“Haunted” restuarant doesn’t fool the skeptics
This restaurant is said to be haunted according to employees
Robert T. Carroll, author of The Skeptic’s Dictionary, and the restaurant’s owner, Karl Pasten, both are skeptical about the stories of multiple ghosts haunting the Depot. A team of local ghosts hunters say that they’ve gathered some good evidence which will prove otherwise. Who’s right? we’ll have to wait for the evidence to be made public, but my guess is that all we will see are going to be “orb” pictures.
YAKIMA, Wash. — Yes, they’re partly basing their findings on a woman who talks to ghosts. No, they’re not kidding.
A paranormal investigation group believes there are six to seven ghosts haunting the Depot Restaurant and Lounge, where the group spent a cold night investigating last month.
“And the group does not take that stuff lightly,” said Ellen Allmendinger of Yakima, who founded The PAST is Present, in which PAST is an acronym for Paranormal and Spirit Team.
In addition to findings by the group’s clairvoyant, the investigation included studying hours of video, hours of audio, dozens of electro-magnetic-field readings and thermal images taken with a special camera. The group will present its findings Saturday at the Depot.
“It’s kind of hard when you look at the evidence to figure out what’s going on,” said Allmendinger, a civil engineering technician.
There are audio recordings in which noises seem to respond to questions from the investigation group. And there are photos in which unexplained things — ghostly residues? — show up.
What the recording equipment shows depends on whether you’re open to believing in ghosts. Noted ghost-story debunker Robert T. Carroll, author of The Skeptic’s Dictionary, isn’t buying it. Ghost hunting, which has become more popular since the Sci-Fi Channel started airing “Ghost Hunters” in 2004, is just “junk science,” he said in an e-mail interview.
“Your investigators may come up with a paranormal explanation for various bumps in the night, but they’ll probably ignore alternative explanations. … Don’t be surprised if your investigators use scientific equipment to back up their claims. All their equipment was designed for some other use, and they are improvising when they say, for example, that a blip on an EMF meter indicates a ‘presence,’” said Carroll, who is based in Sacramento, Calif.
In other words, it’s probably just the wind, he said.
Allmendinger and her team are used to that sort of skepticism; that’s why they found each other, she said.
“I’ve had some experiences in my lifetime that I just can’t explain,” Allmendinger said. “So I guess that just piques my interest. And you can’t really walk down the street talking about it.”
Karl Pasten, who owns the depot, was a skeptic himself until recently. The evidence collected by The PAST is Present is compelling, and he’s heard from several customers since the team’s investigation who have their own ghostly experiences.
In any case, he said, the idea that the place is haunted may not be bad for business.
“There are more people who are interested by that sort of thing than scared by it,” Pasten said.
Full source: Yakima Herald
Written by Javier Ortega - javier@ghosttheory.com
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Hello Mr. Ortega!!
I’m glad to see you found about our investigation at The Depot Restaurant & Lounge!!
We have a Meet & Greet Public session tomorrow, January 17th at The Depot Restaurant from 2pm to 4pm. This event was offered by the owner Mr. Carl Paxton in order for the public to view some of the evidence we found. You are welcome to come and view the evidence. What you will find are approximately 30 of the 80 EVP’s captured during the investigation as well as several audio clips and yes photos.
I am interested to read in your clip that you are quoting the owner as being skeptical. Clearly you did not hear his live radio interview on KIT 1280 today, or any of the seven (7) KAPP news releases where he was interviewed. Mr. Paxton is not skeptical of The P.A.S.T. is Presents Findings, in fact he has asked us to return for yet another investigation.
As for Robert T. Carroll being skeptical of the investigation, I find that ironic since he has not reviewed any of the evidence captured, talked with any of the team members, or even been informed as to what types of equipment we use or what kind of evidence we found.
The P.A.S.T. is Present actually enjoy open minded skepticism. However, your assumption,as well as that of Mr. Carroll are not open minded. Seems you have drawn your own conclusions without viewing any evidence. We would prefer that anyone wanting to undermine our group simply review the evidence at hand, talk with the team about the equipment used, etc. prior to drawing conclusions.
