Spirits abound on “Ghost Hunters” (Syfy), “Paranormal State” (A&E), “Ghost Lab” (Discovery) and “Ghost
Adventures” (Travel Channel).
By Susan King
Ryan Buell founded the Paranormal Research Society as a student.
Vampires may be getting all the glory these days, but when it comes to day-in, day-out spooky family entertainment, it’s hard to beat ghosts.
The popularity of ghost and paranormal stories are nothing new — from the King’s ghost in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” to Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” to the phenomenal box office last fall for “Paranormal Activity.”
But it’s on the small screen that ghosts are most alive — a staple of the medium, so to speak. The first two hours of CBS’ Friday night lineup are devoted to “Ghost Whisperer,” now in its fifth season, and “Medium,” which joined the network last fall after five seasons on NBC. Both dramatic series revolve around women who can see dead people.
Several of the cable networks have built their lineups around ghost/paranormal reality shows. These series follow investigators going to residential homes, historical locations, abandoned hospitals, prisons and even aircraft carriers that are supposedly haunted. They claim to use scientific methods and equipment, such as digital tape recorders to capture EVPs (electronic voice phenomena), which are believed to capture the voices of spirits.
Thanks in part to the success of these shows, ghost hunting has become a big business. Several Internet sites including Amazon offer equipment for sale for the budding paranormal investigator.
Mark and Debby Constantino