Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Ghost / Legitimacy

I confess an intense enjoyment of ghost hunting shows. I have an enthused excitement and curiosity for the shadow people. My girlfriend and I get hooked easily into the various shows (Ghost Lab, Ghost Hunters). There are some chilly moments in the show and my imagination runs, yet there is a skeptic lurking in the back of my head and that I must address for a moment. Perhaps the show is not valid? Perhaps the paranormal evidence in the form of EVPs, etc is contrived? I would like to think not. Partly to loom in the magical ignorance. I like it. I enjoy it. But a show like that, if it were contrived, would have embarked on ballsy consequences. If the fabrication of the ghostly encounters were ever leaked, the show would most likely dissolve immediately. The credibility: shattered absolutely, if that were the case. And the show would not go on. The show, I feel, depends on its credibility. If it were to lose that credibility, haunted venues would not longer seek their services for investigations. Would a network invest the time and money if there was no credibility to rely on a full run of shows? I think not. We're not talking about an ordinary reality show, which tends to be fully contrived with drama instigated to keep the viewing exciting and keep ad revenue by glueing viewers with bitch outbursts. I mean, the potential for ghostly sightings is tension as it is...Any thoughts?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"The potential for ghostly sightings is tension as it is."

True. But doesn't that mean that credibility has nothing to do with it? That credibility is not linked in such a foundational way that to discredit would cause the show to collapse?

These types of shows never resolve with an affirmative. It's always: it may have been a ghost. And isn't that how we live our lives? It may have been a spiritual thing. It also may have not. These shows are no more or less contrived that everyday living.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater said...

I thought I saw something once at Chicago's second most haunted bar, but it could have just been the turkey bombs.

Hey, the word verification: potion. That's GOT to be a ghost doing that stuff . . .