Ghosts and Hauntings: An Afterlife Investigator’s Perspective!
How novels, movies, and television shows have misled us to feel fright in the night.
Bob Olson is the host of Afterlife TV, author of Answers About The Afterlife and The Magic Mala, and founder of the directory of credible and reputable psychics and mediums, BestPsychicDirectory.com.
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If there are two subjects where movies and novels have misled people, it would be ghosts and hauntings. I don’t blame the screenwriters or authors. These subjects are prime real estate for engaging stories. Ghosts and hauntings are a screenwriter’s and novelist’s dream for an audience that craves mystery and menacing antagonists. I’ve been tempted to write fiction on these subjects myself, but I could never justify the harm I would do in misrepresenting the afterlife by writing such a story.
Melissa and I watched Ghostbusters: Afterlife this weekend. Considering we watched the first Ghostbusters movies in the 80s, it was fun entertainment for a Saturday night. I don’t think movies like these are responsible for the misunderstandings around ghosts and hauntings, mainly because the ghosts (who are more like monsters) are clearly unrealistic. I’ll place the blame for misinterpretation on movies like those Melissa and I watched together as teenagers: The Amityville Horror (1979), The Shining (1980), and Poltergeist (1982). Indeed, there were many more before these and plenty of others since, but those movies made ghosts and hauntings terrifying.
In the early 2000s, reality TV shows became popular. On this subject, I’m referring to all the paranormal investigator shows, like Ghost Hunters and Paranormal State. Even more than movies and novels, these shows have contributed to people’s confusion about ghosts and hauntings. I’ll explain the most significant reason behind this in a moment.
Movies, TV shows, and novels do what they’re meant to do—entertain. And who among us didn’t enjoy a haunted house during Halloween or at the theme park? Especially as teenagers with wild imaginations, most of us had a love-hate relationship with stories about ghosts and hauntings. Nevertheless, we paid a psychological price for what these stories taught us, which I intend to offset in this exposé.
As always, please don’t take what I or anyone else says about this subject as truth. You get to choose for yourself what is true. Nonetheless, it’s always good to see all sides to a case before drawing your conclusions.