Growing Up Paranormal

If I were to turn on the television, chances would be good that I would be able to find a show that dealt with the paranormal, supernatural, or occult in some way.  Chances would also be good that once finding said show that I would stop flipping through the channels and watch it.  Most of my favorite shows are based on some aspect of paranormal phenomenon.  Though I’d also say that my reasons for watching any paranormally based show might be slightly different than the average person.

There is a current trend of paranormal obsession in the media.  Yet while millions of people are enthralled by the prospect of paranormal activity, I would be willing to bet that most people are more than perfectly happy with it being restricted to the television.   This isn’t to say that there aren’t millions of adoring fans writing in to these shows on their Myspace pages and forums stating how many ghosts they’ve seen or how their house is haunted, but when it comes down to actually dealing with paranormal activity on a personal level it is still met with extreme resistance.  We are more than willing to allow somebody with a camera and a television into our homes to search for evidence than we are willing to believe that our best friend, or even our self,  is psychic or paranormally inclined in some way.

We are faced with a paranormal dichotomy.  In our ever increasingly logic and science based lives we yearn to hold on to some aspect of that which is beyond us, a higher meaning or mystery, to our daily grind.  But in an effort to make it through the daily grind the prospect that normal every day people who know you could possibly have some insight in to your being,  can possibly see through the thicker and higher walls that people put up in order to keep a part of themselves protected from the ever changing world, is just down right scary.   So reality television gave us something “real” in the paranormal-verse, something we could cling to that said “Yes, there is a possibility that something outside ourselves and our logic based world exists and you don’t have to worry about dealing with it because it is safely locked away inside your television, where other people will put themselves in scary (or not so scary) situations for you to watch.”  We want there to be something more, but we don’t want to have to be the ones to deal with it.  And so, when someone you know comes up to you and confides in you that they feel that they are receptive to some form of paranormal activity, in some way, we access a bit of our flight response and shrug it off in hopes that they will let it go and let us continue to watch the extremely hot Steve handle the tough E.V.P. questions.

This is not to say that those who feel that they might be paranormally inclined can blame anyone for discounting their experiences.  Over the years, charlatans and quacks have outnumbered anyone coming close to possibly being the real deal on various levels.   Numerous famous psychics have later been shown to be frauds and have left people swindled and heartbroken.  The truth is that many people who feel they might be “gifted” don’t even fully trust themselves.  We have been so trained to discount the odd things that happen to us that in an effort to remain normal we often chalk up our experiences to daily stress, some form of outlet for our imaginations, too much caffeine, or any other host of reasons we can conjure up in order to retain a semblance of normalcy in our lives.

I grew up as a 3rd and 4th generation American.  (3rd on my mother’s side, 4th on my fathers).  Being of Irish, Polish, Italian, and French descent I grew up with many superstitions and various references to paranormal activity, whether it be personal experiences or those tinged with a bit of Catholicism.

In my family, the subject of anything deemed paranormal, supernatural, occult or otherwise “odd” was open for conversation.  My Great Grandmother from Poland recounted numerous stories of speaking either with deceased family members or of the Gypsy fortune tellers that read to her shortly before her departure from her village.   My mother often spoke of the numerous beliefs her grandmother had of a very superstitious nature.

Some might say that for a child this could have opened the gateway for numerous “imaginative” scenarios.  However most of my experiences with everything we deem “odd”, occured either when I was very little, or more recently.

But as I grew up, the concept that there could be more than just “reality” out there was never a strange thought.  Topics that ranged from witchcraft to ghosts routinely popped up and were discussed from various angles.  Within my family, none of us were would have ever been discounted if we related an experience, and if we related more while the information may not have been taken fully to heart it was always looked at from at least and interesting point of view.

I learned early on that broaching the topic with friends did not always go well.  It wasn’t until I was in my teens that there was a more open door to talk about such things.  But while I was reading every book I could get my hands on that dealt with paranormal phenomenon, paganism, and everything supernatural, most of my friends were merely interested in “meddling” with Wicca.

After high school I started to meet people who held similar interests and researched as much as I had, if not more.  These people were open to debates and discussions on a host of topics.  But most of my close friends, while they held some belief in “something”, were not willing to believe at least not fully that anyone they knew could possibly hold any of those talents.

It wasn’t until recently that I finally gave up caring what most people think, and started being more open about what I believed, “knew”, and thought.   Luckily, a few of my friends confided in me as well that they held similar thoughts.  I stopped believing that the things we call paranormal, supernatural, and occult were out of the ordinary, and started believing that they were actually “normal”, it’s just that for current society to function as it has, it needed to tidy it up and put it in a box.

We fully celebrate Halloween across America.  We gather at fright parks and seek out that which we shun the rest of the year.  We do it so that we can give all of our fears to one day, so that we do not have to dwell on them the other 364 days before the next Halloween.  We give our fears to movies, books, and television.  But we can never seem to let it get as close to us as someone we know.

I consider myself to have grown up “paranormal”.  To me, there is too much out there to simply dismiss.  Maybe someday, we can stop keeping what scares us within a box and allow ourselves to embrace the fact that maybe within each of us there is something beyond what we experience on day to day basis.  Maybe there is no place within current society for this to fit, in which case, I say that there is no place for people like me to fit in normal society.  And I embrace that…and everything it entails…it’s just not always the most uplifting belief, but at least I do not discount what I believe, and am who I am regardless of where society pushes me.

And if I were to say I was psychic as my last few words…or empathic…how many readers would believe me?  And if you knew me…how many less just because it brought your fears too close to home?

My guess is not many.

Here’s to all of us that grow up paranormal.  Huzzah!!!