Katelyn Shoemaker Assignment #2

The paranormal is an area of investigation that intrigues people from all over the world. In the United States there are a variety of different reality television shows portraying peoples abilities to see ghosts or tell the future. One show specifically is entitled Paranormal State which is televised on A&E network. Paranormal State is about the Paranormal Research Society, a college club, based out of Pennsylvania State University (also referred to as PSU, State University or Penn State). It was founded in 2001 and is led by a then nineteen year old student Ryan Buell (he is now thirty years old and the show is still airing). Ryan Buell wanted an outlet for investigating the so called paranormal and here at Penn State he found other students that shared some same interests with him as well. Thus the Paranormal Research Society was founded and a reality television show was born. The episodes of this television program are similar to each other in the sense that they all investigate a report of paranormal activity. This is a report of my findings about this show and the so called claims that they investigated and even solved about paranormal activity in the everyday life of Americans. I began my research on Paranormal State by watching an episode from the first season of the show entitled Sixth Sense. Overall the episode was about a little boy named Matthew about the age of nine located in West Virginia that claimed to see dead people or so his parents said he was seeing dead people. When the paranormal team came to Matthews home they did a summary of basically what was happening and where this was happening. Matthew claimed to the team that he was seeing a ghost of a man and he saw this ghost most of the time in the basement. The ability to see dead people was putting a huge damper on the life of the child according to his parents and that they needed this to stop or be more understandable so that Matthew could have a normal childhood. Along with the team of paranormal investigators was a psychologist who talked with Matthew through the entire show and asked him many questions.

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After asking questions like Does the ghost/man you are seeing have a name? and does this man talk to you or even scare you? Matthew began to tell the team some information like this mans name was Timmy and he was not very mean to him, he just told him things like where his favorite hiding spots were out in the woods and that he should go and check it out. With this information the team was able to find out that Timmy was actually a man named Timothy who committed suicide out in the woods behind the familys home. When asked if the parents knew about Timothys death they admitted that they knew it happened but, it was before they moved into the house and that Matthew knew nothing of it. After finding this out, the team brought in an old yearbook of Timothys to see if Matthew could pick him out from a group shot of people. It turned out that Matthew chose Timothys picture on the first shot and this was good evidence for the team to believe that Matthew was seeing this spirit. Following this research, the team performed dead time which is when they wait until nighttime and they set up all of the equipment such as audio and video recording as well as infrared cameras and they saw the spirit of Timmy and asked him to go away. The episode ends with Ryan, the lead investigator returning to the house a month or so later and come to find out Timmy is still visiting Matthew but Matthews attitude has changed completely now that they understand the spirit. This family seemed to really touch Ryans heart. Many times Ryan has admitted that as a child he could see dead people as well. I feel that this episode had a very biased and fake feel to it. The evidence that the team presented to the public was essentially coming from a child. Children are known to make up imaginary friends so who says that this is not the case here. None the less there was not too much hard evidence in this episode to show that there was a spirit in the house. When dead time was being performed, at one point Ryan said oh look over there I see something moving, the camera would shift to that spot but nothing was actually there

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and the whole team suddenly made a huge deal over the black void space we call the night. As for the yearbook evidence, it was definitely sheer luck that Matthew chose the right person. The yearbook was from twenty years prior to Timmys death and unless spirits have the right to choose how they appears to people (if there is even such a thing) then maybe Matthew could have chosen the right photo. The fact that Matthew had the right name could also be coincidence as well. Children, whether parents want them to or not, hear everything. Matthew could have heard the story about Timmys death in passing and held onto it. Children also do many things to get attention. Matthews parents could have been preoccupied and so Matthew could have made something up like seeing a ghost to gain their attention. The parents could have read this completely differently than what was originally intended by Matthew. All of these things that they considered evidence can be debunked and that this why it is definitely insufficient evidence. Overall this episode could be very convincing to someone who did not actually listen to the dialogue and analyze it. That is probably why this reality television show is so popular. They really can get people to believe that this chosen little boy was able to see the dead. It was smart on their part to choose a family with a young boy. Young children are susceptible to deception and are easily won over. Ryan really enjoyed this episode because he could connect with Matthew. I feel like they use creepy sounds and flashing lights in their audio and video recording for effects only because you can obviously tell that those sounds are not natural noises that a home makes. The second episode that I chose to compare and contrast this television show with was entitled Dark Practice and it was from the later seasons in the show. This was about a woman in her fifties named Brenda in West Virginia as well. Brendas husband died in her home prior to this taping and she believes that there is some demonic presence in her home that is not her late

