INTERVIEW: Patrick Doyle heads back into ‘Ghost Mine’ on Syfy

Paranormal investigators Patrick Doyle and Kristen Luman return to the airwaves on the second season of Syfy’s Ghost Mine, a reality series that looks at the “spirit” world deep within an Oregon mine. The show, featuring plenty of things that go bump in the night, airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m.

Doyle, who recently spoke with Hollywood Soapbox, said he’s happy the series was granted another set of episodes. The inaugural season left too many question marks surrounding the infamous Crescent Mine.

“I was hoping we’d get to this point because when we left last year … we left with so many unanswered questions,” Doyle said recently during a phone interview. “And not only just with Kristen and myself but for the miners and the fans of the show, too. So we definitely wanted to get back to the Crescent to figure out what was really going on. So I’m happy that the fans responded to the show and made their voices heard and gave us a second season. It’s really their call.”

Those unanswered questions circulated around a caved-in part of the mine known as the Masons Portal. “We left because of the snow and the weather in winter, not knowing what actually caused the cave-in,” he said. “There’s always speculation, these ideas of what could have done it and who could have done it. … We captured that shadow figure in the back. We were hearing strange noises, all stuff that we didn’t get answers for. So when Kristen and I showed up at the Crescent we had this list of just unanswered questions that we had to hopefully find answers for.”

Luman and Doyle work well together, but they’re obviously completely different in their approaches to the paranormal. Luman prefers confronting the issues on a mental level, looking into people’s perceptions, while Doyle is more traditional, utilizing technology to capture as much evidence as possible.

“When we get together on an investigation, we play off each other really well, which is a really great balance when we’re doing the investigation. It’s like she’ll offer up an idea. I’ll offer up an idea.”

This time around, Doyle found it easier to work with the team of miners, who were skeptical of the investigators when they first showed up last year. “It was a lot easier facing the guys, talking to the guys, bringing up topics around the cook shack table just because we did learn all about them, their personalities,” he said. “And when we left, we left as part of the team. They helped us; we helped them along the way. And like I truly love each one of those guys.”

There are still nonbelievers among the miners, but Doyle appreciates their skepticism. Sometimes the explanations that come from these doubtful miners can help guide Doyle and Luman in the right direction.

For Doyle, paranormal investigation dates back to when he was 7 years old. (Read about the shadow figure of his youth here.) Even though he didn’t know what the specialized field entailed, he was interested in the “techniques being used.”

“And from that I started thinking up new ways to investigate to get better evidence. So when it comes to the gear that we use, I’ll use the traditional gear that’s out there, but also I’ll bring new experimental gear, more common gear. Like last night[‘s episode] I used a compass to see if there’s a magnetic field, like a natural magnetic field at the mine. So always expanding the tech, always trying new things, and really I will try anything if it gets us an answer that we’re looking for.”

Doyle said that when investigating the paranormal he’s never scared of the dark. In fact, Doyle admitted to being “nocturnal” when it comes to everyday life. How about tight spaces? Nope. Doyle used to explore the sewer systems of his neighborhood as a child. The one thing he does acknowledge is that he can get startled.

“The only time I’ve really been, I’d say, fearful or afraid for my life is just the natural dangers of the cave, the tunnel and the mine. Because people have got to remember this is a real working mine with real dangers. If you ask any of the miners, they’ve come close to death themselves. They’ve seen people die, and there are a few moments that we came pretty close. So when it comes to fear, I have no fear with the paranormal. I just have fear of the environment, but we had the right people in place to make sure Kristen and I were safe and everyone else.”

Because of the unique challenges of Crescent Mine, Doyle and Luman needed to rethink their techniques. If they dropped equipment onto the mucky ground, the technology was probably lost for good. Capturing electronic voice phenomena was also difficult because of the constant dripping in the mine and groaning of the rocks. “We have to pay attention to those sounds while we’re investigating really closely, so when we go listen back to our recordings, we automatically don’t call these odd sounds paranormal,” Doyle said. “If something falls, we’ll go … ‘fall.’ Or if something is dripping, we’ll say, ‘Just walked by a dripping rock.’”

Although Doyle stayed quiet on what the team finds this season, he promised the evidence was “very, very interesting.”

“We never expected to find what we found,” he said. “And I’m really glad we found it because something that we found and something that you’ll see on the show is something that should have been in the light a lot earlier. So we’re exposing something that’s been hidden for many years, and I’m really happy and proud of the show because we are letting people know about it.”

As the “spirits” of Crescent Mine continue to populate the dark recesses of the Oregon environment, Doyle said he’s looking forward to the possibility of a third season of Ghost Mine.

“Now Kristen and I know how to investigate inside of this new environment, these mines, and now the guys know how to deal with a paranormal investigating team working side by side with them,” he said. “We all would love to have a third season to get more answers and see how much deeper we can get.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

• Ghost Mine airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. Click here for more information.