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Ghost Adventures – Yorktown Hospital – S04E21

Zak and the boys are down in Texas to investigate the Yorktown Hospital for what they claim are a series of demonic events and vengeful spirits. I sort of think that claim might be a touch exaggerated. Every hospital experiences death, but 2,000 of them in the course of 40 years actually seems pretty reasonable. As they say that’s only 50 a year or 1 a week. Considering the time period and the work people did, oil drilling, that really doesn’t seem that bad.

But there are quite a few claims to go with their visit. For example, nuns are supposedly choking chapel visitors who happen to have tattoos. There are also reports of people being hit and scratched. Mike, the caretaker, tells of reports of people being punched and abused when they come to visit. Mike has no doubt the place is haunted by ghosts. He also tells Zak that there was a murder in the basement – a crime of passion that left two people dead.

Unlike other hospitals there aren’t reports of bizarre experiments and poor treatment to the patients. There was no doctor that abused people or got the nurses pregnant. There was no epidemic or massive outbreak. There was no catastrophic accident or huge loss of life. We also don’t hear any reports about workers being abused and working in unnecessarily dangerous conditions. Not to discount anything, but overall the hospital sounds pretty tame.

To learn more about the oil workers they head outside of town to try and film some of the work being done on a local oil derrick. Things look like they’ll be cut short when one of the workers comes out and gets them to move along. Zak really needs to work on his introduction skills. He fumbles all over the place with what they’re doing and seems to take forever with saying who they are and what they’re working on. But it does work out in the end and the oil worker is actually a friendly chap who knows quite a bit about the hospital. He got stitches there and his uncle actually passed away there. He says everyone knows about the ghosts inside there and he firmly believes the place is haunted. He goes even further and says he’s sure his uncle is haunting the place. His uncle was stabbed and he doesn’t feel he’s at peace.

And then on with the investigation. They start by setting up the POV camera on Zak’s shoulder. I still think it should be attached to his head so you can actually see what he sees when he sees it. But right as they start, Zak asks for a name and the meters start going off. They also claim to get the EVP of "You wanna play?" An interesting way to start things off. They don’t stick around here very long though.

Then comes out my least favorite device, the PX. As they are setting up, Aaron claims to get chills and Zak is snapping photos. Zak claims he captured a shadow figure in the photo. When they bring it up on screen there is lots of distortion and pixilation in it. That could easily be "matrixing" tricking the eye into seeing something. I can sort of see a blob, but to say that’s an entity is too much of a stretch for me.

Down in the basement the recorders capture what sounds like a scream and the phrase "it must be told and I’ll tell them you did it". I think that’s a bit of stretch considering how garbled that is, but if accurate it’s a pretty creepy thing to say. But it’s interesting that no one was around asking questions when this was spoken.

Zak decides to take the nuns head on and goes to the chapel to show off his tattoos. Supposedly the nuns don’t like this behavior at all, but I can’t understand why they would start choking people over it. Doesn’t seem very nun like if you asked me.

With Zak taking off his shirt they set up the PX to see what they can capture. A voice supposedly says "Soul" which doesn’t really answer any relevant question. There is also a voice that says the tattoos are "sick" and that he should "suffer" for them. Perhaps some words from the other side, but certainly no choking. There is also the claim that Zak should "listen" and "think" about "Jesus".

They move on to the nun’s quarters where Zak says he feels cold spots. Aaron is down in the basement where the murder took place. Zak says he feels an energy enter him and points to an "orb" floating around as confirmation. Aaron claims to hear someone moving around during his investigation. He also says he captures "hurry, hide" and then "the killer is coming, get to the hallway". Its one hell of a warning, but it’s not followed up by any sort of activity or event. It warns of imminent danger but Aaron escapes without incident. With that sort of lead up I was expecting Aaron to get knocked down or some explosive noise.

Another interesting investigation even though it doesn’t have the usual background of their previous hospital visits. I don’t think they caught too much or experienced very much that support the claims. There was no choking, hitting, scratching or punching. There were some garbled voices on boxes I’m not thrilled with though. Some were interesting, but I don’t think they lead to an overall conclusion that the place is infested with demonic energy. And even though there were 2,000 deaths the place seems pretty normal. However, the locals feel differently and plenty of people they talked with believe the hospital has its own energy. Hospitals are great locations and can lead to all sorts of events. Does the evidence support this one to be haunted?

This has been one heck of a season and more episodes than I expected during a single run. They’ve been to some fantastic locations and I’m looking forward to where they end up next. It’s hard to say if the places they go are truly haunted, but it’s a great adventure.

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Destination Truth – Live from Ireland – S04E09

Ducketts_Grove Josh got the band back together and headed over to Ireland for a special live investigation as Destination Truth went in search of the Banshee at Duckett Grove. Josh brought in Jael and Ryder from his previous seasons and enlisted the help of Kris and Barry for GHI. Apparently Allison Scagliotti had so much fun in Chile when investigating the Haunted Mining Town that she made a return visit to hunt for the harbinger of death rather than sitting in the Irish Pub for St. Patty’s Day. This group really knows how to have a good time together.

The investigation is of Ducketts Grove, a massive estate owned by the Duckett family but destroyed by a fire in 1933 and now lies in a rather tragic state of disrepair. It’s said to be haunted by the Banshee and that it has made appearances there for decades. It has been sighted by caretakers and travelers. It’s said to haunt the gardens. And people who pass by avoid the forest at all costs. From the sound of things this place is straight from the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. When they did interviews, just about everyone agreed the place was haunted and that trying to find the Banshee was a sure way to get yourself in trouble. If you see the Banshee you’ll die and if you hear her wail it means that someone in your family is going to die. There is basically no end of doom and gloom surrounding her appearance. So out into the darkness to find her!

