what got you interested in the paranormal in the first place?

[wezzy]

For me it kinda happened by accident...when i was 12 i needed to read a book for school and talk about it in front of class (dont know english name for this)

So anyway i never read any books before so i didn't have any at home but i knew my friend had lost of books at his home so i asked him if i could search through his big pile and see if i could find something interesting.

Anyway i eventually found some generic childrens book (totally forgot the name) and decided to read that one for school.

After i did my whole "talk about the book infront of class thing" a few weeks later i went back to my friends house to put the book back in his shelf.
I suddenly noticed that his father's bookshelf was right next to his and i had permission to browse through the books to see what stuff was there.

I was taking books out looked at the covers and put them back...after about 20 books later or something i grabbed a book with a cover that scared the living shit out of me.


I was so shocked i actually yelled and dropped to book lol.

I asked my friend "what the hell is that thing???" (close to that)

he said "thats that alien book we have had it for a while"

me: "it says true story? is this real?"

him: "i don't know"

and so my ufo/alien addiction began
from there on it branched it all the sectors of the paranormal like ghosts/loch ness/bigfoot and so on
im still scared of that cover lol

whats your paranormal beginning events/stories

[Aaron LeClair]

I think it was one of the Amityville Horror movies, where they were playing a home made Ouija board. My bro told me that it's "real", and that got me curious, so I made one too. I was around 8 yrs old.

[DBTrek]

I was born interested. When I was in the 1st grade I remember flipping through books about UFO's, Big Foot, Ghosts, and Mythology in the elementary school library. Something about the fantastic stories paired with the grainy B&W photos really caught my attention. Other books (especially for young kids) just couldn't compare. Who cares about the adventures of Ralph S. Mouse and his motorcycle when there's a castle in England that houses a screaming skull that sweats blood?

[Aaron LeClair]

I would have been born interested too, only my mom told me there's no such thing as ghosts and ufos etc. But Santa and Jesus were real.....

[CapnG]

Just about every house I've ever lived in has been haunted so... well it kinda goes without saying.

Communion's cover gives me the willies too, Wezzy. Budd Hopkins calls it "recognition anxiety", a reaction he says is common amongst abductees. I don't think I am an abductee personally but the fact I respond to it emotionally (and the implications thereof) bothers me almost as much as the cover does!

[Aaron LeClair]

Originally Posted by CapnG

Just about every house I've ever lived in has been haunted so... well it kinda goes without saying.

Communion's cover gives me the willies too, Wezzy. Budd Hopkins calls it "recognition anxiety", a reaction he says is common amongst abductees. I don't think I am an abductee personally but the fact I respond to it emotionally (and the implications thereof) bothers me almost as much as the cover does!

That is strange. Interesting, but strange. I can't relate at all. The cover has always seemed silly to me. Do other books with "greys" on them bother you, or just Communion?

Capn, you're an atheist right? Or have one that lives in you? I don't come by many people who don't believe in the afterlife or God, who believe (or are convinced) in hauntings. Except for maybe the environmental recording type hauntings.

[CapnG]

Originally Posted by Paranormal Packrat

That is strange. Interesting, but strange. I can't relate at all. The cover has always seemed silly to me. Do other books with "greys" on them bother you, or just Communion?

It depends entirely on the depiction. Most of the time they don't bother me at all, especially if they're too "hollywood". Only certain ones have that distinct feeling of unease attached to them.

Originally Posted by Paranormal Packrat

Capn, you're an atheist right? Or have one that lives in you? I don't come by many people who don't believe in the afterlife or God, who believe (or are convinced) in hauntings. Except for maybe the environmental recording type hauntings.

I consider myself an Agnostic-Deist in that while I'm not 100% convinced of the existence of God, I am convinced that if there is a supreme being, it's probably not the least bit interested in humanity as a whole and certainly not me in particular. That's be like a scientist taking an individual interest in a bacterium.

Regarding heaven, hell and other afterlife notions, I don't believe in them at all. Simplistic, dogmatic creations borne of religious fervour, fundamentally no different from believing in Oz or Candyland. As far as I know when we die, we're done. Reincarnation, maybe but even that's a stretch for me.

As for the hauntings, I have no evidence and no witnesses beyond my immediate family, so take it however you like but as far as I am concerned, these were real events that I experienced and not a matter of "belief". That said, I don't necessarily see the phenomena of ghosts as directly linked to death, particularily since many of the ghostly activities I've experienced seem so connected to life. I'm a big proponent of the "tape loop" theory, so it could just be some form of energetic imprint, completely without conciousness (ie not a "trapped soul"). But again, I speak for no one but myself on this topic.

[Poi]

Recently I read something about magazines in the sixties, True and Saga. That prompted a memory of having read some articles in True anyway. My dad occasionally bought the magazines and left them beside his bed. I'm pretty sure that's where my interest was cemented. Prior to that, a friend's mother introduced her daughter and I to books that were related, but they didn't take on a "real" quality until I read the more adult magazine articles.

I saw Communion displayed prominently in a bookstore as I entered it. Grabbed the book, having read or heard nothing about it. There's a blank space here. I can't remember what happened in that blank space, but it seems like it might have been something like, "You should read this book." Or, "Read this." Or, "You must read this."

I'm sure Strieber's name may have had something to do with it because I'd read a couple of his books, but it was the cover art that influenced me before seeing Whitley's name. I didn't bother reading anything the book was about either which seemed odd as I stood in line at the cash register. Remember thinking, "I'm not checking out the content of the book, why?" (I'd tired of vampire stories and refused to read another.")

I have a vivid recollection of the entire event except for my reason for buying the book. I have a blank space where that should belong. Maybe Hopkins is right in that sense, I just don't know.

[pixelsmith]

Brad Stieger got me interested. He and my aunt were friends and i always got his latest books. unfortunately all my books were stolen several years ago.

[TClaeys]

I blame Leonard Nimoy and "In Search of..." Really though I don't actually know for sure but this seems to be the memories that I recall being the most influential. I think that if I were to see some reruns of these episodes, I might be laughing out loud, but I do distinctly remember footage of the Patterson film and being like "Holy Sh*t!!!" "What the hell is that?"