The good folks at Who Forted? have just released a review of Ryan Buell's new book: Paranormal State.
Ryan Buell wants to believe.
Paranormal State was not a “reality documentary” show that he says it is, but a paean to his will to believe and the producers’ efforts to convince the viewer to believe too. I want to believe in cool, spooky stuff too but I guess I have higher standards for evidence than what his Paranormal Research Society(PRS) team (and all other ghost seeking groups) collects.
I had only watched a few episodes of the TV show before. While I was not impressed, I didn’t have a deep disgust of the show like some people I know (ahem, WF? editors). These folks make this funny noise when I mention Ryan and his crack team of young investigators (Weird! I can hear that noise even when the communication is online.). But, as one who begins squarely on the fence, ready to examine things from multiple sides, I really wanted to know what Ryan is about and what his ideas about the paranormal are. I read Buell’s book Paranormal State: My Journey Into the Unknown all the way through with open-minded interest. It was not awful. Well, it wasn’t Dianetics-grade awful or some goofball celebrity NewAge (pronounced like “sewage” with an ‘N’) claptrap. It had some interesting bits.
Read the full review here
