begins to see spirits of the dead, known as The Fades, all around him. The Fades can’t be seen, smelt, heard or touched by other humans. When an embittered and vengeful Fade, Polus, finds a way to be human again, it’s up to Paul to stop him – and all of the dead – from breaking back into the world and destroying the human race.

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Paranormal Challenge – Jerome Grand Hotel – S01E12

For this episode, we head out to Arizona to the Jerome Grand Hotel, which is actually very exciting for me since a very good friend of mine lives in Arizona and we’ve been to this hotel. Ironically, we had no idea it was haunted. Too bad we missed out on that opportunity. I’m hopeful I can get back there sometime next year so we can have a look around for ourselves. For now, we have the SAGAPS team and the Living Proof of the Paranormal investigating this old mining town to see what they can come up with.

I have to admit a touch of disappointment that Chris Fleming is once again a judge for the challenge. I just can’t get behind his methods or interpretation. However, for this episode he seemed much more controlled and analytical about the results.

So how did the teams do? They both seem pretty calm and confident as they make their way around the site. There isn’t the usual swearing, yelling and confusion that so many other teams have displayed. In fact, compared to the chaos other teams cause these two seem positively sedate. Both teams walk into a room and listen and get a feel for it. They don’t just go in and ask a string of questions without waiting for a reply then storm out when nothing happens.

When it comes to the evidence however, I don’t think either team captured anything solid and in fact we see one of the blunders where a member of the team captures their own voice and mistakenly thinks it’s an EVP. It’s not a horrible mistake and we’ve seen it happen a couple of times. But, it does go to show that you have to be extremely careful with EVP sessions since any noise, whisper, rustle or footstep could be misinterpreted and considered evidence. The other audio evidence the teams present are unfortunately pretty weak as well. It’s really hard to make anything out of those noises. I’m not the only one, the judges aren’t on board with them either. As far as the visual evidence, I agree with the judges and believe the photo evidence to be nothing more than matrixing. I don’t see the head in the doorway and the face in the FLIR just isn’t good enough.

There were a lot of scraping noises, some rumbles and other bumps going on, but there is nothing to say those were paranormal. It could been the building settling, the wind (as they say there was a breeze), people walking around or something more earthly. They were certainly worth more investigation,but for now they don’t lend themselves to evidence of the paranormal. Since it’s a hotel, this would have been a prime opportunity to stay the night in the haunted rooms and collect evidence all night long. Two suicides took place in room 32 so spending the night in there could yield all sorts of interesting results.

These were some fun teams to watch and presented themselves in a calm and collected manner. I liked the Solo Cam where we see Jim from SAGAPS take the bull by the horns and step into the elevator shaft to look for Claude Harvey. He’s not skittish, he’s not jumping around at every sound he hears and doesn’t seem nervous at all. I think that’s impressive as hell. It’s kind of dangerous, but full marks for committing himself to the challenge.

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The Exorcist Files – Infestation – S01E01

I just watched Exorcist Files, a new series from the Discovery Channel. The basic premise, at least for this first episode, is a discussion with several members of the Catholic Church who work in the area of exorcism. For this episode we main focus on Adam Blai who is a member of the International Association of Exorcists. First off, who knew such a thing existed? Second, he is the man who goes in to investigate claims of haunting, demonic infestations and possessions. In this episode, we get a glimpse of three of the cases he has worked on where supernatural forces are at play.

The first dramatization feels like it’s been pulled from the Amityville Horror. There are strange events in the house and the residents feel like they’re living in a dram state.

The second story discusses what seems like a haunted building with some interesting video and audio footage. I will say the audio footage sounds like someone coughing and talking, but the video footage shows all sorts of objects moving around such as doors falling over, brooms moving back and forth, chairs swiveling and things rolling around on a desk. That part was actually pretty wild.

The third story involves a ghost hunter. A woman goes out to investigate the paranormal and apparently brings something home with her. The interesting part here is that the church, or at least these representatives of the church, isn’t too keen on ghost hunting and paranormal investigations. They feel this is just inviting evil into you and your home and that it’s only a matter of time before something goes wrong. This seemed a little strange to me considering the number of priests who have worked with paranormal groups in the past. They were also indicating that saying a little prayer before you go and hunt down things from the spirit world isn’t going to help you.

