Fact or Faked? Faked!

From the same network that

brought us Ghost Hunters, Mary Knows Best, Destination

Truth and other unreality reality television, SyFy hosts the show

Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files.

Billed as the “Mythbusters

of the Paranormal,” a title coveted (but undeserved) by every paranormal

show, Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files supposedly “revolutionizes

paranormal programming by investigating the evidence witnesses post

on the Internet every day. Have you ever seen a photo or video online

and wondered, ‘Is this real?’ This is the show that will answer

that question.”1

But does the show answer that

question correctly, and truthfully? And is the very question honest?

The show examines paranormal

claims found online, to determine whether the phenomena captured are,

of course, “fact or faked”. As we will see, it seems that the show’s

cast and producers may be the ones doing the faking.

The

“Crack Team”

The investigative team consists

of “experts” who claim to have a background in paranormal research.

There is Ben, the former FBI agent; Jael, the journalist; Austin, the

“stunt expert”; Chi-Lin, the “photography expert”; Devin, the

“tech specialist”; and Bill, the “lead scientist.”

For all of their supposed expertise,

the team members’ research methods are dubious. Their initial approach

is to recreate anomalous phenomena, quite correctly, but then they proceed

to recreate the phenomena badly, or they recreate irrelevant phenomena.

They mistake scientific tools for the scientific method. They aren’t

familiar with basic principles of skepticism, such as Occam’s razor

and the axiom that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

In their conclusions the unexplained becomes the “inexplicable”

and they appeal to supernatural explanations over natural ones.

But determining whether footage

is “fact or faked” still doesn’t determine whether it’s paranormal

or not. Even if the phenomenon and filming is legitimate and not staged,

that doesn’t presuppose that what is captured is paranormal.

Over the course of two seasons,

the team has investigated claims of a “ghost car,” a “haunted

playground swing,” UFOs, lake monsters, spirit writing, an anti-gravity

spot, cattle mutilation, ectoplasm, Bigfoot and an alleged chupacabra.

They use a wide range of cutting-edge paranormal reality TV equipment,

including pocket radar, electromagnetic (EMF) meters, bionic ears and,

most important, a “scientific kit” containing:

Safety eyewear, black Sharpies,

black ink pens, reclosable bags, evidence envelopes, swab boxes, polypropylene

screw cap evidence collection tubes, sterile cotton tip swabs, transfer

pipettes, sterile water ampule, tongue depressors, evidence slide boxes,

plastic disposable tweezers, and disposable blades.2

In one episode, the team visits

Fishers, Indiana, to investigate a phenomenon they’ve already decided

is a “cemetery phantom.” The “evidence” features footage of

a bright light they call an “orb,” examples of Electronic Voice

Phenomena (recordings of alleged spirits), and increased EMF activity

near the tombstone of a civil war soldier. The team devises some experiments

to reproduce the effects, and because they can’t reproduce the phenomena

exactly, they theorize that the original video shows evidence of paranormal

activity. They conclude that the film has captured either the “ghost

of a civil war soldier” or a “ghost train” because the cemetery

is located near a former railroad crossing.

What takes them thirty minutes

to prove incorrectly takes one scientific paranormal investigator three

minutes to disprove. Doctor Atlantis, aka Blake Smith, of the Monster

Talk podcast ( http://www.skeptic.com/podcasts/monstertalk/ ) examined the footage and the theories

and produced his own video analysis.3 For all of the Fact

or Faked team’s elaborate tests and elaborate theories, they never

once reviewed the clip in slow motion. In doing so as a first step,

Smith revealed that the unearthly “train” was an earthly spider

on a web. “Oh what a tangled web we weave…when we run around in

the dark with video cameras,” he concludes.

On the show’s online forums

hundreds of viewers deduced that the footage captured a spider.

But this article discusses

an episode that never even made it to air.

A Paranormal Publicity Stunt

On YouTube there is a video

called Ouija Board: Planchette moves on its own!

4 This has become a “viral video” and has enjoyed over

173,000 views. In the clip, two people are playing with a homemade Ouija

board when the planchette spells out the name “Lisa.” Suddenly,

the planchette darts across the board, seemingly of its own accord,

to rest on the letter X. The participants jerk their hands off

the planchette in fear. They attempt the reading one last time, and

again the planchette moves by itself. The frightened participants end

the session. They jokingly accuse each other of “pushing” the planchette,

as does a third, unseen camera person in the background, but they all

deny staunchly that any trickery was involved. To demonstrate that there

are no magnets or wires involved the camera person films above and below

the Ouija board.

This video was actually created

by skeptics.

Produced by the Rocky Mountain

Paranormal Research Society http://rockymountainparanormal.com/ , this was part of a promotional video

for a TV project called Colorado X. This is the significance

of the planchette moving back to the X symbol. But the planchette

wasn’t moved by spirits, demons or even the ideomotor effect; it was

moved by string.

To achieve the movement, fishing

wire was fed through a hole in the center of the X on the board,

and attached to the front leg of the planchette. A fourth unseen participant

was sitting to the right side of the board holding the string. At the

appropriate time, the string was tugged and the planchette zipped across

the board, landing on the X as though this were a message from

beyond.

A reading of the viewer comments

indicates that the video has attracted a wide range of paranormal theories

to explain the incident. Many believed without question and warned of

the dangers of trafficking with the occult. Here are some of the remarks:

people shoudn’t mess with

ouija tables it’s not﻿ safe ! lonewolf12345671

Ive seen some fake ones

but IDK about this one. Normally people move it with fishing line. But

this one﻿ moved to fast and stopped to suddenly for that GodsmackFTW

I don't know about fake,

I just know when my roommate and I tried this in college, we

both felt this eerie feeling first before it started moving on it's

own, but we both let go of it right away cause it was too weird! We

were like﻿ 'forget this!' lol nsgutube

They are obviously not pushing

it because the thing moved on it's own﻿ really smoothly, and if they

pushed it it wouldn't go in a straight way.. I beleive in this. But

i want to know who created it? Donkeytricks

i have only use the weegi

board ones and ever﻿ since it is real if u dont belivie it do it for

yourself this is real and somtimes the spirts dont go away bellybuchelli

Only a few viewers figured

out that the planchette was moved by string. Other skeptical observers

hypothesized that ball bearings and magnets were used, that there was

sleight of hand, or that the ideomotor effect was in play.

Could the planchette

move a little bit more dramatically?