The "Investigation Shows Are FAKE" Debate

Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures, Destination Truth, etc. are shows I enjoy. If I were certain they were fake, I wouldn't watch them, and I'm sure a lot of fans would agree with me there. Every time an investigation show is discussed on this website, there are several posts claiming they are fake, however, they usually don't argue the case or provide evidence. I decided to do research and see what evidence I could dig up in regards to these shows being fake.

Keep in mind that it is absolutely true that everything on these shows can be faked. It's television, anything can be faked. Posting information on how to manipulate a K2 meter or how to make your own ghost hoax doesn't really add anything to the debate. What is needed here is proof that evidence in these shows are being faked.

Firstly, the infamous Donna LaCroix interview with the Ghost Divas: Link (Embed is disabled)
Donna was an original TAPS member who ended up in Ghost Hunters International for a few episodes before disappearing abruptly. The poster of this content (who is not affiliated with Ghost Divas) is MovieDan. MovieDan has a few other videos called "TAPS LIES". According to the Ghost Divas, MovieDan was pressing Donna for answers and clarifications on what she had said in the interview, but backed off when Donna revealed she had colon cancer. This was apparently a lie. (Link) Furthermore, an article on SciFake.com reproducing a letter from Donna was removed, but I found it posted on another site. (Link). More information can be found here: Link and a response from Jason Hawes can be found here: Link


This video was taken from Ghost Hunters Halloween 2008 Live investigation. User "MovieDan" points out the various mistakes. I think the first noteworthy thing is that the host claims he heard the EVP in his earpiece. This is really strange, why would he hear an EVP through his earpiece? I would assume the earpiece is for communcation from the production crew, giving him cues and such. The other most noteworthy piece in this video is the coat tug. Yes, it can obviously be faked, but the question here is if there is proof that it is faked. What are we seeing at the end when Jay removes his hand from Grant's coat and it is tugged back again? Could that have happened normally?

On "Ghost Adventures Live 2009", the crew featured a guest named Robert Bess. On camera the guest's EMF detector "flies out of his hand" as he claims. Upon review of the video, it's excruciatingly clear that he threw it. This seems to be the main argument for Ghost Adventures being faked. However, this was caught clearly on video and wasn't missed at all by fans of the show. At the end of the show, Zak confronted Bess about it who continued to claim it was a legitimate paranormal happening. These debunkers of course miss the show on the following week that addressed the issue:


A user named "Debunkinator" with the youtube handle "ultimatetubetime" has many videos on the ghost shows aimed at debunking evidence. The user also has a clear bias against the ghost crew and often ridicules them, pointing out how convenient the timing may have been, or gives a general theory on how things may have been faked. I think this is an absolutely terrible way to prove the show is fake, but I think it's worth linking here because of the amount of time and effort the user puts into this: UltimateTubeTime's Channel

Other links of interest:
SciFake.com
Paranormal State Exposed?

This is all the evidence I could dig up at the time. If you have anything else to post, I will add it to this collection.

I know Im about to do exactly what you said but anyone with even a crumb of intelligence must realise these shows are faked and for entertainment purposes. The only way you will ever get conclusive proof that they are staging supposed 'happenings' is to either be on location and see them doing it firsthand or having one of the team come right out and admit it. There is a similar show in the UK called Most Haunted who actually had a case against them regarding this and eventually had to put out a statement saying that the show was purely for the purpose of entertainment and nothing to do with any scientific or serious investigation. Il try and find the link out later but try googling 'Most Haunted admits Fake' or words along them lines.

3 simple words ...
MONEY - MONEY - MONEY

These programmes all set off with the best of intentions, then the $$$$ signs take over.
Most Haunted in the UK was proved fake numerous times by Jon and the team at the website BadPsychics.

As a one off show, highlighting some spectacular and highly compelling event? Then one of these shows would work. In fact I've seen many very good documentaries which are exactly what I've just described.

But as a weekly show? And one of many competing shows to boot? All vying to capture the kind of image or info that only seems to be captured maybe once every decade?

Well... That's a lot of pressure to figure out some way to fill am hour.

I knew they were fake from the first episode that is why I never bothered to watch them. My kids used to make fun of how melodramtic they were.. they continued to watch the show just for the pure entertainment of seeing people faking it. My kids have experienced enough real activity firsthand to know what a joke that show is.
BTW... EVP's do not sound like what you have seen on these shows.

The owner of Prospect Place told a group of friends and I that TAPS actually brought in their own bats to release in the attic to make the show more dramatic. If they pull stunts like this, then any 'evidence' they capture can easily be chalked up to TV antics. Unfortunately too many people believe everything they see on these reality shows.

A good indecation these shows are fake is that they never find anything.

None of the UFO hunters, Monsterquests or Ghost shows have ever found anything they are looking for. Each of the shows endings reminds me of Geraldo opening Hoffmans tomb.