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husbands ghost. Her husbands name was Jim. Jim was a practicing doctor that saw his patients in his in home office so there were a few deaths in the house. Brenda was claiming that she was seeing a hooded figure with no face that reminded her of the grim reaper. Brendas niece also appeared on the show stating that there was some type of demonic presence in the home and that she had seen it before. When she saw it though she said that it was behind my uncle just following him around, it would always follow him to bed and when I began to see this presence near him, my uncles attitude began to change for the worse. Basically what both Brenda and her niece were saying was that this presence had overcome Jim and actually could have been the reason Jim committed suicide and that they were scared that it was now coming after Brenda. When the team came in they toured the home and brought in a medium to do a reading. The medium was blindfolded as to not be influenced from the surroundings. The medium said this is a very tight atmosphere, almost suffocating I see a shadow, a human like man with no features who is saying over and over again you cannot save them and you cant stop me, she also said that without seeing Brenda before I see a woman, sad eyes, lost soul, grasping for any sort of faith. The medium believed that this was a demonic presence and that it was putting Brenda in danger. Later on the team discovers from friends of Jim that Jim was married to someone before Brenda and that it seemed like there was a demonic presence with him even then. Jims first wife died in a horrific car crash so no one really knows what happened with Jim before Brenda because he refused to speak about it. As the team is walking around the house, they came across a trunk which had a white board in it that said I love you all, cant take anymoreDad. Brenda said that she had never seen that before. The team concluded that Jim killed himself because of this spirit trying to possess him. Once again the team performed dead time and this time they said that they saw something but to the viewer nothing was there. More eerie sounds were played and

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a team member even said she felt like something touched her. The team brought in a priest and the priest that night blessed the house telling the demon he had to leave. The next morning Brenda said she felt much better after all of this happening and finally being over with. Ryan told her that demons are attracted to sadness and despair and that she needs to laugh and be happy because that will drive the spirit away. Ryan did not do a follow up this time, rather on the screen at the end of the episode read the following Brenda removed Jims ashes from the home and has not seen the hooded figure since. There you have it, mystery solved. This episodes evidence was similar to the first episode I watched. It was mainly the accounts of other people and stories about what had happened. When doing the dead time, the audio and video to the viewer proved nothing because on camera you cannot see anything if there is anything happening. The fact that they chose a widow of all people to focus this episode on makes sense. Widows are vulnerable to so many things and they are willing to ask for this kind of help in the hopes that they will feel better about their unfortunate situation. I feel that they chose her overall for her vulnerability. It was also very hard to believe that Brenda had never seen the white board in the trunk before. The trunk was in Jims office and apparently had never been moved since his death. Being a widow who is looking for answers I would think that something as important as a suicide note would have been found prior to the teams investigation. This episode was not portrayed as well as the first because the story seemed inconsistent and Ryan did not seem to have a very direct connection here as he did with the first making the episode not seem as passionate as the first. By watching these two episodes of the show I realized and saw many things. Paranormal State type casts the people they chose to focus on for their episodes. Children and widows are extremely vulnerable and susceptible to many things. Children will believe anything they hear

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because they do not know better and they are easily won over and thus will do anything for attention. Widows are lonely and in a bad situation because they lost the one they love. Widows are also looking for that little sliver of hope in this bad time as well as attention and company. Another pattern I noticed is that the sounds they use during dead time are so fake it is unbelievable that any normal person would fall for them. They obviously do not sound like they belong and there is no way that a normal house would make sounds like that. It is quite annoying when they say hey look over there I think I see something when really that is just meant to distract the camera and shift focus so that you cannot see them changing scenes or equipment off screen. The fact that people are saying that they saw a spirit or saw something could just be the classic case of your eyes fooling you. If you really want to see something you make yourself see it even if it is not really there. The same goes with hearing things that arent really there or even feeling something touch you. Almost every episode of this show proves over and over again that the ability to see the paranormal is just something that people want to believe is actually happening. In reality though, it is just a group of people trying to make an extra couple of bucks off of peoples gullibility. All in all, Paranormal State really is not that bad of a show if you are looking to be entertained however, the real time value of the show is few and far in between. It is obvious that this is a reality television program with the goal in mind to fool people to gain more profit. What is really sad is that the people that they type cast for the show actually believe that the work they are doing is real and that this group of investigators can actually help them. The techniques of this team are phenomenal though, honing in on the sensitive areas of a persons life and really pulling the details out of them during interviews and tours of their home. The fact that these people let this team into their extremely personal detailed life is interesting thinking how easily

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people can let their walls down. After carefully analyzing this show however, I am not fooled and never will be with this type of mayhem ever again.

Katelyn Shoemaker Assignment #2

Works Cited Buell, Ryan, prod. Dark Practice. Paranormal State. A&E. State College, Pennsylvania, 5 Jan. 2010. Television. Buell, Ryan, prod. "Sixth Sense." Paranormal State. A&E. State College, Pennsylvania, 10 Dec. 2007. Television.