It’s actually pretty complicated, but Zak is a Drexel University grad. He started the Drexel Paranormal club there. I was a Stockton University grad, but I would tag along on the investigations either to debunk/knock some sense into the group, and simply because exploring old buildings or helping homeowners explain spooky occurrences was/is a ton of fun.

Our group was unique because we injected a lot of genuine science into our technique, and tried to eliminate variables as much as reasonably possible. We built a lot of our own equipment, and gained decent traction locally. Most groups don’t have that sort of background. Zak can go into better detail than I can regarding the finer points, but we eventually responded to an ad and got an interview.

I would go into greater detail, but I’m really afraid of violating any NDA terms. A&E is going to run some press with us soon, so hopefully then I’ll have a better idea of what I can say.

I can, actually!

I finally got a chance to watch the final cut of the show, and I'm really happy with the way it turned out. I'm the skeptic and debunker, and I spend much of the time making an attempt at explaining how things work. Not everything we did made the final cut, but there's a "mythbusters" moment where we calculate the wavelength of our radio waves, and create a device to filter them out so that our tools work more accurately (keep an eye on the whiteboard to see our 'napkin math'). To my knowledge, that kind of stuff simply doesn't happen on other shows like this. One cool thing that didn't make it in the final edit was our idea to use these room multisensors. We set up a pretty extensive wireless network one of the nights to use it, and I monitored the sensors remotely in the same rooms we set up cameras. The idea was to remove the human entering the room as a variable, and to monitor things completely remotely. The whole procedure was completely cut out, probably because no one cares about ambiguous sensor data being streamed to an ipad, but we actually found some pretty spooky things. Motion was being detected in the same room we got some really interesting data from remote voice recorders and cameras--something you WILL see on the show. I even swapped out the sensors AND cameras midway through the night, because I thought there was a malfunction. There wasn't. Genuinely spooked the crap out of me. There were several moments off camera where I'd ask the producer "I need to know if you have production staff in that part of the building." In both occasions, there wasn't. I'd even do a headcount to verify. I did this in one night I heard what sounded like someone literally running down the hall. Clear as day. The cameras weren't rolling, so nothing was captured unfortunately, but after I did the staff headcount, I nearly pooped my pants. These are locked and sealed buildings, so it wasn't a trespasser.

Our crew is very diverse, and we often have clashing ideas as to how to approach certain issues, but I think that's what makes it interesting to watch. On one extreme, you have me. On the other, you have Ali, a very spiritual person. I hope we did a good job appealing to as many audience members as possible. I'm a little disappointed that they cut out some interviews we did with some residents that lived there, but I can see why they were removed. I don't want to spoil any surprises, but I can say that nothing was scripted, planned, planted, or faked. While it's easy for me to discredit a lot of our evidence, there is some evidence that, even as I type this, still bothers me. I can't figure it out. I'm not willing to say its paranormal, because frankly, I don't believe in that stuff, but I remember being so frustrated, I literally took apart our static field sensor and drew up schematics to figure out if the tools we were using were playing tricks on me. As far as I could tell, they were genuinely well manufactured with nothing questionable done to give us false positives.

We genuinely weren't allowed to leave the campus for 2 weeks, and all forms of communication--other than the computer we use to skype interview people--were taken from us. They even had a person who would take our clothes to the laundromat for us, and bring us food. If we needed supplies or materials at any point, we would make a list, and production would run to home depot so we could build what we needed to build. I think that kinda took a toll on a lot of us emotionally. The very last night we filmed, I was legitimately falling asleep in the last scene. Production in the back were running bets on when I would start snoring. They did a good job at editing that part out though

I'll try to update some stuff here as I remember, I just don't want to violate anything or ruin any surprises for people. The bottom line is, if you're into ghost hunting shows, this one is different. I think we stayed as objective as possible, and changed the game. We blew some pretty big holes in some other techniques that other's shows use. Definitely not making too many friends in the field that way.

Hope you guys liked it! Thanks for your support!

As far as I know, now that the show has aired, there is nothing to keep me from answering any questions, so ask away!

I will start out by saying that I really didn't search out this opportunity. Zak reached out to me asking if I'd want to do the skype interview with him for the show along with his cousin. I actually thought it was a huge scam at first, but trusted Zak eventually that it wasn't. They were originally looking for a group of 5 people, but we only had 3 (myself, Zak, and Austin). The girls were brought in to round out the group after they signed us.

As for behind the scenes stuff, we really did live in Pennhurst for 2 straight weeks. We would shoot from noon to 4am every day, and hours outside of that were done with "robocams" in the tent.

The majority of the furniture in the tent (including the bright yellow couch) was all taken from the buildings--Mayflower specifically. We didn't actually know this until later, and it made the whole tent feel much creepier once we discovered that.

We had a bathroom and shower trailer smack dab in the middle of the campus. Of course, the campus was huge, and we'd have to walk alone, often in the dark through the buildings just to take a shower or use the bathroom. Genuinely terrifying, honestly. Just a creepy atmosphere, even if the frontal cortex of your brain tells you ghosts aren't real.

Pinball references were cut unfortunately, it seems. They actually cut a TON of content. Probably enough to make a whole season full of episodes, but that's life.

A lot of the buildings were actually off-limits to us--despite them saying we had unprecedented access. This was due to collapse concerns though, as many of the roofs of the rotting buildings were falling in. Other buildings had asbestos, and we weren't allowed to enter those either. I was 100% ok with that. Not worth my safety to enter a building that looks pretty much the same as all the others.

Each night, I carried an EXCESSIVE amount of batteries, and 2 spare flashlights. I'm talking like enough batteries to light up Times Square. There was NO WAY I was running out of juice at 2am alone in the basement of a building.

