The cast and crew of the television show “The Ghost Finders” visited the Highlands Inn over the weekend with the goal of interacting with “spirits” or “entities.” They use a combination of technology and ritualistic methods in order to interact with any spirits that may be present.
Executive Producer Rob Thompson and one of the show’s “mediums,” who communicates with spirit, said it’s not the show’s goal to make their audience believe in the paranormal, “but to let them make up their own minds.
“What we do is explore, investigate and make our own determinations letting our viewers decide for themselves,” said Thompson. “It’s not my job to make people believe, it’s to show them our findings.”
He added that some other shows claim to search for the existence of paranormal activity aren’t based on actual investigations or fact but aimed to deliver what the viewers want to see.
“What we’re bringing to people is the very first ever paranormal ‘reality’ show’,” he said. “Some other shows are simply staged. They don’t need to find anything because they’ll just create what they need in post-production. The difference is we’re real.”
How to search for paranormal activity
The team uses a mixture of technology and ritualistic methods of traditional witchcraft such as burning of herbs or incense, pouring of wine, personal experience, to name a few, said Co-host of the show Megan Deputy. The methods they use are all dependent on the location and the personal feeling while conducting their investigation.
“We’re not trying to aggravate the spirits, we’re getting to know them and acknowledge them,” said Deputy. “We pay homage to the spirits, it’s not like we’re walking into a house and say to ourselves ‘how do we get rid of these entities?’ Our fans around the world have responded to this approach by the hundreds of thousands”.
Then there’s the technological aspect, using radio frequencies and different light spectrums to communicate with paranormal entities. Another Executive Producer Heather Bordelean said with today’s advanced technology there are ‘theoretically’ multiple ways to make contact with the spirit realm.
“I really like communicating with different dimensions through technology,” she said. “I want to know if there’s really something out there that we can communicate with through technology, beyond the yes and no. We have different equipment that allows us to speak over soundwaves and radio frequencies, or see through normal spectrums of light.”
The program’s Showrunner, Brad Tarnowsky, said the show has been revamped giving the crew’s access to new equipment allowing them to make contact more easily with spirits.
“We have equipment that picks up sounds that human ears can’t pick up,” he said. “We have something called a ‘spirit box,’ which is an EVP [electronic voice phenomenon] on steroids and uses radio frequencies and scans them across a rapid rate and filters out the static.”
What did the team find?
The cast includes Ethan Clay, Anneliese Lewis and Mike Villareal. The crew sent cast members to the attic and the basement of The Highlands Inn, 420 Main Street, and spent most of the weekend there, mostly at night.
“The technology was really heavily used last night because the spirits were willing to communicate first hand,” said Deputy. “I think it went very well. It was also a good balance of technology, mediumship and personal experience.”
The cast could not divulge all of their findings because the show will not air until August, but they all felt it was a successful choice of location and all of the spirits very happy and very positive.
Why choose Highlands as a location?
Tarnowsky had been to Highlands in 2017 filming the movie “Mountain Rest,” and said the cast of the movie stayed at The Highlands Inn and said he got a good feeling while there.
“It’s so old [built in 1880] and has such a rich history,” he said.
Thompson agreed that Highlands would be a great location for the show.
“Highlands is all about the spectacular show of Mother Nature, with waterfalls, valleys and mountains,” he said. “Mother Nature’s architecture includes craters on the moon, the rings of Saturn, and more magic all around us that we choose not to or cannot see. The Highlands Inn is the sparkling jewel in North Carolina’s crown of positive, stylish and historic legacy.”
“The Ghost Finders” stream on ROKU’s Paranormal Reality TV channel. For more information go to www.theghostfinders.com.
Article and photos by Brian O’Shea
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