Among the cases brought in by the team this week are two Fact or Faked firsts: A video of a paranormal force causing a woman to levitate from her bed, and a case of a human performing paranormal feats.
To investigate the levitating woman, Bill, Devin, and Lanisha head to Atlanta, GA to the home of JoMarie, with whom the woman in the video, Diane, was staying at the time. The bedroom has since been converted to an office, but JoMarie arranges the space so that Bill, Devin, and Lanisha can build a model bed and run some experiments with the original camera used.
The first experiment is a simple lever that will lift Lanisha up from underneath, making it look like a force is suspending her by her torso. The movement is wrong, however, and Lanisha has to strain and use her muscles in order to make it look smooth. Next, they try a cantilever arm, which is the mechanism magicians use to make it look like people are levitating. The movement still looks choppy, and the direction of the force is wrong. The only choice is to build a multiple anchor point pulley system.
After hours of work, Lanisha lies down in the rig as Devin and Bill work the pulleys and lift her off the bed. It's an excellent match – the movement, the positioning - the only problem is the visibility of the wires, but with a little video manipulation, they're able to make the wires disappear. Additionally, voice analysis of Diane reveals high stress levels, indicating a hoax.
The next case regards superhuman abilities. Wim Hof, a Dutch man known as The Ice Man, has been setting records for years for his ability to endure extreme cold, including submerging himself in a tub of ice on a crowded New York City street, and running a half marathon near the arctic circle. Ben, Jael, and Austin all find it difficult to believe, so they set up a tank filled halfway with a material called polysorb II, a powder which, when mixed with water, looks like ice but is nowhere near as cold. But when ...
