Paranormal Pet Peeve

I love watching paranormal shows on TV, but I have one very large pet peeve about them. My paranormal pet peeve is when a team is in a supposed haunted area the camera is always focused on the investigators. I don’t know how many times one investigator has said to another investigator “Oh my God did you just see that?” Then the camera will pan to the other investigator who replies “Yes, I just saw movement/a shadow/a light/ET/Big Foot, Oh my God that was so freaking cool!” But I sit in my house saying “What was so freaking cool?” I didn’t see anything but you!” So to each and every paranormal investigator on TV I emphatically make this statement: I know what you look like! I don’t know what you are seeing looks like! With only the possibility of a slight exception for Zach Fagan on Ghost Adventures, I don’t want to see you seeing something paranormal. I want to see the paranormal. If I wanted someone describing something they see to me then I’ll read a book and have the author describe in print what they want me to “see” in my mind’s eye.

As much as I love Ghost Hunters (International and Academy included) they are the worst offenders. There are a few notable exceptions, one being when Grant’s jacket was grabbed and you can actually see the indentations in the fabric of his jacket where it was getting touched. That is a case where having the camera trained on the investigator was a major plus. But how often has that happened? Most times when an investigator is touched all’s you see is them jerking away or waving their hands in the air to get the cobweb feeling off of them. One glaring example that comes to my mind is the recent episode in which they investigate Sloss Furnace with Meatloaf. All due respect to Meatloaf (does he need respect? Just wondering) on the second night when he is investigating with Amy and Adam was a complete debacle and a great example of what I am talking about. The camera was trained on the three of them the entire time they were “seeing” the shadow of a man that was supposedly blocking out the light from the laser grid thing they put out. But oddly enough when it came to the reveal Jason and Grant didn’t show any of the footage of the laser grid being blocked by a shadow which three investigators “saw”. Why is that? Because the damn camera was trained on the three investigators! I personally think Meatloaf should just stick to the paradise he can see by the dashboard light.

Ghost Adventures does an only slightly better job because they don’t have a camera crew following them around. But they still for the most part train the camera on themselves. So unless there is an entity floating behind them then you don’t see a darn thing. And just see one of my previous articles on Orbs to get my views on them seeing orbs attacking them. (To give you a quick update, I don’t buy the orb thing)

Destination Truth adds an interesting twist to the whole camera on the investigator issue. They utilize these contraptions in which it hangs a camera at face level so we won’t miss seeing a second of them seeing something paranormal. In that show we still get more of the investigators seeing something paranormal than we do seeing something paranormal. The only difference being is that the angle of the camera tends to accentuate the nose. Not a good look for anyone I might add.

The only show that comes to my mind that at least makes an attempt to have us at home see what they are seeing is Ghost Lab. I can’t remember which one wears it, but either Brad or Barry Klinge, will wear a small camera on his ear like one would wear a hands free device. This has had some hits and near misses, but at least they are giving us the opportunity to see what they are seeing instead of seeing them say something is really cool. In one episode the head cam catches the shadow of a little girl that whichever Klinge brother has the head cam sees. I was incredibly impressed with that piece of evidence. Not only because you can clearly see the shadow figure of the little girl, but because we were able to see the figure and not just one of the Klinge brothers saying holy crap I just saw the figure of a little girl. There was also an episode though in which the head cam was angled slightly too high and we do miss seeing what the Brad or Barry sees. But with the impressive catch of the shadow of the little girl I am willing to give the Kilnge’s a pass because they at least are trying to let us to see what they see.

So to sum it up briefly, all’s I really want to see if the pieces of paranormal evidence not the investigators who are looking for it. I can only imagine what amazing paranormal evidence we have missed because we have only been able to see the investigator seeing the evidence. Maybe, just maybe, the field of the paranormal would not be looked at with such skepticism if some of the personal experiences of the investigators were clear undisputable evidence. While I do realize not everything can be caught on camera as clear undisputable evidence, but I truly feel that there would be a lot more that we can look at and say “yep that is definitely something paranormal” instead of saying “well the investigator seemed to think it was something.” My suggestion is to all the TV shows is to invest in some head cams. Keep the flar thermal imager because that does catch some cool things, but get a few head cams too.

Debbie Lomanto
Lead Video Researcher
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