Ghost Hunters is marbles

I wanted to believe.

I watched this show when it first started, a few years ago, and was mildly taken by the air of (relative) objectivity they brought to their "investigations" of the paranormal. In those early episodes, more often than not, they'd come away from a supposedly haunted house with purely earthly explanations for the owner's ghostly claims. This made the few times when they did claim to find evidence of haunting more believable.

But this season, all they do is find ghosts. Most of the time, the experiences are conveniently personal, with someone seeing a "shadow" off camera or feeling a disembodied touch. But sometimes, like at the live Halloween special this year, something physical actually gets caught on camera, like Grant's jacket getting tugged. Here's the footage.



Pretty crazy, no? But note, however, that his right hand stays in his pocket the whole time. Not the kind of thing you'd do if someone or something just grabbed your collar. Suspicious, but not damning. This next video, however, is damning.


[Skip to the 5:07 mark]

So, his jacket was clearly somehow rigged. What a disappointment. No ghosts, only hoaxes to improve ratings, because people like ghosts, not rational explanations. Turns out there are several sites devoted to exposing these hoaxes (most of which seem to center around Grant). Here's a good one. Oddly enough I may end up watching the show more often now, just for the fun of trying to figure out what they're doing.