Not a fan of any of these ghost hunting shows, if only because they are so obviously bogus to a rational observer. People have been faking spiritual encounters since pre-history, IMO. Making some creepy sounds, thumping and lifting tables with their knees, using compatriots who hide and throw out strange noises...it's easy to persuade people they are seeing and experiencing things that aren't really there, especially if most of it is shrouded in darkness.

I was a fan of UFO Hunters, which structured the show in such a way that you got multiple perspectives: they had the one guy who seemed to be believe any UFO tale anyone told him, no matter how far fetched, the qualified scientist who was extremely skeptical of everything, then there was the guy who was kind of in the middle of them - he clearly wanted to believe, but he took a pretty rational approach to his investigations. Some things he concluded were real, some not so.

What was interesting, over time the skeptical scientist increasingly became a believer that "something" was going on that he could not explain. In one case, when presented with photos of a deformed calf in their cattle mutilation investigation, he kind of went over to the total believer side briefly, and it took the guy who normally was in the middle ground to bring him back to reality (it should be noted the scientist was not a biologist, so the deformed calf was something way outside his area of expertise - it probably was just that, deformed).

I finally got to see these shows on the syfy channel now that I have digital tv. After seeing a couple I'm also concluding that they are fake. Not only do they never find anything but the people in the shows are "over acting" and being way to dramatic about things.
Why does it always have to be dark in the areas they investigate? Ghosts, if they exist, can come out any time of day.

In ghost hunters, at the end of every show, you see the investigaters sitting at a large table wearing headphones. Then one of them goes "hey, I got something", they play the tape and everyone in the room goes 'oooh I heard that"... or "yeah I saw it"
and everytime I go like "huh? I didn't see/hear anything".
Also, most of the girl investigators are so naive and scaring themselfs, no doubt that some of them actually believe in what they are doing.... but when your scared you start to see and hear things.

I would like to say that I have had a life of many paranormal experiences. Why, I have no idea.

It does give me a different perspective on some of the shows and experiences. I have been invited many times to demonstrate certain paranormal acts on a regular basis. Very bad Idea!!!! I always refused !

This type of pressure can cause good honest people to have to produce results which may have to be faked in order to maintain ratings.... I have seen events on Ghost hunter that I believe to be genuine. I deem them to be genuine based on my personal experience. Some I have seen caused me to believe that a stretch of imagination and hopeful zeal was required. I believe this particular show to be as close to honest as any I have seen..

If a person has had no personal experience with the paranormal, it is so very difficult to believe any of this.

Once a person has been exposed to an actual event, it has the opposite effect.
A profound revelation of reality shakes the person for life... It can never be reversed.....

A couple of comments I want to make:

strawboss2 said it best, but several replies have said this, more or less:

Originally posted by strawboss2
This type of pressure can cause good honest people to have to produce results which may have to be faked in order to maintain ratings....

I think this is very plausible. These shows definitely need things to happen to keep people's interest, and I have noticed that Ghost Hunters in particular seem to be getting more results in most recent seasons compared to older episodes. While it will happen where we see an investigation produce no evidence, they are usually fit into an episode with a second investigation which saw more activity. It kind of seems convenient that they are lucky enough to have done enough successful investigations to fit into a season. But honestly I have no experience with ghost hunting so I don't know how common paranormal activity would actually be.

A good indecation these shows are fake is that they never find anything.

This caught me by surprise because I've always thought the opposite. If I were making the TV show and intended to fake evidence, I could employ a magician or a special effects expert to create a convincing hoax. I could put a ghost every now and then to grab better ratings. Of course someone could figure out how I did the trick, but everything on TV can be faked anyway.

Everyone that I have introduced to these programs ask me the same question. "Do you ever actually see a ghost on these shows?" And of course they are referring to the traditional see-through person that walks through walls, and we never see that on these shows. So if that's what people want, and supposing these shows are faking it, then why haven't they given people what they want?

I wasn't aware there was any debate that all of the ghost hunter type shows have faked evidence or edited for effect, the exception being the NGC show which is essentially a debunking show of the ghost hunter shows.

The worst is paranormal state. I know Ryan and am ashamed of him. They do a 2nd dead time the next night but everyone is wearing the same clothes? During the same deadtime everyones wardrobe changes to what they were wearing the next night then back to the 1st. He represents a prayer of deliverance as an exorcism. Then there is the beer can incident. Not to mention the psychics being prepped. Chip Coffey is impressive and legitimate, I've worked with him before. Michelle Bellanger is a fraud.

I've met the Taps boys numerous times as well. They stage evidence. They've been caught by the property owners.

Ghost adventures are just idiots.

None of these shows offer any scientiffic credibility.

