Category: News & Reviews

I just read this article at the Examiner.com and while I understand the interest in spooky ghost stories I am completely dumbfounded by how seriously paranormal “reality” shows are taken by viewers, and how successful they have been.

In our sufficiently advanced age we are entertained by, and make famous, plumbers who hunt ghosts in their spare time. Well, it’s full-time now I guess, they’re veritable rocks stars of paranormal investigation. But I guess I shouldn’t chuckle too much, our society finds celebrities in all kinds of useless TV and film. There’s no pride, no integrity, just a lot of shit.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the plumbing trade, it’s a perfectly worthwhile profession. Certainly more worthwhile than ghost hunting, and in general it pays better, but it is funny to note that in some cases the popularized, televised investigation of nothing is actually a more lucrative endeavor.

How does one find personal fulfillment in achieving fame as a ghost hunter?
There is the money. But for integrity’s sake there are two possibilities, the famed ghost hunter is either incredibly delusional or incredibly ambitious with no ounce of shame. I’d almost prefer to think that these famous paranormal investigators are intentionally taking advantage of the gullible, riding high on a wave of stupendously ignorant TV watchers. At least then we could call them charlatans or con-artists.

But if, like most of their viewers, they actually believe that ghosts are real and huntable then they’re just as ignorant of the facts. Still, credit where credit is due for their audacity at least, they actually had the balls to pursue a career in it and record their so-called investigations on video then pitch their idea to some network.

Our species has been conjuring up ghosts and the possibility of an afterlife, or some otherwise unknown and mysterious great “beyond,” for eons. Luckily, somewhere along the way some of us figured all this was probably bullshit and some smarty pants homo sapiens said, “this doesn’t make sense…” and scientific investigation was born.

After centuries examining claims and finding no evidence to support the existence of ghosts or any other paranormal or “unexplained” thing — including but not limited to gods, spirits, demons, witchcraft, alchemy, aliens, alien abductions, lake monsters, bigfoot, etc. — and assuming that most humans generally consider this stuff relative bunk and permissible merely for entertainment sake, scientists decided to stop looking too seriously at such things and instead began to concentrate on more fruitful endeavors like stuff we could see and examine. This ultimately lead to a greater understanding of our world and our species, as well as great advances in technology, cleaning pucks for your toilet, and Advil.

Now to the main topic of this post: Never a plumber, what advice does Ghost Hunter Amy Bruni share with budding rookie paranormal investigators? One key piece of wisdom she shares is, “expect many hours of investigation with little result.”

Here ends our lesson.