Ghost Hunters - Cashtown Inn Discussion

I can't imagine I am the only one that watched Ghost Hunters last night, March 26. It was the episode entitled Fear Cage, where the team visited the Cashtown Inn located in Gettysburg, PA.

I have seen a lot of good evidence throughout the series, however, this episode in particular had my jaw hanging open once again. I was surprised to see that no one has posted any information about it here on ATS.

Here is the Link to Episode 4 - Season 4 but keep in mind that it may not be available for viewing for a very long time. I'm not sure how SciFi.com handles their full episodes online.

For those of you that didn't watch it, they finished up their investigation at the Cashtown Inn with some pretty decent personal experiences and were lucky enough to be able to stay the night there. Grant set up his digital camcorder facing a chair in his room that was known to rock or have an apparition sitting in it. There was an end table next to the chair with a picture frame facing the camera. A few minutes after he got into bed the picture frame CLEARLY rotated in place very quickly towards the chair.

This was one of the most indisputable pieces of evidence where an inanimate object moves on film IMO. They have had other good pieces (such as the bed spread being lifted up) but this one in particular is amazing. There is no way to debunk this piece of film. Grant heard the noise in the pitch black room and got out of bed to see what happened.

I cannot understand why this is not national news. This is proof of paranormal! Something moved that picture frame on the table with a good amount of force, and it is on video for the world to see.

The reason i am so ecstatic about this is because I have had my own experience where an inanimate object was thrown at me while i was sleeping. Without video evidence i have no proof, but I know it happened. For those of you that are wondering, my shoe hit me while I was sleeping in the house I grew up on at 2am. I wont get into detail but I assure you there was no one there to throw it with so much force that it woke me from a deep sleep while lying on my stomach.

So, what do we think about this? What do you think the scientific community should be doing more about the paranormal. There is mountains of video and audio evidence out there as proof it exists. Why are we not as a whole putting more time and money into this stuff.

I did not see the episode but I did grow up in South-Central Pennsylvania. There was a very popular book out in the late 80's-early 90's called Ghosts of Gettysburg which was written by a former park ranger at the battlefield national park. It detailed numerous area which are known for events, sightings and unexplained phenoms. I don't recall that Inn per-se but there were plenty of areas people could go for a scare.

The one that got me the most was one (and please forgive my lack of details. I'm recalling this from memory) area in the park which was the scene of a fierce battle. As legend goes, there's a particular date of the year (June or July) that if you happen to be in that area at a certain time of evening, you can hear soldiers marching and horns & drums etc playing.

Very spooky stuff. I recommend interested people to check out that book.

Yes, they talked about some of the paranormal experiences at Gettysburg on this episode. With so many people dying in the area in such a short amount of time it would make sense that it is a paranormal hot spot.

They also recorded loud footsteps that sounded like the person was wearing a solid boot on hardwood floors.

Its tragic to think that 150 years ago there was a massive war in that area with so many casualties. It really wasn't that long ago when you put it into perspective.

I watch that show but I was watcing Monsterquest and UFO Hunters last night....

I saw it. It was a good episode. I prefer when they do the whole hour in one place. I hope they do Gettysburg itself someday. They could spend an entire season in that one town!

Says i cant watch it in my location....Uk....

Really? I didnt know location mattered. Just wait a week and check youtube! Someone always posts the episodes.

I think Grant could shake hands with a full body apparition and it wouldn't prove anything until there is a scientifically accepted explanation for the existence of ghosts. But I have seen better evidence on the show and they've caught moving objects before. I remember the episode where they caught a full body apparition on thermal cam that they could not debunk, it even moved its head!

I have noticed that a lot of the "hardcore evidence" comes from grant. I think there are some problems with this too. The pieces of evidence I am talking about all share the same characteristics too.

First, the moving chair in the attic. A few seconds after grant gets up from this chair and leaves the room, the chair moves a little bit. As you can see, the chair rotates as though there is a piece of fishing line tied to a leg. It would be very easy for Grant to give a small tug on that line from right around the corner. Remember, he knew exactly where the camera was and sat in that chair for a few minutes in the dark. It would be fairly easy to tape/attach some string to the chair while his leg was blocking the view.



Next, the Moving Covers video.
I can't seem to find it on youtube so I will have to describe it to you. A camera is pointed at the foot of Grants bed and positioned in such a way that you can only see the bed from about the knees down. Sometime during the night, the covers appear to pull up towards Grant's head, uncovering his feet. His feet did not move, however, we can not see the rest of Grant. Again a simple fish hook and string under the covers would duplicate this effect perfectly.

