For 2007, the most popular locations listed at Dark Destinations were paranormal ones. Waverly Hills Sanatorium (see Waverly Hills Sanatorium) seemed to have an unrelenting grip on the number spot on our site. However, 2008 saw a rise in popularity for both movie locations and infamous crime sites and Waverly Hills has long been knocked into the number two spot on our site. We've noticed that movies and TV shows greatly influence which articles people read at Dark Destinations. The release of the films Twilight and An American Crime have definitely been two of the major things driving interest in some of the new top locations. We also see the occasional surge in interest if a particular destination is featured on one of the many paranormal shows on television. Though, it seems that the paranormal shows aren't having the same impact as they did two years ago. It has left me with some questions and I'm hoping some of you will share your thoughts with me.
Do you feel that the increasing amount of paranormal shows are glutting the market and causing interest in the paranormal to wane with the general public?
How do you feel about how notoriety has transformed some of these paranormal spots into widely visited tourist stops such as Waverly Hills Sanatorium and The Queen Mary (see R.M.S. Queen Mary)?
What paranormal locations do you find the most intriguing?
What elements influence your interest the most when it comes to a location? The reported paranormal activity? The history of the location? The possibility of the haunting entity being a historical figure or celebrity? Something else entirely?
What paranormal location would you really love to investigate (or just visit) but you haven't had opportunity yet? Why did you choose this location?
I look forward to reading your responses.
-Tom G
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Halloween nIght
2 weeks ago
3 comments:
I've been to the Waverly twice, once before the 'glut' of TV overexposure. Whether you go for paranormal reasons or not, it really IS a beautiful structure. I'm glad to see the owners putting forth a real effort into restoring it.
I think any place with peeling paint and broken windows will automatically be labeled 'haunted' just because of the mood it creates. Plus, with the majority of the tours being at night, and with no electrical lights on the upper floors, you do see 'shadows.' Whether they are 'shadow people' or your eyes desperately hunting a light source, I'll leave that up to others to judge.
Incidentally, I took a boat-load of photos, and only one turned up anything unusual: a non-circular light blob in front of the main entrance.
I definitely feel that the popularity and overexposure of paranormal investigation in general has dramatically affected the public's view. I used to run a paranormal investigation group in my town several years ago. At that time, there were no other groups like ours. There were also no television shows about what we were doing, unless you caught something on a cable network near Halloween. At that time, we were taken a bit more seriously and were allowed access to places that are now off limits. Once the television shows started coming out it seemed like groups like ours were a dime a dozen, even in such a small city as ours. A couple of groups gained notoriety but it was short lived. As the interest grew and the number of groups began to grow, property owners became less willing to allow these groups onto their properties and were no longer taking paranormal research seriously. It was even marked as "a fad" in our local papers. For those of us who were serious it really hurt our business. After only two years of watching the guys from TAPS on the television, we actually shut our operation down. We hope to start up again in the future but, at the moment, it seems redundant.
Greetings Tom,
I stumbled across your blog tonight and so far, I'm loving it! Now to answer some of your questions:
I don't feel that paranormal shows are glutting the market but I'm biased because the more paranormal, the better. I think that it causes more business for paranormal sites because it's getting the word out there and people are curious. In my belief, that can affect the amount of actual paranormal activity at a site but the mind is a funny thing and will cause things to appear that really aren't there so a "haunted" site can stay that way for quite awhile keeping the business coming in.
I don't have a particular site that I find more intriguing than another but any site that has some good history usually wins me over. One of these days I want to make it down to New Orleans.
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