Dan Aykroyd and His Dad On Coast To Coast AM Tonight

I'm listening to Coast To Coast AM radio tonight and it is another riveting show. The quality and choice of topics have really improved on C2C recently. Peter Aykroyd ( Dan's Dad ) is promoting his new book A History of Ghosts, with an introduction written by Dan, who has become quite an influential and knowledgeable paranormal ( and UFO ) researcher in his own right. ( Once a conehead, always a conehead ?!) I have added this book to my Amazon wish list, so remember me for the coming Holiday Season --- or Christmas --- or Hanukkah :-)

Dan wrote the screenplay for Ghostbusters and he was definitely influenced by his father grandfather --- the book author and Canadian filmmaker --- who in turn was influenced by his own fathergrandfather (Dan's grandfather great grandfather), who was a Spiritualist and regularly held seances when they were popular back in mid-19th to 20th century. During the C2C interview Dan said that Ghostbusters is in the same tradition as the recently released low budget movie Paranormal Activity and of course, the classic movie Ghost with the late Patrick Swayze. Movies like these are just great for viewing this Halloween season...

Now it is not surprising that this C2C show airs tonight, a few days before Halloween. You may ask yourself,"What does all this have to do with Las Vegas?" Well, really very little other than Coast To Coast's origins in Vegas with Art Bell, and Dan Aykroyd's crazy local TV ads ( where he recreates his Saturday Night Live persona of the fast talking TV kitchen gadget pitchman - remember the Bassomatic skit from SNL? ) for Lee's Discount Liquors here in Vegas, promoting his "pure spirit" Crystal Head Vodka. And did I mention that The Blues Brothers featuring Dan Aykroyd and Jim Belushi will be performing at the Las Vegas House of Blues on October 31st (Halloween) ? Seems like all roads lead to Vegas, eventually...







The following is Dan's video, now seriously hawking his pure - water sourced, no additives added, Newfoundland government still produced, diamond filtered Bassomatic ( just kidding ) vodka which was introduced around Halloween a year ago. I have not tried this "pure spirit" vodka yet, but may investigate drinking a few ounces at bedtime as a possible cure for my chronic insomnia. Just stare into the crystal skull's eye sockets, you are getting very, very sleepy ...

Summary Of Last Night's Show From Coast To Coast Web Site

Looking at the Coast To Coast website, I stand corrected on at least one point: there are four ( not three ) generations of Aykroyds who were interested in the paranormal.

Spirits and the Paranormal C2C Show Summary
October 28, 2009

Celebrated actor and businessman Dan Aykroyd was joined by his father Peter Aykroyd (first hour only) the author of A History of Ghosts, to discuss their family's interest in the paranormal, which has spanned four generations. Peter's grandfather Samuel was a spiritualist in Kingston, Ontario. As part of a group known as "Dr. Aykroyd's Circle," they met regularly with a trance medium named Walter Ashhurst, who communicated with deceased spirits. Peter said he joined in on some of these seances, when he was a young boy. Of the various types of phenomena, "materialization" has impressed Peter the most, and he cited the case of when a medieval monk reportedly appeared before one group during a seance.

Dan talked about "precipitated spirit paintings," works of art said to appear on canvases without the use of human hands. He grew up seeing American Psychical Research journals around the house, and some of the paranormal knowledge he was steeped in later helped to inspire his hit film Ghostbusters, which took a lighter look at the subject matter. "One of my favorite things to do is to drive in the middle of the night, 'planet crawl' as it were, across America or Canada and listen to Coast to Coast. It's just one of the treats of being alive," Dan Aykroyd shared.

Dan discussed unusual psychic phenomena such as apports, describing an incident in China in which a container ship had a black void that sucked equipment away-- some of this equipment later emerged 2,000 miles away, he said. He also talked about his interest in UFOs, and cited a recent case in Ottawa in which a ball of lights was seen making right and left turns before crashing into the water.