Ghost Asylum Cast Interview

Do you believe in Ghosts? If you are on the fence you should watch a new show called “Ghost Asylum” on the Destination America channel. “Ghost Asylum” features southern ghost hunters, dubbed The Tennessee Wraith Chasers entering the most petrifying institutions in America. They examine some of America’s most frightening asylums, sanitariums and mental hospitals.

Ghost Asylum takes place in clinics, hospitals and rehabilitation centers.  Their goal isn’t just to conjure spirits and collect evidence but they are on a mission to physically capture restless souls with their cutting-edge ghost traps and self-trained Tennessean wit.

Here is a clip of a sneek peek of the show. Our own writer from Family Review Guide Erin Potter, who is a ghost hunter herself on the team Paranormal Housewives,  interviewed cast member Doogie about his own background in Ghost Hunting and the details of the new show. You can read the transcript below after the clip, or scroll to the bottom of the page and listen to the audio of the interview.

 Ghost Asylum Cast Interview

(FRG=Family Review Guide)

FRG:  You guys have a new show called Ghost Asylum, right?

Doogie: Yes mam

FRG :Tell me a little bit about yourself?

Doogie: Well, I’m just an old fashion country boy from Tennessee. I use to get out and hunt ghosts. I hang out with my family and you know, that’s about all I can tell you, you know?
Just a good old southern boy

FRG: And do you have a day job?

Doogie: I do. I’m an X-ray technologist

FRG: Cool. So, what made you get into the paranormal investigation field?

Doogie: I’ve been in the paranormal investigation field for probably, I don’t know, around 14, 15 years. It all started after my grandfather died. My grandmother started having some strange things going on in her home and all the family just thought it was, you know, she’s older, her husband is not around anymore you know, she’s just scared staying there by herself and maybe, just making things up in her mind. So, instead of me doing judgment, I just listened to what she said.  Just kinda filtered it, you know, all in and was taking notes and everything, you know? Not in front of her
You know, just taking it back to my house and going over it.  And just a few years later did I actually get to investigate the claims.  She got sick and she end up passing away.  You know, bless her.  I loved her to death. After she died, the house was empty. So, I went to investigate to see what was going on with her. And apparently, what she was telling me was true.  There was things in the house that I’ve seen with my own eyes, things moving, things talking.  It was just…it was a really crazy situation. So, it made me feel really bad because nobody would listen to her and, you know, I just imagine, you know, my sweet grandmother, you know, sitting in the house at night and this stuff going on and her not knowing what to do. And nobody helping her, understand her or justify what’s going on. So, I’ve kinda made that my life’s mission to figure out what these things are. We may never figure out what they are but, you know, I’m gonna die trying to figure out whether it may have been my grandfather or if it’s something not of this realm, if you want to say that.  She may already know what it is.  You know, she’s passed on. Maybe the Big Man gave her, you know, all the info she needed to have but it’s still my life’s mission to try to figure out what these things are so, I can explain to other people so that they don’t have to sit there in fear.

FRG: So, do you use religion then in your investigating?

Doogie: We pray before we go in anywhere because you don’t wanna go in messing with things that you don’t know. You don’t know if it’s demons . You know, you just don’t know what this stuff is

FRG: Right.

Doogie: You need the Big Man on your side everywhere you go, regardless whether it’s investigating or if it’s riding down the road, or getting up in the morning.

FRG: Right. So, what makes you guys different from other paranormal investigation teams?

Doogie: There’s…you know, there’s really no front man with us. We’ve all been friends since knee-high to a grasshopper. We’ve all known each other, went to the same churches. Our families all know each other. And we’re just a group of southern boys doing what we like to do. You know, we don’t call judgment on other paranormal teams.  We don’t tell them how to investigate. We just let people go on a journey with us. We’ve decided to…We’ve had this process going for a little while, on how to trap this energy if there’s something is trapped in somewhere that doesn’t wanna be there but doesn’t know how to get out. We’re gonna give them a vessel to try to leave this place. And we’ll take them out and test whatever traps we have set up.  We’re gonna test if there’s something in it. We’re gonna take it somewhere. Have a ceremony. We’re gonna do whatever we can to release it if we think that it’s a good spirit. You know, we wanna it to go to wherever it needs to go
We don’t want it to be trapped in an old asylum. We don’t want it to be trapped anywhere.

FRG: Right. So, tell me about the traps? I assume these traps are gonna be used on the show?

