Ghost Adventures uses the authority in Hollywood while on investigation

Scott and Zak at the Hollywood Sign

The Ghost Adventures Crew took a trip to Hollywood, to investigate the historical landmarks that litter the landscape of the city.

The first stop was the Hollywood sign, where it is reported that an aspiring actress threw herself from the iconic landmark. They brought along the Dearly Departed Tour Company as their guides on this incredible quest. Dearly Departed Tour Founder Scott Michaels was on hand to give Zak Bagans and the Ghost Adventures Crew the play by play in history.

One of the many artifacts in the Dearly Departed Collection

For people who aren't from Hollywood or visited there, the DDTC does just that. What sets this company apart from other tour companies and tours is Scott and Brian Donnelly. Scott has built a name for himself as "the authority on the dark side of Hollywood." Scott is the man when it comes to knowledge on Charles Manson, even producing a few documentaries on the subject. Scott has even gone as far as to import and collect artifacts from famous Hollywood murders, and serial killers and display them for all to see in his shop. The DDTC storefront is more like a museum then it is a shop, with visitors able to spend hours wandering the store. I was there for a tour mid-2015 and witnessed fans of his stopping by to give him a gift, something, of course, to display in his museum.

In speaking with Scott, once he found out I was a paranormal investigator, he did go into stories about how his store is possibly inhabited by spirits from all the items he's collected. Maybe this is the place Ghost Adventures should have investigated.

Brian Donnelly may be the best tour guide in Hollywood with his extensive knowledge and love of everything Hollywood. Brian takes the out of the way approach to Hollywood, not just visiting the hot-spots and his love for his profession shine through in his presentation. If you're not already following Brian on Facebook, you should start. Brian's page may be your end-all-be-all for history and celebrities in Hollywood.

For those of all who are into the dark side of history in Hollywood, stop by the DDTC and have a chat with Scott and Brian, and I would highly recommend taking one or more of their tours, as you will not be disappointed. If you are into paranormal investigating, the DDTC store front/museum is a great place to visit. 

Ghost Adventures Aftershocks: Review

Ghost Adventures is probably the largest and most successful paranormal television show ever. Zak Bagans has managed to keep the show fresh and entertaining, bringing the viewers back again and again. So it makes sense that eventually Zak Bagans, Nick Groff, and Aaron Goodwin would create spin-offs and side projects.

One of these spin-offs has become Ghost Adventures Aftershocks. Ghost Adventures Aftershocks goes behind the scenes to show things that went unseen, updates on the case subjects, and mostly interviews. Most of the time Zak Bagans probes into the guests backgrounds, and what happened in detail on that investigation over several interviews.  To manufacture some drama, seemed like Zak Bagans would ask very inappropriate questions to try to spark a response from the guests, which I found somewhat distasteful.

Anyone who knows me, knows I am a fan of Ghost Adventures. They change things up enough in their investigations to keep me interested. So when I found out about Ghost Adventures Aftershocks, I had to watch. Everyone in their lifetime has things they watch that wish they could have that time back..This was one of those times for me. Thirty minutes in I was bored out of my mind and had to change to something else to maintain my sanity.

Ghost Adventures Aftershocks will probably be successful due to the popularity of Ghost Adventures and Zak Bagans. For people expecting Ghost Adventures Aftershocks to be as entertaining as the original, they will be greatly disappointed. This seems to be a sad attempt just to cash in the Ghost Adventures following.


Roy Weedmark is the co-founder of paranormaldiscord.com

Continuing Ghost Adventures

Paranormal Investigations can be hit or miss. Sometimes investigators can come to a location and it will be very active as far as sounds, shadows.  Other times in the same location, investigators can be bored out of their minds. On this particular night, we were lucky enough for it to be very active. This is the same residence as my first encounter, I think maybe the spirits were feeling frisky.

An investigator and I walk into the residence, that once functioned as a hospice. In all, there were 7 rooms, a game room, and a pantry with blood all over the floor. All the lights are off in the home so we carefully set up in the kitchen, trying not to disturb the ambiance.  We decide to start in the game room off to the left in the hallway. After setting up the usual array of K2 meters, EM Pumps, and voice recorders, we started.

As usual, I made the mistake of talking a lot of crap to the house. This is before I learned that sometimes it makes things worse. Asking questions and staying still, we started to get responses by whatever was lurking around. In the middle of a casual question and answer session, footprints can be clearly heard on the tile floor in the kitchen. "What was that?" Walking into the kitchen, we hear something in the far hallway across the room.

