Paranormal Witness

                  It is probably well known by now that I cannot seem to go too long without getting hooked on some sort of ghost show.  My most recent one is Paranormal Witness.  It reminds me of a show I used to watch called A Haunting, but scarier.  At least it is when I am watching at night and have had a long day.  While I am fine, I do not get nightmares or anything, for people who are jumpy with these kinds of shows, I recommend watching during the day.          

                Each episode tells the story of a real life paranormal experience.  As the story is being told, the show jumps back and forth from a reenactment to the actual witnesses relaying what happened.  While all the occurrences are clearly life altering, some are far worse than others.  Some are so bad, I wonder if the people ever fully recover from the events.

                At the beginning of each episode, everything is normal.  The viewers learn a little background about the people involved and why they are where they are.  This normalcy only lasts for a few minutes.  Then the paranormal incidents begin.  Usually it is small things that happen at first.  Whispers, creaks, and the like are experienced.  Then things begin to escalate.  This is where everything can get really bad.  People get sick.  Animals die.  In one story a child was kidnapped.  All people are just plain scared.  For many, they have few options to turn to for help.  I have seen episodes where even the church turns away the people who are being haunted.  When people cannot find help, I always feel so bad for them.  Often it is not just that help is not available, but their own family does not believe them about what they are experiencing.  It must be awful to feel so alone.

                There are some stories that end happily.  The haunted are able to get help and rid themselves of the spirit.  Others are not so lucky and are forced to move on.  The truly unfortunate ones are unable to sell their haunted house and end up in serious money trouble.  In the end, no matter how they do it, I think all are just happy to get away from what is haunting.            

                The stories are really interesting to watch.  I do not particularly want to live through the experiences myself, but I am fascinated to see what others have gone through.  To be honest, what I find most interesting is not what the spirit does.  What I want to know about is the life of the spirit and why they are haunting.  Some spirits are just mean and want to terrorize while others happen to be really sad and cannot move on.            

                There are a few stories that do not follow the norm.  A couple were about aliens and one had to do with Bigfoot.  The one that sticks in my mind the most did have to do with a spirit.  A young mother accidently drives off the road and dies.  Her car cannot be seen in all the trees and her son is still alive.  The mother’s spirit manages to get back to the road and show herself which helps lead rescuers to her son.  It is a very sad story, but it shows how love, even after someone has died, can make all the difference.