Q: Were the stories on PSI Factor actually based on real events?
A: Bloody Dan Ackroyd, always confusing the public.
For those of you who don't know, PSI Factor (pronounced "sigh") was a show that started its life on ABC in 1996. It lasted four years and ran out its welcome in good ole 2000.
It was, simply put, a show about outrageous phenomenon presented like it was inspired by real case files. The show always opened with a title card saying that it was based off of the case files of "the Office of Scientific Investigation and Research" (or OSIR). This, inexorably, lead the viewers to believe it was actual fact, or something close to it.
The now-defunct website (
http://www.psifactor.com, which now goes to a TNT site) listed the OSIR as a privately-funded Californian organization that investigated the paranormal and other phenomenon.
A fan site I found (
http://psifactor.tvheaven.com) said that it "has been in operation for a number of years, it has traditionally preferred to remain low profile. All details about cases- from location of investigations to identities of people involved- are strictly confidential; the reasons range from the potential to violate scientific protocol to respect for the privacy of those affected by the phenomena or incidents. The organization's visibility has been purposely limited to occasionally serving as experts to national television newscasts, news magazine programs, radio and selected newspapers and magazines."
So, where do these expert opinions come in? Nowhere, as far as I can find. I haven't found one reference in all of the news media for as far back as I could look that involved the OSIR. The only time I could find something that involved the organization is when PSI Factor was mentioned.
The fact that this organization is fake no-doubt is compounded by the following from the TNT site: "The organization finally agreed to release some of its closed files at the request of actor/writer/producer/musician Dan Aykroyd, a lifelong student of the paranormal who wanted to bring his personal curiosity on the subject to television and to those with similar interest."
This television project--and its latent description--seemed to be nothing more than fluff and meant to stroke Ackroyd's ego.
Besides, would this "OSIR" really be able to keep this kind of a thing secret (from an episode description on the TNT site):
The 13th Floor: The Believer -- A possessed woman takes a horrible vengeance on her philandering husband; a kidnapper transmits his extortion demands psychically.
Come now, people. Let's be realistic.
Anything else? Oh, yes. A Yahoo! news article (now offline) said: "For a number of years, Aykroyd hosted "PSI Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal," a weekly show that dramatized the unexplained through a fictional organization called the Office of Scientific Investigation and Research."