Fear Is The Only Variable - Paranormal Investigation

It is Halloween and it seems that everyone is suddenly interested in all things paranormal, ghostly and supernatural. For many that interest continues year round and for a lucky few, they get to investigate the paranormal.

I have been part of a paranormal investigation group, the Paranormal Researchers Of Ontario or proo(f) for the last two years and had been on a few investigations before that.
Proo(f), the (f) stands for fear, is currently made up of five members. The co-founders, Brad and Katie Mavin, and Paul Silliphant, along with newer member Rob Di Venanzo and skeptic, me, Ben Stacey.

Left to right: Rob Di Venanzo, Ben Stacey, Katie Mavin, Paul Silliphant, Brad Mavin

Wait, what? Skeptic?
Yes, I am a skeptic when it comes to the paranormal. I do not believe in ghosts or spirits or any of those things. So why am I with a paranormal investigation group?
There are multiple answers. First, ghost stories are cool. A good story about ghosts or a haunting can be really scary and enjoyable. Most ghost stories are even better when they are purported to be based on a true story. So why not investigate those "true stories".
Second, and probably more importantly for the group, I think it is very important to have a skeptical viewpoint in a team of investigators. It helps keep objectivity. There are many groups that are made up of only whole hearted believers, or people that want to believe. For a group like that it is too easy to jump to the conclusion that anything that happens on an investigation is paranormal. Just because you hear a bang or a bump, does not mean that it is caused by something supernatural. If you are really interested in discovering if something is paranormal, you absolutely must look at all evidence objectively and skeptically.
Proo(f) is very good at that. Even those who have a strong belief in paranormal activity will question every bit of evidence that we gather.
I also think that as a skeptic, I have to be open to being skeptical about what I believe. If we were to ever get some evidence that we could not explain or debunk, I must at least remain open to other explanations.
Thirdly, I am a film maker have been documenting our investigations and producing web episodes of those investigations. You can see some at http://www.youtube.com/proofcanada
And of course it is a lot of fun.

I should also be clear that, even though I don't believe that anything is paranormal, it is obvious that people have had experiences that they attribute to the paranormal. Also the fear that you feel when walking alone in an empty, dark, supposedly haunted building is real. The emotional responses that some of the members of the team experience are real. Even when we have worked with mediums, I believe that to them, what they are doing is real. I don't for a second doubt that they believe they are doing what they think they are doing. I do doubt that what they are doing is paranormal. And most importantly I trust that no one in the group will ever fake anything. It serves no purpose. And if anything ever was faked it would eventually be discovered.

As I said, the fear is real regardless of whether it is caused by anything paranormal or not. The excitement on an investigation when something strange happens is also real.
So I wanted to share just a few of the experiences we have had as a team that we found to be either scary, emotional or exciting.


The Curse of Valentia

In the hamlet of Valentia, Ontario, there is a horse farm that has had some strange activity. In 1804, at a trading post that was on or near the property, Ogetonicut, of the Ojibway tribe killed the post operator, John Sharpe in a revenge killing for him having murdered his brother Whistling Duck. Ogetonicut was killed while being transported to stand trial when the HMS Speedy sank in a storm. It is rumoured that Ogetonicut may haunt the property.
There is also the story of the "Lantern Lady", a women who lost her husband and infant son in a house fire approximately 150 years ago. She was returning up a laneway from running errands into town when she discovered her house on fire. People claim to see a woman carrying a lantern along this laneway.

At this investigation we had a medium with us. While in the laneway he suddenly sat down and began to channel the "Lantern Lady". Katie questioned him/her. We were unable to verify any of the information that she got while questioning. The interesting thing was what happened as the channelling session came to an end. Upon saying good-bye to the "Lantern Lady", Katie broke down in tears. She was sobbing uncontrollably. She felt the emotions of the woman. She felt that the woman had her arms wrapped around her.

You can watch what happened here:



The Haunted Museum

Our investigation at the Scugog Shores Museum gave us two really interesting pieces of evidence. The first was also an emotional response. The church has a room at the back known as the weeping room or the moaning room. During funerals, that is where the casket would be for people to say good-bye to the deceased. People report hearing crying and moaning from that area of the church.
We had one of the museum interpreters, Rosie, with us. While conducting an investigation in the moaning room Rosie suddenly began to cry.

