"Ghost... Busted"

Because my sleeping patterns are so messed up lately, the other night I suddenly woke up at 1am and just couldn’t go back to sleep. Wanting to kill time, I decided to watch the horror movie “Insidious” on the laptop with headphones on so as not to wake up my wife and daughter.

I am not a fan of horror movies, mainly because I don’t like watching things that disturb me. Rape scenes, extreme violence, Kris Aquino hosting a talk show, too much blood and gore and seeing people in pain even in movies, these sort of things easily upsets me. But because I’ve heard that this movie “Insidious” was really scary and had a good story line, my curiosity allowed me to forego my aversion for the genre.

I’m not going to do a movie review, but I will say that the film wasn’t half bad. Maybe because I haven’t seen a lot of scary movies, I’d even go as far as saying I enjoyed watching it. It actually gave me a good scare.

After watching the movie though, I realized I was actually hungry. Then came my dilemma...

Summoning to my hunger pangs meant going down stairs, fixing myself a light snack in the kitchen and eating it alone with all these scary scenes I just watch still fresh in my head. It also meant walking for a brief moment in the dark as I open the kitchen light switch. I actually asked myself, am I really that hungry?

But then I remembered that I’m an atheist, and so I started to rationalize that like god, there are no such thing as ghosts and that I am not about to allow a scary movie get in the way of my craving for a ham and cheese sandwich at three o’clock in the morning.

I wouldn’t lie to you, I had flashbacks of the scary scenes and had goose bumps as I groped in the dark for the kitchen light switch. But in the end, I was able to make my meal and managed to eat it by my lonesome at the dining table.

I’ve never had any personal experiences involving the supernatural to be honest. Even back when I believed in the existence of a god, I never did believe in ghosts or evil spirits. People tell me it’s because of my skepticism in the paranormal that prevents me from being able to see and experience what others do.

I remember back when in college during an environmental exposure trip in a coral island in Zambales, I had to walk through the woods alone during a cold and windy night with nothing but a pen light to guide me through the trail back to the house where I was staying at. It was creepy seeing the faint moonlight through the trees hearing nothing but your own footstep through the woods I would admit, but I was way too sleepy and tired from an entire day of skin diving to care.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not making any claims that I am the type that doesn't scare easily, I am positively sure that if someone played a prank on me by jumping me from behind during that time, I would have screamed like a little girl and even possibly ran through the woods. But its normal to be startled. Animals get startled and even babies get startled, and both have no conscious knowledge of the supernatural.

If I were to walk through a dark creepy alley, I’d be more scared of running into some crazy drunk dudes than seeing ghosts. In my opinion, at times the living is much more of an actual threat.

As for “seeing dead people”, some people really do believe that when the hairs at the back of your neck stand up for no apparent reason, that’s when ghosts or spirits are about.

I’ve never had the hairs at back of my neck stand up for no reason, but I will admit that at that moment when I was reaching for the kitchen light switch, I did experience that. But it was because I just watched a scary movie not more than a few minutes before. It’s the same thing as wanting to scribble a nice poem after reading a good book, feeling so inspired to write a song after watching a great concert, wanting to cry after seeing a sad movie, or feeling so in love after watching the Titanic (or some other chick flick).

While there may be some things that are still unexplainable, answering them with another mystery doesn’t make sense to me. The thing is, it’s normal to feel scared after watching a horror movie. It’s human nature. And I don’t think even atheists are immune to that fact.

I am glad that I can apply that same non theistic logic and reason for my disbelief in the supernatural and the paranormal. And more importantly, the thought of ghosts will never get in the way of my craving for a post midnight snack!