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The Curse Of Most Haunted: Ghost To Become The Next Big Thing

A

Anonymous

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My prediction for 2005: Ghostly hauntings are the new UFOs.

Ghosts certainly seem to be the current thing again right now. Good news for publishers and the bogus investigators eh! Especially since the bottom fell out of the UFO abductee market (you can't give that stuff away anymore).

Expect a rush of badly researched books from the usual lousy suspects. Expect a new wave of attention seeking mystics, ologists and victims.

I'd like to see some graphs and statistics. A sort of Fortean stock index. What will be next. Spoon bending again? And I wonder whether fairies will ever come back into fashion.

Whoooaahahaha! Trebles all round.

PS - curious that 'Most Haunted' takes a camp and ironic (we know it's just TV) approach. The real experts (heh) must hate that.
 
No, ghostly hauntings are so 2004.

Bring on the fairies.
 
I think it's fair to argue that the X-Files pushed the UFO thing into the mass psyche - Close Encounters and ET are often cited as being instrumental, but they pre-dated the cultural phenomenon by about 15 and 10 years respectively (also interesting to note the number of -ologists, experts and -philes, and even Forteans, who got sniffy that someone else was getting interested in, and capitalising upon, their subject).

We have seen much the same with MH, on this board even. There are those with a genuine, professional interest in the subject who won't even countenance that MH (or it's various analogues, mostly courtesy of Living TV) may just come up with the goods, which TBH, given the resources they throw at the programme, they might just do one day. It's a two edged sword IMHO - on the one hand, if it encourages people to come forward with their own experiences, that can only be good. On the other hand, there will be those who see it merely as a licence to print money with no real regard for the subject itself. Most Haunted, in my opinion, is genuinely attempting to get some evidence on tape, but surround it with enough brouhaha to keep those with a limited attention span watching every week (the presence of so much EM emitting equipment possibly making this somewhat pointless notwithstanding ;)).

And yes, I think there's a cyclical element to Fort interest stuff, though with the attention being given to Homo Fiorensis atm I'd say cryptozoology will be the next big wave, after ghosts. At the end of the day, whatever anyone says, people do see things, be it lights, figures, furry animals, whatever, that they can't explain, And that's what we're all about on here.
 
I think MH is good in that it has stimulated debate. It would be nice if they could have a more consistent approach, and ditched the mediums. I welcomed the X-Files when it first came on, because it sparked an upsurge of interest in Fortean subjects (not just UFOs). And yes, a lot of crap was published as a result, but also some more interesting stuff got published that probably otherwise would not have been. (cue Paul Devereux).
 
I've never seen a full MH episode. I have caught a few minutes of one show around a friend's and that's it. I didn't even get to hear Derek Acorah speak, just Yvette Fielding squawking on, although I have read some of the assorted threads about MH on here. Not that this actually brings anything to the discussion but I agree with Stu, I reckon it will be more like cryptozoology's year in 2005.

That being said my friends have recently been picking up on the Da Vinci Code and other similar Bible codes hype (although again to my ignorance or should it be good fortune? I haven't read the DVC yet).
 
'Most Haunted' isn't just about ghosts. It's also about mediums. Two different subjects and alleged phenomena. But you have to already believe in both bits to believe in either.

They start from the assumption that ghosts are supernatural 'spirits'. So in no sense does the programme actually investigate anything. They are not trying to find out the nature of these phenomena because they already believe. Much like abductees, their experiences already fit into a scheme which is derived from fiction.

The programme belongs firmly in the world of Bid Up TV and Jerry Springer. Watched only by the poor and unfortunate (who believe it is serious) and ironic (mostly ex student) blokes who are laughing at Derek's cheeky - camp scouse bluffing and getting a slight kick out of the girl being a bit scared.

Obviously the programme would make no sense unless you were prepared to believe that Derek really is a 'medium'. And we (the ironic audience) know, of course, that all mediums are fraudsters. So the programme makes no sense. The programme makers also know this. It's a double bluff. They know that we know that Derek is making it up. Derek probably even knows that we know that he is bluffing. It's a huge joke.

This thread isn't about 'Most Haunted'. It's about cheap meaningless TV fashions. In Italy they have channels devoted to tarrot card readings and similar nonsense. No - not a serious investigation of the subject.

Think back to the 1970s. Henry Lincoln and the BBC Chronicle programmes about Rennes Le Chateau in the style of Civilisation or The World About Us. In our house, we used to argue about where the emphasis should fall in "The World About Us".

Granted Lincoln was making it all up too - but at least the programmes had a serious and well meaning intent.

Coming soon: topless spoon bending with Sienna Miller.

PS - I wonder whether there will be new mysterious (some might say Fortean) phenomena.
 
alb said:
Coming soon: topless spoon bending with Sienna Miller.
Click to expand...

Crikey it's working I can feel parts of my body bending. :shock:
 
alb said:
My prediction for 2005: Ghostly hauntings are the new UFOs.

Ghosts certainly seem to be the current thing again right now. Good news for publishers and the bogus investigators eh! Especially since the bottom fell out of the UFO abductee market (you can't give that stuff away anymore).

Expect a rush of badly researched books from the usual lousy suspects. Expect a new wave of attention seeking mystics, ologists and victims.

I'd like to see some graphs and statistics. A sort of Fortean stock index. What will be next. Spoon bending again? And I wonder whether fairies will ever come back into fashion.
Click to expand...

I quite like the idea of having a Fortdex to track the "stock" of certain phenomena - someone might want to put some thought into how the system will work. We could possibly base it all on numbers of posts to specific threads/forums or numbers of reports? Possibly allowing people to buy actual stock?

As with most things the serious research operates at a low/background level and the stock starts rising when it becomes the next fad. It tends to top out when it all collapses under the weight of the silly exploitation of the subject.

We've seen it with:

UFOs - X-Files

Atlantis/earth crust displacement - Hancock

Ghost - MH

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While I wouldn't sell my stock in ghosts quite yet it certainly can't get much higher.

I'd certainly be investing heavily in cryptozoology as people realise there is more to the field than Nessie and the Yeti. I think the Flores finds and the work of the CFZ will really push things up to the next level. What I hope is that it being treated sensibly from the Fortan and Science sides will help it maintain some credibility beyond the boom and bust.
 
Well, Jon Downes and Richard Freeman have already appeared on Scream Team! dissecting a wallaby to see if an animal pyschic had reached the right conclusions as to said wallaby's untimely death.
 
wonkydog said:
Well, Jon Downes and Richard Freeman have already appeared on Scream Team! dissecting a wallaby to see if an animal pyschic had reached the right conclusions as to said wallaby's untimely death.
Click to expand...

The best bit of that episode was the 'animal psychic' pointing at one of the team and saying "Your Chakras are out of wack, you wet the bed don't you?" :lol:
 
Why?

Why is it on Most Haunted, that:

A. They have to go looking for the Ghosts in the dark?

B. They spend the night in underground tunnels or creeky old buildings and panic when they here a noise they can't identify?

And,

C. Cant identify a dust particle from an entity in front of a Camera, is it that hard?

We need a serious study and as long as they continue to push out cheep TV of this type people who do have an open mind about these things will never be taken seriously.

:roll:
 
Re: Why?

Because if they didn't:

A:Spend most of the time in the dark

B:panic when they hear a scary noise

C: Go mental over "orbs"

They wouldn't have a show left.

Cynical? Moi?
 
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