Tag Archives: Patrick Doyle

82 – The Power of Positive Suggestion: Ghost Hunting and Hypnosis with Kristen Luman

This episode, we’re interviewing the other half of the Ghost Mine and Behind The Screams team, Kristen Luman. We talked with her co-host, Patrick Doyle, a little while back in episode 62. Since then she also got to appear on the big daddy of paranormal shows, Ghost Hunters, for three episodes this last season as well. She’s a paranormal investigator, actress, and hypnotherapist.

Kristen grew up as “the girl who brings the Ouija Board to parties” and was always into the paranormal even before she was a ghost hunter on television. In fact, Patrick and Kristen knew each other before they were on Ghost Mine together and she talks about her “ghost hunting” audition that cinched her role.

kristen luman ghost mine
Now that’s how you do Zoolander’s “Blue Steel” with mining equipment…

Kristen shares some of her favorite weird unexplained experiences and we talk everything from how reality shows edit together embarrassing reaction shots to past life regression. While Kristen is a licensed hypnotherapist, she doesn’t usually do past life regressions (I know, bummer!) but she has a cool theory on them. Have you ever heard of holosync® or omharmonics? She’s an specialist in all things audio too, which will keep you fascinated.

Sometimes past life regression is used in hypnosis to actually help with pain therapy. Maybe you have a pain that you can’t explain and while regressing back to your past life in hypnosis you discover that you were injured there during that other life. That discovery can lead to controlling that pain and whether it’s true or imagined, controlling the pain is really why you’re at the hypnotherapist in the first place.

If you’re brand new to hypnosis, Kristen offers these helpful tips to use the power of suggestion to bring some more positivity into your life!

    1. Self-Hypnosis Can Be Tricky, Concentrate On What You Want
      The subconscious mind doesn’t know the difference between good and bad. You’re dealing with the part of the mind where if something falls in, it stays in. Focus on what you want, not what you don’t want. If you want success, create the image of you at your most successful self.
    2. The Subconscious Mind Does Not Know The Difference Between Imagination and Reality
      Whatever you imagine in your mind, as far as your subconscious is concerned, it’s really happening. If you’re great at visualization, the world is your oyster because you can create what you want to create. And the body automatically follows in that direction, that image you start being led to.
    3. Use Your Memory To Help With Visualization
      You do remember times that you felt good or successful, just like you can always remember the feeling of the sun on your face. If you have trouble visualizing, just think back to a time where you felt positive, strong, or successful. Bring that memory back and bathe in it for a little bit.
    4. All Of Our Thoughts Affect Our Body Physically
      When you think about something that scares you, you get butterflies in your stomach. There’s a direct connection so think those thoughts that produce the good feelings in our body, because our body will respond to them.
    5. Don’t Force The Visuals
      We innately process things visually. So, if you feel like you’re having trouble visualizing, just let your mind do what it naturally does and don’t worry, you’ll get there. Even if you just pretend that you can see visuals, chances are those visuals will start showing up, so the more you relax, the easier it will be!

You can learn more about Kristen Luman’s parapsychology research and latest reality show projects here and if you’re interesting in learning more about her hypnotherapy (including hypnosis MP3s and more educational videos) then you’re going to definitely want to check out her official Kristen Luman hypnotherapist website!

Once again this year, Wendy and my band is going down to SXSW. we’re going to take the show on the road with a little haunted history on the way down to Austin from Wisconsin, we’ll be traveling through Cincinnati, Nashville, New Orleans, and Houston, so if you’re in any of those cities or have friends that are, please check out https://othersidepodcast.com/tour

And for this episode’s song, we’re using “Turn This Off” by Sunspot. It’s our track about letting the haters hate and how it’s important to get those negative voices out of your life.

Don’t wanna be the background to your,
Lite rock adult contemporary life on hold.
Don’t wanna be the soundtrack to your,
Getaway hot tub romance pool suite weekend.

You’re not gonna screw to this.
You’re not gonna screw to this.
We are not ubiquitous.
We are not ubiquitous.

Give me something that can make me feel.

Go ahead and turn this off.
We’re taking back our music,
What you won’t give we’re gonna steal,
Go ahead and turn this off,
You can keep your smug irony,
And I’ll keep what is real.

Don’t wanna see your record collection,
And take those Elvis Costello glasses off.
Don’t wanna ask for your permission,
To walk through life under a carrot and a stick.

Hearing songs a thousand times.
Hearing songs a thousand times.
Makes me want to commit crimes.
Makes me want to commit crimes.

You won’t give me something to make me feel.

Go ahead and turn this off.
We’re taking back our music,
What you won’t give we’re gonna steal,
Go ahead and turn this off,
You can keep your smug irony,
And I’ll keep what is real.

I’ve seen your ventriloquist,
Another hypnotist,
Visit your therapist,
‘Cuz now we’re getting pissed.

Because you won’t give me something to make me feel.

Go ahead and turn this off.
We’re taking back our music,
What you won’t give we’re gonna steal,
Go ahead and turn this off,
You can keep your smug irony,
You can keep your impassivity,
You can keep your fashionability,
And I’ll keep what is real.