Sincerely,
Ellen A.M. Allmendinger
Founder & President of The P.A.S.T. is Present.
Mr. Ortega.. I wish that before people make their own assumptions of what evidence was found or of the equipment being used that they would at least first check into it. Until any evidence has been seen it would be closed minded to assume that the only evidence is “Orb” pictures. We do welcome open minded skepticism. So I would hope that before Mr. Carroll and yourself make comments about others you should at least take a look for yourselves. We will have the evidence open to the Public and hope that people will come and see for themselves.
Chad L. Mullins
Tech Manager of The P.A.S.T. is Present
Skepticism is always natural as well as welcome. I consider myself a skeptic as well, although open minded. But I can assure you, our team would not call a place Haunted based on Orb pictures, and clairvoyant experiences. Myself I feel that Orbs are the least impressive evidence someone could come up with, lets face it, in most cases its dust. Let me say that we did find more than dust at the depot, we have video, audio, and photo evidence in which our basis was derived.
Dear Ellen and Chad,
We thank you for visiting our site.
First off, the attack against Javier is somewhat childish. We here are skeptics as Mr. Carroll is. We provide our thoughts and and since there is no evidence that has been provided on your site or anywhere anyone can see other than visiting the lounge, this seems to be more of a profit gain to me.
Before we start attacking others let’s make sure that we correctly even know how to spell the owner of The Depot Restaurant & Lounge’s name properly. Karl Pasten, which is the correct name can also be found here “http://www.depotrestaurantandlounge.com/history.html”.
Chad, Javier did not attack your equipment so please do not get too offended.
He simply quoted what another skeptic which has knowledge of similar devices that i’m sure you are using on this case. Please go ahead and link us to where your evidence will be seen so we can have our viewers also take a peek for themselves and not waste their time driving/flying out to see nothing but orbs on photo, or wind on EVP’s. We’ll be happy to update this post on your teams behalf.
Ellen A.M. Allmendinger,
I will start off by saying that I am not a close minded person. If you would read most of the post of this website, you can get a feeling as to where we stand when it comes to the paranormal.
My conclusions are made from the current facts. For example, most ghost hunting teams almost always do the same redundant data collection. They are not scientific in any form. Just because you use scientific instruments does not mean that it is a scientific investigation.
The fact that the evidence is not made public further let’s me know that what we have here is an attempt at some free advertising for the restaurant.
Let me ask you this:
In your “about us” page you start off saying:
“We base all of our investigations on the scientific collection of potential evidence and attempt to debunk all possible explanations of potential paranormal activity…”
If it is true that you start off with a scientific demeanor, why do you not make public your evidence? Scientists make their findings public in order to get explanations to their findings or theories.
yes, I know your team are not scientists, but we are not talking about your team, we are talking about the evidence. It seems to me that your last statement about wanting to “debunk all possible explanations of potential paranormal activity” is really not true at all.
I live in LA, California, so I am no where near this. I do not listen to “KIT 1280 today”. Even if I did, what would have been the point? I’m guessing the owner was on the radio station to just get some free advertising.
Yes, I am skeptical of all this. I’m skeptical of all claims of the paranormal. Nothing against your team of the owner of the place. It is just that we here at GhostTheory are tired of the so called ghost hunters making a mockery of the paranormal by either selling out their true mission, or by simply doing spotty work.
If it is true that what you found in this place is compelling evidence, and not just “orbs” and inaudible recordings, then make it available on your site for the rest of us to examine the evidence. Getting to the truth is why we do this in the first place, right?
Javier
GhostTheory
Chad Mullins,
I agree with examining the evidence before making any assumptions. The problem is that the evidence is not made public.
This might work for the local community, but not for the rest of us.
I never questioned your equipment, just on how the data is collected and how it is used, in regards to paranormal research.
Make the evidence public, so that we can all see what you guys have found that made you claim this place as haunted. Then I guess you guys win and can shut us up.
Thanks!
Javier
GhostTheory
Nick Page, Tech Manager,
Excellent. Audio, photo and video evidence was gathered. Send us the link to this. As a fellow skeptic, you can understand our plight.