Photo by Isabella
Vosmikova/Syfy
Each week on the Syfy series Fact or Faked, Ben Hansen and his team
set out to prove whether or not an unsolved mystery has any basis in reality or
not. Among the topics they’ve covered are Sasquatch, the Lunar Landing and a
whole slew of alien visitations. But in a recent conference call interview Ben
revealed that as the series has evolved, he’s had to take a look at his own
belief system along the way.
Being exposed to bogus scenarios on
a regular basis has affected the way Hansen looks at the world at large. “I do
have a little bit of sense of being jaded. I didn't know there were so many
hoaxes out there until we actually got into making this TV program. I really would
like to sit down and watch a video on YouTube and believe there's maybe a 90%
possibility this is exactly what somebody filmed or to turn on the TV [to
watch] the news and to believe this story is exactly how these witnesses are
describing or the slant this news reporter is exactly the facts.”
Now he confessed he feels the need
to do his own due diligence. “After seeing so many videos, talking to so many
people, I may have slid more to the skeptical side of I need to do my homework before
believing something that you see from the news or somebody's story… Initially
lying is easy. Continuing a lie is not so easy. But most people don't do any
investigation to see if there's an initial lie or a hoax or a motivation. And
so it's made me more careful, a lot more careful in what I believe at face
value.”
As a result Ben has looked at
several commonly debated phenomena to determine whether or not his personal
belief system has shifted on a couple of big issues. “Let me break that up
because there're several different categories. And ghosts, no I don't think
it's really made me any more skeptical. I don't think that there's very many
really good videos of possible ghost activity that I've seen yet, but even less
so with Big Foot cases.”
“Now Big Foot is easier to fake, if
you get a guy in a monkey suit. But I can tell you this, in doing this show and
in talking with people, I've heard some very credible stories of Big Foot type
creatures shaking trailer homes and people… looking into the eyes of these
things. And I really think that they experienced what they thought they saw. So
whether I believe it's been caught on video or not, I'm not sure.”
One often questioned curiosity in
particular seems to have proven itself to be a reality in Hansen’s mind, “The
UFO cases, I think that the video evidence makes for outstanding and
overwhelming evidence of this phenomenon. There are a lot of hoaxes out there
but the more and more videos I see, I'm convinced that there's definitely
something to this.”
So is physical evidence more
persuasive than talking to people about their experiences? Ben harkened back to
his experience as an FBI agent to analyze the question, “Let's just say in a
normal crime situation, I talked to one witness and they have me thoroughly
convinced that their story is true. And then I go and talk to another one that
says it didn't happen that way. And they're thoroughly convincing as well. And
this has always baffled me because they can't all be right.”
He continued, “It's the same with
belief. If you believe everything, in reality you believe nothing because there
can't be these conflicting statements that all's true. So, yes, witness
testimony as humans, we tend to gravitate towards believing what people say
because you're getting a full picture of their body language. You want to
believe them or you don't, that type of thing. And as far as physical evidence
goes, you'll see the same trend in court. It should be more heavily weighted on
the physical, but more likely than not, most people go with the witness
testimony. So it's a constant battle.”
Fact or Faked airs on Wednesday nights at 9 p.m.
EST/8 p.m. Central on Syfy.
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