Finally, this video last night. Again it is something moving seemingly all by itself and while Grant is alone with it. I havn't seen it that much, just when it was on, but it appears as though the picture just rotates on its axis. It moves exactly how you would think it should if a string was tied to the support on the back of the picture and tugged on a little.

I really wonder why no other members have "moving objects" experiences, and he has had 3. The only other thing that comes close is when Jason's glass broke for no reason on his bedstand. I think that was real, however, I don't think I can trust any evidence that comes from Grant anymore.

This is one way to argue Grant's innocence. I'll go ahead and state that I'm up on the fence about this. If it's proven that anything on this show has been intentionally hoaxed, then every single piece of evidence must be thrown out as unacceptably questionable.

Some people theorize that certain people are more "in tune" or whatever with the paranormal, and as such not only have a higher sensitiviy, they also "feed" experiences more than someone else might.

Think of an entity (for lack of a better word) that uses a human being's energy to manifest. Well, if someone is super-sensitive, then they might have more of this energy to draw upon, thus facilitating more activity.

I understand where your coming from, it does seem odd that all of the moving objects were associated with Grant alone. Still, it is only 3 occurances, so the odds are not that extreme.

Like I mentioned in the OP, I had an object thrown at me in an empty room. I know this can happen so I found the Ghost Hunters evidence amazing because I can relate to it. After looking through another point of view I can see why this isnt as big a deal to others.

In the end im just looking for answers, as many of us are. More recoginition and acceptability of paranormal in the mainstream might be the fuel to find those answers. I hope we see more legitimate evidence in the future.

I like this show and catch it when I can.

But I have to force myself to stop watching it when I am home alone.

Or I end up calling my husband five times wondering when he is coming home.

Originally posted by Lotiki
I have noticed that a lot of the "hardcore evidence" comes from grant. I think there are some problems with this too. The pieces of evidence I am talking about all share the same characteristics too.

First, the moving chair in the attic. A few seconds after grant gets up from this chair and leaves the room, the chair moves a little bit. As you can see, the chair rotates as though there is a piece of fishing line tied to a leg. It would be very easy for Grant to give a small tug on that line from right around the corner. Remember, he knew exactly where the camera was and sat in that chair for a few minutes in the dark. It would be fairly easy to tape/attach some string to the chair while his leg was blocking the view.

Hey All, Long time reader first time poster.

I would like to say, that when I read this and seen the video of the chair incident, I did notice alot of similarities on the way the chair moved as too the way the picture frame move in Cashtown,

If you look at the video above and then look at the video from cashtown,

Here

You will notice that both are slightly moved, The a real big scoot, like Grant or whoever, didn't think the first "tug" wasn't noticeable.

Very good catch Lotiki and Awesome board here!

[edit on 27-3-2008 by ParanormalInsight]

I really liked Ghost Hunters until I realized that they debunk everything on that show.

They sure do have a lot of compatition now like Paranormal State and Ufo Hunters.

I've noticed in the comercials that they are actually seeing things now and are actually "scared",,,,,,,,,,,,,lol

Originally posted by samureyed
I cannot understand why this is not national news. This is proof of paranormal! Something moved that picture frame on the table with a good amount of force, and it is on video for the world to see.

Well, fine, it's odd. But what exactly is it "proof" of? What does it prove? That odd things happen sometimes and we have no explanation for it. I thought we already knew that.

See, this is where Ghost Hunters falls down on the job. Once in a while they manage to catch something odd on video or audio. The audio stuff is really weak, since anybody brushing cloth together can produce a sound that can be interpreted as something that sounds like a voice.

But they don't have any real working hypotheses to determine what's really going on. They toss out a lot of "theories" about "entities" borrowing energy from the air or whatever to create a cold spot, for instance, but never actually, logically link the things together.

We can talk about "ghosts" or "entities" all day long, but what do we even mean by it? It's all so vague that we can talk ourselves into all kinds of explanations that really don't mean anything. So at the end of the day, all we have to show for it is a grainy video of something moving by itself, but no clue as to why it might be doing it. We don't know.

And as is almost always the case with this kind of stuff, "I don't know" is the trump card. With no other information or workable hypotheses to go on, it still beats whatever other nutty explanation about ghosts or entities or telekinesis you might come up with.

I hate to say I'm a skeptic. I just finished watching the episode on Demand and then saw this thread.

Firstly I notice the odd behavior of the camera men. They always film the TAPS crew's reactions but never the evidence itself. They see something and often the camera just keeps on filming the investigators?!?!? Come on if it were truly real I think that the camera men would want to film this stuff and try to capture additional evidence. Not saying it's necessarily fake but it seems so contrived at times. I know they ham it up for TV....

