H m. He was cold, cold that he was cold? What's going
on up there? Could be the most important event in history? Now I'm
the cold despair our worlds, I said. I hope this is close to
him? Is ever again? Hello and welcome to the Tales from a Dark
Podcast. I'm your host Bob here with my co host Brittany. Hey,
guys, what's up Brittany, how's it going today? Don't sounds so disappointed?
Well? I was hoping it was going to be someone else. Okay,
get in here, small cat, get in here, speaking a small
cat. I might put this up either in the group or on Patreon.
But last night I was recording a video audio and there was this like extremely
graphic part that I had to record regarding a death, and then all of
a sudden, small cat just starts screaming, bloody murder. Just a scar
raman outside the door. This cat is so dramatic, and I don't know
where he learned it from. As I'm staring a hole through Brittany, that's
a daddy's boy out there. You know where he learned it from. He's
a good boy. He's just a little on the chunky side. No,
But with that being said, I'm really excited about today's interview because I've talked
about this on the show time and time again. The show taps the og
ghost Hunters was such an instrumental part of making Tales from the Dark in a
very weird, in divertent way. Had it not been for TAPS, we
wouldn't have Tales from the Dark. Very true, and so getting to sit
down with a member of the Ghost Hunters team, Brandonnalys, it's something we've
been working towards for about a year. I think, off and on and
we finally get it to line up, and I honestly can't wait. Miss
Britney, I can't either. Why don't we give him a call? Then
let's do it, all right, Miss Britney. So we're doing by Brandon
Alvis. Brandon, how are you doing, sir? I'm doing very well.
Thanks for having me on. This is great. No, absolutely,
thanks for thanks for coming on. It's been a while. We've been talking
off and on for like what the last like nine ten months. We finally
got our schedules to a line. That's right. Absolutely. It seems to
always work out that way, doesn't it. Yeah, it's been a crazy
past year. And a half actually two years. So no, it's great
to be on here with you guys, and again thanks for having me on.
No. Absolutely, yeah, absolutely, So let's just jump right into
it, Brandon. So, we have Haunted Discoveries that's premiering October sixth on
T and Is it T plus E or t andy? How do how do
you pronounce the network? Yeah? Like T and E like any So T
and E gotcha? Okay, So can can you walk us through why T
and E is the network? Choices? I know there's you know, there
couldn't have been like many that didn't want the new Haunted Discovery show for their
network? Why ten E over like you know, like History or something.
Well, you know, TV is a great network. Um. You know
a lot of people here in the United States would know their work from a
lot of the Eli Ross shows Eli Roth that goes through in My Life,
also a Hotel Paranormal that was actually narrated by Dan Ackroid. They also do
Haunted Hospitals, a bunch of really great shows that a lot of people see
here in the States on Travel Channel and Blue ant Media who run that.
Uh love the show. We like their work and it was a great place
to start airing the show, but we will have some more for domestic and
more in the United States coming soon, so it won't be the only place
people can see it, Okay, perfect, So you kind of touch on
it a little bit there. But where is the network available? Is it
a streaming service? Is it a television channel? Where can folks watch the
show? So it's a television channel in Canada, So it's going to be
airing in Canada starting October sixth, but it's also going to be available in
the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand on Haunt TV, which is
available as a streaming platform across to be across LGTVS, Roku, all those
different outlets. So and it'll also be on Haunt TV in the US in
the coming future as well. But again we will have more when it comes
to domestic in US broadcasts here in the coming months. We just aren't able
to say it quite yet, but it's coming for sure. Awesome. So
how often I know you're recording season three, you're editing season three already?
How often our new episode is going to come out for our domestic folks?
So that depends, you know, I can't give exact details quite yet,
but season one is eight episodes, season two is twelve episodes, and season
three is another twelve episode and so it's thirty two episodes in total. So
starting here on October six with T and E, it's gonna be the first
eight that's going to run through what they call Creepweek, which is very similar
to Ghost Ober here in the States with Travel Channel. So we'll see how
it goes domestic, but I would imagine it would be very similar where the
first season will be the eighth and the twelve and the twelve. So we're
excited about it. Man, it's been a lot of fun. No,
absolutely, it's it's been someone I've been following pretty consistently. And I said,
we kind of met through weird circumstances, which is kind of how the
pair of community works. No one really meets each other directly these days.
It's like a friend of a friend in a group knows somebody and that person
happens to be Brandon Elvis and you kind of get connected that way, right,
So absolutely, so walk me through. So I know you did the
book Elements of a Haunting, where I want to discuss this a little bit
kind of directly here. I know you went through six of your most How
did you choose the six locations that you discussed and elements of a haunting?
Well, you know, it was some of the cases that must stop.
