American Society for Faith Based Paranormal Research

So, I am really starting to become a fan of this show. Why? Because I haven't seen anyone criticized this harshly by sloppy journalists and pseudoscientists since Galileo Galilei. It seems internet paranormal police will stop at nothing to prove this show is fake, even if it means posting complete and utter crap. I have previously outlined one glaring example of this in my previous two blogs. I have yet another example here.

The site whofortedblog.com, which bills itself as "The Online Paranormal Magazine" has forever shamed its reputation. Back in November of 2008 they posted an article titled "Fool Me Twice-The Lost Paranormal State Episode". You can see the original article here:

http://whofortedblog.com/?p=145

There was an episode of the show in season two that did not air in the originally scheduled time slot. It was briefly available on the A&E On Demand channel before it was pulled. This website used the occurance to nail the show to the proverbial wall. They salivated like dogs in a butcher shop at the thought that the show had been pulled for dubious reasons. They even took the opportunity to insult fans of the show saying, "fans of the show ?Paranormal State? are, in fact morons". We shall see who the true morons turn out to be.

After ripping apart the show scene by scene, they go on to question the motives and credibility of the PRS team.

"What I am questioning is a team that states they?re motivated by a desire to ?help? people and further explain the existence of paranormal phenomena. I saw nothing during that episode that would lead me to believe their stated objective."

Ok, so lets see how well their powers of observation turn out to be.

The episode in question did in fact air on A&E in January of 2009. Imagine that! A&E didn't pull the show because of PRS. There was no grand conspiracy to hide something from the general public.

On February 2, 2009, the client featured in this very episode decided to write whofortedblog.com and set the record straight. You can read the original article here:

http://whofortedblog.com/?p=592

Here is the letter from the client (emphasis added is mine)

Hi to you and all your readers,

I just happen to be the hysterical mother that this blog is about. Your blog was good. I guess all I can say is that to a degree, I do deserve to be raked over the coals. I have read a lot of cruel comments about me and my daughters suffering. I have been called a basket case, exploiting my daughter to being slapped with a well deserved lawsuit at the hands of a disgruntled father. At least you weren?t that cruel! I enjoyed the debate that you lay out there.

I do hate to hear how rough everyone is on PRS.

In my view, they are strong enough to take it all with a grain of salt. They are committed to their purpose and are truly passionate about it. I felt that their presence in our home did us a lot of good. It was a healing experience. Being on television though has not been good. I never wanted to be on television, but it came along with the help. I understood at the time. They were documenting their research. I was fine with that and knew I was leaving us exposed, but I was at the time desperate to get the help that I had been everywhere to get and no one until PRS offered us anything. I was at the end of my rope. Just so exhausted and my little girl just so scared to fall asleep. The pictures she drew about her nightmares would have sent any mother scrambling for answers and hope. The difference with me was answers were not good enough. Every doctor, expert?they all had a reasonable explanation. It?s just that those explanations did not solve the problem.

I finally decided to think outside of the box. For children, and in my child?s case, I took a chance on showing her in a big way that help was on it?s way and to just hold on. I started looking at it or trying to look at it all from her perspective. Children have such an imagination, and if imagination created this lady vampire, maybe imagination would send her away too, and if by some chance we got proof that it really was paranormal and got rid of it?that was fine, just make it stop. What I am trying to articulate is that the imagination is powerful. Why not use it for good instead of feeding fears?

Understand that she and I were battling this unknown for a year. We were exhausted. Lola was a happy child and very well balanced considering the dreams, night terrors and the proof in her drawings and clip art that she would collect. It would really break anyone?s heart.

Back to my point. When we walked outside the day PRS and crew arrived, we saw the big trucks, the bright lights and camera?s, the group themselves and all the kind and gentle people that poured into our home telling Lola that they believed her (finally the validation she needed) and they were all here to help her. She held my hand and looked up at me and said, ?Mommy, are they really all here for me?? She couldn?t believe that all of this was for her. She and I were so touched. I don?t care if it was real to them or not. We believed it and it helped bring our miracle about.

I guess it could be argued but I am not crazy. I am a professional. I am a single mom on my own and it is hard. But I can take comfort in knowing that in all Lola and I have endured through a bitter divorce, night terrors and then yes, a battle with her father that is another drama more appropriate for Oxygen than A&E, I never fell apart. Crying is not falling apart. Crying is feeling what is happening and not ignoring something that you don?t understand. We were facing a problem and dealing with it whether anyone agree?s with the how is irrelevant, really.

To be truthful, I still don?t really know what happened. I know that something did happen but the good news is that it stopped when the trucks drove away. The night Ryan put that helmet on and Lola across the house from him and he in silence, both experiencing the same thing at the same moment opened my eyes to the fact that there is another layer to the reality that we know. There is something else out there that we will never understand. It was not a hoax at all. That was all real. And now that it is over the main questions I had were answered. It was real, it wasn?t just her imagination and not my concern feeding more into her fear and secondly that it could be made to stop just by empowering yourself to believe you can make it stop. The what it was and how doesn?t even matter anymore. It?s just over and we sleep peacefully and she did so in that room afterwards.

