Ghost Adventures

I hadn't heard of the show "Ghost Adventures" till last night, when I happened to be sitting downstairs when the TV was on. We were talking about something else and halfway watching it at the same time.

Since then I saw a couple more episodes, since it must be on all the time.

It's kind of creepy, of course, since they seem to have an extreme amount of paranormal activity happening, maybe too much to be at all realistic.

Several of the things stand out as something they might tweek. One, when you hear a disembodied voice, don't turn to the others and shout, "DID YOU HEAR THAT?" At that point it would be better to be quiet and see if the disembodied voice is going to say something else. It's almost like they're not really expecting any activity, so every time something happens they go ballistic and that's it till next time. How about just standing there and shutting up?

Two, it seems to me that it'd be smart not to assume every clunk, moth flying by, and hiss out of nowhere is spiritual activity. It would help the credibility of the show, in my opinion, if they seemed a little more skeptical, because anyone can come up with a list of other possibilities that aren't supernatural. They have heard of animals going into old buildings and having homes up in the rafters, I assume.

Three, maybe it'd be a helpful point to make that these places (the ones I saw) aren't abandoned to the spirits, but are on the National Historic Registry and are museums that are open to the public everyday of the week. Yes, they may be ruined in certain ways. But if they're actual museums, there's probably a heating system and electricity, pipes and things that are hooked up, systems that are turning on and off via a thermostat or a timer. Any of this can make all sorts of noises, cause all sorts of air currents, etc.

All that said, they do present the whole thing as very creepy.

Since I've watched a few shows, I'm thinking about all the normal noises you hear in the course of a day in a building. So many of them I could shriek, "DO YOU HEAR THAT?" and play it back a few times and maybe I could hear in the hissing the sound of my own name or some other quick sentence. I don't think their translations of "disembodied voices" appear all that accurate in relation to what I'm hearing out of my TV.

As for periodically being "possessed," as it seems they are, psychology would go a long way toward explaining that. There are all sorts of freaky things that can happen. The bottom line is, the living are more interesting than the dead.

Friday the 13th

Wooo!! Superstition. Need to watch out for flying bad luck. What should I do differently? Maybe don't fall asleep. I'm getting very tired and might lay down.

I was only thinking of it as the day before Valentine's Day. Not about being Friday the 13th. Then I saw it on a calendar and I'm thinking ... scary stuff might happen. Is it just a day for bad luck? Or are their ghosts involved too?

What would I rather see, a ghost or an angel? Good question. Probably an angel, yes. Because ghosts are just dead people like us. They're not that interesting, going by what I see on TV. They move chairs, occasionally bite someone, are cold and clammy when they pass through you. But angels, just what I know of them, are of an entirely different order. They're not dead people, they're above people.

Anytime you talk about angels someone reminds you of that verse that says you meet "angels unaware," meaning that every person you see could be an angel off doing a good deed. Or expecting a good deed to be done for him or her. Like testing you to see if you're a keeper. I think the verse has more to do with giving people some motivation for hospitality rather a promise that you'll see angels without knowing it. Anyway, what good is it to see angels without knowing it? I'd want to know it.

So here's what would be great. You're sitting in a room in your house. Maybe it's where you're being extra spiritual. There's an empty chair across the room, and suddenly you see it fading into view, a glowing, pulsing form. Nothing quite like the pictures or movies, but more with the aspect of something metallic. The shoulders start to round out. The face that's very hard and staring straight ahead becomes more lifelike. Somehow you're not exactly afraid but you don't know what you are. I think I'd be afraid, to tell the truth. Then he starts giving you some interesting instructions about what to do next.

This is really where the downfall would be. I have never heard or read angelic instructions that were particularly interesting. Even the ones in the Bible are more just messages that anyone could deliver. On the hills of Bethlehem, the angels show up, but it could have been a guy with a telegram.

Do I expect to see an angel? Not really. I don't know if it takes my own effort or it's just a matter of grace or it's maybe a matter of being crazy. Do I expect to see a ghost? Not precisely, but I do expect weird things to happen once in a while, like noises and weird coincidences, things moved that you don't remember having moved.

I should look up what Friday the 13th is all about in lore. It could be any of that, but I believe the main thing is it's a day of bad luck.