Aget Al and I worked on any ghost centers that we did with Graham Wilson
back in twenty nineteen to twenty twenty and twenty one, So it was the
cases that we worked together. We did twenty in total, but there were
six particular cases that really stood out when it came to not only the historical
aspect of these locations, but also the data perspective and some of the most
mind blowing finds we had when it came to paramul photon theory and environmental changes
within places that are said to be haunted. So it really came down to
the data, but also this rich history that's associated with these places, which
we always believe that that historical foundation, in that historical context leads to what
we call the elements of a haunting. Gotcha see, it's it's a very
interesting. It's it's got to be difficult though to you know, out of
twenty plus cases, to choose just six. So I can't imagine that that
selection process was easy, but I know in the book you also go over
your like the ethics. Can you kind of walk us through because we talked
about it on the show here quite a bit. We talked about it when
we did our documentary Phantom Farm. How we approach a location that has such
troubled history and a troubled past. How do you do that with a larger
crew because with Phantom form ittless just five of us and two of the five
that we're both in the documentary we're also filming. How do you approach the
ethical standpoint with a large camera crew. We know, you know, respect
is key first and foremost, as you guys know, so going into any
location, I mean, we have to keep in mind that these were people
and if the theory is correct that you know, energy is neither created nor
destroyed, and cautiousness does survive death. These are still people just in another
form, if that's what we're communicating with, but again we don't know exactly.
So it's all about respect, and it's all about going in and honoring
these people for who they were. Depends on the case. Obviously, you
have different circumstances for different types of history. But it's always about going in
and showing respect to the historical context and to the history associated with the place,
and you have to keep that respect in life with the entire crew,
from anyone that's an investigator on camera, to a cameraman, to a sound
person, to whoever it is. They need to understand that it's something bigger
than just a show or bigger than just a documentary. So again, a
respect is key, and ethics standards and protocol is something that I think most
investigators should know about and hopefully utilize within their own investigations. Well, kind
of building off what you were talking about with the energy theory that energy cannot
be created nor destroyed, the people that you bring into a place also can
leave an imprint of their own energy, their own feelings, their own impressions.
So it's I think that's very valuable that you bring that to the table
saying, hey, this is what we're dealing with, this is what I
expect you to do, and the standard that you hold them to, because
it really is key in my opinion, to keeping it not only just being
a good person, but also keep it scientific. If you have everyone on
a base slign it makes evidence more plausible and less interfered with absolutely. I
couldn't agree with that more than such an important point that you make. You
know, one of the big things that we've been studying that we're covering in
Haunted Discoveries is the idea of thought form manifestation and how someone's belief can impact
said haunted place or what people believe or perceived to be a said haunted place.
Right. So we heavily explore what's called the Kentucky anomaly in this show,
and in Kentucky and parts of also Tennessee and parts of Virginia as well,
there is a gravitational pool that's higher here than anywhere else in the world.
And actually in the nineteen seventies NASA studied it and they actually coined it
the term the Kentucky anomaly. So here you're in a place that's very interesting
when it comes to the gravity is a bit stronger here than anywhere else in
the world. You have all kinds of different things here like calcite and the
ground limestone, all these things that can create the piezoelectric effect, right,
And then you have someone that goes into a place that has a certain belief
system and is projecting that into their own environment. How does all of that
come together to create what we perceived to be a haunted place or perceived to
be ghosts. So that's one thing that we have really studied heavily in this
new show with Aunt of Discoveries. And again going back to telling the crew
that and having them understand what we're in there to do is a huge important
factor within the investigation and within documenting that for a documentary or for a show,
absolutely now to kind of go along with that. I don't know if
you know this random, but I'm I'm from western North Carolina, so I
grew up in the Appalachian Mountains. My family goes through all the hollows down
there. So how much Appalachian culture actually influenced I don't want to necessarily say
you're evidence, but just the history aspect that you found while you were in
rural Appalachia it was big. You know. Actually, with season three that
we just got been filming a couple of months ago, we were in Appalachia
for an extended period of time. We were down there for over two weeks
just in one specific area, looking into not only the culture but the belief
system out there. And you have so many people that carry this generational belief
of things like Branny magic or these holistic ways of living their life that's very
much tied to spiritualism in a way, their own type of spiritualism. But
that's something that people in those areas still strongly believe and still is part of
their five of their being and five of their culture. And there was a
lot of things that we were told about, certain historical events associated with that
belief system that we ended up collecting some pretty impressive data associated with it.
So it was a phenomenal experience. Well, I know that we are actually
friends with Tony Felosi, and so I hope I can say this, but
that you spent quite a bit of time and Harlan Kentucky, Is that correct?
That's right. I love Harlan Kentucky. We spend so much time out
in Eastern Kentucky in general, but Harlan will always have a special place in
our hearts, especially considering the fact that when we first went to Harlan or
Eastern Kentucky in general, we ended up meeting Tony on the county line and
he took us and gave us a private tour basically Harlan and the mine shaft
and everything. So what was your impression of Tony and the folks down there.
Did you learn anything that you might not have known before that was completely
surprising to you? Oh, historically, we learned so much. I mean,
Tony was a wealth of knowledge. I mean the guy really, let's
be honest. I'm telling you. It was just insane to have him take
us through these areas and us for you know, us spend so much time
down there, and he was there with us every step of the way.
He helped us book all the locations, helpless book a lot of the interviews.
