Do We Expect Too Much?

I’m in a very philosophical mood this morning and my brain seems to be locked in on the paranormal. Just kinda wondering if we don’t really expect too much from the Other Side.

Granted, we all want to know what happens when we cease to exist in our current bodily form, but would knowing really make that big of a difference? I mean knowing that there’s something for us to look forward to wouldn’t make dying easier; for one I quite like the friends I have, the things I can do. I have read from a self-proclaimed psychic that those on the Other Side aren’t really bothered with us. Yes, our loved ones want us to know that they are “okay,” but after that, we’re pretty much on our own. So what really is there to look forward to even if we know there is something for us on the Other Side?

So why, then, are we so determined to explore the paranormal or supernatural? What purpose does it truly serve? Comfort? Perhaps. But I also wonder if we don’t project our need to know something is there waiting for us after we die.

I think it’s normal for us to assume that funerals are for the dead. Generally speaking they are quite sedate and people are wandering around crying or, at best, holding muted conversations. Sometimes they serve as reunions if the family has spread out over the years. But I quite like the more celebratory funerals so well-known here where I live. A New Orleans Jazz funeral is like no other on earth. Friends and family gather to celebrate the life lived, not the life ended too soon.

But, again, this thing with investigating the paranormal kinda makes me feel like we’re nothing more than paranormal papparazzi. We “investigate” hauntings and call out to the dead to prove they’re there. Some even provoke entities with rudeness and abusive words. Kinda makes me wonder if they’re not like that to the living as well as the dead. If not, why do it to someone who’s died? Because you know they can’t retaliate?

If I ever have an experience it will be because the entity wants me to know s/he’s there. Not because I am demanding proof.