We slowly creep toward the kitchen. Reaching the hallway, we stop and keep very quiet like we're hunting wabbits. Sitting still for a few minutes we hear footsteps and banging back in the game room. "Are they messing with us?" Walking back toward the game room we notice something standing in the hallway. We try to ask questions but right as we started the figure melts away.

We were waiting for the rest of the group, so the investigator stepped out to wait for them. Now ever since I began coming to this residence, people kept telling me that no one has ever been in  the building alone at night. So for some daring reason, I decided to stick it out inside the residence by myself. Feeling anxious and uneasy I walked over to the long hallway and squatted down. Can I make it by myself? Still being newer to the field, I was unaware of my gut feeling telling me to go. It took only a few moments for footsteps to sound behind me. Bang! Loud sound down the hallway like something was thrown, only I didn't see anything thrown!  I see a shadow standing in the kitchen. Just as fast as it was there, its gone. Staring into the kitchen, there were footsteps in the rooms behind me....Whirling around, I hear something walking up to me, then whispers in my ear. Inaudible.

I had decided at this point that I had had enough. I walked outside and started telling the other investigator what had happened. While we were talking both of us saw blinds in one of the windows pull back and something look out at us.....




Roy Weedmark is the owner of Paranormal Discord. Paranormal Discord is an attempt to poke fun of the dysfunctional world we call ghost hunting.

Paranormal frauds

In the paranormal field, much as with any field people cross your path that present themselves fraudulently. This ranges from evidence to stories, years of experience and many other fabrications.The issue is its here and not going away anytime soon. 

As you meet new people you'll always have people that will prop up their resume to seem like they've been doing it longer or done different events, etc. The problem with the paranormal field is that there really is not a way to verify what someone is actually claiming. Its not like you can call to check references really, even if you get a number to call the reason for that person leaving may illicit a bad response from the previous organizations. The result of this is people who have been claiming to be in the field for 10, 20, 30 years, when it may actually be 5. Now is that a continuous time, or did you do an investigation 10 years ago and now you're claiming 10 years? Now there are those that say these amounts of time and are completely honest about that, the.unfortunate thing is some people ruin it for everyone else. 

Then we come to those like Aron Houdini, or Brian Harnois and a host of others (some will not be named) who choose to rip off supporters and fans. People who are frauds and steal from others is what gives the paranormal field often a bad reputation.  I am not going to go into details about these two as everything I have read about them may or may not be true, they are just the ones in the headlines. The key to anything is just to be honest about your experience and your intentions. If someone is expecting you to do something or be somewhere especially if you have been payed for it, be there! This is also why there are places that won't let teams book, or wont unless they jump through hoops just because these places have been burned by these frauds. Even events like the one that happened in Tombstone not too long ago, where a big group of people were supposedly duped for a lot of money when the event planner failed to show for the event.

We can also talk about those who are on TV, or write books and articles. Those on TV that fake evidence or spice it up just for entertainment purposes are just as bad. They fool everyone into thinking that what they do is real, which in turn makes everyone think that's what investigating the paranormal is really like. They then become celebrities and can sell their crappy merchandise, and get payed to attend conventions, and other appearances. Not saying they are fake, but it calls into question shows like Ghost Hunters, Mountain Monsters, Haunted Collector, Ghost Adventures, Deep South Paranormal, Ghost Hunters International and many other shows of the same nature. Even if they are real everyone automatically assumes its fake, including myself.

Next would be those who sensationalize what happens on their own cases just to sell their stories. This tends to happen a lot, due to people wanting to "cash in" on the paranormal hype in society at the moment. As stated earlier, it makes it hard to know who is telling the truth, and people who are telling the truth are often looked at as liars.

What is the public to do? For one, don't tolerate it, let the person or people know that we will not stand for fraud to be perpetrated on unsuspecting people anymore! 

Please know how to use a KII

Hey it’s our favorite paranormal tool! It proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that spirits exist....Hate to ruin your moment in the sun, but while this can be a useful tool for the paranormal it does not prove anything in the way of spirits. Before I start getting emails from people trying to prove otherwise let me explain.

KII meters or EMF detectors come in many shapes sizes and forms. They all serve the same purpose. I've heard explanations like the one with the lights is for ghost hunting while the other ones are used for measuring EMF. Well, unless you have one that dismisses the A/C portion they all do the same thing. Yes the lights make it easier to see with the lights out. There are many different types of meters, and before you buy one you need to understand something. They have different ranges. Some are more sensitive than others, some are better used stationary than others, some need to be calibrated.