I mean, he was there for every part of it. And he
was there for some actually really big discoveries that we'd made historically and things that
he knew about that was kind of oral legend for a long time, I
mean his entire lifespan, and we went out to try and find some of
these things, and we actually made a huge discovery that is going to be
part of that portion of the country's history now. So I can't say too
much about that now, but it was amazing to have Tony there and for
him to tell us these stories, and then for us to go out with
you know, scientists and with people from other technical industries to help us try
and uncover some of these facts, and we were very lucky to be part
of that. It was it was amazing. Yeah. I cannot wait to
us because I know one of the locations you went to. We're not going
to give anything away. I had some stuff happened that was completely unexpected,
and I want to see how many of my experiences came through and seemed to
be repetition in that part of the country, especially Eastern Kentucky. It's such
a vast wealth of paranormal, high strangeness, UFO activity, cryptid activity,
you name it, it's any Eastern Kentucky. Yeah. But I do want
to ask you about your classification system because I'm very critical of a lot of
things. So I wanted to give you a chance to kind of explain what
is this classification system that you use for hauntings and are we going to see
that and hard discoveries or maybe expanded upon. So the classification system that we
have adapted is a collection of terminology that bates that dates back all the way
to the eighteen hundreds, with you know, groups like the London Ghost Club
and these researchers that have been doing this for some of them almost two hundred
years. And this is again terminology that's been used by people like Hans Holzer,
going back to the London Ghost Club, Emily Peach, all of these
people that have laid this really great foundation of what we know today is you
know, the research of ghosts and hauntings. And I feel like to this
point in time, people really haven't used that terminology in any capacity. Right.
You go to a place, people say, oh, it's a residual,
it's intelligent, or it's negative, or you hear the same thing over
and over, which has kind of been put into people's minds by the TV
shows over the years, right, But a lot of people haven't gone back
through time and really looked at some of these researchers that are really not as
known and to see some of the amazing work that they've conducted, not only
with a historical aspect, but with also with going out and trying to collect
evidence and data and to try and catalog these different types of phenomena. So,
you know, we've worked with doctor Harry Kor for a number of years.
He's the first person in history to receive two PhD simultaneously and any discipline.
One of the first things that him and I talked about over ten years
ago was that if we're going to look at this scientifically, you can't just
start going into the data collection process and this process and say, hey,
look it's a ghost. You don't go to a zoo and say you saw
a bunch of animals, right, You go to a zoo and you say
you saw lions and tigers and bears. So the classification system is based on
other terminology that we've kind of compiled. It's something that very much sticks to
the historical context of the things these people have catalogued that also go perfectly in
line with the historical accuracy of these locations. So I want to just kind
of jump in because I love that answer, because I was very nervous when
when you hear something like a haunting classification system. I'm very concerned in the
way that the current pair of community and the and the landscape is going that
we're putting things into boxes, and we're separating groups a little too candidly,
and we're writing off certain things that might be attached to the broader scope of
high strangeness. So to hear. It's not just saying well, this is
a ghost and this is a holler ghost here that it's it's we're adapting this
over hundreds of years of parallel investigation, going back to the ghost club.
That makes me a lot happier because I thought I was going to have a
very uncomfortable versation of like, hey, isn't it dangerous to trying but something
as broad as a paranormal experience or a paranormal happening into certain classifications, But
they heard explained. That makes me even more excited for hunted discoveries. Yeah,
no, absolutely, You know again, it's all about the foundation that's
been laid before us. Again within this research, as you guys very well
know, we don't have all the answers. We're not exactly quite sure what
we're dealing with. So to go back and look at hundreds of years of
research in other people's beliefs and to adapt that into our own and try and
expand upon that. I think it's very important now to kind of go off
of that. Do you guys leave room whenever you're doing this research, do
you leave room for let's say, for lack of a better term, evolution,
You know, if we're thinking about ghosts and spirits in theory, without
the confines of genetics and our own materialistic body, they could, in theory
go through evolution quite a bit faster than us. Do you leave room for
that kind of scientific discovery or thought bubbles or thought process Absolutely, of course,
you know, we have to be open to that, right, I
mean, the idea of evolution within itself. I mean, we would be
crazy to think that this is what it is, this is how it works.
I mean, we would be you know, just not doing the research
properly if we thought that way. And again, you know, for instance,
like one big aspect of our research we've been doing for a number of
years is testing what we call the parable photon theory, and that's going to
these places that are said to be haunted and trying to document photon events with
the EMCCD camera and also trying to correlate that with environmental changes that are mainly
you know, what we've seen in the correlation. We've seen is huge pressure
changes when these photon events happen. And so we've been able to document various
photon events and huge pressure changes in these various locations throughout the country and what
does that mean. We can't say it's a ghost, but we are seeing
again that correlation in these said haunted places. We are documenting photon events and
pressure changes. How does that relate to what we perceive to be paramlel phenomena.
That's what we're trying to figure out. And that's one thing that doctor
Harry Cloor has been working very closely with us on. Okay, would you
be able to explain the photon events a little bit further because I'm not totally
familiar with that method I think Bob is, but also in case any listeners
aren't familiar with that method either, Yeah, absolutely so. Photon events are
light events that carry electromagnetic radiation that are not seen by the human eye.
Typically not seen by the human eye, typically studied by NASA when it comes
to telescopes and black hole theory. One of the last things to die before
a black hole starts and it starts to become a black hole is photons,
and those photons start to die within the black hole. And that's a whole
another story that doctor Clor could talk about with way more knowledge than I can.