Finally, we have a woman who’s had multiple bad experiences after her investigations into the paranormal. She now sees dark shadow figures, hears the sounds of footsteps and feels and evil presence. While in prayer she asked that the helpful sprits enter her to protect her. Adam says this was a big mistake and that she just invited the demons to use her body. That seems a little outlandish, but Adam comes across as a pretty levelheaded guy so you feel he has everyone’s best interest in mind.

There was interesting information in this. I assume this is a new series so I look forward to the next one. I think the discussion of the paranormal was the most intriguing part. If you haven’t had a chance to watch it, you might want to check it out. If you do a quick search on this show, you’ll find dozens of articles stating the Vatican gave backing to the show, then pulled out. From what I can tell, the Vatican never had anything to do with the show and at best may have offered a couple people to talk to. It looks like there are 10 episodes scheduled, but as with anything related to this sort of material and the church, we’ll have to wait and see if the rest of the episodes make it to the air. Ironically, if you to go the Discovery Channel website it’s pretty much impossible to find anything about this show.

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Paranormal Challenge – USS Hornet – S01E11

For this episode we head off to California to investigate the USS Hornet, a Navy ship that found itself in the middle of dozens of conflicts, caused the death of many enemies while at the same time driving its own crew to the breaking point. The crew faced death and destruction on a daily basis and for some it was too much to bear. Some say members of the crew never left and their energy can be felt in multiple parts of the ship. So how did the teams do in their handling of the ship and collecting evidence? In many ways, this was a very interesting episode with some solid investigation and understanding of the equipment and location. On the other hand, we see some of the classic problems we’ve seen before.

First off, I’m just going to come right out and say that Dante from the Soul Seekers is an asshole. I don’t know why he feels that going on a ship and acting like he’s the biggest, baddest man around is going to get him anywhere. His constant yelling was distasteful and annoying. Perhaps a little respect is in order? Why do all these people feel you have to be combative in every situation? Dante is yelling and saying he needs to see their power while in the very next breath he’s saying “Thank you sir” and “Can you do this for me please, sir?” You can’t go running around acting like a thug one second and then wash it away by saying “sir”. What the hell kind of process is that? It makes you look like a damn fool.

What about the evidence? There is sure to be a lot of talk about the flashlight going on and off by itself. Well, this is a trick we’ve seen for years and it’s no more spectacular now than it was three years ago when Jason and Grant of the Ghost Hunters started doing it. Sure, it looks like the flashlight is responding to commands, but if it’s the old ploy of unscrewing the bulb then it really isn’t that exciting. The results look great, but you can manipulate them by bumping it or stomping around. It is a pretty cool piece of evidence, however I’ve seen this done before and I just don’t put any faith in it. It’s a little too “delicate” for my liking.

The other big piece is the Morse code that blasts out of the Mel Meter. The interesting part is that the Mel Meter isn’t known for making those kinds of sounds let alone in that pattern. It’s very exciting that you can clearly hear what sounds like Morse code coming out. It would be hard to say it’s anything else. Do we really have a coded message from beyond? I don’t know, but I’d love to see them go back down there and keep working on that experiment.

As far as the gals from SRIP, I’m glad they had enough common sense to not show more evidence of dust floating around. We’ve seen all that before, we don’t need anymore. Unfortunately, the teams are still committing the error of capturing themselves on audio as an EVP. They swear up and down it’s not them saying anything, but when you match up the audio with the video footage you can see them talking or more to the point whispering and they get all excited that they captured evidence. This proves something I have believed and said many times, EVPs are interesting, but they are so very subjective that for the most part they should just be discounted.

I really wasn’t all that thrilled with this episode. I think the Soul Seekers team acted like a bunch of juvenile thugs let loose on a ship. Their style of dress, talk and attitude all suggest “gangsta” rather than “investigator”. I think there is a lot more potential in this show and I wish they would live up to it.

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