Doogie: Yes, they are already being implemented on the show. One of our first traps was a crystal in this little chamber, like, a doorway chamber. And what we do is we put smoke in it, just to try and see if we can see anything come into it. We try to use crystals to draw energy to it because crystals are known to hold energy, information. You know, they are used in everything. Computers, laptops, tablets. So, we try to draw it in. If that can hold the energy long enough to get it outside the walls of these old abandoned asylums that these things are trapped in,  that’s a bonus. And it’s going to flip the paranormal upside down. Because we can have these things as transportation. To go somewhere else than…rather than where they’re trapped.

FRG: Right. So, tell me about your show. How are you guys different from other ghost shows out there?

Doogie: Well, that’s where we are different. We go in and we try to capture these things. Other paranormal teams, they don’t want to go in and say they’re helping people by just documenting information . And they take it back and say, this is what we’ve documented, okay? We go in, we document information. We try to get as much intel as we can about what we are catching, what we’re hearing. But we’re trying to catch these things. And we’re using them in asylums first because there’s nobody there. So, if we get this down to a science, when someone calls us with bad haunting in their residence that’s affecting their family and they want it out of the equation, we have a way to do that.

FRG: That’s very interesting. How many people are on your team?

Doogie: There’s five of us in the team. Chris and I are founders of the team. Potter is also a founder. He is on the team. He does a lot of historical stuff . Chris and I, we just kinda keep everything flowing with the team. You know, I deal a lot with all of our clients, in business end of things. Potter and I do a lot of business end of things. And then, we also have Chelsie Rae, which…He’s a trap builder. He implements our ideas and put them into functioning form. And then, Brandon, which is Chris’ brother. He has high-functioning autism. He’s got Asperger’s. And he’s an absolute genius
But he has social cues with people. It’s really hard for him interact with people. But he interacts great with ghosts. This has brought him out of his shell and he comes up with ideas and designs for these traps. Because he’s a genius with numbers and figures. And, you know, he just…he helps out with the whole aspect with coming up with different forms of trapping energy with energy

FRG: Wow, that’s really cool. So then, on the show or even in your investigations that you do, do you use any other equipment other than the traps?

Doogie: Yea, We use all kinds if equipment. We use thermo imaging cameras. We use full spectrum cameras to catch all four spectrums of light that out eyes can’t see. We use K-II meters. We use Mel meters, which…The Mel meter, it detects temperature changes, EMF fluctuations and it also has the proximity sensor on it. So if anything gets close to the antenna and you have it sitting somewhere, you know it’s not anybody else touching it. So, you know it has to be something, not necessarily a ghost but paranormal activity.

FRG: Well, besides the traps, are they any equipment that you make or do you buy them from other places?

Doogie: We make a lot of the equipment ourself. We have a few things which I don’t really…You know, I don’t wanna really give them away. But we make a lot of things that detect pressure, like, doors closing, any kind of abrupt change in the room. We have, well, the Faraday Cage. We’ve built a Faraday Cage, where we test all of our traps, crystals and different things, where it blocks all EMF from coming in or anything getting out

FRG: That sounds cool . When you are done with the investigation, do you guys analyze your own evidence or do you send it off to someone?

Doogie: No, we analyze all of our own evidence. We go over it because there’s so many things that are going out here that, you know, people will make up that they see things. We’d like to know that our evidence has not been tampered with so we do everything ourselves. And what we find is solid evidence.  We don’t put anything out there that’s a little shady. Because that’s one thing about the Wraith Chasers, you know, we are in this to tell the truth. Not to tell some kind of far fetched story or try to make stuff up. Because the truth is gonna make it up. There’s no plan even waking up in the morning to go and, go and doing that stuff.

FRG: So, on the show, how many episodes do you guys have so far?

Doogie: We have six so far

FRG: So, do you go to a different place each episode?

Doogie: Yes ma’am.

FRG: And do you investigate, like, Ghost Hunters, like, the Ghost Hunter Show, or do you investigate your own way?

Doogie: I think everybody investigates a little different. You know, the Ghost Hunters, they do their thing, you know, they’ll send, you know, one person in to do this and one person to do this
We just kinda go in and do our own thing. We fill the place out and we talk to whatever these entities are. We just go in and talk to them as if they’re a team member or, you know, just start asking them questions, you know, about what happened.  I’m very bad about…every time I go somewhere, I’m, like, tell me your story. We bring a lot of trigger objects. Things that they may have been familiarized with when these asylums were opened and running. And we’ll bring things in for them to kinda get, you know, a good feeling with us. You know, okay, hey, they brought me something that I know. I know what this is. We try to bring them closer to us. And we just talk. We show them our instruments. We come up with just…some off the wall things. There’s one that I’d like to tell you about but I can’t until the episode ends. We use a lot of LED lights to attract stuff. Because if you bring something in to an old dark asylum that these entities aren’t used they’re gonna be intrigued. Just, like, humans. I mean, these things may have been humans at one time. I’m not saying that they were. But they very well could be.