Next I definitely think if it were true evidence they would disclose the evidence and allow for public scrutiny. We should be able to download the original audio files to listen to but it's all tied into corporate sponsorship and ratings. My girlfriend always argues they debunk a lot of stuff so how could it be fake but if everything they found was proof no one would believe them. So by debunking certain instances it allows for more believable television

Then again perhaps it is all real evidence

We can talk about "ghosts" or "entities" all day long, but what do we even mean by it? It's all so vague that we can talk ourselves into all kinds of explanations that really don't mean anything. So at the end of the day, all we have to show for it is a grainy video of something moving by itself, but no clue as to why it might be doing it. We don't know.

Exactly, we dont know what we are dealing with. I feel that "ghosts" are right up there next to aliens. When you take a step back and look at the vast amounts of evidence through video, audio, and personal accounts it is hard to claim that something isnt going on. But your right, we still dont know. Which leads me back to my original question, why arent we doing more to prove that some type of "energy" is creating this paranormal effect. I am not saying it is the apparatition of a dead man, but rather that there is something that we cannot detect or do not understand that is causing stange occurances.

Years ago we couldn't detect microwaves, thus had no idea they existed. Whos to say that "ghosts" are not just another form of energy we cannot yet detect. I think it would be interesting if the scientific community would embrace this knowledge and study it, rather than just the opposite.

I have said before, I would like to see a new show similar to Ghost Hunters that focuses more on scientific evidence and measurements rather than characters. It may be more boring to the mainstream, but some of us would find it much more fascinating.

Originally posted by thestateofnirvana
Firstly I notice the odd behavior of the camera men. They always film the TAPS crew's reactions but never the evidence itself. They see something and often the camera just keeps on filming the investigators?!?!? Come on if it were truly real I think that the camera men would want to film this stuff and try to capture additional evidence. Not saying it's necessarily fake but it seems so contrived at times. I know they ham it up for TV....

the camera crew is from the SciFi channel, and they are not there to film the paranormal. they are there to film the TAPS team. i have no idea if it's in their contract, but the camera crew stays out of the way of the TAPS investigation. they only use the crew's video evidence if they accidentally catch something while taping the TAPS team.

if the SciFi channel's intent were to capture the paranormal on film, they would have used their own crew...kinda like what they tried to do with SciFi Channel Investigates.

also, the idea that Grant is behind their big evidence, for all we know, maybe he is, but i doubt it. the bed spread video footage was deemed as tampered with by their own crew after reviewing.



*Edit - the bed spread footage is five or so minutes in on the video.

[edit on 29-3-2008 by banyan]

Originally posted by banyan

the camera crew is from the SciFi channel, and they are not there to film the paranormal. they are there to film the TAPS team. i have no idea if it's in their contract, but the camera crew stays out of the way of the TAPS investigation. they only use the crew's video evidence if they accidentally catch something while taping the TAPS team.

if the SciFi channel's intent were to capture the paranormal on film, they would have used their own crew...kinda like what they tried to do with SciFi Channel Investigates.

also, the idea that Grant is behind their big evidence, for all we know, maybe he is, but i doubt it. the bed spread video footage was deemed as tampered with by their own crew after reviewing.

*Edit - the bed spread footage is five or so minutes in on the video.

[edit on 29-3-2008 by banyan]

I see your point there. I guess that I do like the show in general. However I still remain skeptical since the evidence isn't apparently available for public review (like I stated original audio files would be nice because people could then decipher if they had been tampered with.) Still makes for great television though, I watch quite frequently

reply to post by thestateofnirvana


do you [or anybody] know why TAPS won't release their findings for the public to devour up?

my thought is that perhaps they are not allowed to because of the SciFi channel's hold over the actual show. it's legality and copyright no doubt.

as for TAPS...they've been around for a long time even before Ghost Hunters.

Hawes began TAPS in 1990; originally it was called Rhode Island Paranormal Society. According to former TAPS member Donna LaCroix, the team initially began meeting "every Sunday in a coffee shop." After RIPS began investigating cases throughout the New England area, RIPS was renamed "The Atlantic Paranormal Society".[1] Wilson joined the effort about two years later.

en.wikipedia.org...

so they have had many many years of investigating and collecting evidence. i wonder if they have any video footage or proof from their years before the SciFi channel that they could release to us?

if anything, they leave me at the end of the day more believing in themselves as genuine people, rather than guys out for fame and paranormal glory. but for sure, always question everything on the show, just like you should question everything else in life.

[edit on 30-3-2008 by banyan]