We’re growing a little skeptical of the all the para-reality knock off programs these days, if for no other reason that they tend to saturate the market and turn the whole ghost hunting thing into a dash for ratings, dragging the discipline (at least in the mass media) further and further from the core values we believe are so important to it; solid and patient investigatory techniques, thoughtful discourse on the nature of the afterlife, genuine wariness of sensationalism and easy answers, etc.
The latest entrant in the ghost hunting game is Haunted Collector, a weekly series following around longtime investigator John Zaffis and his kids, as they investigate paranormal claims and attempt to pinpoint their source to a haunted object. Zaffis has an entire basement of items he has removed from homes because of their haunted nature, although doesn’t say (or hasn’t yet said) whether this means his basement is packed with object-attached spirits. Seems like an obvious question…we’ll wait to see if he addresses it.
We’re not sure what to make of the ‘haunted object’ thing. Certainly, an object perceived as one of great importance to a deceased loved one might easily be similarly perceived to be haunted by that passed spirit, especially to a surviving friend or family member who believes they are “still around”. This pre-supposes, of course, that material objects have an anchoring or grounding effect on spirits – and the whole notion of whether is a voluntary association or involuntary one never really gets addressed. An involuntary one, one would think, may be a kind of hellish sentence, restraining the departed from moving on (and, at least in this program, ending up hanging around John Zaffis’ basement with similarly imprisoned spirits.)
If it is merely out of love or nostalgia that spirits attach themselves to music boxes or furniture or clocks, why remove them from the homes of the survivors? Can’t you just ask that they let go…or if not let go, behave themselves?
In some ways, we see this as similar to the Paranormal State approach – visit a distressed family, validate in some way that their troubles are due to a paranormal condition, execute some fairly rote ritual of remediation to soothe their concerns, and let the whole crisis pass into memory. We’re not sure we’re comfortable with this – we’ve a few ‘help’ cases ourselves, and we try very hard not to represent ourselves as para-crisis mediators (maybe we’d get more calls for cases if we did!). All we do is try to validate if there is evidence of paranormal activity – Zaffis has been in this business a long time, and maybe he has the self-confidence in his process that allows him to assure a family that he can resolve paranormal crises. We certainly don’t.
In any case, we’ll watch and comment as we see fit, mindful as always that producers are looking for ratings, and skeptical as always that anyone really has all the answers.
