I've watched about a dozen episodes of this show and tonight I was laying on the couch with a girlfriend that has seen all of them apparently (I just found out). Near the end of the episode she said something that kind of startled my brain and I was like "you believe this is real?"
She was aghast that I even asked that..
I always figured this show for fun fiction.. just how many people actually believe any of this? I mean really ... ??
Welcome to the world of the paranormal. In my opinion it's very real and if your girlfriend has seen other shows like this, you should give them a watch too.
shareIt seems that women/girls especially fall for this junk. This show, to me, is pure hokum, cleverly displayed and manipulated so as to convince the gullible.
Probably best to play along as long as you can :)
I take this show as a slice of fun, but I believe some of the people interviewed have genuinely had experiences they can't explain. Others are just attention seekers. You can usually discern which is which from the get-go. The most obviously fabricated episodes are just as entertaining, however.
Having said that, I was a devout non-believer in any of this stuff until I saw a 'ghost' (I'll use that word, because I don't have a better one for it) in the house my partner owned when I first met her. I wouldn't have trusted my own eyes, but without prompting my partner said asked if I was looking at the man who stands in the corner of the room. Apparently, she had seen the same figure before, in the same spot in the bedroom. Without prejudicing her, I asked her to describe it to me - and she described the same figure to a tee, down to his clothes, his height, his receding hairline and the spectacles he was wearing. That was enough corroboration for me. Other odd things happened in that house (stuff being moved from room to room overnight, footsteps, the dog barking into empty rooms and refusing to enter them), but nothing as convincing as seeing that figure. None of it was 'frightening' in the horror movie sense either.
However, even with this experience behind me, for me this show is nothing but entertainment: it's an exploration of people's personal, subjective experiences with things they can't explain, not a documentary about objective phenomena.
'What does it matter what you say about people?'
Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958).
@lewisherschell
So you saw a ghost. You're sure you saw a ghost. Someone you trust also saw it and knows that location you've described to be haunted.
Yet you're still confident that when folk appear on this show it's just: "a slice of fun..." and all about "subjective experiences with things they can't explain, not a documentary about objective phenomena".
Well, now I know that there are not just sceptics but also people who are clearly beyond scepticism.
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Sandwiched between The Principle of Mediocrity & Rare Earth Theory, you should see The Fermi Paradox
"Yet you're still confident that when folk appear on this show it's just: "a slice of fun..." and all about "subjective experiences with things they can't explain, not a documentary about objective phenomena"."
I think you've misunderstood me slightly :) I believe you've taken my use of the word 'subjective' to mean 'invalid'. Maybe I should clarify what I meant.
What I meant was, this is a show about people who have had unexplained (/unexplainable?) things happen to them - told to the audience in their own words. There's no attempt to contextualise these experiences or explain them, and no input from 'experts' (in science, psychology or parapsychology, for example). There are no cutaways to scientific 'talking heads'. It's not a scientific documentary: it's stories of unexplained phenomena, told to the viewer by the people involved in those events. They're like tales told round a campfire, but with a greater ring of 'truth' (a nebulous term, admittedly) to them.
What's told to us in these episodes is therefore entirely subjective (ie, filtered wholly through the perception of the people it happened to). That's not to say it isn't 'valid' or that those people are deluded - although, of course, some of the stories are more convincing than others.
I watch this show because it's interesting from a human perspective (ie, in seeing how people deal with these events or try to rationalise them): I don't watch it in the same way as I would, say, a nature documentary. It's a different form: a different genre. One is about scientific, objective analysis of phenomena; the other (Paranormal Witness) is about the 'human factor'.
I hope that clarifies things a little. Like I said, I think you misinterpreted me slightly due to my use of the word 'subjective'.
'What does it matter what you say about people?'
Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958).
I believe Lewis is absolutely right in his analysis of the show. It's not meant to convince anyone that demons, ghosts, werewolves, etc. exist without prejudice but simply storytelling from those that experience something they can't explain and want to share that experience. That is all. I find it very entertaining and gives some food for thought. And the reenactments are just frightening enough to give a little shiver up the back :) .
Those that are offended that others would dare believe in something paranormal (check out namaGemo for evidence) have nothing in their arsenal to prove they don't exist, so why even debate it? Just enjoy the show.
Although I am a rational and logical person I grew up in a haunted house. I tried rationalizing everything and trying to explain it etc... and just couldn't. Ironicly enough, as an adult I have become more skeptical and at times I even tell myself that I was seeing things or over active imagination as a child.
shareI know most of it is real. You can tell the people being interviewed are not actors. If you want to watch a purely fake show, watch "My Haunted House". I've been a victim of a haunted house and have personally experienced this phenomenon.
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