FRG: Do you guys provoke?

Doogie: Every once in a while, if there’s been claims of things going on, we sometimes do provoke. But we try not to do it in a bad way. Unless it’s something bad that’s caused harm to people
Then, we kinda call it out to try to get action going on until we get something. Sometimes it’s like dealing with a kid or another adult. Sometimes, when they’re not paying attention, you’re gonna be, like, hey you, I’m over here. Listen to what I’m saying, you know. But other than that, we try to stay really respectful . Because, you know, like I said, we don’t know if these were humans, or if they have been tortured before. You know, you don’t wanna cause things to be worse.

FRG: Are any of you guys sensitives?

Doogie: Nobody on the team seems to be. A lot of the guys tell me that I am. A lot of times they call me a paranormal magnet. A lot of things happen around me. I don’t why that is. It’s just something that I don’t know if it’s a good thing to have or I’m plagued

FRG: I think it’s a good thing to have!

Doogie: A lot of times when we go somewhere that we had a lot of activity, I do, I always get this turning feeling in my stomach. It’s almost, like, a nervous reaction

FRG: I’d say that I think that you’re little sensitive

Doogie: Maybe. You know, it’s hard for me.  I’m really, you know, some things I’m really sceptical about. And that’s one of them. But, you know, maybe it’s just, I don’t know, my ghostly senses.

FRG: Who contacted you to do the show or how did you guys go about in getting this show together?

Doogie: Well, Chris and I, we started the Wraith Chasers back in probably late 08, early 09, something like that. We were just kinda doing our little thing and we were doing some events with some local people. We just kinda get this, like, cult following almost. It was little strange. But we were just, you know, we were nice to people. You know, we tried to help people out any time we could and do things for kids around town, underprivileged kids. You know, bring them in, show them what we do, give them some T-shirts. Just to get them interested in doing some stuff. And all of a sudden, we’ve done a few things at Old South Pittsburgh Hospital. And kinda, you know, got our foot, I guess you say, in the door with some of the paranormal community. And they liked us. And then, the next thing we know, we got a call from the Travel Channel. And we’ve done a show on there with Zack Bagans, called Paranormal Challenge. And, you know, it’s one of those ones that you are supposed to apply but they contacted us and they really wanted us on there. And we’re, like, well, you know, lets try it! I kinda wish now that we wouldn’t have but it wouldn’t gave us the walkway to  where we are now. You know, things happen for a reason. The Big Man has things lined up for you. It wasn’t just a few months after we did the show, we got a call from Tim Hamilton and Colleen Stuart of LA with Tremendous! Entertainment. They said, have you guys ever done a non-scripted TV show? We said, well, we’ve done a non-scripted TV show but not for ourselves. And they were, like, well, what do you think about doing one? We was, like, hey, lets rock and roll, you know?

FRG: Yeah!

Doogie: So, and it’s been a long road. It’s been four years in the making. So, we’ve come from the bottom of the mountain and we’re hoping to get to the top. We’re going to keep digging and climbing until we do, you know? Because we want to get our style of investigation out and let people know, there is no certain way to investigate. You do the things that you need to do and things will happen. You will be able to find out more evidence You know, you’ll just be able to do a whole lot of things. Because this paranormal community is real tight knit. And if you do anything outside what they think is wrong, then you’ll get this whole bashing. So, you know, we just kinda stay away from all that. We do our own thing. We’ve always done our own thing. If anybody has questions for us, we answer the way we know how. But we don’t tell them they doing things wrong. I mean, nobody’s experts in this field. It’s the reason why it’s paranormal.

FRG: That’s for sure. What is your goal for this show?

Doogie: Our goal for this show is to let everybody see how we investigate here in Tennessee. This is how we roll up here. And to let everybody know that there is no paranormal bible, so called
You know, go out here, go above and beyond the box. You have to step outside the box if you ever want to get anymore answers. I’ve said before, you know, if you don’t do anything better than the last man, you’re never gonna be better than the man before you.

FRG:  Is there anything else you want to tell us about the show or about what you guys are doing next, or anything?

Doogie: Just tune in this Sunday for the Hayswood Infirmary at Maysville, Kentucky. It’s gonna be some crazy evidence . Another wild trap. You know, it gets your mind rolling and, you know, that’s the biggest thing. We just want people to know that, get out here and do your own thing. You know, if you wanna find out more answers than what you see, you know, on these other shows that are doing, you know, streamlined ghost hunting, you got to go outside the box.  You got to think different. Because, you know, you are in paranormal. There is no set base rules, you know? These things don’t function on the physics and mathematics of worldly things. This is out on a different realm.

To catch the full audio interview click below

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