Interestingly enough, the heightening of the perceived "popularity" in some form of study of a "way of thought" doesn't always necessarily increase the quality in public perceptions of that form of study, much to the frequent chagrin of many individuals who center their studious attentions to their own particular pursuits such as with those throughout the realm of paranormal investigations.
This doesn't really come as a surprise however to those who expend much of their personal energy along these pursuits. They have come to understand that it's one thing to shine the lights onto a television screen and thus to place flash sequences of a lengthy evenings work into some thirty-minute programs, but it is another thing entirely to be those souls working those very investigations!
The mutability factor to the paranormal field of study has been a rather funny thing to witness over time in recent years. It has evolved from a rather scarce and sparse gathering of a few choice souls seeking understanding and revelation into those mysteries of existence and has now been evolving into a gaping wide charismatic popularist centerpiece from what it once was long ago. There was the day when the usual soul who expended his or her time in such pursuits were usually seen as rather lofty yet very intelligent academic minded individuals searching for those ethereal connections between this world of the physical and what they claimed lay beyond the veil into the next. Now however, the complete landscape of this realm has been changing greatly and what we continue to now witness is what can best be described as an ever shifting and a constantly building database of experiences and scientific documentation on all of those things paranormal around us!
Many would agree that the resulting effect is one that has benefitted the paranormal investigation field and the world on the whole instead of casting the entire genre eternally into that proverbial side-show circus ring. There are some who would rather relegate the paranormal into such a place leaving others who seem to have some innate understanding about the importance of it to their existence. Oh yes, certainly there are those purists in various segments of society and in their own communities of thought who might well assert that the field of paranormal research study crosses lines of theological respect and seeks to delve into what they might call "occult", "heretical", or worse still, unethical to a realm better suited to decent and respectful thought. The lists of the bashes laid against those who seek the pathways of the paranormal researcher remain lengthy and is always growing to some degree in some corners of the world. The fervor displayed by those who make it their business in seeking to document, discover and answer some of the greatest questions relating to all of existence never seems to wane and in fact continues to only grow in its ferocity. As one bit of evidence is seen, recorded, and catalogued, the respectable motive is of course to try and document better, higher quality evidence, and when this is achieved the path still never ends but only continues to rise ever upward in it's pace.
This is perhaps among those grandest of considerations of the human species on its quest to answer more and greater questions and thus, to never give up when there is always more yet to discover!
Hey, let's face it! It is with this same fervor and committed attitude to seek to know and to discover that motivated people like Admiral Peary to drive his way to the North Pole, that moved archeologists like Howard Carter to continue to dig until he discovered King Tutankhamen's tomb, that moved scientific minds like Newton to exhaustively work his numbers and hypothetical theories in an ever onward effort to mete out a real and true understanding about existence and to the very core of the universe we all live in. Yes, there were those even then who defended their critiques of these brilliant souls when they laughed and passed bountiful comedy that in the end was all long forgotten when these same visionary souls laid the groundwork into new realms of thought and into the eternal archive's of humankinds knowledge. One really has to think just where all of this paranormal searching for the basis of the ethereal realm of existence will inevitably lead?
It was Shakespeare mind you who likened the creative brilliance of the quality of humankind to that of God just as many theologians might today do so in their own way for their own purposes. No matter what the color and the texture of the poetry applied to best describe humankind's motivation to answer those questions that for all practical terms currently "seems" unanswerable to the common soul, there will always be those visionaries who refuse to accept that answers either cannot or should not be sought. Such visionaries display the flavor of life that inevitably with enough work and sweat and time, will break through that wall of documented denial and shine the light of common understanding into completely altered degrees of understanding.
If this was the year 1100, and if the same amount of energy was being expended into the paranormal research field, there would of course be another determination from the echelons that then crafted what was understood as societal good. Today however humankind has straddled a long and winding road of revelation about itself and of the universe and what was once thought to be only the work of devils and demons is today being applied as physics and an always growing knowledge base about just what we truly are moving towards and from where we truly came. The prospects still frighten some people for obvious reasons. The potential results could break apart certain paradigms of thought and belief and yes, even of faith, yet in the spirit of that searching soul who refuses to turn away from the answers that they seek, there are those who continue striving to move against true understanding just the same.
