Paranormal

Paranormal State – They Only Come Out at Night – S05E02

Ryan is back to his old tricks and his old way of thinking for this one. Quite honestly, this crazy story barely makes any sense. Supposedly the family is being assaulted and taunted by some sort of spirit energy and they’re on the verge of packing up and moving on. The family is being pulled, pinched and pushed. The kids want to move away. The parents are at their wits end.

Ryan and team investigate the house where they feel spider webs in the face and claim they’re getting pushing and pinched. After some digging they feel the "demonic" entity at work is a "pukwudgie", which is "a 2-or-3-foot-tall (0.61 or 0.91 m) troll-like being from the Wampanoag folklore. Pukwudgies’ features resemble those of a human, but with enlarged nose, fingers and ears. Their skin is described as being grey, smooth and at times has been known to glow."

So it’s trolls eh? Tormenting the family and causing problems? Well alrighty then, nothing like going out on a limb is there? I’m sorry, this just sounds completely absurd. That’s the explanation for the events is a little ill tempered troll? It has nothing to do with all the exposed wires in the basement and all the crap they’re storing down there. Those wires wouldn’t perhaps give the feeling of spider webs with all the electricity coursing through them? And with all those boxes and all that stored crap, there is no way someone would just be walking into a box and hitting their hands and arms? It’s has to be the work of some crazy troll. I mean, wow!

As I said, there is no such thing as debunking with these guys, they have no problem going with whatever wild notion that seems to fit their theory. I was actually laughing at this episode. I can’t even imagine what the home owners must have thought. But I’ll be damned if they didn’t just play along with the whole thing.

The first episode wasn’t bad, but this was insane. Morbid curiosity is going to make me tune in for episode 3 just to see if Ryan comes back to Earth or if he continues to walk right off the pier.

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Paranormal State – The Death Room – S05E01

PRS kicks off a new season and quite frankly it wasn’t that bad. It’s actually an interesting story of a woman being locked in her room until she signs over the papers to her money and property to a greedy caretaker. It’s a sad story to be sure, and certainly the seed of a good horror story.

The team shows up and finds that there’s knocking all around the room and Michelle feels someone is trying to escape from the master bedroom. As they dig deeper, they find out a woman was locked in that room until she died. She would knock at the door trying to get someone to let her out.

The team goes through the process of trying to get the sprit to leave by proving she’s no longer trapped in the house. It’s quite elaborate, and perhaps even a little overly dramatic, but in the end the spirit supposedly leaves and crosses over. At least there was no mention of demonic.

This one wasn’t too bad, if, as I mentioned, a little overly dramatic. Paranormal State isn’t the type of show you turn to for finding credible evidence. Everything they get is pretty much impressions and feelings. And forget debunking, this group hasn’t even heard of the term. Forget that banging on the walls in an old plantation home could have been pipes rattling in the walls, to this group, that is a sure sign of spirit activity.

In the end, the team supposedly helps a trapped spirit move and put the abuse to an end. It’s a neat story and if indeed there is any truth, perhaps they’ve done something good. Not bad a season opener, but I have a feeling it won’t last.

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Ghost Adventures – The Stanley Hotel – S04E05

Continuing their travels to the big name haunts, Zak and team head to the Stanley Hotel, a location that hardly needs an introduction. Just to say it, the Stanley was the site of the Ghost Hunters Halloween Special, as well as the backdrop for The Shining which Stephen King crafted after having his own set of experiences in the hotel. So what did the Ghost Hunters team come away with?

Honestly, I was a little underwhelmed by this episode. The main investigation takes place in a storage facility next to the hotel, rather than the main hotel itself. They discuss the Stanley and it’s history and do a quasi investigation while they sleep with digital recorders and cameras running.

They claim to get several EVPs from each room while they’re sleeping. Well, Aaron was sleeping. It seems Zak and Nick didn’t have such an easy night. Were they hassled by the spirits of the rooms or were they just so worked up they couldn’t get to sleep?

That was pretty much it for the main hotel. The guys head over to a large storage building which used to be a hotel on it’s own right back in the 70s. It’s main claim to fame is that it has a supposedly haunted mattress. A guest passed away while at the hotel and instead of throwing the mattress away, the hotel stacked it up against the wall in this building. That alone seems kinda goofy if you asked me. Keeping it as a conversation piece? Does the Stanley think it will bring in more spirits and thus more money if they hold on to it?

This is also supposed to be the scientific part of the episode where they bring in their scientist who makes a lot of the equipment they use. For this investigation he’s rigged up a series of cameras and also a rig that is similar to sonar that can detect spirits and their movement.