Watch here:



Afterwards, Rosie was fine and we continued to investigate the room. This time we were using two tools. The first is a spirit box which scans through the white noise between radio stations in the hope that spirits may be able to communicate through it. The other tool was an app called the "Ghost Radar". It has a large database of words and the idea is that a spirit can draw from these words to communicate. Nothing happened with the spirit box, but the "Ghost Radar" did give us a couple of interesting responses. The first was the word "husband". Interesting because there were likely many widows saying good-bye to their husbands in this room.
The second was the name, "Lee". This is interesting for two reasons. Joseph lee was a circuit minister in the area and could very well have preached at this church. And, the Lee House, Joseph Lee's actual house is part of the museum.

Watch here:


The Asylum

This is my favourite place. It is an abandoned former mental institution. If any place looks like it should be haunted, this is the place. It is dark, creepy and falling apart. We have investigated this place on three occasions.

In one room, Paul, who is quite sensitive to spirits, although not a medium, felt the presence of a young boy. Meanwhile the medium who accompanied us was sensing a different spirit. Paul left the room and we asked if he was okay. He said, "no". I followed him into the hall where he began pacing, trying to get the spirit to leave him alone. He asked for help from the medium. The medium, not realizing that it was a different spirit with Paul wasn't able to immediately help. It wasn't until we got outside and Paul became more forceful with the spirit that he was left alone.

The kitchen area of the Asylum is reported to have a lot of activity. Upon walking into the kitchen, the team's K2 meters (the sense electromagnetic fields) started to go crazy. I should point out that there is no power in the building so they could not have been influenced by bad wiring. What I found most interesting was that the audio on the video camera was also receiving interference and it was in sync with the meters spiking. So we had a bunch of unexplained things happening then suddenly some real world fear. Coyotes. A large pack of coyotes began howling very close by and it was getting closer. The building has many walls down so being inside would not offer any protection. We quietly moved on.

Watch here:


Finally, here is a good example of why it is important to be skeptical of all evidence. On our third visit we were accompanied by a TV crew, We had a host, producer and camera guy. At one point we left the host alone in a room for a few minutes to conduct a solo vigil. She was scared, as I would be. In fact at one point I had to walk back through the building alone to get extra batteries for my flashlight. I don't mind admitting it was scary and I felt like running. Anyway, she did fine.
It was after that that the producer discovered a voice message on his phone from an unknown caller. The message was the sound of screaming and moaning. Then the host checked her phone and also had a message. Hers was even creepier. She was scared by it. Genuinely scared.
Now as paranormal investigators, what do we think? Well, it was creepy and made for a good story, but that is not evidence of paranormal activity. What was it then? There are people that say spirits can leave messages of voice mail or answering machines. Could it really be that? Our first thought was that it was a prank. In fact the host also thought so, she thought we might have played a prank on her. We didn't. We wouldn't. When she realized that none of us had her cell number she was even more scared.
If it was a prank, who could or would have done it? The most likely culprit would be one of her co-hosts. One is a total skeptic and often makes fun of her for believing in such things.
Over the next week we tried to figure out who may have done it. I questioned her co-host and he denied it. He even offered some other possible suspects.
At this point we looked a this piece of evidence as something cool and creepy but not likely paranormal.

Watch here:


A few days later, her co-host admitted on air that he did prank her. She seemed a little annoyed at this.
Much of the team were also upset that a prank was pulled.


This represents one of the big problems with anything paranormal. Those that believe or want to believe tend to be very eager to accept any evidence as proof of the paranormal without question. They get upset when someone tries to debunk that evidence or if that evidence is proved false.

Proo(f) always questions the evidence. Whether it is an anomaly on video, an EVP (electronic voice phenomena), a photo or like in this case, a voice mail, we question it. We look for the real world and more likely explanation first. We suspected it was a prank and it turned out that it was. I think it is a great example of doing a paranormal investigation right, that we questioned the evidence and made no conclusion one way or the other until we had proof.