There are even certain individuals and segments throughout the paranormal research community who sometimes and rather vocally express their wonder on the effects of and the results that have come about from so much of a focus on this field of study by reality television, personalities who become centers of popularity and through Hollywood interpretations of those others who remain as committed researchers in this realm.
It would be somewhat foolish in refusing to admit that there has in fact been much good resulting from the modern day popularity in paranormal research. Oh yes, there is of course some competitiveness that gets naturally involved between choice souls and groups in the field. Some healthy competitiveness can be a good thing! There is and always will be a certain degree of elitist nose-raising by those rare few who suddenly find themselves plopped right in the center stages of their own limelight that used to poetically be referred to as those people's own "fifteen minutes of fame". Yes there are and will always be some degree of tension between the rare choice personalities from alternate corners of the field, but in the end, most would agree that society at large has benefitted and will continue to benefit from a greater understanding about those things that are for the time being right now referred to as:
"PARANORMAL"
You see, anytime when you pull back the veils of mystique and misunderstanding in some common way of thought and when you begin to apply definitive documentation and greater understanding into answers that serve to redefine and heighten common understanding in any-thing, you also inevitably serve to threaten some other thing and yes, someone else who just may have something to lose to the revelation. This never stopped the seeker however who albeit any odds continued to strive forward due to some inner-switch in their own motivation to find answers that satisfy them. As mentioned earlier this is the flavor of life in the soul of the seeker and when you add together greater numbers of opinion, of founded fact, and ever more discoveries, the totality of it all begins to paint a landscape of being that can only continue to unfold. There is always more qualitative discovery into research when you have more people delving into their own particular corners of it.
Why bother with the paranormal at all?
This has been asked so many times that it's beginning to become a lame bastion of query!
You may as well ask why climb those tallest of mountains?
Why drive your way to the north and south poles?
Why expand the scientific boundaries of research into space and the galaxies?
Why seek a deeper and a more qualified relationship and a greater understanding about the God of your own understanding?
You see what I mean?
When you continue to place divisions into the core of the motives of the seeker of understanding, what you are really driving a wedge into is your own path to your understanding about yourself and the existence you call your own.
The paranormal researcher understands this just as the theologian understands that in their own way, they work to seek a deeper and more intimate relationship with the nature of God and thereby of an existence of their own understanding just as the scientist seeks a deeper understanding into the questions that drives their own search for being. It is no different for the paranormal researcher.
What is different nowadays for those seeking a dawning awareness into the paranormal realm is the amount of press and publicity that they have recently gained as a result of the popularity of some choice groups and individuals who have through their efforts turned the paranormal into a highly visible entertainment machine. One that observes a very odd dichotomy that doesn't always benefit the field overall, be it however also a machine that through that same entertainment medium has certainly sensitized the overall public to the very existence and presence of paranormal phenomena that reaches far beyond the typical ghost story or campfire rural legend.
So the central question that we ponder now revolves around the growing and shifting visage of the individuals and the groups that perform their investigations around the world. One of the comments that can usually be heard among those in the field is that it's not all about ghosts and scary environments, it's not all about being driven by the wish to get oneself or one's group onto some television screen, and one of the central queries seems to frequently center on the individual motives that drive one another to continue to do what they do even with all of the obstacles that remain in the way.
As the field of paranormal research has gained its present heightened visibility throughout the world it also has drawn its fare share of due critique and criticism from the world of the skeptic as well as from other centers of opposing thought. Many might consider such opposition to be a wall of resistance that could easily keep people from engaging in this activity but nothing could be further from the truth! In fact, most fair minded investigators in the field understand and welcome the skeptics rule walking alongside with their efforts because they also recognize the importance of doubter's clarity to all of the data and the evidence they gain. If the recent popularity of the realm of paranormal research has done little else besides making stars out of a few star seekers out there, it has also best served to draw a mountainside of objective and fascinated eyes onto an area of research that in the past gained little except laughter from the public at large!