Any other questions, just ask!

Yup! I've been told it's available on demand.

I'm not really sure what you're asking, but my only real issue with going to Pennhurst was to "glamorize" mental health and turn it into some spectacle of paranormal ghost hunting stuff. I was never okay with doing that, and I think we did a good job at avoiding that pitfall while filming.

Oh for sure! Me, Zak, and Austin all grew up together. I met Zak in 2nd grade, and we've been close friends ever since. Austin is his cousin, and he was just always around with us until he and his family recently relocated to another state. I think that's what makes our dynamic work so well. Originally, A&E wanted a group of 5 people, but since we only had 3, they casted Katie and Ali separately. We had never met them until the first day of the shoot.

We were financially compensated by A&E per episode.

Austin was/is all about challenging himself. He felt he was able to go back. I can't speak for him, but it seemed like he was more equipped at going down there again alone now knowing what to expect.

Excellent question. I think it really boils down to just atmosphere these days. The audience expects ghost hunting at night to make the atmosphere more foreboding. I agree with you though: We should have done some investigations during the day. From a "scientific" perspective, there's no reason that wouldn't be just as effective as doing it at night.

However, daytime was reserved for daytime shooting. We would conduct interviews (many of which were cut from the edit, unfortunately), the camera crew would get B-roll footage of buildings, us walking, etc. Also, we shot from around noon to 4-5 am most days. We would have needed to literally double our crew to do a parallel investigation during the day. For example, just filming us walking out of the tent would take 45 minutes because we'd need multiple shots from different angles, and each re-take would need to be done nearly identically to the last one for consistency.

We actually did exactly this. It wasn't shown in the final cut, unfortunately.

We also did this as well, but again, the audience only saw what the editors wanted you to see. We actually went through EXTREME measures to make each night of investigations as consistent as we could, using base sweeps and using gear redundancies. Bottom line is, this kind of stuff isn't exciting to most audiences, they want to see the unexplained spooks.

We didn't have any or know one to bring, and the amount of time they gave us to prepare was too prohibitive to get one. Also, from a resource perspective, watching a dog while we were literally grinding away 15 hour days would have been a logistical pain in the ass.

Possibly. We really did a lot of exhaustive repeating experiments that, again, were not shown for reasons beyond my control. These buildings introduce a TON of variables. They're old, falling apart, windows are broken open, drafty, etc. So yea, going back could yield better results, but at the same time, we really did take as much of a comprehensive look as I think we could do given the time we had.

I'm really glad you enjoyed it! Unfortunately, I can't go into any further detail regarding the future of the show, you'll just have to find out!

I'll definitely pass that idea along to the crew! One thing that I really wish made the final cut was our whole decision to make the faraday cage. We spend HOURS calculating the wavelength and amplitude of all the radio equipment we used, and the camera crew used. You can briefly see our math on the white board behind us in some scenes. Then when we made the cage, we told a crew member what kind of chicken wire we'd need to block the frequencies. Too large, and it wouldn't work. Again, most audience members probably don't care about the kind of stuff, so it was cut.

We received our contracts that contained the amount we'd be compensated for. Since we were local, we literally just drove to Pennhurst. That black truck in the beginning was Zak's brother's truck. We were originally going to use my van, but we figured the truck was more impactful. All our travel costs were reimbursed.

The tent and command center was all set up by the production company. We weren't allowed to have our cell phones on us, so they were all sequestered. Food was fun. During the day, production would just give us a pile of menus from local places, and we'd just make a list of food we wanted. Then it was picked up and dropped off for us. Dinner (which was usually around 2am or so) was always catered--since the entire crew ate with us. About 30 people in total. We actually got paid the last day we were there. A lump sum check.

We didn't sign off on any final product. The original contract basically said "We're gonna do whatever we want with the footage whether you like it or not."

We got home, and were assigned a publicist. Our publicist organized newscast interviews (Katie was on Access Hollywood, since she was local and drove there), I did phone interviews with some internet people.

We did have to do some post show recordings. I had to hide in a closet under a blanket (to be as isolated as possible for the best quality) to record "wild card" phrases that they edited in later. Otherwise, we really didn't hear much from the production company.

Absolutely. We all worked as a team, and made our decisions as a team. We had our disagreements, but I think we did a really good job at working through them.

I can't speak for the women of the group, but I know for the 3 of us, it's simply a hobby. None of us are financially compensated to do it. For me, it's just a cool way to explore old buildings. I still don't believe in ghosts.

Absolutely not. They're simply placebo. I do think they're nice looking, and I have a small rock collection myself, but simply because I enjoy the way they look aesthetically.

However, I think that if other people think that they have some kind of "supernatural" properties, thats great. Who am I to say they shouldn't believe or enjoy that. Just as long as they're not forcing that belief on others and putting people in danger (i.e. telling people to ignore professional medical advice, and seek the use of healing crystals instead).

Nope. None whatsoever. In fact, the production company went through great lengths to keep their identities a secret from us until the cameras were rolling! Crazy.

I don't think that's weird at all! I have a piece of serpentinite sitting on my desk at work that I found in the field. It's like a little good luck charm for me. I just enjoy having it there, so I completely understand where you're coming from

Yea, we actually did a lot of really cool interviews with people who worked there, old residents, etc, but all were cut. One of my bigger disappointments with the final edit.

Thanks for watching! Really appreciate your kind words. I really wish they kept our resident interviews in, worker interviews, and a whole host of other "more wholesome" content, but I guess they wanted to take the show in a slightly different direction. Oh well... We had no control over that. Here's to hoping future episodes have more of that stuff, and less spook and scare.