Be sure to check out www.proofcanada.com

The Conjuring - Great Film - Lousy Audience

Saw The Conjuring. A very well made, very scary movie. See it!

 However, try to see it with a small audience or at least an older audience. I have never in my life been to a film with a worse audience. The vast majority of the audience were under 20. I have questions for all of you under 20 years old.
Since when is it okay to text and keep checking your phone throughout the movie? Did you not see ...the public service announcement at the beginning asking you to have respect for the other viewers and turn off your phone?
Who taught you that is was okay to talk through the whole movie? I don't mean a little whisper here and there, I mean talk, normal voice, making "clever" comments or just talking about things unrelated to what's on screen! Did you really think that this would not annoy the people around you?
Oh, and after the film I went to use the toilet. It seems that people under 20 are not yet potty trained. WTF?
I would really love someone under 20 to respond to this and explain how any of those things are okay. It boggles my mind. If you are the future of humanity then god help us! And I don't even believe in god.

Anyway, The Conjuring, great movie. Watch it in the quiet of your own home when it comes out on bluray.

A Long Awaited Journey - The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.




WARNING: This review may contain spoilers.

I was delighted that we got to see Bilbo write that line in the start of the Red Book. Yes, I am a fan of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings books. I have read each probably twenty to thirty times over the years. I know them well. But just because I love the source material it doesn't automatically follow that I will love the films. In adapting any book to film there are many ways that it can be screwed up. When Peter Jackson made the Lord of the Rings films I was both excited and worried at what the result would be. However, he did a fantastic job (although not perfect. There are a few things that I would have done differently). I was much less worried about The Hobbit.

In a word, I would call The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey, excellent.

I did see the film twice. The first time in 3D, the second time in HFR 3D. Lets talk about the technology first. Peter Jackson chose to shoot The Hobbit in 3D at a high frame rate (HFR) of 48 frames per second. This is different than films we are used to seeing which are shot in 24 frames per second. The idea behind shooting at a higher frame rate is to produce crisper, sharper, more lifelike images. At 24fps there is much more motion blur in each frame and strobing can occur when the camera is moved about quickly. You get much less motion blur and strobing at 48fps.
There have been many reviews both good and bad about HFR.
It certainly does produce spectacularly real images. Even the Warner Brothers logo (the first thing you see on screen) looks like it is physically there in the theatre with you. Some people have complained that it makes it look like you are watching a high quaity video. I disagree. It does look different than what we are used to seeing. One effect that I did notice and others have talked about is that occassionally some fast motion looks like it is sped up. It is not, but it appears that way. I'm not sure what the physiology is that would cause that effect, but it is interesting. Another thing to note is that, as with any new technology, the film makers will need to adjust some of their techniques. I found that the HFR made camera movements more noticeable. So camera operators will have to be more careful when they shoot.
Ultimately whether you like the look or not will be a personal preference. My feeling is that it will take some getting used to. We are used to seeing movies at 24fps. But I liked it and think it will be here to stay.
By the way, 24fps was never some magic number that gave the best look for films. It was simply the lowest frame rate (so less film could be used) that you could sync sound to when sound was added to pictures. They could have chosen any other number but it was 24.

Now, the film itself.