For the first time in its long history the mutability of paranormal research has now witnessed itself growing, shifting and changing much opinion in ways that were relatively impossible at any point in it's far reaching past. The day eventually came when from the grandmother to the giddy teenager in many a household, the existence of something that was labeled as "paranormal" was no longer always laughed about but the entire idea suddenly began to be taken rather seriously. Even from some of the most ardent and vicious of it's critics, the paranormal investigator in recent times as a result of that same popularity and a heck of a lot of respectful effort from hard working individuals began to elicit a quiet respectful tone from various corners of thought that included various representatives from such thinkers as scientists and priests, academicians and law enforcement, and even the military as well as countless other respectful representatives all began to ease their way into some sort of a public recognition that there just may be something to what these people are divulging through their work.
Such changes and shifts have been a boon and a delight to witness and surely is a welcome change for the investigators themselves who in their collective pasts counted on little else than levity and scorn for their efforts from most except those with a motive for understanding. Interestingly the entire expansive popularity in paranormal research has laid a wide and sturdy bridge that is now being trodden by businesses with something to benefit from its popular presence, from spiritual establishments who have found the realm of the paranormal to be another way to introduce the public to "other" forms of spiritual thought than the conventional. It has drawn interest and a fascinating eye to the literal pages of history through investigations of many places that otherwise gained little attention except through books or the novel documentary centered on their own particular place.
From the hills of Gettysburg Pennsylvania to the ancient Celtic castles of Ireland and the United Kingdom, from the shores of Washington state and the pubs of Germany, to the plains of Australia, there is hardly a country or a place on the Earth that has not in some way gained some degree of visibility as a result of the recent fervor with the realm of the paranormal. A favorite gathering place for this particular spiritualist is Salem Massachusetts and even in this classic Oceanside New England community, they have too witnessed somewhat of a boon in their own tourism as a result of the recent popularity in the paranormal. In some ways it seems as if the rise on the curve of measure in the paranormal life cycle will never end, but realistically most understand that this present popularity will certainly not last forever.
There will not always be a place for the "Spirit Hunter" on reality televisions virtual walk of fame, and there will not always be a convention or an autograph hall filled to the brim with fanciers and picture takers. Eventually the fever will begin to calm and the fascination over this entire ghost and other paranormal stuff will begin to set its sails toward the sunset of its public life like most things of the popular. "When" however is the biggest question and don't think that some reality television producers haven't been asking themselves this same query. It has been asked by many with no definitive real answer being laid onto the agreement table for nobody knows.
Why does the paranormal seem to grab at such emotional strings as it does with so many people in the world?
For that answer you almost have to return to the realm of the priest and the sociologist. You see, the paranormal researcher is doing something that strives to answer difficult questions about existence and even of the life to come for us all. The paranormal researcher seeks out other forms of life and being in all of what is and attempts to document and make very real the mystical and the flight of the mind that otherwise is usually only thought about in private for anyone in the sensible real world of today. The paranormal researcher strives to draw into the light of day the very ideas that most only publicly consider when they have it thrown right in front of their eyes, but you and I know that everyone asks themselves:
"What really does happen after we die?"
"What is really going on with those UFO's?"
"Is there really a Bigfoot?"
""Are there really demons and darker spiritual beings?"
"Can there really be something ghostly in "MY" home, or is it just a mouse in the attic making those noises?"
You can keep drafting the queries to fill more lines, because there isn't one single soul who doesn't have some question in their mind relating to something rather "paranormal" in existence that they haven't at one time or another asked themselves and that they wouldn't truly want a REAL answer to?
This is what drives the modern popularity in paranormal research you know! This is what causes the mutability to keep on shifting around this realm! The entire thing really centers around the fact that just like you and I, just like your old auntie and uncle whosoever, just like your brother and sister and your mother and father, there is someone else out there also pondering if all of this "STUFF" is truly, REAL!
Now, go ahead,...squint your eyes and turn slowly as you look around and see that shadow down the end of that corridor...
Ask yourself, "did you see what you thought you just saw, or was it just your imagination?"
Go ahead and giggle as you convince yourself that you didn't' see what you think you just saw...
Your not the only one asking!
As Always,
WD Allan
© Copyright 2012, WD Allan, Spiritualitymoment.com
All Rights Reserved
Copyrighted work. Copying only permitted with permission of WD Allan
Originally written to be in association with the Haunted Herald © Juli Velazquez.
