There is a question I get asked quite a bit. At some point, someone will find out what I do and ask “What do you think about that show _________?” Insert any of the “ghost” shows here. It really doesn’t matter. What they are really asking is “Is ________ full of crap or is it real?” That question is a lot more interesting and harder to answer.
I will answer that for you here today with a few glimpses into the past. I have also realized that it will take two parts to answer this correctly, so part two is coming next week.
Back in the day, I would watch Mark Nesbitt’s amazing “Ghosts of Gettysburg” specials on the History Channel. I loved this show and it gave me some great insight into the ghosts which have spun out of this tragic war.
My other favorite ghost shows were the ghost segments on “Unsolved Mysteries” and “In Search Of”. Both of these shows helped me realize just how strange and wonderful our world really was.
Once again, all of these shows were more overviews of a particular haunting and focused more on the ghost stories than the investigations of those hauntings. (There was a reason for that.) These shows made me want to do what I do and take groups into these haunted buildings and let them try to capture some evidence that a building or location is actually haunted.
Fast forward to now. I have been asked to be on several shows. This isn’t particularly a pat on the back. If you stay in this field for more than a year, you will probably be approached too. I have turned almost all of them down and the few I have done is because someone I know asked me to be involved as a favor.
You are probably asking “Why?” Because almost all of them want to focus on the negative aspects of a haunting. I have been involved in some cases that exposed something very dark or “evil”, but for the majority of my cases, the “ghosts” seem to be more confused than anything else.
Yet, the producers will always say, “We just want to really put a scare in the viewers.” This isn’t true to what I have witnessed, so I don’t feel comfortable doing it.
When I was a kid, a local tv newsman came to our school. A girl in my class told him she wanted to be a reporter too and he gave her some advice. To this day, it is the most honest advice I have ever heard about the news. He said,”You have to be change your thinking if you want to be a reporter. It never rains; it pours. There is never a fire; it is always an inferno. Every problem is an epidemic. You have to be ready to up the drama to draw an audience.” This is a good description of these tv shows now. They focus on the worst case and they have to play up the drama.
The truth is an investigation can be very boring. You sit in a dark room with or without equipment running, and you hope you see, hear, smell or feel something. Most nights, you go home empty handed. This won’t do for a good tv show. So, they have to make a huge deal about every sound or feeling. The investigators aren’t lying, they are just being dramatic and trying to give you a good show.
As they say on tv, To be continued…..
Thanks for reading,
Ray Couch
www.SouthernGhosts.com
I will answer that for you here today with a few glimpses into the past. I have also realized that it will take two parts to answer this correctly, so part two is coming next week.
Back in the day, I would watch Mark Nesbitt’s amazing “Ghosts of Gettysburg” specials on the History Channel. I loved this show and it gave me some great insight into the ghosts which have spun out of this tragic war.
My other favorite ghost shows were the ghost segments on “Unsolved Mysteries” and “In Search Of”. Both of these shows helped me realize just how strange and wonderful our world really was.
Once again, all of these shows were more overviews of a particular haunting and focused more on the ghost stories than the investigations of those hauntings. (There was a reason for that.) These shows made me want to do what I do and take groups into these haunted buildings and let them try to capture some evidence that a building or location is actually haunted.
Fast forward to now. I have been asked to be on several shows. This isn’t particularly a pat on the back. If you stay in this field for more than a year, you will probably be approached too. I have turned almost all of them down and the few I have done is because someone I know asked me to be involved as a favor.
You are probably asking “Why?” Because almost all of them want to focus on the negative aspects of a haunting. I have been involved in some cases that exposed something very dark or “evil”, but for the majority of my cases, the “ghosts” seem to be more confused than anything else.
Yet, the producers will always say, “We just want to really put a scare in the viewers.” This isn’t true to what I have witnessed, so I don’t feel comfortable doing it.
When I was a kid, a local tv newsman came to our school. A girl in my class told him she wanted to be a reporter too and he gave her some advice. To this day, it is the most honest advice I have ever heard about the news. He said,”You have to be change your thinking if you want to be a reporter. It never rains; it pours. There is never a fire; it is always an inferno. Every problem is an epidemic. You have to be ready to up the drama to draw an audience.” This is a good description of these tv shows now. They focus on the worst case and they have to play up the drama.
The truth is an investigation can be very boring. You sit in a dark room with or without equipment running, and you hope you see, hear, smell or feel something. Most nights, you go home empty handed. This won’t do for a good tv show. So, they have to make a huge deal about every sound or feeling. The investigators aren’t lying, they are just being dramatic and trying to give you a good show.
As they say on tv, To be continued…..
Thanks for reading,
Ray Couch
www.SouthernGhosts.com