I know I’m a little late to this specific topic, but I wanted to write a quick blurb on “Media Impact”. When I was in the process of choosing my topic for the first assignment, I REALLY wanted to do it on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I quickly realized I didn’t have quite enough to say about Buffy, so I went another direction, luckily discussion gives me the perfect place to say what I wanted to.
Buffy doesn’t cause a extreme shift in my view of the world, it doesn’t cause me to really question anything about my life, at least not for the long term. But like other dark, supernatural shows, it does cause you to temporarily question what lurks in the shadows or around that corner. I can quickly rationalize my fears, but on multiple occasions I have been afraid of something after watching Buffy or any similar dark and creepy shows.
A good example of this effect is something that happened yesterday. I had a friend call me on her way home from a concert, she lived close enough to walk. It was late at night and she called because she was freaked out walking home alone as a young female, that part is understandable, but that’s not really what the problem was. My friend was paranoid because she had watched three seasons of Criminal Minds in three days. I realized we’re not always in control of our fears, viewing terrifying things makes people irrational, even for a short time.
I studied in a Tibetan monastery in Nepal for a time, and the thing that always sticks with me was the discussions we had concerning the “Hell Realms”. Buddhists believe that these realms are real and are here among us, only we can’t see them. (quantum physics is proving this to be the case with evidence of a multidimensional universe) They said that dark entities feed off of our fear, and that being afraid, only brought them closer; making the likelihood of mishap much more probable.
I was told that whenever I felt the eery presence of something lurking in the shadows, that I should remember that sending love and understanding to the poor thing (ghost, entity, evil spirit etc), would make it run away. It is a hard thing to do when you are scared out of your wits, but letting the fear escalate, only puts you more in harms way.
I worry about where our society is headed with so many people going out of their way to scare the living crap out of themselves. I used to love scary movies until I learned that the energy I hold, is what I will attract in life. And the effects don’t end when the movie does. Most times the fear lingers for days. To this day, any mention of the movie The Exorcist brings back haunting memories of the fear I lived with growing up.
My mother taught me something similar when I was young. I’ve had many many stories told to me by my aunts and family regarding ghosts and spirits. I don’t know how many are true, truth regarding the supernatural is always a matter of opinion and preference after all- the question is, is it easier to live in a world where ghosts don’t exist? But when I was younger the question “Are ghosts good or bad?” was constantly running through my mind. And quite honestly-it freaked me out. In order to put my young mind to rest my mom told me to just send bad things all the love I could muster. She explained that love will protect you.