With The Lord of the Rings, I had many issues with how some of it was adapted to film (although still loved the movies). I have far fewer issues with how at least this first part of The Hobbit has been adapted to the screen.
It starts with Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm) writing the first lines of The Red Book of Westmarch (the book that in the Middle Earth universe tells the tale of The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings). "In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit". What a wonderful beginning.
We are then treated to the story of Thorin Oakenshield, son of Thráin, son of Thrór, King Under the Mountain and the coming of the dragon Smaug to Erebor, the Lonely Mountain. It is an action packed prologue in which we get to see the amazing dwarf city in the mountain and are teased with quick firey images of Smaug.
We then get into the real story 60 years before the events of the Lord of the Rings. Bilbo (Martin Freeman) meets Gandalf who is seeking someone to share in an adventure. Bilbo wants nothing to do with adventures but he is visited by the thirteen dwarves of Thorin Oakenshield's company and suddenly finds himself involved in one.
The scenes in Bag End with the dwarves are nice. There are even two songs. The book is full of songs.
Once on the road the adventure begins. Most of the scenes from the book are there. We have the meeting of the trolls. This scene is a little different than the book but the heart of it is the same. We go to Rivendel, climb the mountain passes where the company barely escapes a battle between stone giants, then the company is caught by the goblins (orcs) and Bilbo is separated from them.
The scenes with Bilbo and Gollum are amoung the best in the film. They are funny, but you are aware of the peril that Bilbo is in. The game of riddles is fantastic. The ultimate point where Bilbo has the chance to kill Gollum but doesn't ("It was pity that stayed Bilbo's hand" - Gandalf - LOTR) is quite emotional. You did feel pity for Gollum.
The film ends after the Eagles rescue the company from the fir trees. The company is left high atop a rock where they get a long didtance glimpse of the Lonely Mountain. And then we (big spoiler) get our first real look at Smaug. He stirs from his sleep and opens an eye.

There are many things that have been added that were not in The Hobbit, but have been taken from the appendices of the Lord of the Rings. These are events that actually occured during the time of The Hobbit and tie it in with the Lord of the Rings. I think they add to the enjoyment of the film. Some of the highlights are Radagast the Brown entering Dol Guldur or the council between Gandalf, Elrond, Galadriel and Saruman.

By the way, Cate Blanchett's entrance in the film is stunning.

Some people have complained that the film is too long. I disagree. I like that they have taken the time to tell the story. Too many films are rushed. People also complained that the Lord of the Rings had too many "endings". This of course is nonsense. LOTR could have done well with more material and time added.

The few issues I have with The Hobbit are more about Peter Jackson's style than anything else. He seems to like the over the top action sequences. At times I found that I really had to suspend my disbelief to buy that anyone could have survived a fall for instance. They also seem to ignore the geography of Middle Earth or the time passage in order to conveniently move the story along.

Overall, it is a fantastic film. Martin Freeman is Bilbo Baggins. You can't really imagine anyone else as the Hobbit. The thirteen dwarves are a challenge to get to know (in the book it is the same), but a few, Thorin, of course, Balin and Bofur have so far been developed quite well. I found it particularly satisfying to get to know Balin. It makes the scene in the Lord of the Rings where they find Balin's tomb in Moria more impactful.

Now we have to wait for part two. I will be interested to see how far that will take us. I suspect probably up to the destruction of Lake Town which would leave the battle of five armies and the journey home for part three.

 

The Transit of Venus

Venus passed between the Earth and the Sun today, June 5th, 2012. This is called the Transit of Venus. If you missed it, you will not be able to see it unless you live for another 105 years. The next Transit of Venus will be in 2117.

So if you missed it, I got some photos for you.




Update:

Now NASA has released its footage from the Solar Dynamics Observatory. Naturally it puts my photos to shame. It is incredible to see the Sun in such detail. Enjoy.

Annular Solar Eclipse May 2012

For those in the right place on the planet, an annular solar eclipse was visible on May 20th, 2012. The lucky ones witnessed a "ring of fire". This is where the moon has almost completely covered the sun leaving only a firey ring visible around the edge. This is different from a total eclipse in which the entire suns surface is covered. In the case of an annular eclipse, this does not happen because the moon happens to be at its furthest point away from the Earth in its orbit thus making it appear slightly smaller.

A "ring of fire" would be spectacular to see. Unfortunately from my location near Toronto, Canada we did not see that. Those watching would see a small section carved out of the sun right at sunset. And for those that were not watching, I did the watching for you.

Watch the video:

Supermoon 2012

The night of May 5th, 2012 saw a Supermoon. A supermoon is when the moon is at its closest point to Earth in its orbit while at the same time being a full moon. The last time this occurred was March 19th, 2011.

Read my blog from then: Supermoon March 19th, 2011

Here are photos from tonight's Supermoon.

"The Cabin in the Woods" Review

WARNING: This review is full of spoilers. In order to really explain what I liked and why I thought the film worked it is necessary to refer to specific plot points. Do not read this unless you have seen the film.

