Ghosthunting has turned into some kind of package holiday deal. Everywhere I turn I see adverts for ghost tours, haunted excursions, all-inclusive 'training sessions' that will apparently circumvent any need for all that dreary education and teach you everything about the supernatural in half an hour.
I really wouldn't want to be a ghost right now. You think death will be the end of your trials, and you can finally rest - but no, the afterlife papparazzi are on your tail.
How do I feel about this? Well, how would a nuclear physicist feel if there were workshops showing people how to build a cyclotron in their garden, or an atom bomb in their shed? How would a microbiologist feel if details of growing things like anthrax were made public? How would you feel if the torment of living people became a source of entertainment?
Those are scary scenarios. So is this. The number of people dabbling with the paranormal is growing by the day, and ghosts are not all benign, timid, harmless spooks. Some are very dangerous indeed, and those are the ones looking for some amateur to call them out.
Calling them out is easy, it can be done by accident. Putting them back--well, how do you put back the explosion from a bomb? To borrow a phrase Tom Sheepandgoats used, how do you put toothpaste back in the tube? Particularly if the toothpaste doesn't want to go back and is actively trying to kill you while you do it?
The irresponsibility of encouraging complete novices to dive in and chat with the dead is breathtaking. Would you send someone who's never used a gun on a tiger hunt?
Take the time to learn about the supernatural properly, or leave it alone. This isn't a game.
2 comments:
How would you feel if the torment of living people became a source of entertainment?
Heh. On this side of the pond, we call it reality TV. But never mind that now ... tell us more about these ghosts who should not have been awakened. What do you know about them? Are they the ghosts of rapists and murderers and such, or are they a different species altogether? If they can't be returned once they're summoned, what becomes of them? How can we know if a ghost we're seeing is benign or malevolent? What are some of the ways they're being summoned? Will simple ghost hunting in itself conjure them? Do some things, like Ouija boards or trigger objects, invite them? What about simple fear? Could someone's fear of such things send out a signal, like fishbait in water? Do tell all!
Rom, sounds like you need to write another book to warn the naive about all the dangers.
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