But so basically, in a nutshell, photon events are light events that
typically aren't seen by the human eye. And again, how that relates to
what we perceive to be ghosts and hauntings, we're not quite sure. But
when I reached out to people like doctor Klore and other various professionals from technical
industries, and I said, from your point of view, if I was
to go into a said haunted place and I wanted to document hard data,
what's something I would document. And one of the first things that was thrown
out at me was photon events. And it's something that we've been working on
now for about four years, almost five years, and we've had some pretty
interesting results and collected a database of really interesting data that's been looked at by
doctor Klore and others, and we're trying to figure out exactly what it means.
Very interesting because I'm always excited to bring in the scientific methodology and to
something like parent one investigation because it's it's been interesting because ten years ago,
fifteen years ago, when I started, you were the crazy person for being
a paralm one investigator, and now you're getting phdu Lettle scientists that are willing
to not only have a discussion but be an integral part of the investigation.
So how do you think that that change kind of came apart? I mean,
naturally with pop culture it was kind of more widely accepted, but this
change happened very very quickly. Yeah, you know, I think, well,
if you think about it, you know, some of the most brilliant
researchers and scientists and scientific minds the last you know, five hundred years,
I mean, Isaac Newton was heavily involved in his belief in the afterlife.
Nicola Tesla as well, even Einstein talked about, you know, the afterlife
and the thought of idea of ghosts. Excuse me. So, I think
there's always been an interest from the scientific community. I think it just wasn't
as public as it's starting to become now. You know, you start to
see a lot more people that I think, again, like you mentioned,
with the the reasearchs pop culture in the shows, I think it's brought people
kind of out of their shell a little bit to talk about it a bit
more and maybe maybe even start to correct some of the wrongs that have been
done and shown on some of these shows. But again, I think there's
always been that interest from the scientific community, but I think they're just a
little more open to showing their face and being part of it. Now,
have you or anyone close to you when making these shows, are doing this
investigating or researching. Have you ever faced any persecution for your beliefs or for
even looking into ghosts or even investigating in the first place. I personally have
not. Again, I'm very skeptical when it comes to this type of research.
You know, I don't believe one way or another. And that's you
know, since two thousand and six I've been doing this. That's when I
founded the American Parambal Research Association and I got involved in this, you know,
in this research because I lost a brother to cancer and a brother to
suicide. So for me, it was always about the idea of consciousness surviving
death and something I jumped into and started doing for many years now. But
I personally have not based that. I know Mustafa who's on the show,
he was very religious at one point in his life, and he may have
had more of that than myself. But you know, there are times where
you do get a bit of feedback or a little bit of bite back when
it comes to the paranormal community where you start to talk about you know,
scientific methodology, you start to talk about, you know, being rational and
protocol and ethics and stuff like that. I felt like I've gotten more backlash
from talking about things like that rather than you know, people from various belief
systems. I love that you brought that up, because there is the harshest
critics seem to be other paranormal groups that have their own set of core belief
systems on how an investigation is supposed to be done or how you're supposed to
conduct yourself as a quote unquote professional investigator, which to me, I love
making fun of that because we are not. None of us are professionals in
this field. We are doing the best we can. No one's experts.
Yeah, no one's an expert in this field. Now, yeah, some
people might be more were prepared than others, But I think calling yourself an
expert paranalmale investigator, that's one of the quickest ways to get me to not
take you seriously because you're at the end of the day, we're all students.
Yeah. So I want to talk Kentucky for a moment, cause I
know you just moved there. How has it been different for you moving as
a PARENTALM investigator from coast to coast has Kentucky like welcomed you in because I
feel like when we go through Appalachia, we got through the heart of Appalachia.
One thing that we've learned is we have to learn how to ask questions,
because if you can't go to a town and say, hey, have
you seen anything weird here, because they'll say no, absolutely not, but
then they'll continue with telling you about the seven UFOs, the three big Foot,
and the Sasquatch that comes to birthday party because it's not weird for them.
I know it's kind of a loaded question, but what are your thoughts
on Kentucky in general and just being in this part of the country as an
investigator that you know, like you said, you know, high strange is
part of everyday life here, which is completely opposite of where I was born
raised in California. Right, Yeah, people in California that claimed to be
spiritual, but it's in a totally different sense, right And here you have
different you know, belief systems when it comes to religion and things like that.
But like you said, like you can talk to someone like, oh
no, that's not strange. But I had a seven foot tall creature in
my backyard. You know, it comes every Thursday or whatever. You know
what I mean, It's like it's wild, you know, it's it's amazing
to see such rich culture and history associated with high strangeness, like you guys
said, and it's just part of the fabric of this part of the country
and specifically Kentucky. No, absolutely, I mean, when you get to
the mainmoth case system, the quartz deposits, the limestones, the lay lines,
Kentucky seems to be this hot spot that no one was really talking about
until a couple of years ago. I mean, we have some books that
go back, like we're talking Weird America. We're talking the older books of
the sixties. We kind of know Avalache has been known as that weird location,
but it was kind of left untapped because they were secretive for so many
years. Yeah, and well that's something that Britney and I have had to
deal with and I kind of wanted to see. Have you had to kind
of gain the trust of locals, because I know you said you had Tony
walking me through a lot, and Tony's a great you know, he's gonna
open the door. But without Tony, do you think you would have gotten
as far as you did in say Harlan, Kentucky specifically. Absolutely not,
Yeah, definitely not, because we would try and do kind of man on
the street stuff. I mean, not filming people per se, but just
going out and talking to the town right and trying to be like, hey,
so you know, we're here investigating this location. What have you heard
about it? Have you heard stories about it? People get kind of closed
off. I mean you initially walk up and people are very warm and welcoming
and we'll talk about their recipes or what beer they're drinking or moonshine with you
all day. But once you started asking those those questions about caramel phenomena,
it does people seem to get kind of closed off. But again, like
you said, Tony is a perfect example. We didn't have Tony in Harlan.