Since Barry is Irish, Josh asks his opinion about the Banshee. Barry admits he’s heard the wail twice and both times a family member has died. They interview another witness who also heard the wail and he claim his mother passed two days later. He also says she was ill already so was it the work of the Banshee or did the illness take its course? But either way, Barry is fully convinced the Banshee is real and that they need to be extremely careful with what they’re doing. Honestly, I’m a little surprised he decided to come along since it very well could be tempting fate for him.

The house itself is a wreck. The floors are rotting away, trees and bushes are growing inside, the stairs are broken and there is debris everywhere. In some places the floor is actually missing as Josh and Ryder find out as they almost walked off the ledge. They resort to spelunking down the wall to reach the lower level.

There are quite a few interesting events during the night not the least of which was the Syfy.com site being overwhelmed with visitors and being completely unresponsive for a large portion of the event. But, there are tons of birds and wildlife scratching around out there. There is even a bird that crashes into the ground while they are looking around. While none of these actually sounded like the Banshee there is no denying there are tons of sounds that could be mistaken for it and just add to the overall ominous feel of the place.

Rex sees a large shadow moving around while in the walled garden and swears it was a figure moving around. Others in the group think it could just be shadows from the flashlight but he’s convinced he saw something.

There seems to be a lot of activity in the towers where Josh and Ryder keep thinking they see someone or something up there. Even people at home hit the Banshee button saying they see something. Josh, Ryder and Kris head up the tower to see if they can find out what’s going on, but ultimately send Jael up to the very top so she can investigate alone. This is after she’s had a bought of dizziness and perhaps even a little nausea while investigating in the garden. She has to sit down for several minutes and Rex is by her side trying to get her to breathe and settle herself down. It doesn’t look like she got injured but definitely needs to take a breather before moving on.

She looks absolutely shaken and out of sorts and she climbs to the top. It’s hard to say if she’s still suffering from a bit of sickness or if she is just really scared, but her voice is trembling, she is having a hard time walking around and seems unsteady. She claims to hear footsteps and lots of noises when she’s up there. There is nothing tangible to be found and Jael is more than happy to come down out of the tower.

Even though I don’t think they caught very much this was a great event. I only wish Allison would have participated a little more. She basically spent her time watching the monitors and didn’t actually go out and survey the area. Also, several of the old gang were missing like Bicha, Mike and Evan. But overall this was a heck of a lot of fun. Josh was a great host and things flowed together quite nicely. A few audio glitches with the two sets of teams overlapping from time to time, but there was plenty of adventure to be had.

While they didn’t actually find the Banshee they certainly found out why so many people are afraid of the grounds. Not only is it dangerous, but the dense forest, the slew of animals and a myriad of bizarre noises would all solidify that the place is something to be avoided. And as was mentioned during the investigation if you did get frightened and started to run you could fall through the floor, run into a room where there is no floor, trip and fall down the crumbled stairs, get lost in the maze of plants and debris and crash into a wall or any number of other ways to injure yourself or even be killed. The Grove has a true element of danger surrounding it.

I’m excited Josh is back with an all new season and look forward to where he’s going to take us. I think Antarctica is the one I’m looking forward to the most, but from the snippets I’ve seen it looks like the whole season is going to be an awesome adventure.

Ducketts Grove

Ducketts Grover History

Banshee of Ireland

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Destination Truth – Live 4 Hour Investigation in Ireland

To commemorate St. Patrick’s Day and Destination Truth’s season 4.5 premiere, Josh Gates and his team will brave the crumbling ruins of Duckett’s Grove Castle in search of the truth behind the banshee myth. Special guests participating in this exciting live event include: Warehouse 13’s, Allison Scagliotti, paranormal investigators Kris Williams and Barry FitzGerald of Ghost Hunters International and Jael De Pardo from Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files.

I think this is a must see event! Destination Truth does their first live investigation and it’s in Ireland for St. Patrick’s Day! Can you really ask for more than that?

Destination Truth Live From Ireland – Thursday March 17 at 7/6c

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Paranormal State comes to an end …

It may not be new news but it’s still worth bringing up. Back in January Ryan announced (on his blog) that he wouldn’t return for another season of Paranormal State and the Scooby Gang would disperse to pursue separate interests. It is interesting to read Ryan’s post and many of things he includes. I wasn’t aware the Catholic Church would forego all their trained clergy and look to a TV celebrity to perform an exorcism. I thought they had their own private little city full of people who could handle such things if they were really warranted. I also wasn’t actually aware the Catholic Church acknowledged, believed in, sanctioned or even discussed exorcisms any more. Certainly not without a hell of a lot of research and counseling. And I don’t think they would do it for TV and ratings.

I can’t say I’m surprised over bringing the show to an end. I haven’t been a fan for some time (morbid curiosity keeps me watching plus I liked Serge, Chip and Katrina. Chad was a dunce) and I sort of feel others may be in the same boat. It lacks the appeal the first two seasons had. It turned from investigation into grief counseling and journeys into mental illness. I don’t believe any of the PRS cases showed any real signs of the demonic or even of the paranormal. Quite frankly I’m not sure what they showed. I feel bad for the clients of the show because I don’t think they got the help they really deserved or needed.

What’s also interesting is the Wikipedia article on Paranormal State and some of the claims that are being made against the show. Sure a lot of this type of thing is typical, but it does make you wonder.

And you have to ask, in all the years that Paranormal State has been on what evidence did they capture that would be considered proof of paranormal activity? Of the demonic? Inmy opinion they didn’t capture anything of the sort.

In a way I’ll miss the show. I think they started off with good intentions but got derailed by ratings and DVD sales. They have a few more episodes to air later this year to finish off the season and that will be it. A&E appears to have a spinoff ready to go. We’ll have to see what happens with that one. I don’t have high hopes.

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