Request for Question Clarification by
sublime1-ga
on
11 Nov 2006 13:52 PST
jcharles...
Most researchers shy away from a question that asks for the "best"
of anything, since that's ultimately a subjective evaluation based
on opinion, while researchers are more comfortable with documented
facts.
That aside, there's currently a series running on the SciFi channel
in the US that has repeatedly caught phenomena on audio or video
which simply cannot be explained or reproduced by way of faking.
The show is called Ghost Hunters, and is a documentary of a small
group of paranormal investigators who call themselves TAPS, for
The Atlantic Paranormal Society:
http://www.scifi.com/ghosthunters/
They visit sites by request of the owners, and set out to either
debunk the phenomena described by the owners and residents, by
detecting natural phenomena which might have been misinterpreted,
or to confirm the unexplainable phemonena by capturing them on
audio or video.
The team leaders are skeptical by nature, and very grounded people
who work as plumbers by day, and they have no problem with frequently
debunking the claimed phenomena by finding natural causes.
However, sometimes they catch some astonishing activity on video
and audio which leaves them with open jaws, scratching their heads.
One such video captured the sudden movement of a chair in an attic
where one team member had been sitting for some time. The movement
was timestamped at a time after the team member left the room and
could verify that no one else had entered through the only possible
entry. There was no wind, and the floor was level. The chair moved
twice, quite visibly, with no possible normal explanation.
Another video catches the opening and closing of a closet door
while a team member is laying on the bed in the room.
Another video catches the movement of a table at which a team
member is actually sitting.
Another video captures the sound of the shattering of a glass
which is sitting on a bedside table while the team member is
laying on the bed.
One of the most astonishing and frightening videos clearly
captures an investigator who is carrying a heavy pack of
some kind (perhaps a video camera) slung in front of his
body. The camera is lifted up and into the mans face with
no manipulation by any person present. The man loses his
balance and falls down, and is clearly traumatized by the
incident.
Then there are numerous audio recordings which capture what's
called EVP, or Electronic Voice Phenomena - so named because
the recorded audio is not audible to people holding the
recording devices at the time it was recorded. There are
several examples that have occurred over the course of the
show, but two stand out in memory.
One occurred when two investigators were having a conversation
in normal voices. On the recording, a young girl's voice is
clearly heard to overlap their dialog, yet they themselves
heard nothing at the time of the recording.
On another, in an old west saloon, music can be heard in the
background of the recording of another conversation which sounds
like an old honky tonk piano. The investigators heard nothing at
the time it was being recorded.
I recommend that you and your girlfriend watch several episodes
and decide for yourself. They are available in iTunes.
Here is TAPS official website:
http://www.the-atlantic-paranormal-society.com/
You can watch some of the videos on this page:
http://www.the-atlantic-paranormal-society.com/video.html
The one titled, 'Door Closes by Itself' is pretty spooky, but
you have to trust the people on this team to feel certain, as
I do, that they are positive there was no way for any of their
team to have been inside the room closing the door.
A link on that page from another site called GhostStudy show
an apparition moving in a parking garage and then disappearing:
http://www.ghoststudy.com/monthly/may01/videoghost.html
As I noted, I'm not convinced that this show necessarily represents
the "best" of all available proof, but it's certainly up there at
the top. Nevertheless, I'll await your approval before presuming to
post my response as a formal answer.
Let me know what you think...
sublime1-ga
