The pseudoscience show "Ghost Hunters" has influenced thousands to start their own paranormal investigation group and do stuff completely wrong. Is the para-reality genre on its way out, finally? Syfy channel moves away from such paranormal silliness but not after hosting the premier paranormal show for the last several years. Should Ghost Hunters be celebrating success?

By Everett A. Themer

With the start of a new season, members of the ghost hunting group TAPS are celebrating ten years of their television show “Ghost Hunters” airing on the SyFy network.  After a decade of episodes both fans and critics can look back on the series and see that it has given nothing of significant value to the paranormal community.  Over the course of the show’s run, viewers have watched a group of self-proclaimed ghost hunters morph from investigators claiming to promote a scientific approach towards explaining the paranormal to a group of over-grown teenagers who spend too much time trying to scare each other and betting on who will stick what body part into some dark and dingy space.

By Everett A. Themer

The human brain is a powerful computing machine, advancing man from using simple tools to modern super computers, despite its handicap of being easily fooled.  Watch any street magician for five minutes and it becomes obvious that the brain’s desire to find solutions to almost every problem it encounters may be its biggest weakness.  Searching for these answers, the brain is able to draw only on a person's experiences, beliefs, and knowledge to create what they view as reality.  This response can be so powerful that it can cause multiple people involved in the same situation to have entirely different views on the experience.  Proof of this can be found in the recent visit of a colleague, Jill, to my house. 

After hours of phone conferences and project changes, the day came to a close.  I finished up some last minute tasks while Jill walked down to the shore of our lake to watch the approaching sunset.  As darkness settled on the area her sudden yelling brought me rushing to the lake.  I found Jill pointing out across the water as she urged me to look to the sky.  Rising over the distant trees and floating slowly in our direction were several glowing orbs.  As we watched, a new light appeared to rise up over the horizon every few seconds and fly towards us.  Staring in stunned silence, it felt like we were caught in the middle of an actual alien invasion.