Phasmata

CWs: ableist nomenclature, religion, politics, ghosts, death

If y’all know me, y’all know that I love just about everything Watcher does (y’know, Ryan Bergara & Shane Madej, formerly of Buzzfeed Unsolved, and now with their own company and their own streaming service). It’s been fun watching them start their own network and just have fun with content, do whatever they want. But I absolutely love their ghost hunting show, Ghost Files, which is a big nod to their original claim to fame, Buzzfeed Unsolved. We got into their stuff a few years ago and just went down the rabbit hole, and are now subscribed to WatcherTV to watch their stuff (it comes out on YouTube, too, just with a long delay, but there is some stuff that is exclusive to the paid streaming service).

Anyways, we watched the most recent episode of Ghost Files tonight (from Friday), where the boys go to the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum for a ghost hunt. I know, I know, the name is not great, but that’s the name of the place, unfortunately. I remember back in ‘09 or ‘10 when Ghost Adventures and Fratty McFratFrat (Zak Bagans) did a 7-hour live lockdown at the same location. That was ridiculous and I remember being glued to the TV at the time for it, because why not? I love ghost shows, they are ridiculous. And I was obsessed with Ghost Adventures once upon a time, but that show is ridiculous and I can’t stand it now. Ryan & Shane are kinda goofy and broey, but their hearts are in the right place, and they’re genuinely fun to watch, and generally not terrible and annoying. So it was really nice to watch them check out the location and have an interesting time. I think the coolest thing from the episode (spoiler?) was when part of Ryan’s jacket seemed to move on its own. Like, I watched him moving throughout the episode, and how the coat moved when he did. This was not it, it was definitely moving on its own. Part of his belt moved unnaturally on its own as well, and both instances were caught on camera.

I’m a pretty staunch (formerly militant) atheist. I grew up Presbyterian and then Catholic, but left the latter church in around ‘06 or so. The community I thought I had turned out to be a poison pill, so to speak, and they ended up being awful people, which ruined it for me. I know that’s probably a shame for some people, but hey, I was never really in it for the theology, that was tangential. The community is what mattered to me, and when that fell away, there was nothing left for me. I would much rather read Greek/Roman philosophy and try to live a good life on those principles, and listen to those around me, follow examples of people living good lives and making the world a better place. Religion is completely unnecessary (and often antithetical) for that goal. That old nugget of wisdom, if you’re only good out of fear of a god, are you truly good? (or that idea reworked in A Clockwork Orange, if someone is forced/conditioned to be good, are they truly good?) I would say a resounding no to that. If you are a “good” person: treating others well, helping whenever possible, being kind, trying to do no harm, &c. &c. – for its own sake, not out of fear of punishment or praise – then that’s the way to be, IMHO. Of course there are societal pressures, like shaming for people who are unkind, and ostracism from society, but I think those are important. Shame the hell out of people who are not being kind and good to their fellow people, I have no issue with that.

Anyways, what I’m trying to say is, religion didn’t work for me. If it works for you, great, I hope you enjoy it! All I ask is that you don’t force your religion, and morals, on me or anyone else. That is when we’re going to have a problem. As I mentioned briefly, I used to be a fairly militant atheist and really quite anti-Christian in particular, and anti-all organized religion. I am really trying to be more “live and let live” these days if at all possible, but it’s really disheartening seeing “Christofascists” at all levels of government, trying to peddle their nonsense and make everyone believe it. That’s where I think there is a time and a place for the militance.

So that’s a little background on my thoughts on religion. I find the idea of ancient Greek/Roman religion fascinating, and the gods are really interesting, but again, I’d rather be all into philosophy in general. My spouse says here and there that it’s weird that I’m atheist but believe in ghosts. I don’t entirely think they’re incompatible. If you think of ghosts as another phase of matter (and believe in a material world and soul, like someone like Lucretius and other atomists), then sure, why not? I don’t think there has to be an afterlife for ghosts to exist. I don’t know that the “soul” exists though, but I like the concept of it and it’s fun to think about. What is the spark that gives us life, animates us? I don’t know. When everything’s working, it just works, and it’s hard to quantify. But after someone dies, that animating force disappears, and the body becomes just flesh and bones. I don’t have an answer to any of this, and people have been thinking for millennia about all of this and have countless answers, but none has been proven correct that I know of.

