A Ghost Hunt Anyone?

I think that I might want to go ghost hunting, like they do on all the TV shows. There seems to be a glut of shows out there attempting to hunt and prove the existence of ghosts. Actually, anything paranormal for that matter. Freedictionary.com defines paranormal as; beyond the range of normal experience or scientific explanation. Ghost is defined as; the spirit of a dead person, especially one believed to appear in bodily likeness to living persons or to haunt former habitats. I find the prospect of hunting ghosts and other paranormal things (think Bigfoot or The Loch Ness Monster) to be quite exhilarating, though I don't actually believe I'll actually find anything. Particularly ghosts.

This desire to track apparitions started after my brother-in-law told me that he believes in ghosts. He figures if people can believe in religion then, what is to preclude a belief in ghosts? Hm. I told him that I did not believe in ghosts but that I found the glut of TV shows about hunting ghosts to be minimally entertaining. He said that Ghost Adventures on the Travel Channel was a show he found to be convincing and suggested I give it a look. So I looked. It would seem the lead ghost hunter used to be a skeptic until he came face to face with a ghost and is now on a mission to provide definitive proof of the existence of these paranormal apparitions. I find it funny that once a skeptic he can't help but run into ghosts on every show. There seem to be ghosts everywhere. So, I've decided to go find some for myself.

I did some research and found out that a third of the population believes in ghosts. I have to admit that is a lot more than I expected. Of course the statistic begs the question, why do people believe in ghosts? There seems to be two reasonable explanations for why people believe. First, since the dawn of time man has tried to understand the unknown; why is the sky blue, where did the mountains come from, why does chicken taste so good? When an answer isn't readily available we turn to the paranormal for the explanation. That is until science finally catches up. The second reason is people want to believe there is life after death, that we transcend the mortal and temporal to an eternal existence. This is clearly evident to anyone that has watched John Edwards show Crossing Over with John Edwards. He doesn't see ghosts, but he sees those who have died or "passed on" and can communicate with them. And people in droves pack his events and TV shows in order for a message from passed on loved one. Here is a typical exchange between Edwards and a member of his audience:

Edwards: "Do you know someone who's passed on who's name starts with the letter P. "

Audience member: No, but I think someone with the name Francis might try to communicate with me."

Edwards: "OK, yeah, I'm actually seeing a PH, that makes sense now. I'm sensing this is a family member?"

Audience member: "No."

Edwards: "No wait, a close friend then?"

Audience member: "Yes! How did you know?"

Edwards: "He's showing me roses and he wants you to know he loves you very much."

Audience member: "It's actually a she, but thank you so much! You don't know what this means to me!"

As far as a ghost haunting goes, having the crap scared out of you by a lingering post mortem ghoul is not the way I want to affirm life after death. Edwards shtick seems a little more palatable. Still, I can see why ghoulies might give people the sense of transcendence. Kinda.

So, I'm going to invest a little money into a digital audio recorder to capture the creepy calls of the deceased. I really hope that my old camcorder is sufficient to capture video evidence of those ethereal apparitions. When confronted with something creepy during my hunt I will assume the paranormal first and disregard any reasonable explanations, it'll be more fun that way. All I need is a haunted locale. Maybe a reading from John Edwards. This is going to be fun!