It might have been a dead end, but you know, again,
having someone to get our foot in the door and bring us through and introduce
us to all these people that he's very comfortable with is known his whole life,
and there was that trust factor that was there. So that was very
beneficial to our research when we were down there. But here in Louisville specifically,
it's a bit different because you have places like Waverley Hills, right,
you have Old Louisville where there's more of an openness to talking about that kind
of stuff, And especially in Old Louisville, this is a very kind of
rich community down there, one of the largest collection of Victorian and Gilidge guilid
Age buildings in the country. That every house you go to, these homeowners
are like, oh yeah, my house is haunted, and they'll just talk
to you about it for hours. So it's pretty weird just to see in
such a small state as Kentucky, you go from Louisville down to a place
like Harlan that it's a bit different. I think one thing that we've learned
from not only watching shows like Hell You're which had a big part portion that
was filmed in eastern Kentucky or other shows, there is an impact once those
shows are released. I do think there is an impact on the smaller community,
whether it be positive or negative. And when you go to a smaller
community in Appalachia that's had to rely on themselves, that have their family traditions
that they pass down from generation to generation outsiders, you are viewed as an
outsider but it's fur their protection because in the past they have had very severe
retribution not only their other community members, not only from their religion their beliefs,
but also from government officials and things like that. So the Appalachian culture
well very welcoming. They have to protect their own because they have been through
so much trauma, and unfortunately with that trauma did come the rise and high
strangeness in my opinion, and it's definitely caused a very rich culture down there.
So I think that's one of the big portions and reasons why you would
see such a big difference between Louisville and Harlan. Oh, yeah, that
makes perfect sense, you know. And one thing with this specific project with
Hunter Discoveries that you know, history is a huge part of this show and
we're trying to get you know, the factual, you know, the historical
factual documentation in the fact straight with these locations, some of which have hundreds
of years of not only superstition, but just stories that are just not true.
And so history and historical context is a huge thing for us on this
show, and specifically with Harlan and us being down there, we were very
much talking about and covering the Harlan County War and the Union Wars and and
the coal mines and talking to people. One man that we talked to was
actually alive for those events and was there and solid. He would walk to
school and have to walk over bodies from some of the skirmishes that happened during
those Union Wars. So it was very nice to actually talk to them and
not only about, you know, the paramoul phenomena side of it, but
the historical reality of these things and for them to they felt really comfortable to
kind of talk about that story and may they were comfortable with us and making
sure that we got the historical context correct and kept true to what actually happened,
because there's so many different types of documentaries and even shows that are on
today that cover Harlan and cover the coal mines and cover the Harlan County War
that painted in such a negative light and don't really show the full accuracy of
the historical context and what really happened. So that was a really amazing experience
to talk to people that were some of which were alive for those events,
but for those people to really talk about their history and really setting to the
record straight when it came to the coal Mine Wars, and I can tell
you from my perspective, I can't speak for them, but I really appreciate
the effort that you would put into a project like that, in that effort
you have put into this project for that reason, because they did have something
to lose. I mean, they may have lost family members, they may
have lost history, they may have lost knowledge in that unfortunate time, and
that is a huge deal for me. So I say thank you for doing
them justice and serving that history and preserving Yeah, it was an amazing experience.
And again, like that's one huge thing for this show. You know,
obviously the research is there, and we have our theories and our ways
of collecting data and trying to share that with the rest of the community.
But when it comes to history, you know, we're not there to interpret
that. It's not our job to tell those stories. It's the stories of
those people, in the stories of the people that live within those communities.
So that's very important to us. No, absolutely, And I love the
idea of placing history at the forefront because that's something that's kind of a lost
art, especially in modern paranal investigation television shows. Because I've told this story
a thousand times on the show, But I grew up on you og taps,
where my first investigations were literally knocking on people's doors saying, hey,
do you have a ghost? I'm here to help. I'm here to help
you with your ghosts that you may or may not have. But one thing
I always took away from those older episodes was how much I was inadvertently learning
about these locations and how much how like I know, they did the Ohio
State Reformatory very early on, and I learned so much about the State Reformatory
that when it came up, and because I'm from Ohio, when it came
up in school, I was already very familiar with the Ohio State Reformatory.
And then there seemed to be this fall where it was less important to have
historical accuracy in the entertainment junction took over where it was no longer who had
the best put together show, that had the best evidence. It was just
who was the most entertaining for that thirty minutes or that one hour of airtime.
Yeah, that's the sad reality of it. And you know, with
this show, like I always say, and like I told the crew when
we first started doing this. Is the central character of this show is the
location and the historical significance of that location. That's the central character. So
I hope people can take that away from from Hana Discoveries when they watch it,
is that we're it's almost a history show disguised as a paranormal show.