62 – Behind The Screams: An Interview with Ghost Mine’s Patrick Doyle

I’ve often been critical of a lot of the “paranormal reality” television out there because it amazes me how much evidence that they can collect in one place in a short amount of time. They go to a new place every week and somehow come up with amazing evidence. If you’ve ever been on a paranormal investigation, you understand that most of the time you come up empty-handed, so how do these guys come up with incredible evidence every single week?

Well, that’s why I thought the premise of Ghost Mine was pretty interesting. Instead of going to a new place every week, they were going to stay in one place for several weeks and see what happened. The idea behind the show was that an old mine with a reputation for being haunted was being reopened in Oregon by a mining team on the hunt for gold and a paranormal research team on the hunt for ghosts. It would be a pretty awesome setup for a horror film (it almost feels like it could be a sequel to one of my personal favorites, Quatermass and The Pit AKA Five Million Years to Earth).

The show ran for two seasons on the SyFy Channel (it’s still hard to type out that silly name)ad it was hosted by Patrick Doyle and Kristen Luman. On the heels of the premiere of their new show, Behind The Screams on the Reelz Network (a show that explores the real-world inspiration for horror films, something that of course we can get behind here!),  we had a great conversation with Patrick on his lifelong quest for the paranormal.

Patrick goes into detail on his first paranormal experience of seeing  a Shadow Person as a child and how that eventually turned into the hobby of investigating haunted places looking to see if he could find more (something that I admire his courage for, my own visit from a Shadow Person left me with an approach avoidance conflict about seeing one again!)

While Patrick undertook his paranormal investigations over the years privately (and most often terrifyingly (to me at least) alone, he said that he didn’t often go with a team), his transition to paranormal television personality wasn’t something that he expected.

In 2006, Patrick released a young adult book he authored and illustrated called Edgar Font’s Hunt for a House to Haunt (say it fast a couple of times, you know you want to…) To promote the book, he started looking for YouTube videos of paranormal activity that were obvious fakes and would deconstruct them in his own blog and video series called Haunted Hoax. And that’s where it started. After becoming a popular series (as well as then turning into a target for Internet haters, but since Patrick is a man that openly admires the enemy-of-spoon-benders everywhere, James ‘The Amazing’ Randi, he should know that “haters gonna hate”.

Haters gonna hate...
Enough said…

Anyway, Haunted Hoax became so successful that SyFy contacted him about hosting Ghost Mine, but when they hired him, they made him take down all of his YouTube videos, effectively “buying his brand”. And while that sounds nefarious, it isn’t really. I also do work with a website that features musician profiles and songs, and when a major label signs an artist, they demand all previous songs, pictures, and profiles are taken down, that way they ensure the representation of their new talent acquisition is controlled by them, it’s part of protecting their investment.

However, while the scrubbing of those videos did create a little controversy, Patrick unwaveringly defends the evidence that they found on Ghost Mine and indeed, says that he was disappointed that they left some of their best stuff on the cutting room floor.

But while paranormal investigators might have an insight into the other side of the veil, no one can predict what’s in the hearts of network executives and a regime change at SyFy spelled the closing of Ghost Mine. 

Patrick returned to being a book author and a paranormal investigation until being called up by the Reelz network to work with Kristen once again on Behind The Screams, and we finish up the interview with advice for amateur investigators.

Number one, he says, “Do it for yourself. Do it for your own experience.” And that you really only need three items when you go out:

  1. Flashlight (so you don’t fall over)
  2. Voice recorder (for EVPs)
  3. Camera (to record in case you see anything!)

Follow Patrick on Twitter and make sure to give him a like on Facebook, he’s a serious-minded investigator that I hope we hear a lot more from in the future.

This episode’s song has as a little bit of a Old West theme to go along with Ghost Mine. It’s a Sunspot track called “Ghost Town”.

This place was never meant for human habitation
and it’s just a ruin, well it’s just a ruin now.
And I can see the cracks in the foundation,
there’s a hole in the door from the fights waged here before.

Let’s not get caught with our pants down,
I won’t get busted with my fingers in the cookie jar again.
This old bed is a hand-me down,
But if you wanna crash here I’m game if you are.

This old place is a ghost town.
This is the room where we store,
all the things we like to forget.
Welcome to my hellhole,
a place for the lost souls,
of all the hearts left here for dead.

Don’t get any closer,
don’t make any sudden moves.
Don’t look at me like that,
I ain’t no scaredy cat.
This is a house of spirits,
this town of full of ghosts,
so upright so convincingly
they don’t have to be dead, but they’re dead to me.

See the wanted sign,
that’s my face.
I’m not welcome anymore,
as if I ever was.
They plastered my name,
all over this place.
We might have to leave running,
so keep your eye on the door.

This old place is a ghost town.
This is the room where we store,
all the things we like to forget.
Welcome to my hellhole,
a place for the lost souls,
of all the hearts left here for dead.