Ghost Hunters' Demonic Encounters as Religious Experiences

Abstract

Ghost hunting became widespread in the United States after the October 2004 of the reality television show Ghost Hunters. Ghost hunters, or paranormal investigators, use scientistic methods to investigate reportedly haunted locations and seek evidence of ghosts and other spirits. Ghost hunters are preoccupied with demons in particular. The analytical lens provided by twentieth-century German philosopher of religion Rudolf Otto reveals that demonic experiences serve as powerful religious experiences for ghost hunters and provide comforting evidence of the existence of the spirit world, a cosmos ordered according to good and evil, and even God.