In a lot of ways, it's a lot of fun and there's also some
very you know, MythBusters moments, not only from the history aspect, but
also the paramoral side of things and the techniques and the way that we conduct
our research. But again, first and foremost, the location is the main
character in this show, and I hope people see that for what it is,
and I hope people learn some things along the way. That's that's the
big baal. Now. That makes me very happy. So let me ask
you personally, because you said you're kind of on the skeptical side, do
you have a profound or amazing experience that comes to mind when someone says,
hey, what is your drive for doing this? With the exception what we
talked about earlier, but have have you had that like aha moment of ay,
there's definitely something more to us just standing around the dark and telling history
not quite yet. You know, I've had I've had some moments where I've
collected data that have had you know, no other professionals from technical industry scratching
their head. But it's not an answer though, you know. It's it's
something that they're like, well, I don't know what that is, which
is interesting. It keeps you going, it keeps the research and the fuel
alive for the pursuit of it. But I have not had that moment that
made me say there's something far more to this, you know. Again,
it just goes stems back from the death of my brothers and just the overall
curiosity of consciousness surviving death. And that's really the biggest thing for me,
even hopefully, you know, the longer I do this, and hopefully seven
another seventeen years from now, as I continue, I have that moment and
we are very sorry to hear that you went through that. Oh it's you
know, as a young kid, I was eight years old when my oldest
brother passed away, and eventeen when my other brother committed suicide, and it's
it's a moment in your life that you'll never forget, and it's a moment
that trans transforms you as a person, and it's led me to where I
am today, and I think that it's you know, it's it's opened my
mind in ways that I never thought it would. So it's a it's interesting,
definitely from a research point of view, but it's also interesting just from
a life point of view and in growing up and trying to learn about things
that we all are going to have to face one day. Right, That's
the ultimate unifier is death. That's one thing we're all going to have to
face. No, absolutely, and and that's a very beautiful way to look
at it too. So I do like your answer there that you haven't had
it yet, you're still looking for it. And it's very interesting because we
did the documentary Phantom Farm and we can't what I believe to be the most
captivating evidence that I've seen in modern times. And it's not just because we
produced it, but it's because I was there. I was in the hallway
when it happened. And I've had the question, Okay, so you're done,
right, like you've proved that this exists. I don't have an answer.
I don't know what exists. I know that something extremely unexplainable happened,
and that's it, but I don't have the answer for what that thing was,
and that is my driving factor as well. So it's very interesting.
So we talked to a lot of paranormal investigators who their only goal is to
catch that holy grail. I want the full bodied apparition, so I get
the million views on YouTube that's the end goal, or I want the EVP
that definitively says I'm a ghost and I'm here to stay. But there's more
to it than that, and I think that's the side of paranormal investigation that's
often overshadowed by the entertainment aspect of oh, this is just fun and it's
a fun thing to go out and do as a group. So it's very
interesting to meet someone else that kind of has that same same mindset when it
comes to investigating. Well, it is fun, you know, first and
foremost it is you know, some people are out there thrill seeking, some
for adrenaline rushes, some for answers, and it's you know, it is
fun. It can be a lot very boring at times, as we all
know. But you know, it's kind of a dark, macabre thing we're
doing out there. If you think about it, it really is old places
with tragic histories and trying to communicate with that tragic history and these people.
But you know, like I always said, like I wrote an article a
couple of years ago for llewell and Worldwide that talked about how parable investigation a
lot of ways is almost brief therapy for people, right is, Like,
you know, a lot of people I've met over the years have lost a
loved one and that's kind of been a driving factor for them to get interested
in this kind of research, And in some way they're working through that grief
by going out and trying to encounter the unknown in some strange way. I
do feel like a lot of people are called to paranormal or high strangiss in
one way or another. But I do have a question for you that's kind
of an itch in my brain since we started. How far down the rabbit
hole do you when it comes to other things in high strangest, when it
comes to uphology or cryptids or the multiverse or anything of that sort. I
know that's kind of a loaded question for me. I've always I've always remained
in the ghosts and haunting space. Obviously, I read about cryptozoological stuff.
I read about uupology everything from you know, I can go into you know,
interdimensional stuff. I mean, we could talk about all the string theory
whatever. It's stuff I read about and enjoy. But as far as you
know, researching and dedicating time too, I've always stuck with ghosts and hauntings.
Not because I'm not interested in those other things, but I feel like
that's where my time should be dedicated. I'm not sure why I feel that
way, but it's always the way i've felt. Absolutely. Has there been
anything that you've come across in those other fields, in the other research that
you may be doing, that clashes or collides with paranormal investigation, Absolutely,
you know. It's it's something that's been brought up before, especially when we
take data to other people, you know, other professionals from technical industries,
be though that engineers, medical doctors, scientists, whatever they may be.
And that's something that has been brought up and brought to our attention before.
Was hey, if you thought it could be this. But of course when
we present that data, we're not saying like, oh we think it's a
ghost or we think this is what it is. It's more of what's your
professional opinion on what this is this is the exact technology was captured on.
