| Sci Fi Investigates | |
|---|---|
| Starring | See Credited Cast below |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 6 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 60 minutes (including commercials) |
| Release | |
| Original network | Sci Fi Channel |
| Original release | October 11 – November 15, 2006 |
Sci Fi Investigates is a six episode reality television series featuring skeptic Rob Mariano, forensic specialist Deborah Dobrydney, archaeologist Bill Doleman, and paranormal investigator Richard Dolan, as they look at paranormal and supernatural phenomenon and try to explain them. The show debuted in October 2006 on the American SyFy channel following Ghost Hunters . There have also been two webisodes.
The series documents a team of four paranormal investigators who travel to various locations around the United States and investigate various urban legends.
The team uses various research methods to gather as much information as they can about the particular legend or phenomena an episode focuses on. They meet with local residents, listen to eye-witness reports, study documentation, conduct forensic experiments on physical evidence, and conduct on-location archaeological studies. At the end they review and discuss their findings and each investigator gives their opinions from different points-of-view.
Each episode is an hour long, including commercials.
The Cryptomundo blog by Mothman researcher Loren Coleman is an indepth criticism of the October 26, 2006, "Sci-fi Investigates" broadcast's "Mothman" episode. Coleman wrote that while it had a few moments that are pure entertainment and certainly funny, it had little or nothing to do with "investigating" Mothman or unexplained phenomena.
| Ep# | Investigation | Original Airdate | Summary |
| 101 | Voodoo | October 11, 2006 | The team travels to New Orleans, LA to investigate the practice of voodoo. |
| 102 | Bigfoot | October 18, 2006 | The team attempts to debunk a recent Bigfoot video by recreating the sighting of the creature with Rob wearing a Hollywood-movie quality Bigfoot costume. |
| 103 | Mothman | October 25, 2006 | The team travels to the mountains of West Virginia to investigate sightings of a winged creature known as the Mothman. |
| 104 | The Afterlife | November 1, 2006 | The team looks for evidence of the afterlife by subjecting themselves to special aura photography, sensory deprivation and past life regression experiments. |
| 105 | The Roswell Incident | November 8, 2006 | The team looks at the Roswell UFO incident. (Note: Lisa Van Camp filled in for Dobrydney for this episode.) |
| 106 | Paranormal Hotspots | November 15, 2006 | The team visits Dulce, NM, and Sedona, AZ which are the sites of numerous reports of UFO sightings, cattle mutilations, and other alleged paranormal activity. |
Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Notable paranormal beliefs include those that pertain to extrasensory perception, spiritualism and the pseudosciences of ghost hunting, cryptozoology, and ufology.
UFO conspiracy theories are a subset of conspiracy theories which argue that various governments and politicians globally, in particular the United States government, are suppressing evidence that unidentified flying objects are controlled by a non-human intelligence or built using alien technology. Such conspiracy theories usually argue that Earth governments are in communication or cooperation with extraterrestrial visitors despite public disclaimers, and further that some of these theories claim that the governments are explicitly allowing alien abduction.
Ufology is the investigation of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) by people who believe that they may be of extraordinary origins. While there are instances of government, private, and fringe science investigations of UFOs, ufology is generally regarded by skeptics and science educators as a canonical example of pseudoscience.
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Paranormal television is a genre of reality television that purports to document factual investigations of the paranormal rather than fictional representations seen in traditional narrative films and TV. Over the years, the genre has grown to be a staple of television and even changed the programming focus of networks like the History Channel and the Travel Channel. By highlighting beliefs in topics ranging from Bigfoot to aliens, paranormal television continues to elevate popular interest in the paranormal.
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Benjamin Radford is an American writer, investigator, and skeptic. He has authored, coauthored or contributed to over twenty books and written over a thousand articles and columns on a wide variety of topics including urban legends, unexplained mysteries, the paranormal, critical thinking, mass hysteria, and media literacy. His book, Mysterious New Mexico: Miracles, Magic, and Monsters in the Land of Enchantment, was published in the summer of 2014 and is a scientific investigation of famous legends and folklore in the state of New Mexico. In 2016 Radford published Bad Clowns, a 2017 IPPY bronze award winner, and he is regarded as an expert on the bad clowns phenomenon.
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Gray Barker was an American writer best known for his books about UFOs and other paranormal phenomena. His 1956 book They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers introduced the notion of the Men in Black to ufology. Recent evidence indicates that he was skeptical of most UFO claims, and mainly wrote about the paranormal for financial gain. He sometimes participated in hoaxes to deceive more serious UFO investigators.
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The Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena (ASSAP) is a United Kingdom-based learned society, education and research charity, dedicated to scientifically investigate alleged paranormal and anomalous phenomena, with a view to approaching the subject in its entirety rather than looking into the psychology of individual phenomenon. They also hold training days for would-be investigators and provide research grants.
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The Association for Skeptical Enquiry (ASKE) is a skeptical organisation in the United Kingdom.
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