Large Interest in the Paranormal

East, west, north and south, Americans are showing more interest in the paranormal. Many shows have been popping up in the last five years and are very popular. "Ghost Stories" on the Biography Channel, "Paranormal State" on A&E and "Ghost Hunters," have a large and varied audience. According to an article by David Briggs, from the "Ahead of the Trend'" website, this" trend" is only going to grow with the increase in immigrants coming to this country. "Immigrate populations are more open to paranormal beliefs". This subject is opening up from the shadows for a large number of American's as well.

Why Now?

From the research I have done, the number of paranormal investigating groups has been growing since the early 2000's, many are formed in universities which have programs offered on this subject. Even in the small state of Rhode Island, there are a good number of these groups. Actually Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson who founded "Ghost Hunters," shown on the Syfy channel are both from the "Ocean State". There seemed to be many places to investigate the paranormal there including the city hall in Providence. They did make an episode of this investigation. I believe because of the internet of course, and these type of reality shows more people feel comfortable talking about their own experiences. At one time it was a taboo subject, having lived in New England a large part of my life, Salem, Massachusetts was the only occult and supposedly "haunted" site that I visited. Now there were places that had "haunting's" stories in other parts of the area, but the only ones who checked these stories out at that time, were usually teenagers with just looking for adventure.

Paranormal Movies Making Big Money

Movies which include "Paranormal Activities 1-4," "Blair Witch Project," and "The Bay," have been big box office hits. Not exactly academy award status but money makers. People like to get scared, I know I loved scary movies since I was very young. I believe however, that the movie's media folks pushed some of these films with hints that many of the scenes featured were from "actual events". I did search to see if I could find any history on these events, but could not. I just found websites and blogs that were promoting the movies. Hey, I am as curious as the next person. Especially "The Bay," I live not more than 15 miles from Maryland and I think if those events in the movie had any truth to them at all, the whole tri-state area would have known. No way could that have been hushed, the surrounding areas are too big.

Do You Believe???

I checked out the stat's on this question. I went to the well known "Gallop Poll" website. They did have a poll on the question, interestingly according to their June, 2005 poll, three out of four people in this country believe in some sought of paranormal activities. The highest was the belief that ESP existed, forty seven percent of those polled. The next highest was at thirty seven percent, "that houses can be haunted". Thirty two percent went with the possibility that ghosts and spirits of the dead can come back in certain situations. Do I believe? Well I will not try to force my beliefs on anyone, however there is too much evidence. I believe sound evidence, since we have the technology for better testing on these type of events today. I do not believe people will stop exploring or talking about this subject anytime soon. It has gone mainstream, people from all over the globe are interested in this subject.