The word paranormal in and of itself is an enigma. It’s mysterious, puzzling and sometimes just downright difficult to understand. Paranormal can even fall under different categories such as ghost hunting, ufology and cryptozoology. It’s not always what happens when there’s a bump in the middle of the night. Ghost hunters Jason Hawes, Steven Gonsalves and Dave Tango, who are starring in the new show Ghost Nation on the Travel Channel, recently gave their viewpoint about the most common misconceptions that people might have about the paranormal.
Jason Hawes:
“The prefix for the word paranormal is Latin for beyond. So it’s beyond the normal of what we’re used to. So when they hear the word ‘paranormal’ people automatically assume that you’re referring to ghosts and hauntings. Ghost and hauntings fall into paranormal, but are a very small part of paranormal. So objects moving on their own are paranormal until you figure out what’s creating that. There’s proof that magnetic fields can do that to small objects so once you figure that out, it’s not paranormal.”
Steven Gonsalves:
“There are a lot [of misconceptions] out there, but the biggest one can be that you’re going to experience this stuff all the time. Realistically, if we go on 20 cases, we’ll have one case with legitimate activity. It’s not going to happen all the time. Thankfully, for television purposes, we’re going to weave through certain things. This stuff is very rare and we shouldn’t lose sight of how often a door closes all on its own with nothing behind it or to hear a voice come out of thin air.”
Dave Tango:
“A lot of people expect some type of gratification with things happening. We do a lot of ticketed events where people come and they want to investigate with us and have fun, but it’s like, ‘hey, guys, you can be 9 years old and have your first experience or you could have it today.’ It’s a crapshoot. You just never know.”
