Bryan & Baxter was a paranormal claims investigation team composed of Bryan Bonner and Matthew Baxter. Their investigations included claims of

ghost A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...

poltergeist In ghostlore, a poltergeist ( or ; German for "rumbling ghost" or "noisy spirit") is a type of ghost or spirit that is responsible for physical disturbances, such as loud noises and objects being moved or destroyed. Most claims or fictional descr ...

s, psychics,

UFO An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...

s, conspiracy theories, and

urban legend An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...

s. They specialized in exposing frauds, and became associated with

scientific skepticism Scientific skepticism or rational skepticism (also spelled scepticism), sometimes referred to as skeptical inquiry, is a position in which one questions the veracity of claims lacking empirical evidence. In practice, the term most commonly refe ...

. They were based in

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

Background

Bonner founded the Rocky Mountain Paranormal Society in 1999, influenced not by personal experiences of the paranormal, but by an interest in the paranormal developed by horror movies (such as ''

The Exorcist ''The Exorcist'' is a 1973 American supernatural horror film directed by William Friedkin and written for the screen by William Peter Blatty, based on his 1971 novel of the same name. It stars Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, Kitty W ...

''), and the paranormal claims made in ghost hunting reality television shows. Bryan & Baxter made the distinction that they did not investigate the paranormal, but rather the legitimacy of the paranormal claims made by others. Their credentials included certifications from the manufacturers of the equipment they used and certification in

electromagnetic field An electromagnetic field (also EM field or EMF) is a classical (i.e. non-quantum) field produced by (stationary or moving) electric charges. It is the field described by classical electrodynamics (a classical field theory) and is the classical c ...

studies for broadcast equipment. They brought a background in video and photography. They also worked with a network of people in other specialties, including geologists, medical doctors, video and audio production people, linguists, and magicians, the latter of special value due to their expertise in misdirection and perception.

Public outreach

Bryan & Baxter gave presentations and classes to the public dealing with

pseudoscience Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or falsifiability, unfa ...

and the paranormal. These events included presentations at the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University of Co ...

, Metropolitan State University,

Ohlone College Ohlone College (Ohlone or OC) is a public community college with its main campus in Fremont, California and a second campus in Newark. It is part of the California Community College System. The Ohlone Community College District serves the cit ...

, The Denver Art Museum, SkeptiCamp, The Amazing Meeting, and StarFest/HorrorFest. At The Amazing Meeting in 2012, they assisted the James Randi Educational Foundation with its One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge, a test that offered a one million dollar prize to anyone who could demonstrate a paranormal ability under controlled conditions.

Controversies

Denver Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission

In 2010, Denver, Colorado resident

Jeff Peckman Jeff Peckman (born 1954) is an American UFO disclosure activist. He lives in Denver, Colorado, and describes himself as an entrepreneur and consultant. He is also a practitioner and teacher of Transcendental Meditation. Education Peckman attended ...

initiated a citizen ballot proposal to create an Extraterrestrials Affairs Commission, to prepare for visits from extraterrestrials, and which garnered international interest. Bryan & Baxter headed the opposition group The Mission for Inhibiting Bureaucracy (The M.I.B.). After the proposal was defeated, Peckman filed a complaint with the Denver Board of Ethics, where he says of Bryan & Baxter: "They are known as very disreputable, incompetent, unethical, and hostile persons within the field of paranormal research". The complaint goes on to suggest Bryan & Baxter's opposition to the ballot initiative was due to their involvement with the CIA, NSA, or other covert agencies. In 2011, the Denver Board of Ethics dismissed this complaint for lack of jurisdiction, and because the complaint did not deal with any issues that are covered by the Denver Code of Ethics.

Stanley Hotel

The television show '' Ghost Hunters'' had investigated the

Stanley Hotel The Stanley Hotel is a 140-room Colonial Revival hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, United States, about five miles from the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. It was built by Freelan Oscar Stanley, Co-founder of the Stanley Motor Carriage ...

(the setting that inspired

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...

's book '' The Shining''), and claimed it had paranormal activity because of certain minerals present on the property. The hotel sells tickets to tour its paranormal activity and haunted areas. In 2008, Bryan & Baxter worked with the

USDA The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...

to perform a soil survey of the premises, with the result showing that the claimed minerals were not in fact present. Bonner states that the hotel owners then asked they not spread the results of this report.

Colorado Springs Evergreen Cemetery

In June 2011, Bryan & Baxter, along with others, paid for a late night "Haunted Tour" in

Colorado Springs, Colorado Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...

offered by the ghost hunting group Pure Paranormal. After the tour, Bryan & Baxter contacted the cemetery manager to complain of what they felt was unethical and disrespectful behavior during the tour on the part of Pure Paranormal. The city subsequently ended the Pure Paranormal tours, and instituted new policies to restrict such cemetery activity. Bryan & Baxter presented this at the 2011 Colorado SkeptiCamp conference, and this presentation was recorded and posted on the web. Pure Paranormal filed a copyright complaint about the video, and the video hosting service withdrew the video. This action was disputed and the video was later restored.

KDVR UFOs over Denver

In November 2012, Investigative Reporter Heidi Hemmat of Fox News affiliate KDVR News did a story about a video sent in by a source wishing to remain anonymous, of several blurry

unidentified flying object An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...

s filmed near Denver, Colorado. The story received world-wide attention. Hemmat insisted the objects were not birds, bugs, or planes, and that no one was able to determine what they were. Bryan and Baxter contacted Hemmat, questioning that conclusion, and offering their own video and analysis demonstrating the objects could in fact be birds or bugs. On a follow-up segment aired Nov 20, Hemmat continued to claim the objects remained unexplained.

Selected media coverage

Filmography

Television

Books

References

External links

Rocky Mountain Paranormal Research Society
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bryan And Baxter Living people Scientific skepticism mass media Paranormal investigators American skeptics People from Denver Year of birth missing (living people)