The Shadow of Doubt

Last night Ghost Hunters International took us to Liepaja, Latvia for their season finale investigation of Karosta Prison.  The team is lead by Robb Demarest, whom credits his “calculations” being correct as they pull into the entrance of the prison site.  I always wonder why he is still using “calculations” to navigate his way through foreign countries in the age of the GPS…

I’ll start off by saying that I don’t think you can genuinely count most evidence collected from these types of facilities for two reasons.  One, it’s a large facility and the environment is not properly controlled.  This is a TV production, chalked full of camera and sound technicians.  We have seen many, many examples of the production crew getting in the way of investigators on past Ghost Hunters episodes.  Not only are they contending with a full TV production staff, but there are bound to be other possible contaminants like rodents.  Second, this is a commercial, for-profit facility that stands to gain financially if the prison is declared haunted by the GHI crew.  Who’s to say someone can’t hide an audio system in some dark, unexplored corner of the facility that can produce sounds (like creepy-sounding cell doors opening and closing)?  I like to think most people are honest, but let’s not be stupid.  The point is, they base a so-called scientific exploration on trust….this is about as far from science as one can get.

The investigation starts with all of the usual routines;  a guided walk-through, equipment set-up, EVP sessions, personal experiences and full-spectrum photography. 

Straight away we see one of the usual mistakes made when Barry Fitzgerald places his 360 degree microphone in cell 22.  He sets it atop of a radiator which is next to a hole in the wall.  We know the hole has airflow coming through it when Barry passes his hand in front of the area and feels the cold air.  We don’t know if the radiator is a working source of heat but piping does carry sound.  I guess that’s what you get when the plumbers stay home .   To a scientific mind, the mistake here is obvious.  Any data collected from that 360 mic should be dismissed for the fact that air flow in the area can produce false evidence (i.e. air flow being misinterpreted as breathing or sighing), unless a ghost speaks an intelligible word or phrase straight into the mic.  Also, the radiator can cause vibrations that the mic will pick up and record.

Barry and cohort Dustin Pari then hear a female voice from the hallway just outside of this room and embed their paranormal assumptions into what they are hearing.  OK, I understand hearing a voice and being excited to have something happen, but to assume that these sounds are not coming from a live human is either disingenuous or plain naive.   We never see the team attempt to look any further into this.  Same thing happens when Dustin’s legs get tugged on outside the washroom, where the guide tells them this sort of phenomenon has occurred before.  A good investigator would attempt to find out what could be happening in that area of the hallway to produce these sensations.  The GHI audience gets no such satisfaction.

The EVP Robb hears as calling him “lazy” perplexed the team for sounding like an English word.  It could have been sound matrixing.  What I love is how they will cite the most outlandish theories to make it fit their explanation.  Dustin Pari posits this notion that the Universal Consciousness theory explains that spirits know what language you speak and translate their voices for you to understand.  Whatever.  Nothing finishes up a dud season of GHI like Robb Demarest declaring a facility as all-out haunted with only a few questionable EVPs for evidence. 

I can’t wait for next week to see what sort of Grantgates will be pulled off in the new season of Ghost Hunters!

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