Anyways, I am a sucker for ghost shows, and Ghost Files is one of the better ones I’ve seen. They’re very careful to be as professional as possible, at least in terms of “evidence handling,” if you will, and are very careful to try to explain phenomena in other ways if possible. But sometimes what they capture can’t be explained, and that is quite fascinating to me. Especially when they’re in an abandoned place in the middle of nowhere, where there shouldn’t be bumps and sounds and clicks or whatever going on, especially with it only being them in the area. Again, I really think they try to be as careful as possible with all their footage, making sure crew didn’t generate any phenomena accidentally, &c., and double-checking. Like on the current episode, Shane kicked one of their pieces of equipment accidentally, and they debunked one of the interesting events in the episode because of that. That’s integrity IMHO and I really appreciate it. Most of these ghost shows don’t hold themselves to high standards (Ghost Adventures, I’m looking at you) and episodes are often full of phenomena. But the Ghost Files episodes sometimes have nothing happen, and that’s OK, that is realistic.

I remember years ago, when I was super super into ghost shows, I bought one of the “Spirit Box” devices. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s a repurposed radio unit at its core. What it does is cycle through FM (and perhaps AM if desired? can’t remember) stations very quickly (I think one “point,” like 99.1 to 99.2 FM, &c., each second?). The idea, according to investigators, is that it will lay down a pattern of white noise for ghosts to “speak” through. I remember using it when I lived in Florida, but never had any success with it. I also bought a digital voice recorder (it’s cool, it plugs into a computer with USB-A, and is basically a flashdrive too) to use with the Spirit Box, but I really haven’t used it for years. I should fire it up sometime with headphones for the hell of it. Years ago, I recorded myself sleeping with the voice recorder, and I don’t think anything weird happened on the recording, except my cat meowing here and there.

On Ghost Files, they use the spirit box pretty frequently, but more often these days, they use it combined with something called the “Honeytone,” which is a device that cleans up the white noise and tries to isolate “ghost voices” in the static on the spirit box. I find it interesting, but I don’t know what kind of processing that thing is doing, and whether it’s generating anything itself. I find far more interesting what they call the “Estes Method.” This involves one person listening to the spirit box with noise-cancelling headphones, and shouting out everything they hear, and another person asking questions. Of course, it depends on the interpretation of the listener with headphones, but I find that one a lot harder to fake, since the person with headphones can’t hear anything the other person is saying, given the noise-cancelling effect.

We went to Ghost Files Live when they were in San Francisco last October, and had a fabulous time. They even did an “Estes Method” session on stage, which was incredibly cool! Basically, they screened an episode which hadn’t been aired yet, did some other fun stuff, and had a moderated Q&A. It was awesome to see a spirit box session in person for sure. Again, like I said, I never did much with it back in Florida when I lived there. Maybe I’ll play around with it soon.

Anyways I like getting scared and watching scary stuff, but really not much scares me these days. I’m always trying to find a horror movie that actually scares me, and those are few and far between, so when I find one, I’m absolutely tickled. I’ve watched a ton of older movies and I’m sure there are plenty that I’ve missed, so I’m always trying to fill in those gaps, and of course looking for new stuff. I recently started the X trilogy (X, Pearl, and most recently, Maxxxine) and have very much enjoyed it. X was a nasty throwback to things like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Pearl was a delightfully unhinged period piece that I didn’t entirely expect. Maxxxine hasn’t come out yet on video, so I’ll probably grab a copy from the library on DVD when it does. My sister has seen all three, AFAIK, and enjoyed them. I also found Infinity Pool (another Mia Goth film) super creepy and weird, so I have seen some good stuff lately. When Possessor (by Brandon Cronenberg, son of David Cronenberg) dropped off of Hulu, to my chagrin, I found that it resurfaced on Kanopy, a service to which I have access through the library. We also both got Denver Public Library cards today, so I’ll have access to more media that way!

This entry went in weirder places than I intended, but that’s OK. I like starting in one place and not entirely knowing whither it will end up, tnat’s alright. Thanks for reading, friends, and may the ghosts follow you home! <3