"All My Children" star Ricky Paull Goldin (Jake Martin) has been on a quest to understand the life of his father, Paul Goldin, since the senior Goldin, a well-known hypnotist and psychic, died in 2008. Armed with his father's journal, Ricky and his skeptical friend Jeff Gurtman travel the country in search of abnormalities, unexplained phenomena and the paranormal for a one-hour event, "Seeing vs. Believing," premiering Sunday night at 8 p.m. on TLC.
ET: How did you get time off from "All My Children" to do this project?
Ricky Paull Goldin: When I walked into my executive producers, I said, "Here is a project that is inspired by my father and his real-life experiences. And he asked me on his death bed to go and find these people who are touched and special and have claims and show them to the world." I told my executive producer that, I told my network that and they said, "We love you. We want you to be happy. Go and do what you need to do."
The schedule on a daytime drama is grueling, but we pushed some days and we pulled some days. I got out of Dodge and started our paranormal investigations. It is as if I never left "All My Children."
ET: Tell me about your dad.
Ricky Paull Goldin: My father was the world-famous hypnotist Paul Goldin, renowned around the world. He hypnotized hundreds of thousands of people. He was an entertainer as well because he did have a gift and he did have to make money. We found out a lot more about my father in his death than in life. He worked for the CIA. He worked on cases like the Jonestown Massacre. He was famous for hypnotizing 10,000 people at one time. He was a man who was asked to start a new religion in India, but he bowed out gracefully. He has a clinic in Beijing and Ireland and a new one opening in London. My little sister Katie Goldin and I will open a new one in America eventually. Meanwhile, she is running the one in Ireland. She is the most popular and youngest hypnotherapist in Ireland.
ET: Back before reality TV became so popular, you produced "Street Match," a reality dating show that was before its time. Was this harder to produce or easier to produce?
Ricky Paull Goldin: "Street Match" would hook up people on the street who had never met. I was the cupid. That was a hard show because that was a very human thing. You were waiting for that human moment to happen. This is not an easy show either. This is also based on: I want to capture on-camera something real happening. I am a firm believer that believers all have something in common. Believers have all had an experience and come face to face with something they can not explain. I think that skeptics have never seen anything, so they have never had a reason to be believe. I would like to give them that reason.
ET: What is the spookiest thing that happened while you were filming?
Ricky Paull Goldin: The reason I have my dear friend Jeff Gurtman along is he is absolutely a relentless skeptic, who doesn't believe anything, but that is because he has never experienced anything. I don't know who is a younger soul or an older soul between the two of us. I have my opinions and I am sure he has some very strong opinions of his own. That is what helped to keep this show on track and keep it real while we kept cameras rolling, no matter what happened.
The scariest thing so far is when we went to the cursed demonic land in Arkansas called Hell's Half Acre, where I got told not to go. The entire town is freaked out by this property. We went there and trampled all over Hell's Half Acre for three days and nights and it turned into like the 'Blair Witch Project.' I [ended up getting] 21 stitches in my face.
ET: Has "Seeing vs. Believing" changed what you believe now and have you made a dent in Jeff?
Ricky Paull Goldin: I think I made a little scratch in Jeff. I have to tell you that I was raised in my family with something to keep us kids from fibbing and that was called "On Your Honor." If you say something is "On Your Honor," it better be true. On my honor, I was really shook up after Hell's Half Acre and so was my crew. Our timecodes got really screwed up after that event, Jeff almost lost his job at home and the Native Americans told us if we go back up there, the spirit will follow us home. I don't care who you are, if you have a chief elder telling you that if you go up there one more time this spirit will follow you home, and that they don't let their children go there or play there, and they don't let the name of that place cross their lips, I don't care who you are, that is enough to terrify anybody.
ET: If the ratings are good, is there enough material out there to do more shows?
Ricky Paull Goldin: I've got to tell you, my personal opinion is it is a bottomless pit. We have already gotten thousands of e-mails, Twitters and Facebooks messages saying, "Come and check this out. Or I know a person who can do this, or I have an aunt whose house is so terrifying, she moved out and hasn't been able to sell it in 10 years." There is a family in Pennsylvania who bought a house and six months later they are getting all kinds of crazy activity. The neighbors told them, "Didn't anybody tell you that last year the man went crazy and killed his whole family?" They didn't and now they have a lawsuit, because in most states, you have to disclose if a house is haunted. How can that be a law, how can that stand in court if there is not something to it?
