Documentary television hosted by Jay Robinson focused on exploring great mysteries around the world, from ghost sightings, alien encounters and everything else in between.
00:00What happens when we die? Is there life after death? If so, what form does the afterlife take?
00:12This is possibly man's most basic puzzle. But the moment we become aware of our own mortality, the question nags.
00:23We seek the answer in a variety of places. For many, the comfort of religious belief supplies the answers.
00:32Others take a more bizarre route and try to go directly to the source, as it were.
00:41The séance can be considered one of the traditional methods of attempted communication with the dead.
00:47Harry Houdini was obsessed with the idea of communicating with his dead mother, and spent years unmasking unscrupulous mediums.
00:57His personal quest was never fulfilled.
01:03Technologists, on the other hand, have typically turned to electronic means in the attempt.
01:09Even the venerable Thomas Edison spent his later years constructing a device he was hopeful would help the spirits communicate with the physical realm.
01:18Not a believer in ghosts, Edison merely wanted to give spirits, if they existed, a better opportunity to express themselves.
01:27Shrouded in secrecy, his device was either unsuccessful or unfinished at the time of his death in 1931.
01:38The metaphysical torch dropped by this great inventor when he died was picked up by others and continues to this day.
01:46One notable example from a company called MetaScience is the Spiricon, or Spirit Communicator,
01:53devised in the late 1970s by William O'Neill with the alleged psychic assistance of the deceased physicist Dr. George Mueller.
02:03O'Neill's channeling abilities enabled him to receive enough information from Dr. Mueller and other spiritual entities to develop the Spiricon.
02:13Together, O'Neill and Mueller are said to have provided one of the first conversations between a human being and spirit being using a mechanical device.
02:23This is a recording which they describe as the voice of the spirit talking through the Spiricon.
02:29Much better it would be, not only to be able to speak, but to visualize the subject in ways that you know you understand with him.
02:39You're endlessly fascinated with the supernatural, children delight in being frightened by ghost stories.
02:46These days, movies, television, and literature are filled with haunting images and stories of angels and near-death experiences.
03:00People are frequently distressed when they perceive they are in the midst of paranormal happenings.
03:07Professional ghostbusters are often called in to determine if these occurrences are of supernatural origin.
03:14They employ such devices as thermal radiometers, oscilloscopes, magnetometers, and video surveillance equipment.
03:24The Bonta Inn in Bonta, California was constructed in 1879.
03:29In the last 25 years, it has been the seat of a number of paranormal phenomena.
03:35In other words, it seems the Bonta Inn is haunted.
03:40Current owner, Joan Ballen, tells us about it.
03:45We've had many incidences. We've had a changed address register, objects moving, candles lighting, doors slammed, doors opened.
03:54We've had sightings by three different people. We've had bells ring in the kitchen.
04:01Joan believes the entity bedeviling the staff and customers of the Bonta Inn is Tony Gookin,
04:08the previous owner who died of cardiac arrest behind the bar in 1968.
04:14To find out more about the curious happenings at the Inn, Joan contacted the Office of Paranormal Investigations in Orinda, California.
04:25Lloyd Auerbach, a parapsychologist with eminent credentials, and his associate director, Barbara Gallagher,
04:32traveled to the Bonta Inn to investigate the phenomena.
04:36They also enlisted the aid of veteran parapsychologist, Kerry Gaynor.
04:44While the staff is being interviewed, Kerry and Lloyd set up the equipment.
04:50Well, it's pretty much an everyday happening. It's nothing to see pots and pans fly, beer bottles fly.
04:56He never does anything to hurt anyone. It's just mischievous.
04:59Once in a while, the door will lock by itself, the front door.
05:02And usually if there's some sort of little incident or something, it's like Tony the ghost will look after whoever's here.
05:10So therefore, we didn't have to deal with him anymore.
05:12Thereby separating the people who were fighting.
05:14Right.
05:16You mentioned the coin stacking in the cash register.
05:20Can you tell me about what the significance of that is?
05:23From what I understand, he had a habit of stacking the coins.
05:26And he would stack them in the till himself.
05:28And this was just a little cork that he had.
05:30One of the more unique facets about this particular case happens to be people over the years who did not know Tony Gookin,
05:37who were able to pick him up out of a lineup, so to speak, out of a photo lineup.
05:42We came through with a Japanese psychic by the name of Aiko Gibo.
05:45Mrs. Gibo, who had not been to this place, did not know anything, apparently saw the ghost of a man in the front bar area.
05:52When I brought her in the back room, I asked her to look around the room and tell me if anything looked familiar or anyone looked familiar on the wall.
05:59There are a number of photographs, including photographs of individual people, couples, groups of people.
06:04She picked Tony Gookin out with one quick look around the room.
06:08That's happened a number of times.
06:10People have been able to pick him out, having seen supposedly an apparition and not seen what he looked like
06:16and not known that this picture was Tony Gookin's.
06:18They've been able to identify that.
06:20That's important because that means that something else is going on.
06:23Whether there's a ghost here or not, there is something going on that allows people to identify who this ghost supposedly was
06:30without having known anything about this place.
06:34Setting up the equipment is a clean affair.
06:39Video cameras with built-in recorders are aimed at probable locations.
06:45A thermal radiometer is adjusted so that a base temperature reading can be taken.
06:51A baseline magnetometer reading is set on the oscilloscope.
06:57Then the painstaking search begins for areas with abnormal readings.
07:04It's shot right up and multiplied by ten.
07:08Soon, Lloyd detects a mysterious and elusive electromagnetic field.
07:20Further evidence of Tony's presence occurs when the bartender checks the cash register.
07:28These weren't stacked before.
07:30Don't you see how he's stacking right here?
07:32Good job, Tony. See the quarters? Look at all that.
07:35Do you feel that Tony's around right now?
07:37Yeah, I do.
07:40On one video recording, a placemat was seen floating off the table
07:45just at the same time there was some sort of electronic interference.
07:49Was it poltergeist activity or a stray breeze?
07:55Tonight we came into the restaurant for another try to see if we could pick up any phenomena.
08:00Joni, at one point, did feel that Tony was around,
08:04and we did, for a short time, get some very unusual readings on the magnetometers.
08:09It's kind of hard when you're here only for a short time to really hope for anything,
08:13but we had hope for something to happen, as we normally do.
08:16We did talk to a number of people, including the bartender,
08:19who had had several experiences here,
08:21and it's the people, the witnesses themselves, that are the best evidence in many respects.
08:25Although we really want to try to see something happen,
08:28it's talking to the people and hearing things along the way
08:31that help us determine if there's any sort of pattern or anything we can do next
08:34and how we want to proceed with the future investigations.
08:37For the time being, the mysterious happenings at the Bounty Inn remain just that, mysterious.
08:44As long as paranormal phenomena occur,
08:47and until we have the definitive answer in life after death,
08:52the quest will continue, no matter how bizarre the circumstances.
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