Ghost Hunters

I loved this episode the best of all of the Ghost Hunters episodes. Its got history, mystery, and a bit of spookyness to it. This is the infamous episode where TAPS catches a shadow moving on the tower stairs above them, and where Grant and Jason capture what looks like an aparition swooshing up two levels at the top of the tower and then turning to look down at them from above. To really put this show and what was captured into perspective, you really MUST go to St Augustine and investigate the keepers house and the tower in person. I have done this. The whole place is absolutely magnificent and a must see if you travel to Florida. With that aside, I'll tell you my story. We saw and experieced nothing in the keepers house and neither did TAPS. All of the activity in the show was in the tower. The first thing that hits you as you walk into the lower part of the tower is how small the space is inside. The stairs are very narrow, and the central core is small. I stood where TAPS placed their camera at the botton of the tower. There is a small well like thing there, and they placed their camera directly behind that. Another thing you notice is you can hear a fly fart in this place as the slightest sound echoes up and down the tower. With that in mind I have to say that although what was caught was very interesting, I cannot say it was 100% paranormal. Why? First we'll address the alleged shadow moving above Brian and Dave. If you really examine the photos and do this frame by frame you can see the edge of ths shadow is rounded. This is quiet telling. You not only have a TAPS team of two people climbing the stairs, but you also have at least a camera person and a sound person. We know for a fact that the sound person uses a mike boom. This was shown in the Armory episode where the man was knocked down. Its his or her job to keep that mike up by the TAPS members so we can pick up what they are doing and saying. With the stairs being so narrow in the tower its so easy for this alleged ghost to have been the shadow of the mike on the boom, and when the sound person realized they were in the cameras view the abruptly move it back out of the way. So this shadow is busted I'm afraid. Next is this swooshing aparition or reasonable facsimilie thereof. Every time Grant and Jason were getting excited it causes, well excitement. But we never saw anything in the camera shots until the reveal. Fans of the show will recall that in the West Virginia penetentary, Grant and Jason debunked the man shadow that appeared on the door of the cafeteria. It was found that the IR cameras cause shadows, and many investigators are tricked by this into thinking they saw a shadow person. This is exactly what happened in the tower. Grant and Jason were getting excited and some crew member below them moved quickly to a platform somewhere below them but above the light emitted by the IR camera and looked up to see if they could see what Grant and Jason were so excited about. They didn't realize that their shadow would be caught on the film and look like a ghost. On the show they play it up pretty well with the motion detector excuse. Yup its there on the very spot the ghost allegedly looked over the rail at them. I stood on that very spot too. But this does not prove or disprove a thing regarding the aparition. Unless they can prove to me that a crew member did not move to a platform and look up below them, I'm saying this event is also busted. One more point on this. The camera shot in the tower did not capture ALL of the levels of the staircase. They have it zoomed in a little to get the upper most area, so some of the first platforms and stair sections are not in the view. A few more tidbits. As I mentioned earlier, the place is a huge echo chamber. The slightest sound from anywhere echoes easily up the tower. There is an entry building at the base of the tower with two rooms, one for storing the lard oil and buckets and one for tools and other supplies. We don't know if these inner doors were closed and the rooms windows close or if the main door was closed after and while the TAPS members were inside. If not, I can tell you this to debunk the ladies voices. First, the tower is surrouded by homes a school with playground and a park as well as it being a tourist area. Its quite possible that there were a crowd of people there the night TAPS was there and many may have been drawn to the site because they saw the activity of filming. So to just say no ladies were there that night holds no water, they most certainly could have and most likely were, and if that tower echoes like it does, it would be very easy for some girl calling out help me as a prank to be picked up by those people in the tower. Poor Brian, those stairs are a hard thing to climb. They are narrow and fairly steep. We saw the bench he placed the recorder on, its about half way up. I would have been beat if I had to run them as many times as he did that night. We saw the oil bucket on about the 5th level. It sounds nothing like one of the windows banging, we tried it. The bucket has an obvious metallic clang like bang to it where the window is a loud dull thud. So take that at face value.

