Aykroyd checks into new docuseries
Dan Aykroyd is well acquainted with TV, movies and what goes on behind the scenes. But, as the narrator for the new T+E series Hotel Paranormal, the Ghostbusters star is intimately aware of what goes on behind the seen as well.
“My wife and I saw a little jewelry dance one night, something we couldn’t explain, and we saw the Stairmaster going in the middle of the night. People who have worked for us for many years have felt hands on their shoulders, and my daughter saw an apparition of a man and a red-headed little girl,” he says.
“I had something crawl into bed with me, I’m pretty sure, one night. I was alone and the door creaked open and something depressed the mattress next to me. But I just rolled over and snuggled up against it. I had a good night’s sleep.”
Born in Ottawa and currently sheltering in eastern Ontario, Aykroyd comes from a long line of men who believe there’s more to this world than meets the eye. His great-grandfather was an Edwardian spiritualist, and he passed his passion for the paranormal down to Aykroyd’s grandfather, a telephone engineer, who in turn passed it down to Aykroyd’s father, a civil engineer.
“They were empirical men, into math and numbers and all that. But they wanted to know what was going on in the invisible world — apparitions, precipitated painting, levitations, mediumship, the afterlife, speaking from the beyond. There’s something to it. It’s real and they accepted it, but the inquiry needs to go further, that’s what they always thought.”
Hotel Paranormal does its part to further the conversation. The 10-part documentary series is produced by Toronto-based Saloon Media, a Blue Ant Media company, and features accounts of those who have encountered otherworldly phenomena while staying at hotels and motels around the world. Think objects flying across the room, or trapped ancient spirits, or demonic possessions.
“People who have things going on in their lives that are bothering them, they seem to get struck by these forces and especially the clinging entities — they cling to people who are being propelled down and drawn weaker by life’s stresses and responsibilities,” Aykroyd says.
“What appealed to me was how compassionate and understanding this show is to them. Overall, it stimulates people to come forward. I say to them and other people out there have had experiences, ‘we believe you.’”
Of course, Aykroyd acknowledges not everyone is so welcoming. Some say cellphone footage has been doctored, or trick wires lurk nearby. But supernatural issues are definitely on Canadians’ minds.
In a survey of 2,002 Canadians released last year, Pollara Strategic Insights found 49 per cent of respondents believe there is a god or higher spiritual power. Twentyseven per cent believe in ghosts, 28 per cent believe in psychics, 26 per cent think you can speak to spirits and ghosts, and 17 per cent think people can have telekinetic powers.
“I think this show goes a long way to bust through some skeptical preconceptions. Skepticism, it’s a religion to some people, and I’m not going to question anybody’s religion — I don’t care what you believe in. I believe in this, you believe in that, let’s be friends,” says Aykroyd.
“But skeptics believe that none of this is possible. That woman did not have a terrifying experience in a hotel in the woods in Connecticut. That man in New Mexico did not experience psychokenitic energy and a dark presence, which had to be forced out of him by professionals and his church.
“I hope the show stimulates a biochemist, a molecular biologist, a physicist in the scientific community to ask, ‘what’s going on?’ How did the iPhone receiver hop off the cradle? How did that face appear in the mirror and in the cellphone image? What’s going on molecularly, biochemically here?” Hotel Paranormal debuted Friday, May 15, at 9 p.m. ET/PT, on T+E.