Paranormal State – Dwelling of the Dead – S05E11

For this episode the team heads off to Kentucky to investigate a house where a mother claims she and her son are plagued by spirits. And not just that she hears noises and footsteps, but that this entity has held her down and choked her. She claims aggressive and hostile contact with something. Also, her son sees black shadows and ghosts all over the house. And not just once or twice, but all the time. David draws pictures of them and says they live in the basement.

After gathering up a whole slew of events that have happened in the house, Ryan and team start to check it out. For this investigation they’ve brought in Chad, who basically just makes me laugh. It’s almost comical how he challenges spirits and dares them to do something, then inevitably starts to swear and panic as he sees shadows or feels something move.

This investigation proves to be no different, but the interesting thing is that Chad swears he feels the bed moving. It doesn’t look like anything is happening, but he is dead set that there is a vibration. I think that’s interesting especially in regards to some of things that happen later.

Michelle makes an appearance and does a walkthrough of the house. She feels a presence that is heavily connected with antiques and taking care of the place. There is also the sense of a woman who might want to pass along a message.

We do find out that two deaths took place in the home. It turns out that an older couple lived in the home and passed away at different times, due to old age, although peacefully. The PRS team manages to find the daughter and she says the father was rather strict, wanted things to be orderly and took great care of the furniture and antiques in the home. However, there is no mention that he was ill tempered or unleashed his wrath on anyone even though the team seems to be hinting that might be the cause of the experiences.

That line of research doesn’t yield much so the team goes with Dead Time, this time with Chad in the house by himself. He starts going crazy over a door that opens on its own, only to find out it just happens to swing open if you step in the right place. But there is an interesting part to Chad being in the house. He once again feels that things are vibrating. He talks about the computers and monitors that seem to be moving. It’s nothing definitive, but again, he feels a vibration.

Ryan heads down to the basement with David since he says the ghosts live down there. They don’t find anything, but they do find that there are some EMF surges coming from the electrical wiring. It’s an unfinished basement with lots of exposed wires so that could certainly be something.

But they don’t comes across anything while in the basement with David, so Ryan feels that it would be best to have Mary reclaim her home. This leads to her shouting wildly at whatever may be stressing her, telling it to go to hell and stay there. As you might expect some blessed medals are handed out to try and return peace to the home.

For this episode the evidence of anything supernatural is almost completely lacking. They do get some bangs and creaks, but that seems like nothing more than an old house settling. One thing they completely seem to pass on is that Chad feels vibrations. He felt them upstairs while sitting on her bed and again downstairs around the kitchen. It would seem something is causing that whether it’s heavy traffic from something nearby, or perhaps faulty wiring, perhaps something amiss with the plumbing or mechanical device. It could have been a shaky foundation, something running close to the house, even a railroad somewhere nearby. Depending on what it is, it could be causing Mary’s experiences. If nothing else it seems like it could be affecting her sleep which in turn is causing her to misinterpret things. Ironically, Ryan says her feeling of being held down and choked was more than likely sleep paralysis.

Personally I’m thinking that she has a sleeping disorder, coupled with some exposed wiring and some sort of odd vibration is all making her feel like something is going on. Plus, I’m sure she’s worried about her son and his learning difficulties which is just making a wildly stressful situation. This is further complicated by an old house that creaks and pops and just adds to the experience. I really didn’t get the impression anything was actually going on. But rather, problems brought on by stress and the environment.

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Paranormal State – Do Bad Things – S05E10

PRS heads Ohio after being called in by Heather who lost her sister in an apparent suicide. However, she feels demonic spirits in the house caused her sister to take her life. Heather thinks her siser was possessed by evil and was driven to hurt herself. As they dig deeper they find the brothers had problems when they stayed in Heather’s room and that they too feel there is something evil in the house. They report they keep hearing voices that say to kill their parents and to kill themselves. They feel the spirit was just too much for their sister and she ended her life. Even the mom believes evil got into her daughter.

As the team checks out the house Ryan starts in with the "in the name of Jesus Christ, I command you" mantra. During the investigation the only thing they get is some tapping in the garage where the suicide took place. That tapping could have been a mouse, rat, bird or some other animal living in there. It could be dripping water for all we know. Perhaps a loud clock in a box just ticking away.

Katrina checks with the former owners who lived there for 50 years and they state they never had a single experience while they lived there. Of course, I’m sure they would never admit the walls were bleeding or anything. But this casts some doubt on the claims of the family since they found no evidence during their investigation and the previous owners report nothing.

When Ryan confronts the mom, she becomes pretty hostile and says they need to only investigate the house and not the people. She then tells them all to get out, the investigation is over.

