Hey guys,
A little story for you: last night I found myself sitting in the lounge in my dorm and watching Ghost Hunters with a friend. Since there are big windows between the lounge and hallway, I know we were getting the usual strange looks. I knew what they were thinking, why would we choose to watch grown men running around in the dark with cameras talking about seeing black shadows and hearing footsteps? My response has always been to ignore the strange looks and keep watching. But this time I started to think. Why do we watch these shows? It’s partially an easy answer, 1) we watch them because they are on television, in many different forms, and we as Americans love our television, especially reality television and 2) we watch them because they are interesting to us. The question of life after death is an age old one and with no definitive answer it is natural for us to latch on to anything that is trying to give us answers. The even harder question is why do we as believers (and skeptics) enjoy these shows so much? For most of us, it is more than just a matter of entertainment (though I’ll be the first to admit that those shows are entertaining) and for a lot of us our search is much more personal and involved than just trying to find answers from a television show. So why are we so interested in what reality television has to say about it?
I have been reading lately, on various forums, that a lot of people do not believe most of what is on the shows is actual paranormal activity. Sadly, I am going to have to agree with them to a point. I would like to believe that the field is being represented accurately but I do not think that the nature of reality television allows for such integrity. I don’t know much about television production, but I do know something about paranormal investigating and I find it very hard to believe that so many experiences actually happen to them. Investigating is a long and often fruitless business; I rarely have shadows racing around in front of me all night, or footsteps following me everywhere around the house. Real activity just isn’t that common. Now, I’m not discrediting the groups themselves. I’m sure that before they ever had a television show and even now when the cameras are not running, they have legitimately helped people, I’m sure none of them started a paranormal investigation group simply because they might end up on television one day, but TV changes everything. These shows are run by producers whose job it is to produce entertaining television. Paranormal television has become a lucrative business so they have to keep people watching.
So, no, I do not believe that these shows are one hundred percent real, that’s just impossible, but I do think that I will keep watching them. Why? Because they are entertaining and real or not they are portraying something I love. Some of the situations maybe staged, yes, but their investigative techniques are good and their members are real people. And who knows, maybe these shows, fake as they are, could be a starting point for someone out there looking for help and answers.
Until next time,
Ghosties88
Ps. As always, I want to hear your opinion on this!
