Real Crime Stories/Paranormal Hauntings/Conspiracy Theories Book II

History of Ghost Adventures

Ghost Adventures is an Americanparanormal documentary and reality television series that premieredon October 17, 2008, on the Travel Channel. An independent film ofthe same name originally aired on the Sci-Fi Channel on July 25,2007. The program follows ghost hunters Zak Bagans, Nick Groff, AaronGoodwin, Billy Tolley, and Jay Wasley as they investigate locationsthat are reported to be haunted.

Premise

Ghost Adventures began as anindependent film, produced in a documentary style. It was filmed in2004 and produced by 4Reel Productions in 2006. The SciFi Channelpremiered 4Reel's Ghost Adventures on July 25, 2007. The documentarycentered on the trio's investigation of alleged paranormal activityin and around Virginia City, Nevada, including the Goldfield Hotel inGoldfield, Nevada. The crew returned there during the series' fourth,fifth, and seventh seasons. The series is produced by MY-TupeloEntertainment (a merger of MY Entertainment and Tupelo-HoneyProductions).

Methodology

Zak Bagans, Nick Groff (seasons 1–10),Aaron Goodwin, Billy Tolley, and Jay Wasley investigate reportedlyhaunted locations, hoping to collect visual or auditory evidence ofparanormal activity. Each episode begins with the crew touring theinvestigation site with its owners or caretakers. These introductionstypically include Bagans's voice-overs of the site's history as wellas interviews with people who claim to have witnessed paranormalphenomena there. On the basis of these interviews, the crew place X'swith black or gray tape at the sites of some serious allegedparanormal activity. They later return to these spots in order to setup static night-vision cameras to try and film it happening.

After completing the walk-through, theydiscuss their strategy, then are locked in the location overnight,which they believe will prevent "audio contamination"and extraneous shadows. They use a variety of equipment, includingdigital thermometers, electromagnetic field (EMF) meters, handhelddigital video cameras, audio recorders, the Ovilus device, point ofview cameras, and infrared night-vision cameras in an effort tocapture evidence of ghosts. The members sometimes place objects andshout verbal taunts they believe ghosts might move or respond to.

The video and audio collected duringeach investigation is analyzed after the investigation, and the wholething is cut down to fit one hour. The most prominent pieces ofevidence found are then presented at the appropriate times theyhappened during the investigation and each one is explained.

During the series, the crew claims tohave captured and experienced various Fortean phenomena, which theysay include simultaneous equipment malfunctions such as batterydrain, voltage spikes, fluctuations in electromagnetic fields, suddenchanges in temperature (such as cold spots), unexplained noises,electronic voice phenomena (EVP), and apparitions.

The crew also claim to have recordedspirit possessions on video. Bagans believes that he was possessed atthe Preston School of Industry and at Poveglia Island in Italy. Groffclaims that he was overtaken by a "dark energy" atthe Moon River Brewing Company. Goodwin claims he was "underthe influence of a dark spirit" at Bobby Mackey's MusicWorld and Winchester Mystery House. Goodwin is often left alone inthe alleged "hotspots" during lockdowns to see howthe spirits will react to Goodwin being alone.