Is the Paranormal a wave or a particle?

[Dr B]

OK - jokey title - but i have noticed that interest in the paranormal and in particular, ghosts etc, is dipping slightly.

I remember in the past there being periods of 'peaks' and 'dips' but i have never really understood why.

I am sure the media has a role - but all the MH nonsense is still around but now the interest is dipping a bit.

Any ideas for the wave of interest followed by the dip, and then another wave?

[Mulder]

It's a wave!

[Dr B]

but why does it wave?

[Matt]

Not waving but drowning?

[Mulder]

...i have noticed that interest in the paranormal and in particular, ghosts etc, is dipping slightly.

Where have you noticed a dip in interest? Is it in the media or among the public?

[FarSideOfTheMoon]

I'd say both, people in general seem to think ghosts and UFOs are old hat now.

Maybe people are more inherently more skepical in this video age because they realise that:
a) everything we see now can be faked digitally
b) considering how everyone has a video and a camera on their phone, we don't seem to be getting any more clips than we used to

I think potentially healing and alternative crap like reiki is still a growth area, but I see little interest in the traditional paranormal.

When was the last time you heard a scare story about a ouiji board for instance!

[Dr B]

Mulder

a bit of both really......

[Mulder]

Maybe people are more inherently more skepical ...

I can't say that's been my experience. Or maybe it's just the people that I know.

[Cuddles]

I'd say both, people in general seem to think ghosts and UFOs are old hat now.

Maybe people are more inherently more skepical in this video age because they realise that:
a) everything we see now can be faked digitally
b) considering how everyone has a video and a camera on their phone, we don't seem to be getting any more clips than we used to

I think there's also the problem that it's easier to actually get hold of the videos, since they're plastered all over the intertubes. If all you see of UFOs is a couple of cherry picked videos being mirepresented on a TV progam, it may be easy to convince people. If anyone who feels like it can find the original pictures and look at them for as long as they like, it's going to be a lot harder to to fool them.

[median]

Any correlation between interest in this sort of thing with age? Then cross reference with the age of people who post on forums...Maybe people are past it...?

[Stunty]

I've noticed that reports regarding ghost haven't ever been the same since that crazy silver haired bloke kept claiming he could contact the souls of what-ever ghosts haunted the houses visited by that silly TV program on UK Living some time ago. I think it was called 'Ghost Hunters'

It seems to me that the geezer in that put the kibosh on the real serious fruit-cakes who don't like their ghost stories trivialized by a load of 3rd rate TV presenters who can't get a proper job on telly...

[Dr B]

I think you mean Most haunted and you are quite right - it is utter nonsense.

[Pebble]

Is it not more like Schrodinger's cat: it is whatever your need it to be at the moment you open the box.

[Croydon Bob]

All "paranormal" or "fortean" phenomena go through waves. The massive rise in interest in ghosts and people like Fry and Edwards talking to the dead coincided with a collapse of interest in UFOs and crop circles. Really crazy conspiracies have been bigger since 11 Sept 2001 and The Da Vinci Cods reignited the 1980s Holy Blood Holy Grail fuss. Ghosts and Mediums do seem to be on the down again now. I'm not sure what, if anything, is on the up but it could be cryptozoology again.

I'd suggest that the media only devotes a certain amount (far too much) of space to loony stuff and it goes through peaks and then gets bored with certain things. For instance the film Close Encounters sparked a big alien abduction flap that lasted a decade, but eventually TV and newspapers looked for something different as the public lost interest in yet another similar alien story.

Satanic Ritual Abuse and/or Heavy Metal music satanism and/or Dungeons & Dragons is a satanic conspiracy is surely due a come-back soon?

[Tim the Mage]

Satanic Ritual Abuse and/or Heavy Metal music satanism and/or Dungeons & Dragons is a satanic conspiracy is surely due a come-back soon?

The latest version D&D rules have recently been published so maybe a new generation of kids will experience the pleasure of creating an evil mage (and be drawn into the dark satanic world therein):

http://dnd4.com/

I think I might coyright Tim8)