Here were the environmental conditions associated with it, This was a scenario, here's
the information. What do you take from it? So that has been brought
up to me in the past. You know various scientists I've worked with over
the years that have brought up interdimensional type of things, and they go deep
into the whole string theory and all kinds of stuff, and they've talked about
stuff that just goes completely over my head because I'm nowhere near as brilliant as
they are when it comes to understanding those things. But again, yeah,
it's something that has been brought up, and it has been thrown at us
and our organization as a possibility to what we've been documenting. Very interesting.
So I know you have to go out. I know you have another interview
right after this one. But I do have a couple kind of rapid fire
questions that are you can feel free to skip them, so it might be
a little bit more difficult to answer than others. But what are your personal
pet peeves in the paranormal community, rather that be television shows or just like
group hunts that go out on the weekend, or do ghost tours, bad
equipment, garage tech. And again, we don't know what is right or
wrong in this research. There are no experts. We're not sure. But
if there is a specific piece of equipment made to find a ghost, it's
typically not good first and foremost, and second off, it's going to be
flawed, flawed methodology, and completely riddled with false positives. And that's the
same thing goes for apps saying yeah, same thing. Oh yeah, just
saying I love that answer because I've got like a pseudo engineering degree and taking
you apart ghost hunting equipment and telling people why it's nonsense. Um, you've
ruined so many hopes and dreams. We give emails all the time where it's
like, hey, bomb, I bought this pieces of equipment, so then
of course I have to buy it. I have to take it apart,
and I have to say, yeah, here's the repeater that's giving you that
that that false positive, this is why it doesn't work. And I'm so
sorry because in a lot of cases it's like, hey, my mom passed.
I bought this piece of equipment to communicate with her. This is her
and I'm like, I hate to be that guy. But from a technological
standpoint, this is designed to make you think it's your mother, and it's
unfortunate. It's almost like a pariah concept that some of these uh and typically
like you know, you have your ghost stops, your people that are a
little bit more above board, i'd like to say, But then you have
a lot of people on Etsy, eBay, Facebook marketplace is a big one
where they're selling stuff that they know doesn't work. But if it gets you
and it gets you quote unquote evidence you can show to other people, it
just helps their business. And that's a horrible business practice across the board.
Now, I've become very jaded with all the new equipment coming out of the
last three or four years because all of it we're just repeating the cycle of
nonsense. In my opinion, Yeah, I couldn't agree more with that,
and that's why we try and do our best with our research to adapt technology
from other industries. Right is not utilizing ghost hunting technology quote unquote technology say
that air quotes, but you know, like again like using the NCCD camera,
you know, photon intensive fires devices made by Kestral that are used by
the National Weather Service to document environmental conditions. Things like that that not only
give us hard data, but can be analyzed by professionals that use these pieces
of equipment every single day. No, absolutely, I am one team bring
barometers back to ghost uns. That's been my thing. I have been telling
people ask bobuld buy a barometer by an antique three hundred pound barometer and carried
around with it, because it's more likely going to give you actual like results
in details. So I said a couple more quick questions here and this one.
I know it's loaded. The Satanic panic. It is still alive and
well in twenty twenty three, and I have been preaching this for the past
two and a half years, longer than that. But on the podcast,
you'll say two and a half years, how do you feel this as being
exacerbated by paranormal cruse social media television. I know, I know it's a
loaded question, but it's very important, especially when you have a new television
show coming out that someone might say, oh, this is just the same
thing. Brandon Elvis is just doing the exact same thing and spreading the Satanic
panic. Well, first and foremost certain shows on television made that a fat
I think that the conjuring films were a really bad influence. I think a
lot of the Warren's research was a bad influence on this field. It's not
a popular opinion, and I get a lot of flacks from that saying that.
But they were very religious based right within their research, and I think
that's a dangerous line across when we're trying to uncover the unknown and uncover the
supernatural. Is when you bring a belief system into that and you start to
project that belief system onto other people, I think that can be a very
dangerous line across. I also think that a lot of the shows have taken
that and ran with it, and it's become a format, and it's become
a foundation, and then YouTube and social media is just riddled with it,
and a lot of people say, oh, you know, it's it's it's
being, it's there, and people are doing it because it's popular. I
don't really think that's the case. A lot of the TV numbers, at
least show otherwise, a lot of those shows that talk about constant negativity and
demonic phenomena and all this kind of stuff, which is every single case for
some godly reason, who knows how. But the numbers have dwindled in huge,
huge ways over the years. But again, I think that anytime we
bring a religious or belief system into this type of research and you project that
onto other people, it can be a very dangerous thing. One man's alien
is another man's angel, As good old John Keel would say, everyone takes
it. Yeah, I love that answer, But you do have to come
from a state of neutrality, yes, and it's very difficult to do so
while also trying to be entertaining. But also, I've said it before Fear
Cells. One of my favorite negative reviews in our documentary was there wasn't even
a jump scare. This woman was a demon, and it's like, hang
on a second, we are we're crossing some blurred lines that we never even
drew in the first place. Where the hell did this come from? We're
on Earth, You're on Jupiter, man, where are you right now?
It's pretty wild out there, you know, it's it could be crazy.
But I think that you know, historical accuracy, proper methodology, and teaching
moments can be equally as entertaining. I mean a perfect example is a show
like MythBusters, right That show went on for how many years because they were
just teaching what was scientifically, you know, factual and what wasn't right.