As Zak talks to the spirit that might be attached to the mattress they supposedly get more EVPs and the spirit sonar is tracking some movement and anomalies. It certainly seemed interesting, but how was this supposed to be able to put all skeptical doubts to rest? It had a neat "double histogram" but I really can’t say much else about it. What I can say is that it didn’t convince me of anything. It showed a bar graph. I think it’s great that people are working to make new detection devices and new ways to try unravel the mysteries of life and what it means, but I’m not going to jump and down and say this little gizmo is definitive proof of anything.

Apart from that, the team feels cold spots around the room and that it is charged with energy. Combined with their new technological evidence they feel certain they’ve recorded evidence of their conversation with the afterlife.

I have to say this was a neat episode, but as I mention, a little underwhelming. I also think it’s odd they really didn’t go through the entire hotel, but instead chose this outbuilding. But I guess with all the previous investigation of the main hotel the guys needed to do something different. With all the ghost hunting shows that have taken place there, the Stanley is more famous as a haunted site than as a great hotel. But I guess whatever keeps the people and the money coming in right?

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Destination Truth – Ghosts of Menengai Crater / Kalanoro S04E06

Ghosts of Menengai Crater

Josh heads to Kenya to investigate the report of restless spirits that inhabit the Menengai Crater, the site of a battle that took the lives of 60,000 natives. Even though the battle ended long ago, the natives still claim the area is active with the presence of their ancestors.

The episode doesn’t start off with the usual blowout to their vehicle, but instead, a blowout to Josh’s pants. He is the victim of a wardrobe malfunction and stops in the market to have his pants fixed. The seamstress has no time for his modesty and off come the pants and we all get to witness Josh in his airplane boxers. Many questioned answered there I believe.

Moving on, the team makes a mad dash to catch a train, then drives across the plains where Bobby wants to make a taco out of everything in sight. Tacos? A zebra taco? Something not quite right about that boy.

The team presses on and meets with the town elders who says the team needs to make an offering to the spirits of the crater. This will also give them protection against the spirits.

After a little repelling, the group is in the right place and quickly makes their offering before heading out for the initial sweep. As the teams head out, it’s apparent there is plenty of wildlife in the crater as you can hear all sorts of noises and footsteps. There also seems to be some sort of laughing in the air. That an odd animal sound?

Josh then heads into a small cavern where he hears what sounds like singing and humming. It’s pretty odd. And then a strange light appears for a moment and then disappears. Is the humming just an strange sound reverberation? Is the light just a reflection? They don’t pick up much else, but it is kind of weird.

The team doesn’t actually gather up too much evidence on this one, but there are certainly strange sounds and plenty of noises coming from the crater. Obviously many animals are awake and moving around at night, but would those be mistaken for singing? I’m a little confused over this one. It’s hard to tell if Josh captured something or not. Either way, the natives believe their ancestors still inhabit the vast area of the crater, and for many of them, it’s both sacred and scary.

Kalanoro

Next up, the team heads to Madagascar in search of the Kalanoro, a small creature that is supposed to be strong enough to kill and maim.

But getting there is half the adventure and since Josh is in a hurry he shows the locals how to pull the rickshaw like cart. That alone looks like it might have done in a few team members.

The team then meets up with a local zoo caretaker who shows Josh some of the animals the Kalanoro could be mistaken for. The most obvious is the lemur which laps at his honey coated finger. Clearly, not the most dangerous of creatures.

There are witnesses who believe in the Kalanoro and the danger it presents. A local park guide says he was grabbed by one, and the State Park official says it’s claws are deadly. Even Dr. Goodman from the Chicago Museum of Natural History believes he ran into one. They all believe the Kalanoro is out there.

So on with the investigation, but first the team has to get there. At first they take a 4 wheel drive, but when the roads prove impassable, they hit to the open water and sail their way around the horn of Madagascar. Very little seems to stop Josh from getting to his destination.

While out in the extremely thick jungle, Alli nearly falls down the cliff into the water. Josh manages to get a leech stuck to his leg and once again there are all sorts of wild sounds coming from the night. There is some screech as they’re standing around a small waterfall. I doubt it’s paranormal, but that would certainly send you running in the other direction.

They do find some footprints, but they are too soggy and the terrain doesn’t allow for a casting. Josh gets a hit on the thermal imager and there is something on the IR camera. He’s not able to catch up with either one of them.

During the analysis they decide both the eyes and the thermal hit are the shape and size of a lemur. They weren’t able to track down the Kalanoro, but from the sounds of things it sounds like a hodgepodge of many of the animals that live in the area. And with those noises in the night, it can certainly take on a larger than life appearance.

Sounds like what we have for both of these adventures are tales that have grown in scope over the years and sounds in the night that keep people from investigating further. They are both wild and scary places, and when you mix in the real dangers of the animals you get all sorts of living legends.

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