The most common KII meter used is the type with the colored bulbs that increase when EMF is nearby. These are good for finding areas with high EMF fields but the drawback is that you can’t tell how high as there is no graph to show you.

Many people use these to try to communicate with spirits, and fly off the handle when it spikes. "Ghost!" maybe. Probably not. Why? Well these meters are sensitive to everything from cell phones, radios, garage door openers, Wi-Fi and a whole range of other things you'd never guess. I have demonstrated this to people before by using a cell phone nearby. If you're like me I cannot turn off my cell phone, so if you're holding a meter and you receive a text it can make your meter spike. A very common thing today is for places to have wireless internet. Well, Wi-Fi can make your meter jump as well. Always something you should ask before you investigate.

There are those meters than are more expensive. What are the differences? Ranges and the difference between Single Axis and Tri-axis meters. Tri axis will catch more than your standard meter, but do cost usually over $150. But read carefully as some of these meters need to be calibrated and they are charged for.

The best one I've seen is the Mel Meter. It has an EMF, Temp gauge, light and a whole host of other tools. It does need to be calibrated but the company does it for free. This tool can be found for a whole range of prices but I still recommend researching.

Make sure before you spend your hard earned money on equipment, make sure you do your homework and not just buy things because you've seen it on TV or your friends have it.

The moral to this short outburst is to ensure we are using the tools provided to us the right way, and know that just because it goes off doesn't mean it’s paranormal.

My First Ghost Adventure

My very first investigation I showed up with my digital SLR camera and an audio recorder I had just recently purchased. After a brief tour, I placed my audio recorder by the blood stains in the back of a nearby room.

We gathered the rest of our equipment and sat in a large circle in the middle of the game room, which was the largest room of the house. For awhile, we sat in the dark asking questions in typical ghost hunter fashion. Finally, an investigator starts to whisper that she starting to see shadows in a room next to ours. Right around that time people started to say they were catching orbs in their photos.

After about another hour or so, an investigator on the right of me said that something tugged on his arm and about the same time I looked to the left of him and saw a dissipating white mist.

We decide to get up and change rooms. I wandered over to the same room where the shadows were seen. I stopped right at the outside of the room and continued to stand there just looking into the room. The other investigators came over and asked why I just don't go in/? I shook my head no and said there's no way I'm going in there. No anyone who knows me knows I don't shy away from things very often.

Finally with two other members, we went in. Whole they were talking about the history of the room, I felt a heaviness like walking through a fog while walking to the back wall of the room. I leaned against the back wall while never taking my eyes off the walk-in closet. "Whats wrong?" They asked. "There's something in the closet staring at us." Now I don't claim to be sensitive or psychic in any way so this feeling was very new to me. So we took our pictures and left the room.

We were walking through the hallway and into the kitchen. One of the investigators stopped right after walking into the kitchen and had his back to the hallway.I was facing him and we were speaking about what we were going to do next. I could easily see the pantry behind him. All of a sudden a huge tall shadow shot up behind him and I could no longer see the pantry. All I could see was a black figure that seemed very wavy in nature. I saw him stiffen and straighten up, I then grabbed his arm and whispered to him that it was behind him. We slowly backed farther into the kitchen. It continued to stand there for several minutes. It continued to follow us around all night, and when it was there all the other shadows that we were seeing earlier in the night were gone.

I woke up in the morning and my wife asked if I had bruises on the inside bicep of my left arm. I said no and continued downstairs. Once I got into the light she said if I was sure. I looked down at my arm and saw a miniature hand print on my bicep. It was so detailed that you could see each pad on the hand. I got her to quickly take photos. She managed to get around 6 to 7 photos before it disappeared.

Later that day, I was reviewing my audio recorder and caught several EVPS. In one, we are heard talking in
the game room and in the middle of us talking you hear a scratching noise over and over. I slowed the audio down and what can clearly be heard is "Get Out! Get Out! Get Out!"

Half way through the investigation I moved my audio recorder to the other side of the house and left it in a bedroom. Some time later, a voice is clearly heard saying the name of an investigator and telling them to get out.

Now this is my first investigation. My first encounter with the paranormal. I will not ever claim anything to be a ghost, but just from my first encounter I can say there is something out there. I had many more experiences just from this location as we investigated it many times, and I will write more stories in entries to come

Roy-Tech Manager at thecopsrew.com