KUSA - Another creepy crawl space, another day on the job for the Ghost Hunters who are back this week with a new season of the supernatural. We talked to Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson on 9News 5 a.m.
Hawes and Wilson are life-long friends who share an intense passion in investigating claims of the paranormal. Is there more to them than meets the eye? Is there trickery involved? Or are they really who they claim to be: two average Joe's who work for Roto-Rooter by day as plumbers and by night seek to help people overcome their fears of the paranormal.
"It's crazy, it's really crazy how big this show has become," said Wilson, the co-founder of the organization. "We do this to help people, and it's just crazy the response."
TAPS began with Hawes and Wilson each having their own unique paranormal personal experience in their lives. What were those experiences? "We will not tell anyone what those experiences are," said Wilson. "That's why they're personal."
The premise of TAPS is as follows. A homeowner, business owner, or other concerned person calls the TAPS team and tells them they are having strange experiences in their home, office, etc.
Voices, apparitions, unexplained cold spots, and noises are just some of the reasons people call TAPS. The TAPS team will review the case, and then decide to accept it. Equipped with a myriad of gadgets, such as digital audio and video recorders, EMF (electro-magnetic frequency) detectors, temperature detectors, and even a thermal imaging camera, the team investigates each area from a scientific point of view. The equipment is expensive (the thermal imaging camera cost over $10,000) and the team has acquired their equipment out of their own pockets.
"A lot of the equipment we've bought over the years with TAPS," explained Hawes. "I can say that at one point Grant and I were throwing over $20,000 a year into TAPS on a yearly basis.
"Now Sci-Fi channel provides the tapes, batteries, and things like that, you know, like the expendables (sic)," said Wilson. "They also provide hotels and travel, otherwise we wouldn't be able to go to, say, California. You have to remember that this is a hobby for us. Hobby's don't make money, they cost money. So a lot of what you see comes out of our own pockets."
Armed with their equipment and a team that includes a veterinary assistant and a PR manager, just to name a few, they go "lights out" and begin to search for evidence of the unknown.
The team utilizes their digital voice recorders by asking into the seeming nothingness of an empty room, "Is there anyone here who would like to talk to us? Can you tell us your name?" While nothing is heard at the time, review of the evidence after an investigation has led to voices being heard on the recorders, and in some cases, those voices have actually responded "intelligently" to the questions posed by the team.
TAPS calls these voices "EVP's," or an electronic voice phenomenon. They also measure fluctuations in the magnetic fields of the area with a device called an "EMF" device, or electro-magnetic frequency device.
A long held theory in the paranormal world is that "ghosts" and "spirits" are actually energy, and they require energy to interact with the world. Therefore, the EMF device can detect subtle changes in the fields around the areas they investigate. However, most of the time, simple explanations can solve even the strangest cases.
"As plumbers, we have been able to dismiss many claims just because of bad pipes in the basement, coming loose and banging against other pipes, the ceiling, what have you," said Hawes. "We once installed a $1.49 trap in a woman's toilet and she never had ghost problems again. I kid you not."
Hawes also recalled another case. "We were investigating a woman's claims of apparitions in her house, and when we checked her bedroom, our EMF meter was jumping off the charts. We found her alarm clock was an old 1960's model, and was causing crazy electro-magnetic fields around it. This woman slept with this clock right by her head for about ten hours a night. We spent $22.99 on a nice digital clock, and she never saw an apparition again."
"About 80% of the cases that we've been involved in we have been able to 'debunk,' or disprove," said Wilson. "It's that 20% that gets us excited the most. We are trying to eliminate any possibilities of explainable phenomenon, and when those possibilities are eliminated, you have by the very definition of the word a paranormal experience."
What is intriguing is the proliferation of television shows on cable that deal with ghosts, hauntings, and other paranormal experiences. It has also brought some intense skepticism on the realm of the supernatural.
The show that brings out the most critics is "Most Haunted," which airs on the Travel Channel. The show is based in the UK, and travels to some famously haunted castles and estates that have been, in some cases, abandoned for centuries.
The criticism comes from the "Most Haunted" crew's seeming perfect record of having something unbelievable happen to them in every episode. However, recent revelations and damning video evidence have in fact shown that many of the incidences of the "paranormal" have actually been hoaxes perpetrated by the crew for the purpose of garnering the "shock" value and increased viewership. Not to be outdone, A&E recently announced the debut of its own show, "Paranormal State," that loosely follows the "Ghost Hunters" format.
With TAPS, the believability of the show lies in the fact that some episodes reveal nothing but a couple of personal experiences amongst the team that can't be backed up by hard evidence. Many investigating groups, such as the team from "Most Haunted," will use psychics, mediums, séances, Ouija boards, etc.
TAPS frowns on this approach, as they look for concrete evidence of the paranormal in audio and video tape, temperature changes, and fluctuations on electro-magnetic frequency devices.
In the United States, Hawes explained, the general population as a majority believes in the supernatural, but it's not embraced by the people or the government as much as it is in Ireland, the sight of their first investigation outside of the United States.
"While we were in Ireland investigating, the government was building a new road in the country, and it's investment in the road was over 14 million euros. The local population explained to the government that the intended route was going to result in the removal of a 'faerie' tree." (Note: "faeries" in Ireland resemble, according to local lore, three to four foot tall "elemental" beings, much like trolls.) "When this was brought to their attention, the government spent another 7 million euros to re-plan and reroute the road around the tree."
Wilson added, "In Ireland, if a builder wants to build a new home, they will mark the foundation with cairns, or a stack of stones, on each corner of where the foundation is to be placed. They come back the next day after placing the cairns, if they have been disturbed or knocked over, they absolutely will not build there. If they are still in one place, it's ok with the 'faeries' to build on that spot. It's really embraced by the culture there. In fact, if your house isn't haunted, people think there is a problem."
TAPS has investigated numerous sights around the U.S. that are famed for their purported paranormal activity. This list includes the famed "Winchester House" in California (they found it spooky but not haunted), the Myrtles Plantation in Louisiana (strange voices found on tape recordings led them to believe it lived up to its reputation), and most famously, the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, which was the inspiration for Steven King's famous book, The Shining.
"It's the one place that has never let us down in strange and unexplainable occurrences," said Hawes. "We were able to catch on live TV during our investigation last year a child's voice calling out to us in the basement, and we have been back there many times and have been unable to reproduce that voice."
The incident occurred during their first-ever live investigation on Halloween in 2006. There were, according to Wilson, over 250 security guards on the property to prevent anyone from interfering with the live investigation.
"They wouldn't even let Jay's (Jason's) wife on the property. They wanted to make sure that there were no false readings or any outside influences on the show, since there was no way to edit out anything that went wrong. That voice we heard was right in front of my face, and there was no one around or in the tunnel with us when that occurred. It was extraordinary."
One thing was clear after meeting with Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson. Success hasn't changed their mission.
"Our number one goal is to help people," said Wilson. "People have asked us why we don't charge for our investigations. It's simple. If we charged for our services we would be charlatans in the eyes of the public. When you think about it, also, how can you charge someone for something that in the eyes of the scientific world doesn't exist?"
For more details please visit:
http://www.scifi.com/ghosthunters/
