Most Haunted - Living TV
The existence of paranormal entities has been a subject of much speculation in everyday life for as far back as most of us can remember. There are those who claim to have witnessed ghosts and spirits and even those who claim to be able to contact and channel them. With the ever increasing rise of paranormal shows and documentaries on our TV screens such as Living TV’s Most Haunted for example, I can’t help but wonder how much of these shows are real, and how much can simply be put down to mass hysteria and the want or “need” to believe.
Most Haunted is without doubt a highly entertaining show, which can at times even be quite hilarious, but whether or not it can be classed as a genuine paranormal show I’m just not sure. Take for example the amount of so called paranormal activity that the team seem to pick up, now no-one can say for sure if what they experience on the show is truly paranormal or not as there is simply not enough evidence either way but in almost every case of so called unexplainable or paranormal activity there have been significant factors that can cause severe doubt in the minds of most rational people, the most common form of doubt when a paranormal experience occurs during one of these TV shows, is either the possibility that it is simply being staged for the camera or that mass hysteria is playing a huge part in what people think they are experiencing. The definition of something called Mass Hysteria is as follows
“Deffinition of Mass Hysteria; a condition in which a large group of people exhibit the same state of violent mental agitation.”
For example, consider that a group of friends are taking part in a séance, they are all aware of the possibility that something may happen, so are therefore almost waiting for it, and looking for signs of paranormal activity from the very start.
All it takes from that point is for one person to plant the first tiny send of hysteria in the minds of others, say for example, telling them that they feel a cold breeze on their neck…..whether this has been a genuine experience or simply a staged act, it subsequently makes the others in the room paranoid and forces their minds to focus on the possibility that they will also experience the same cold breeze. Thus making it much more likely that they are bound to at some point over the course of the evening feel a cold breeze of some sort on their own neck ( even if it is from an opened window or something equally as trivial. )
The same could also apply to the cases where there have been apparent “mass” ghost sightings, or those that have been viewed by more than one person. One person mistaking something perfectly ordinary for the supposed existence of a ghost, can be blown into full scale panic simply by the power of mass hysteria, manifesting itself from the genuine belief and fear of the original witness. The human brain can be manipulated into believing it has seen something it has not, as many psychologists and even UK channel 4’s TV’s mind control expert Derren Brown have shown us to a certain extent.
So why not tune in to Living TV’s increasingly popular TV show Most Haunted and see for yourself, the beauty of the show is that you as viewers get to make up your own mind about how you perceive what you view on the show, be it paranormal, the effects of mass hysteria or simply entertainment Most Haunted is definitely a show worth watching and thinking about.
Becky Bowden – Editor of Enchanted Entertainment.
