SPECTRUM VOICE

Get Haunted

Turning to jack-o-lanterns or to old raconteurs to miniate your Halloween is so passé; nowadays, it is all about the personal experience of feeling the first-hand-tickle of the paranormal world. Put on your plangent outfits and grab a handful of the thoroughly churned paranormal delicacies, like "Ghost Adventures," "Ghost Hunters" and many more, haunting the showtimes day and night. Switch on your television any time of the day, and you are sure to have the hell scared out of you. With the whole TRP world ready with first hand confirmation that the heretofore unknown, and, dare I say, unimportant, world of the dead is just a click away, you have no other option but to let your pavid hearts take the shock. Teeth into a few episodes of these paranormal soaps, and you will be convinced that death is not a simple finale anymore. Hang in there, baby, there is much more to come!

Now, touching the business of discovering ghosts and serving them up in a platter may seem to some folks as lusorious amusement; but it isn't that easy, I tell you. Ask Zak Bagans, the host of "Ghost Adventures," and this DJ-turned-ghost-hunter will tell you how difficult the process of rousing the dead is. They run around with their EVPs and EMF detectors and such sophisticated gadgets to catch that one snippet that might hit the skeptics squarely in the nose and end one and for all the argument for whether there is indeed life after death. Fully conversant with the life-style of the dead, Bagans and his gang have had such astounding experiences as being possessed by spirits and encountering half-cooked apparitions.  But isn’t being so close to the spirits stuck between the stages of afterlife dangerous? You bet it is, and that is why they do it; and that's why we watch them do it deriving voyeuristic fearful pleasure from their deadly encounters with the otherworld.

And how do the spirits feel about this infringement of their privacy? I wonder if they are thrilled by the newly earned stardom these paranormal shows have given them. Right now, from what we see in the television, they do not mind much this intrusion of the reality television into their nebulous lives. Perhaps they are as deluded as us; or are confused not knowing what to expect or deduce from these endless questionnaire sessions with the relentless paranormal investigators. May be, just like us, they experience short-lived distractions from these shows. Who knows?