Good Morning Friends! I took a much longer than originally anticipated hiatus from posting. When I got up Wednesday morning I just was not really feeling it, and then I was off both Thursday and Friday and did not post then either. For those who follow me because of Blaugust, I would say that it is a good idea to just go with the flow when you are not feeling it. Chances are you probably need a break from creating content and so long as you resume at some point taking a break is extremely therapeutic. I can’t necessarily say that I feel recharged, but I was ready to get back to the blog this morning. Over the weekend a discussion happened over on the “Twitters” about Ghost Hunter channels on YouTube and I said that I should really do a blog post where I dump some of my favorites. This morning is the realization of that statement and if you are thoroughly uninterested in the paranormal, today is likely going to be a hard pass for you.
Overnight Channel / TFIL
The Overnight channel is something that branched off of another channel called TFIL, and the premise is that they go all around the country and world to do ghost-hunting videos. Ghost Hunting YouTube is this spider web that branches out, and there are a number of collaborations that ultimately will lead you to other channels. Since this one was my “first” it will always have a special place in my heart, but as I have developed slightly more refined tastes it does come across as extremely over the top. Corey is a sweetheart though and seems to be a ghost magnet, and there have been a few moments that were genuinely shocking.
The Paranormal Files
This is probably the second channel that the YouTube algorithm sent my way. Overall I like this series but there are certain aspects that bug me. Firstly Colin is a little hyperbolic when it comes to his reactions to things going on. I do kinda dig that he is often out doing stuff with his mom, dad, and now wife so it creates this interesting dynamic. It bugs me that he calls his parents by their first name, but that is just a pet peeve of mine because I had a friend growing up that did that. The only time he called them Mom or Dad was when he wanted something. Anyways there are a lot of interesting places that this channel explores, but there tends to be an excessive amount of padding with background setting content.
Twin Paranormal
It was through Paranormal Files that I was introduced to Twin Paranormal, which is a group operating out of the Las Vegas area. Over time this has become probably my favorite group because they release content reliably and it has sorta become my thing to sit down and watch their latest video while eating lunch on Sunday after I finish editing the two podcasts. They have great energy and I really like the brother’s dynamic and their friend Wyatt. All of these channels indulge in quite a bit of hyperbole at times and this channel’s greatest sin is probably its video title and thumbnail game. The videos are much better than this would denote, but they are absolutely playing the algorithm game.
Paranormal Nightmare
This channel brands itself as a TV Series, which appears to be “broadcast” on Tubi, Apple TV, Prime Video, and Pluto TV. After watching several videos, the algorithm opened the floodgates at recommending channels that I had not encountered organically and this was one of the first. The group does investigations and has a religious aspect to it where their goal is to free the family from whatever “infestation” might be occurring. There have been some interesting situations in their shows of individuals who appear to wildly change their personalities that you would think might indicate possession. One of the more professional groups and unlike a lot of the made for the travel channel type crap, it is weirdly not super over the top.
Paranormal Quest
Another group of four guys more or less follows the formula that all of these groups follow. I think it was through this channel that I first encountered the Estes Method. For those who don’t watch a bunch of these channels, it is a thing where they have one person put on noise-canceling headphones and listen to a “spirit box” while another person often times in another room asks questions. The person who is “under” just shouts out everything that they hear through the spirit box regardless of context. When the questions and the “answers” line up it is really interesting, but oftentimes there is a fair amount of nonsense as well. A “spirit box” is essentially a device that scans through the radio frequencies and it is reported that spirits can stop the scan at specific spots to land on words or phrases.
Exploring with Josh
This is probably the most hyperbolic channel on the list. Josh has done a wide number of collaborations with other channels on this list to this point, and as a result, I periodically get fed his videos through the algorithm. If there is any group that I would accuse of playing things up for the camera, this is absolutely the worst offender. These are sometimes interesting but I absolutely do not watch every episode. One of the interesting things that come through these channels though is that often times different groups will do the same locations. It is interesting how many groups get the same results from the same areas.
Paranormal New England
As hyperbolic as Josh is… it at least led me to find this channel. I guess Paranormal New England is a group that he used to work with regularly, and their channel is a gem in the rough. Basically what you get is a lot of very lightly edited footage of investigations, that more or less feel like raw vlogs. They don’t release videos very often with something new landing every few months, but they are deeply interesting to watch. This is the sort of thing that I really love to see because it is way more serious than the “whacky adventures of ghost hunters” vibe you often get from YouTube channels.
Exploring with Fighters
This is another channel that I stumbled onto through collaborations, specifically with Overnight/TFIL. Dan’s stuff is sort of hit or miss and he seems to do way more urban exploration/abandoned locations stuff than ghost hunting, but there are a handful of really interesting locations in the UK and Europe. Admittedly I don’t watch him that often but still someone I am subbed to that occasionally does something really interesting.
Mackie and Amanda
This is another channel that I stumbled onto due to collaboration. There was a series of videos where Amanda was recording with Twin Paranormal. Amanda is a medium and Mackie is seemingly one of those friends who is just down for any sort of nonsense. There is a massive backlog of stuff that I have not seen, but the few videos I have watched have been interesting. I really like the vibe of this group and they feel extremely relatable and don’t really fall into the over-the-top YouTuber rut as so many channels can over time. There is a deep sincerity with what they are doing and I dig that.
Lomar Mendz
The next couple of channels is recent finds. The algorithm fed me a series of videos that included Lomar and Chelsea as they were doing some Randonautica stuff, then I noticed they also did more than a fair number of ghost-hunting videos as well. Essentially Chelsea is in her words a “baby medium” and she is trying to learn to control it Lomar is just one of those “good dude” types that seem interested in exploring anything. There is a good-natured vibe to the channel, and while I have only watched a few things so far I do plan on diving back into the past content.
Exploring with Angelo
Another “Good Dude” type that I encountered through a series of videos he recorded with Lomar and Chelsea. I’ve not really plumbed much of his solo content, but it seems very interesting. Mostly throwing these channels out there because I think they are going to be ones that I really dig in the future. I don’t have much experience with either of the groups though.
Amy’s Crypt
This one is literally brand new to me. This was suggested by my friend Jae during our conversation this weekend and I have only had a chance to watch a single video. I often have one of these running in the background while I am playing games and then alt-tab over if things sound interesting. This is an Aussie couple that travels broadly and does investigations. So far I dig the vibe of the videos and they also seem to have a deep sincerity to them.
Madd Vladd – Skinwalker series
This one is interesting but also gives off deep “fake” vibes. I am throwing it in there just in case it eventually turns into something. The setup is that this dude is a gaming YouTuber with another channel and started having weird happenings in his backyard that open up onto an undeveloped area. Since Skinwalkers are the new hotness this video series for which there are only two currently, uses that titling. There were three months between the first and second video, which seems deeply suspect and makes me think there is maybe some “after effects” editing time happening. There are some fairly interesting things that go on. If you have an hour to sit down and watch with a deeply skeptical eye… it might be interesting.
[EDIT] – 4pm 10/17
Jasko
I so very rarely edit my own blog posts to add content after the fact, but I am going to do so today. Over lunch, I was looking for something to watch and stumbled onto this channel. I know nothing about it, but this video is interesting enough to make me subscribe. There is a point where there is this insane blood-curdling scream from out of nowhere, while they are deep in the woods seemingly alone. I opted to go ahead and edit it in because lord knows if or when I will make another post like this in the future.