Heather doesn’t want to give up so Ryan brings in Father Jim who basically tells her she needs to move on with her life. They throw Holy Water all over the place and hope that takes care of it. Basically Ryan thinks the family is cursed, however, he doesn’t give a single reason why he thinks that way. Looking at things like abuse, depression, mental illness or medical conditions would be stupid, it has to be a family curse.

Sadly this family is in need or some serious help. Something wrong is going on and this whole demonic/paranormal angle seems like a really weak copout.

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Paranormal State – The Lurking Man – S05E09

Nancy is the homeowner who thinks she is being watched. She keeps waking up only to find herself surrounded by Native American spirits. Her daughters feel like they’re being watched too and they all see shadows and hear noises. The problem has gotten so bad that they’ve left the house and won’t spend the night there.

This episode is very confusing to me. It is very disjointed and a lot of the details seem to be missing. We get some details that the kids have been playing with the Ouija board which of course is a sure sign of a demonic presence in Ryan’s world. Then there is some mention of an occult book which just adds fuel to the fire. Couple this with some Native American tie that really hasn’t been properly researched and Ryan has all he needs to start talking about the demonic and how the land needs to be appeased.

They bring in a sketch artist so Nancy can describe the person she has seen. They somehow figure out this is a person who committed suicide (perhaps murdered) near the property and that he is lurking about. With no evidence to actually support this claim they spring into action by offering up some of their blessed medals and by performing a house cleansing. Even though Ryan is claiming that there is occult work going on – the Ouija and occult book – and that somehow Native American powers are at work, they put a couple medals in the house and all is well.

I guess I just didn’t follow this one.

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Ghost Adventures – Amargosa Opera House – S04E11

Zak and the team head out to Death Valley to investigate the Amargosa Opera House, an old borax mining town that has all but disappeared off the map. It was started in 1923, but now boasts 3 full time residents which isn’t surprising since it’s in the middle of nowhere. It’s an isolated spot so the town had to be self sufficient.

Like most towns of the period it was pretty rough and dangerous. There were plenty of fights and murders and working conditions were pretty bad. Not only was the borax toxic, but the heat would hit 130 and simply make life miserable. Not an easy way to make a living by any stretch.

As they’re doing the walkthrough the employees are very proud of “Spooky Hollow” which is the non-renovated section of the hotel. They claim murders and hangings took place in there. They also say they see shadows, apparitions, that people get touched and there is even a spirit they call Boss Man who was hung but still lurks around the place. They go so far as to say the more bravado you show the more likely you are to get groped. Good thing they brought Zak along!

In the hotel they claim to have multiple rooms with paranormal activity. There are claims of orbs, voices, children crying, and even that the spirits try to channel through the guests. Clearly, the owners and employees think there is a lot going on.

Before things get started, Zak takes a moment to point out that they’ve taped off the location and turned off all the power to the building so as to eliminate as much noise contamination as possible. I find this interesting. I guess I’m not the only one who’s been complaining about that.

As things get started, Zak is trying to bring out the spirit of the Boss Man, by using some provoking. At the same time Aaron is talking about making some repairs to the place and if the spirits want them to leave. Right at this time there is the sound of a rock falling and Aaron soils his pants! I mean he is literally jumping around trying to decide which way to run. Damn Aaron, calm down! It’s the wrecked part of the building, that sound could have been anything. Even still, with all the investigations he’s been on you would expect at some point he would stop acting like Scooby-Doo.

They continue their investigation by going into the supposedly haunted rooms. While there, they claim to get multiple EVPs. They also claim to get nauseous and that their energy is being drained. At one point Zak says he can’t move and feels frozen. Shortly after, he is sitting on the bed coughing up a storm and goes so far as to say it’s not his voice that’s actually coughing. That’s just an odd statement to make no matter how you look at it.

While sitting in the rooms they keep pressing for EVPs and claim to get all sorts of responses. Quite frankly none of the responses seem to make any sense in regards to what they’re asking. But they can get excited over them if they want to.

The big evidence of the episode is the image of a person Zak catches in the thermal imager. Everyone is beyond excited over this evidence, even the guys they take it to for analysis. Everyone claims that since Zak made the same motions and swept the imager over the same area and didn’t catch the figure again, it must be paranormal. To me, that just means whoever made the original reflection moved and didn’t get caught again. I don’t really think this was a big deal. It could be a neat thing, but how can you say that was anything more than just a heat reflection?

The guys, and the owners, firmly believe this place to be haunted by all sorts of things. But again, I’m not thinking they really captured that much. The figure in the thermal imager is about the best they came back with and that is hardly proof of anything. Maybe they did capture something, must they just took a picture of themselves. Maybe there is something to the activity, but when you take a step back this seems like a way to drum up some business for an out of the way hotel that has way too many vacancies.

I wouldn’t mind paying the place a visit, but I wouldn’t expect anything too dramatic to happen.

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