So no fans of these shows have come in here to give their opinions.. I hope my thread looks unbiased, it is intended to be. I just wanted to gather all the evidence I could find that claims to expose these shows as fake, so that anyone who watches these shows can see them and decide for themselves.

Also for anyone wondering, I was unable to find anything related to Destination Truth evidence being faked, but I would think that because of their occasional ghost investigation and inclusion of TAPS that they would probably be just as real or fake as the other. And I didn't look into "UFO Hunters" because it is no longer an active show.

I believe ALL of them have some truth in their investigations, but the best group for me is ghost adventures its the best because they show you the evidence when it happens and not at the final of the show. An even when they record something in their cameras they playback the videos in the moment and check the area quickly. They are only 3 persons (no crew to contaminate the investigation)

They go to places that are claimed to be hunted for years and reasearch the place better than Taps.

For me they provide better results than other shows becuase they do stuff others dont.

I have seen some of these programs on youtube and personally I believe them to be real. Because ghost are demons. Without a doubt they are.

Big Destination Truth fan here.

One of the things that I think makes this show, is like with the show last night. They totally ripped on the legend of a 'Turtle-Man Creature' they were investigating in Japan, before they went, during the investigation, and after during the analysis. They don't get caught up in the hype of trying to make something happen. I also appreciate that they use more equipment, like setting up a security screen around their locations, which I think helps to keep contamination down.

Another reason that I think that show is at least more 'real' than any other show out there is the locations. It's not like there were tons of people hanging out in Chernobyl when they investigated there. That was one location where I think they really did not have any outside contamination affecting their hunt...and besides, it does take some %alls to go to a place like that.

One last note, it seems like Josh is getting more annoyed every week when he does have Jason and Grant going over the ghost stuff. You could definitely see it in his face and tone last night.

IMO, GH was 100% trying to be real in the beggining, but because of their popularity (and money), they shoot for ratings now. HOWEVER, at least they did help to make paranormal investigations more 'main stream', which I do think is a good thing.

LOL, my only gripe about Destination Truth right now is that Ryder did not come back for this season.

reply to post by cdesigns


I like Ghost Adventures for those reasons too.. I know it is just the three of them, no unidentified camera operator or sound guy in the room. They get more hits than any other show, I don't know if that makes them seem more real or fake, I have never been on a ghost investigation so I have nothing to compare it to.

I watch GH and DT but I have never been a fan of GA. In my opinion it could go either way. With Destination Truth, they really don't ever find much of anything but maybe some vague evidence that they ship on over to Jason and Grant. If they were going to fake it, don't you think something really cool would have happened by now? As far as Ghost Hunters goes, they also do a lot of debunking, keep in mind. For example, they were on a location where they actually discovered that the bar or whatever it was had set up certain rooms such as the ladies rest room, if I remember correctly. They were very irritated by this and you could tell that they felt it was a complete waste of their time. Before they even had a show, they were doing the ghost hunting, so clearly they were at one point interested in it for more than just the cash aspect. I think the only "coaching" that goes on for ratings are the reactions and then after the commercial break or after they go over the evidence, we find out that it was NOTHING. I think that is the major ploy for the ratings and to keep people coming back with the teasers and such. My only complaint with them right now is that K2 meter. I am pretty skeptical of that one, personally. Do I think the show id just a huge crock of crud? Not really. They have debunked very compelling "evidence" that they easily could have lied and said was legit. If you are going to fake it, then why do that? Wouldn't spectacular thermal imagery keep people coming back week after week? Of course, but when it can be debunked they gladly do it.

I've watched most of the ghost hunter episodes, and every single one of DT, and GA's shows. In my opinion, GA, and DT are truthful and entertaining at the same time. For me personally, I don't really care about debunkers and what they say, as most often they will debunk anything and everything under the sun that doesn't fit into their box.

Although some have stated DT hasn't found anything, that's not true, and if they go and watch every episode, they would know this. They don't find evidence every time they go out, and that's to be expected..The reason why I don't think DT comes into contact with the creatures they are hunting, is because they don't understand the meaning of stealth. Quite frankly they make too much noise, and any animal will easily avoid them, and it's probably better that way, as I am surprised they haven't been attacked yet by some animal.

Ghost Adventures has always been my favorite, as they go into places which are known to have entities which do physical harm. They might be afraid, but they push themselves to enter these areas anyways for the sake of obtaining evidence. It seems like a personal goal for them to capture the best evidence and you see this as you watch their episodes.

Well, I believe they may very well have some fake aspects to them. Some of the investigation crews you see on TV today have been paranormal investigators for quite some time before their TV show debut.

But like on most TV shows, you have to have the ratings. And keeping that in mind, they may do things to boost those ratings. It's not like they haven't been caught red handed before...

In my opinions, as soon as paranormal investigators hit the "big times", it's more about staying in the big times and ratings then actual findings.