“Monsters and Mysteries”, a mystery to me By Jean Marie Keenan-Johnston

I just finished watching a new show.  Monsters and Mysteries is a new show on Destination America.  I’d seen ads for it in the past few weeks.  I admit as I watched the coming attractions I wasn’t finding myself really very curious.  It wasn’t exactly a show I felt I JUST HAD to watch or I was going  to miss something pretty cool. I didn’t even take note of which night of the week it was airing.  So when I found it while flipping channels tonight, after I searched a bit for something better to watch for that hour of my life that I  may or may not be wasting, I decided to hang around Destination America and see what they had to say about America’s so-called horror stories. 

Among the beasts discussed were the Mothman and this sheep-like monster that sounded like the spawn of a sheep and Bigfoot.  There were other “monsters” described, each with stories told firsthand by “witnesses”, but I can’t really remember what they were.  (I didn’t give the show 100% of my time as I was trying to brainstorm for tonight’s blog post while I dealt with Hubby’s laundry for work tomorrow.)  But two of the segments I did pay closer attention to were about these creatures.

This show got me wondering, and I hope it’s in a way that doesn’t have anyone labeling me some crazy person!  (And maybe “wonder” is a bit overboard because it leads people to think I spent a great deal of time thinking about the topic.  Instead let’s say a “fleeting thought” as the credits rolled came to mind.)  I’ll admit, I enjoyed the Twilight movies.  I had no interest in the movies when they were in the theaters, but from out of nowhere I was suddenly wanting to rent every one of them On Demand all in the same weekend.  But that doesn’t mean I believe vampires are living all around me enjoying the high life.  And I’ve seen TV shows about Bigfoot – some stories were a tad compelling while others seemed pretty bogus.  Some showed movies taken that were clearly big men in monkey suits while other clips made one wonder.  I’ve seen shows about Area 51 (or was it 52?  Just shows how little interest I had in the topic!)  I was able to get through the entire show, but it didn’t necessarily leave me wanting to know more.  I think I got the gist…Army base, mysterious goings-on, rumors running rampant about captured green men and their space ships.  Yaaawwwnnnn…

Of all of these kinds of paranormal topics, the spirit world interests me the most.  I love watching shows like Ghost Hunters and Ghost Adventures.  The technology is fascinating, and when they find something during an investigation that is validated by witness accounts, or even better, historical accounts that are found to be credible, I’m totally blown away!  The thought of spirits being trapped here, especially children, breaks my heart.  But feeling like we’re getting firsthand accounts on what the afterlife is like doesn’t just make me wonder.  It also offers hope as I continue to grieve the loss of my father.  I was raised Roman Catholic, so I was brought up believing we all have a soul, and our human body is just its vessel.  And even people who are skeptics hopefully see a connection among all the accounts of near death experiences when the stories all have similar descriptions.  There’s still much to learn about the afterlife and the spiritual world, but I feel like we may be on our way.

But believing in an afterlife and certain experiences here on Earth that may have affected different people’s death experiences doesn’t really leave me open to believe in Mothmen and sheep-like Bigfoot-type creatures.  Where do these shows find these people they’re interviewing?  Are they actors or real people?  I ask this because many of them seem to be pretty believable – as freaked out as I feel saying something like that.  I know scientists are finding new species all time, but these creatures seem to be “very beyond” that.  So I’ll just end leaving everyone else wondering the way I am after watching that.  Are these TV stations just trying to fill air time with anything they can come up with?  Or are there really things that go bump in the night out in the woods despite what our parents told us while we were growing up?  For now, I’ll just keep enjoying watching my ghost investigation shows while thinking all the rest are Hollywood nonsense (as I secretly hope IF they are legit concerns that they’ll stay far away from my neck of the woods…especially since I just talked so badly of them!  Nobody needs any “monster revenge” darkening their day, I’m thinking aloud with a smirk.).