You're trying to debunk the shadow image by saying it is an IR shadow of a crew member. That is not possible. First of all, the camera is at the bottom of the tower. If a crew member were leaning over the railing enough to create a shadow, you would see them clearly. If you're saying somehow the crew member was out of the camera frame, but still in the IR light, think about this: The scale of a shadow cast by an object is inversely proportional to the distance between the object and the light source. If a crew member were close enough to the IR light source to be out of the camera frame (near the bottom of the tower), the shadow created would be huge. The only way to create a shadow exactly the same size as a human with a light source at the bottom of the tower, would be to have the crew member very close to the shadow. This of course would show them on camera. Another problem with your debunk is the angles involved. The light source is in the center of the tower. This means all shadows are cast angled towards the walls, not straight up towards the ceiling.



So looking at the scale and angles involved, it is impossible that this is an IR shadow of a crew member.

Now this is what I am talking about. If you didn't believe in the paranormal before watching this episode you will after watching it. The voice of the female is extremely creepy. Movement abounds as Jason and Grant begin chasing figures up the winding stair case. The camera's pick up a strange figure on several occusions. There is no doubt that something or someone is moving about very quickly while taunting the crew. They managed to debunk some of the noises but clearly the moving figure is a total mystery. The crews change places and Steve and remaining crew incounters the same events.

This episode is without question the Ghost Hunters at their best. What makes this episode come out on top of all the others is the pure excitement of the hunt. The lighthouse it self does not have much to it, other than a spiraling stair case. What turns out to happen is a real chase up the stairs after seemingly several entities. Also, it is fun to watch see Steve get over his fear of heights to experiance what all the other TAPS crew experianced.



The episode seems to start off in the way that most Ghost Hunters episodes do. At the very start of their investigation they debunk the sound of the bucket, which seems logical enough. However, the excitement begins when Jason and Grant hear voices. Not just voices but an actual conversation. Not only that, but you can even hear the voices before you do on the actual EVP. Jason and Grant then start continuing up the stairs, and begin to not only hear voices but see entities going up the stairs ahead of them. Thus begins the chase. At the peak of excitement they even see a shadow leaning on the railing looking down at them, and then moving off up the stairs. The analysis is equally intresting, with a two convincing videos and a couple EVP's.



There is just something about TAPS crew's attitude that makes the whole episode seem valid and not acted out. Steve even confronts his fear of hieghts to see the activity. Faked? Very possible, but I doubt it. This is the sort of episode that is just so juicy that you could watch it multiple times.

This was the best episode of Ghost Hunters I've seen. There was no doubt there was something in the lighthouse with them that night. The shadows and movement captured on video, along with the sounds - would make even the most skeptical a believer.



One of the best things about this show - is they go into each investigation both open-minded and with the intent to try to "disprove" alleged hauntings. That gives them far more credibility than other shows (such as the ridiculous "Most Haunted"). I just wish the Sci-Fi channel would show the rest of season 3 sooner than late spring!

The investigation at the lighthouse in St. Augustine, Florida generated some of the best and by far the creepiest EVPs heard and video seen in the Ghost Hunters series ever! One portion in particular is just brilliant whereby Grant and Jason hear the voice of a woman imploring for help on the stairwell going up to the upper portions of the lighthouse. This episode also stands out as a winner in the video of the shadow people captured numerous times appearing on one flight of stairs only to suddenly fly out of the screen shot and then reappear several flights above or below where they had been originally first seen. It is apparent that no human could have emulated such a feat and that clearly ghosts were afoot! A wonderfully exiciting episode!

Wow this was great I don't know if I believe in ghosts or not but from what they say in that lighthouse I think I may be a little closer to being a beliver. That aside I think they just did a good job of putting this eposide together which sometimes they don't do so well.

For one, we got to see a shadow thingy, which I haven't seen before on the show. We hear voices talking alot. There are no women on this episode and the voice is that of a female.



This was one pretty reveiling episode, I think anyway. They learned alot, and no one got hurt. As in past episodes Kekki has hurt people. Leaving scratches and red marks on people like Jason.



Over all, people who like the show should probably watch this episode.

...the ghost hunters finally saw something! What I've learned from this series is ghost hunting is really quite frustrating. Up to the day before the TAPS team arrives, people see, hear, and smell spooks everywhere! Then the pros come and set up their high-tech equipment and go into the haunted building with great expectations - but come up with "bupkis".