So I think it could be very entertaining. I just has to be done,
I think in the right way, and hopefully that happens in the future.
Now, I do love that you brought up the Warrens, because I'm
on record of saying as important as they were for the acceptance of parental investigation
into modern times, they were equally damning and damaging, if not more so.
And it's something that people don't need, they don't seem to grasp,
is that there was a lot of religion and a lot of things that were
just accepted as factual because the Warrens said so. And we're finding out now
in twenty twenty three not only are we looking at like historical and accuracies,
but also exaggerations were very common. But to say they weren't important, I
think is that that's going a little bit germinal. But you have to It's
one of those things where it's like sunburn is very important because it tells us
we're getting over exposure in the sun. It doesn't mean it's a good thing,
but it's important for us to know. I think you have to kind
of treat the Warrens like a Sunburns as much I hate to say that.
Yeah, I couldn't agree more with that. And again, it's not to
diminish their entire body of work or anything like that. I'm not who am
I to say that, you know what I mean? I wasn't there for
it. I don't know, but I do know the impact that it's had,
and I believe that it's done far more harm than good. Yeah.
So one last question, and I know my fans are cruci find me if
I didn't ask on a network television side, have you ever been pressured to
fake or exaggerate evidence or a finding for the sake of entertainment. I have
been very lucky to not have that happen. You know. When I worked
with Any's Ghost Hunters, and I worked with Mike Nichols, the executive producer
of that show, and Any Craig Polligion, they never once put me in
a position to make things happen. And when I was brought on to do
that show, Mike Nichols and everyone on that production team wanted me there for
that reason because they knew I wasn't that guy and they wanted to make sure
or that there was someone to represent that not everything is a ghost, right.
They really like that. So luckily, with you know, ghost Centers,
I never encountered that, and then luckily with Haunted Discoveries, I'm directing,
producing, and editing the show, so I get to say what I
do. So it's nice. Yeah. No, And That's why I was
so excited about Haunted Discoveries because I'm like, look, we're gonna know if
something seems a little out of the ordinary and this, you know, these
seven things happen in rapid succession, we have some questions. So I was
very excited that that's about you guys chose to go. But the last thing
before we go, you are going to be at the Tennessee Hanson Legends Expo.
Is that correct? In October? Yeah? With Mstopic gatl Or,
we'll be there. Yeah, we'll see us too. Yeah. So we're
gonna be there. We're gonna be showing our film Fantom Farm. I'm very
excited to meet you. But before we go, Brandon, where can folks
find Brandon Elvis find Haunted Discoveries? Can you kind of bring it all back
into a nice little bow for us? Yeah? Absolutely, can go to
my personal website, Brandon j Alvis dot com. You can find all my
social media there and we'll be posting as everything comes out. We'll be having
some exclusive trailers coming out here in the coming months, and then more news
about a domestic release and other releases throughout the world and again. So October
six, nine pm Pacific and Eastern on TNE, Hanted Discoveries is going to
be kicking off Creepeek. We're very excited about that. UK, Ireland,
Australia, New Zealand we'll be seeing it around the same time, but we'll
also have more news coming soon where other countries can see it as well.
Perfect. So you mentioned posting trailers, is there a YouTube channel, a
Facebook group where can people find these upcoming teasers and updates. You can find
that on Facebook with just going and type in Honed Discoveries you'll find the Facebook
like page. We also have an Instagram Hontered Discoveries TV, also a Twitter.
Awesome. We appreciate it so much, Brandon, thank you for coming
on the show. I said, it's been a long time coming. I'm
glad we get a chance to sit down with you and I'm excited to see
you in October thanks for having me on Guys look at Poor to Menia.
Thank you, Brittany. Not only was that fun, but it was also
a breath of fresh air. No, absolutely, that was that was really
good. That was really really good. Yeah, I was. I was
getting a little nervous at the end because I had to ask the question about
fake Network TV because we talk about it so much here on the show on
Patreon. We had to ask. Yeah, we had to ask, and
I'm glad he was honest about it. I mean, Brandon seems like a
great guy. Can't wait to meet him at the Tennessee Hauns and Legends Expo,
which I will post in the Facebook group. Tickets go on sale end
of July. I know that tickets were people were kind of concerned about ticket
sales. I think they're like ten bucks. Yeah, they're very inexpensive.
I'm very exciting because this is our first real outing as a podcast. Yeah,
it really is. You know. The worst thing about it is gonna
we have to you know, wit to travel Tyler Terry. That's the worst
thing. If we're being honest here, we're gonna be lucky if we make
it down to Nashal bet No. I'm definitely excited. That was a lot
of fun. And it's interesting to meet another scientific mind in the paranormal community
because apart from yourself and like three other people, it is getting if you
were in farther between where it's people are too focused on the gimmicks and the
entertainment, not as focused on the results in the answers. And so it
was nice and I could kind of see your little scientist nerd brain just like,
oh, just a spinning let me ask you more about photons. You
know, it was a great time. And Bill the science guy comes out
of the background. That would be that would break paranormal entertainment if he had
someone called him right now. I know, I know one of you guys
has this phone. Um. So, with that being said, Miss Brittany,
unless there's anything else you would like to add, I think we have
to add this episode of Our Strange World with Brandon Elvis to our never ending
but are always growing Tales from the Dark m