Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Ghost Hunters Returns To Sci-Fi Tonight

TAPS is back as a new season of Ghost Hunters starts tonight on the Sci-Fi Channel. I had about given up on the show ever coming back even though I had heard that its ratings were good. Here's a quick overview of the show: a couple of plumbers along with some associates hunt ghosts by night. I like the fact that they approach things from a skeptical stance quickly trying to come up with natural reasons for the paranormal activity. I like that approach because I don't believe. Nope. Until a ghost comes up to me and says "how do" I will continue to disbelieve. I need some proof. Which is what makes Ghost Hunters fun for me. Has the show ever creeped me out? Not really. When they do find evidence for a haunting it can be compelling, but they've yet to win me over completely. Perhaps that's why I watch. Somewhere inside me there must be a tiny bit that wants to believe.

The Soulfish Stew wife believes. She assures me that ghosts are real. I have no reason to doubt her lucidity. The only thing even remotely paranormal I have ever experienced happened several years ago. I had a dream on a Wednesday night of an old tree with a hangman's noose swaying from it empty in the breeze. My friend Toby lived in this old house in Murfreesboro. He had the upstairs apartment. I went over there Thursday to play a video game. We liked the game so much I came over again Friday. It was then that we started to smell a bad odor. We figured it was rotting leaves. He called me up Saturday to see if I could stand to play the game one more day since it was due back at the rental place that evening. I came over along with another friend who lived just across an alley from Toby's. The smell had gotten worse in the entryway, but you couldn't detect in Toby's place. After we played a few games we heard sirens. That was no big deal since he lived close to the hospital. But they got louder and were soon at earsplitting volume. They had stopped in front of Toby's.

Soon the entryway was filled with emergency personnel. We couldn't tell what was going on. Finally our other friend, Jay, decided to go back to his place. He got a look into the downstairs apartment and it was a look he regretted because he found out why the entryway smelled so bad. The guy living there had hanged himself a few days earlier. I immediately remembered my freaky dream of a noose and wondered if there was any connection. I had never even seen the downstairs neighbor, but of course the noose was empty in my dream. Strange coincidence, I'll accept, but a legitimate visitation from the other side is pushing it. I'm just glad I've never had any other coincidental dreams.

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