We recorded the segment this morning and we talked about how people interact with spirits, why they might experience these interactions, the difference between residual and intelligent hauntings, and the issue and process of sending spirits “to the other side” or “to the light”, as some people call it.  And in-between there was a lot of talk about the role that belief in these things play, the differences between ghost hunting shows and the average paranormal investigation, and a little about “shadow people”.

There were a couple of brief things that occurred to me after our talk that I didn’t get to mention that I’ll mention here briefly.

1. Spirits vs. Ghosts – A lot of people in the paranormal use the terms interchangeably, and I often do as well for the sake of simplicity, however I do see them as two different things.  All Ghosts are Spirits but not all Spirits are Ghosts.  Ghosts are those that are earthbound and are haunting a place.  Spirits are any disincarnate being that we connect with, like Spirit Guides, who aren’t necessarily hanging around a location or haunting people, places, or things.
2. Hunting vs. Investigating – I don’t refer to what I do as “hunting”.  That seems to more imply that we’re trying to capture something or trap something.  I call what I do “investigating” because I see myself as an outside party trying to find answers to a situation that involves both spirits and humans.  The living are just as much a part of an investigation as the spirits are.
3. Debunking vs. Disproving – We touched on this very briefly and I wanted to mention it again here quickly.  I don’t call what I do “debunking” but rather “disproving”.  I approach my paranormal work as an “open minded skeptic”.  I don’t ever take anything at face value or believe reports of hauntings form clients or observers without investigating it first.  I need to be able to prove these things are happening before I can say that it is what the person is claiming.  To “debunk” something is to expose and ridicule it.  And certainly that’s not what I do!  Instead my job is to prove or disprove paranormal activity in order to set the client at ease.

So please be sure to tune in to tonight’s show and hear this interesting conversation that we had!  It will air tonight at 6pm PST/9pm EST at After Hours Radio.  An encore replay will happen later this week as well.

Encore presentation will be heard on Wednesday April 20th, at 7:30pm PST/10:30pm EST.
Be sure to tune in and listen and then visit the After Hours Radio Facebook page to share your thoughts on the show!

This Ghost Hunters show gives us a bit of a behind the scenes look at what goes into being a member of TAPS. Steve and Tango fill the roles of teacher foe the academy, leading and guiding 5 individuals hoping to graduate and be given a spot on the team as a new investigator. Talk about job placement! As the semester (i.e. season) rolls on, if someone isn’t making the grade, they will be eliminated and a prospective student on the waiting list will be called up to fill the shoes of the dismissed member. In the end it all comes down to finding someone that will make a great investigator and be able to fit in with the TAPS team.

On the first episode Steve and Tango took the students to Fort Mifflin in Pennsylvania. Fort Miflin has long been known as an investigation destination for teams and individuals in the paranormal. This was certainly an exciting place for the team to go to for their first investigation together. There are five prospective team members right now:

• Heathyr- a 24 year old medium who leads her own paranormal team back home, the Arizona Research and Mediumship Society.
• Chris – a 24 year old science student who has mainly an interest in the scientific side of things in an attempt to gather concrete evidence of paranormal activity.
• Karl – is a 20 year old recent member of the Northern Colorado Paranormal Society and amateur investigator.
• Susan – is a 22 year old aspiring DJ who is a member of the League of Paranormal Investigators.
• Ben – is a 20 year old amateur investigator who has a big love for using the gadgets and equipment for paranormal investigation.

In this first investigation all five came up against some challenges and Steve and Tango weren’t easy on the, Heathyr opted to not participate in the pre-investigation walkthrough because she felt that it would compromise her ability to use her psychic gifts on the investigation. While that could certainly be true, I found that to be one big strike against her; she’s there to be an investigator, not a medium. When you’re an investigator who has psychic ability, that’s great, but you’re there to be an investigator first and foremost. It also puts the rest of the team at a disadvantage because now at set up and during the investigation you have a team member that doesn’t know the hot spots, doesn’t know about the predetermined set up and so on. Chris found himself getting a lesson in the power of suggestion from Steve and Susan learned the hard way about keeping secrets from your team mates.

It was a really interesting episode and shows that this could be a promising series from TAPS and the Ghost Hunters franchise. If you missed this episode catch it in replay or OnDemand and be sure to catch the next episode. The show airs Wednesdays 10/9c.

Mood: working