This episode, they saw and heard spirits BIG time. The video evidence of "something" popping it's shadowy head over the railing to look at them was mindblowing. Even more unusual was their reaction: they were ecstatic, they were pumped, they were ready to leap tall buildings at a single bound.

Most people - including me - would probably run screaming from the lighthouse, shrieking, "Ahhh! A ghost!" But not these guys (and a few gals); they'd be charging right in there, daring the ghost to manifest. I like that kind of practical attitude.

It has been a while since the TAPS team have obtained some good footage of haunting. This episode was entertaining and I really wish they could all be this good or better.



This episode was another lighthouse episode but this one shows just how haunted a place can be.



I did notice one big difference between this episode and others, in that the person who called them to check it out was a sceptic and not someone who believed and just wanted to get attention for it. I think they find more at places that the people either don't want the haunting or are skeptic.

I had heard about this episode several weeks ago during an interview with Grant on the “Slice of SF” podcast. He made it very clear that this was his favorite episode among the spring batch (though thankfully, he said this wasn’t the only episode with activity). Just the fact that the episode was devoted to one particular location was an improvement over the overly brisk pacing of previous episodes.



But this is, in many respects, the best episode of the series to date. The first season had the apparent attack on Frank, one of the sound guys, and the second season hit the hiatus with what appeared to be a thermal image of an apparition. Those were good, but this was better, especially the video footage.



Now, before I get too far into it, I want to address the obvious. I’ve already read comments that the video footage was fake, and that the voices were added in post-production. It’s certainly possible for something like that to happen, and the SFC editors don’t help matters by adding stupid ”spooky” sound effects over the actual investigation footage. But I maintain that Jason and Grant have demonstrated their integrity, and manufactured video evidence is usually very easy to debunk (especially in this day and age of pervasive CGI).



I do find it very interesting that so much activity this season has been related to “shadow people”. It’s almost like there’s a theme going, though I think it makes sense. If there is something there with the intention to manifest, it would take a lot less energy to take on a form without discernable features. (In fact, I still think most “recognizable” apparitions have a psychic component; what you see is a combination of the physical form and some kind of mental connection.)



Whatever the case, here’s my rundown on the evidence:



First, the audio evidence. I love the fact that you could hear something before anyone reacted on screen, especially with Jason and Grant. The murmuring in particular was very obvious. I do think it’s a little odd that the wireless audio didn’t pick up those sounds independently, though that might have happened without on-screen verification. But that’s the sort of thing that would have really cemented the reality of it.



All the moments when the camera was just jumping around while everyone was pointing to stuff that couldn’t be seen in “real time” were an annoyance, but I realize now that they showed so much of that because they had plenty of actual video evidence waiting in the wings. Contrast this to “Most Haunted”, where it’s nothing but whipping around the camera while the “investigators” scream at every creak and bang.



The two highlighted clips were quite impressive. I’ve seen the “shadow people” phenomenon for myself and that is, in fact, what it looks like, taking graininess into account. I liked how they peeled back the layers of enhancement over the course of the episode, so the original footage was shown to give the audience a sense of what that kind of thing would look like in “real time”. The fact that reference points were available (the motion detector lights in particular) made it very easy to notice movement. But the clean-up versions were stunning.



This is the kind of thing that I’ve been waiting for, and it definitely lived up to the hype. I can’t imagine how the rest of the season is going to measure up!

One of the best episodes EVER. Hardly any bickering...just Brian worried about going up and down the stairs - of course I probably would have thrown up the 2nd time up. Never would have made it a third time.



When you could see the shadowy figure at the very top appear to lean over the rail, and then disappear...I still have chills thinking about it.



Anybody that watches the show knows that they hardly ever say a place is haunted. When they stated vehemently that "the lighthouse is haunted", I got pretty excited! I was convinced already!



Did anyone notice the name of the hotel they stayed at?

Simply, a great episode. TAPS did some great investigative work, and came back with some stunning video evidence. Every member of the team had an experience in that light house. The show really brought the viewers in without over sensationalization of the subject matter.



You can clearly hear a female voice in the lighthouse saying \"help me\". And the videos taken clearly show a human-shaped figure moving on the stairs at the top of the light house, as well as peaking over the edge to look at the TAPS team. Get chills just thinking about it. Great show, and one of the best episodes of season 2.