In my mind it was successful in every way. They listened to us and took us seriously, they taught us how to take control, empowered us and we put it behind us. Lola, went in her room and yelled at whatever was there for 5 minutes and laid the law down. It was a release for her. To declare her space and say, I don?t want you here and you can?t stay. Wow. It has served as a lesson in life for us. For her at such a young age to be able to know, ?look what I overcame! If I can do that at 5 and 6 the rest is a piece of cake!? It is a great example to us and should be to anyone who watches what we went through and can benefit in some way and to apply the lesson to their own lives. If I am made a fool then it was well worth it. I gained a lot more in the healing of my daughter.

Finally, I will say to you because although I don?t agree with what you say, I want to use your forum and not all the others to defend myself and my decision. I am not excited about being on tv looking like a basket case but in the end so what. I know what happened and so does Lola. She is proud of me and the choice I made. Your forum is different and had asked good questions that are fair to ask and I respect you for that.

As far as my ex-husband, I will take a chance and tell you that it was because of him that it was pulled. I had kept him in the loop the entire time. He knew of every step I was taking to help our little girl and never really was any help. He didn?t take her to doctors, talk to counselors seek any remedy whatsoever other than taking my daughter to what was supposed to be a faith based light worker that ended up being a freaking witch doctor. That was the bad move I think. It scared the crap out of her. The honest truth is, he is a cruel person and it was about power and greed. What better way to take a child from her mother than to allow the daughter to suffer only to get the mother to ?give herself enough rope to hang herself with?. He is the one that exploited this baby. I told him everything and he seemingly supported what I was doing every step of the way. I was just foolish in believing that he was telling the truth. He sat back knowing for 3 months that PRS was coming to help. He sat back every time I invited him to review contracts, watch a sample episode, meet the people and even watch every moment of the experience. Never saying he disapproved. He chose not too and remained silent. Until the day it was to air. He shut it all down with a phone call from a concerned father, and had the audacity to lie to a judge and say he knew nothing about it and that I was delusional and convinced my daughter to play along with me. I kept a log of every correspondence with him about her night terrors, my journey to an answer and all the conversations I had with him about it all. I wasn?t so stupid after all. In a disgusting and shameful attempt he stood up in a court of law and lied and sought unspecified damages from A&E. But still, I had the truth and I kept good notes!

We are still battling but I will never allow anyone to use me, Lola or the court to extort money, get attention and exploit a terrible situation. And he is supposed to love her and once a long time ago, said he loved me too. I don?t know about what anyone else thinks but that is not love. Exposing yourself to ridicule and harsh consequences to get help and to get other mothers and parents talking. That?s love. My basic point is and has been ?What if?? What if there really are monsters under our children?s beds? What if there aren?t? But just like santa claus they believe with all of what they understand that yes, they are real. With that, as a parent, what is so wrong with embracing what they believe with them and conquering it as a family. Not make them lay in a room that terrifies them, telling them, ?it?s just your imagination?stop waking me up?go back to bed. How about the alternative. Confronting it as their protector. Saying out loud in front of the children, yelling at the monster under their bed or in their closets. Leave this child alone and get out of her room. Then imagine together that the monsters then leave. What is wrong with that?

I hope we help someone else in some small way. That it was all for something. That we turned a bad situation and made it good.

In the end, the show finally airing marks the death of the lady vampire, the end to a legal battle and a life re-emerging?my own.

I hope I have been some help. Feel free to ask me anything that you like as long as it is done in a respectful way, I am happy to discuss this.

Dawn

I do not understand what more critics could want from the PRS team. Here is a woman who is stating for the public record, even though she knows she is going to be ridiculed on this site, that PRS came in and did exactly what they said they would do. They helped her. It may not be the method paranormal journalists want them to use, but it worked. It doesn't even matter if it is real at this point does it? It doesn't matter if it stands up to extreme scientific scrutiny does it? What is important is that someone is better off because of the PRS team. In the end this should be about people and not about our need to "prove" something to our peers. PRS proved the most important thing; paranormal investigation can be used to better people's lives.

Critics continue to crucify this show and the PRS team any chance they get. Yet, these same critics will not swallow their own pride and admit they are wrong. This site stated as a matter of fact that PRS does not help people and were proven wrong. Ghosttheory posted an article from a client who had an agenda to promote themselves at the expense of Paranormal State, and yet they neglect to post an article from a client saying that the show helped her family. That is irresponsible journalism and it amazes me that this community will slit the throat of Ryan Buell for the smallest mistake and yet no one seems to speak of the elephant in the room that is slapdash journalism.