I went to this film knowing very little about it other than that people had said that it was good and was not what you might expect. I think that was the best way to go see this film. If you haven't seen "The Cabin in the Woods" yet, please stop reading now and see it before you know too much about it.

"The Cabin in the Woods" is directed by Drew Goddard and written by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard. It stars Kristen Connolly as Dana, the smart and sexually inexperienced girl, Chris Hemsworth as Curt, the athletic jock, Anna Hutchison as the slutty girl, Jules, Fran Kranz as the pot smoking Marty, and Jesse Williams as Holden, the guy that they are trying to set up Dana with. As the tag line for the film says, "Five friends go to a remote cabin in the woods. Bad things happen."

It was important for the film makers to set the tone for this film right from the start. The film takes the stereotypes of the horror, thriller genres and stands them on their heads. If they didn't set it up right the audience could easily be lost or be confused as to what film they were watching. The set up starts right as the main titles role. The credits appear with menacing music and bloody graphics until BAMM! Suddenly we are in a conversation between two middle aged engineer types talking gossip and work. At this point you are not sure what to think. That scene ends with a cheesy title card for the film. Still not sure what to think.

The film then settles into what appears to be a typical set up for a typical horror, thriller. We are introduced to each of the characters. To me each seemed almost too stereotypical at first, but I believe this was intentional. We have the strong, athletic guy, the hot girl, the smart girl, the pot smoking hippy and Scooby Doo. In fact they all get into an RV (the Mystery Machine) and head up to the cabin.

As they leave we get the first real hint as to what is going on. A man with an earpiece reports that the group has left and is on their way. He is reporting to the very engineer types, played brilliantly by Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford, that we met at the beginning of the film. They are in some sort of control room. They are joined by Amy Acker.

Our gang of five stop for gas on the way and meet a strange and creepy guy who warns them of the dangers ahead. Of course they ignore him and continue on their way. In a particularly funny scene, he is revealed to be on the payroll for the organization.

So, if you have seen the film you will know that what is really happening is that some organization, we really don't know exactly who, is in charge of making sacrifices to some ancient evil force to keep the world safe and that our five young people are to be among those sacrificed. Pretty cool. What was so well done was the way that this was revealed to us. They never gave away too much too early. So while you might be able to guess a little of what was really going on, you never got the full picture until the very end.

Some of the hints that were dropped were really cool. We would see images of other sacrifices around the world on the control room monitors. My favourite was the Japanese school room with a "Ring" like ghost attacking the school girls.

The film did a great job of playing out the typical slasher type thriller scenes in the cabin and mixing it with the humour of the scenes in the control room. There were some genuinely funny moments like the team betting on what creatures would attack the young folks in the cabin.

Most horror films employ a bit of humour mixed with the horror, but this film did it remarkably well.

One moment that really stood out for me was the first death. Jules and Curt go out into the woods. They are hot for each other. This is all being watched by the group in the control room. When it seems like the two are not going to get it on, the control room releases pheromones and adds some mood lighting to encourage them. They are a success when they are able to get boobies exposed.
We are taken from scenes of people joking, to sexual tension, to joking around , to sexual tension, then the killer zombies appear and cut of Jules head.

Normally in a thriller the kills are expected and anticipated, but by cutting between the sex, and the casual joking around of the observers, to the kill, and then back to observers joking, we are not sure how to feel. For me I found Jules death had more impact because it felt wrong to be laughing at it.

Once the surviving duo of Dana and Marty, figure out what is going on and enter the control centre, we are treated to almost every monster and nightmare you can imagine. The cameo appearance of  Sigourney Weaver was a treat. When the tables are turned on the controllers it is very satisfying. However it is hard to imagine how our heroes will survive and in fact we are left believing that they don't.

I did find myself genuinely caring for the characters. They had been drawn as broad stereotypes (this is really because they were being chemically controlled by the organization to be such) but ended up being likable. I even felt for the guys in the control room when they met their demise, especially for Bradley Whitford's character who got taken out by a merman.

"The Cabin in the Woods" was all in all a really good film.