Bryan Costanzo

CAS 137H

Ben Henderson

18 October 2016

The Rise of the Supernatural and Decline of Religiosity:

Tracking the Paradigm Shift in the Supernatural Genre in modern Media and Inner

Spiritualty

Monsters have been a staple of tales since man has had a fear of the dark. A

monster tale can be found in nearly every time period, and can be traced from every

culture, all seeming to draw on the common fear of the unknown. The supernatural

genre first entered the mainstream during the 19 th century with the Gothic fiction. These

works include Mary Shellys Frankenstein, Bram Stokers Dracula, and the many works

of Edgar Allen Poe. These themes of fear and monstrosities began to fade from the

public and drift only into a subset of the culture while other paths of fiction, science and

fantasy for example, rose to the forefront of the peoples attention. It has been within the

past ten years that every form of entertainment has been enthralled with the idea of

supernatural beings and monsters bringing them back to mainstream attention. This

new resurgence of supernatural media includes: Twilight, True Blood, Supernatural,

Paranormal Activity, Penny Dreadful, 28 Days Later and Walking Dead. These series

have been enormously popular in recent years while others still dominate the

entertainment landscape. The popularity of these works show a shift in how people

perceive the supernatural and the unknown. As the popularity of this supernatural genre

grows, the religiosity of the country falls at the same time. The shift to the modern day
can be characterized through the origins of the supernatural genre, the decline in

religiosity, and what is in the future for genre. The connection between the two is that

as the West puts less and less stock into mainstream religion; the production of

supernatural media rises highlighting the decreased reliance on religion to explain the

world around us.

Classical supernatural fiction, that of the gothic era, was similar to the current

form of supernatural fiction in that it rose out of distrust for the current system of

thinking. Frankenstein was written to showcase the evils of the Industrial Revolution and

the scientific leaps that were being made at the time. Dracula was written to show how a

proper woman should behave, as the improper woman has dies in the end. In the

modern day, the scientific community has created the same effect. As the technology

and science communities of today rapidly expand to be able to explain more and more

of the natural world the media had the same effect. The vampire, zombie, and general

supernatural series that have populated the airways and media centers are reactions to

this greater understanding of the universe. In a world where most phenomenon can be

explained quantitatively, a topic that cannot explained easily with science is more

frightening.

The CW show Supernatural is a perfect example of how the modern image of

supernatural stories. The show follows two brothers bringing together popular culture

zeitgeist some of the worlds oldest stories, from the Bible and theology to folklore and

mythology, as well as echoes of literary fairy tales (Hansen). The show combines the

modern world with the supernatural tales of days gone by with modern distrust of things

in the dark. This need to make the unknown comfortable spawned entertainment out of
many new show and movies. These shows such as Walking Dead, True Blood, and

Penny Dreadful have come about to widespread critical acclaim and popular support

among the community. Great trauma can create a vacuum in which people will be quick

to believe in something that gives explanation. The tragedy of the September 11th

attacks showed increases in the number of Americans who believe in the following: that

houses can be haunted; that ghosts or spirits of dead people can come back in certain

places and situations; that people can hear from or communicate mentally with

someone who has died; that extraterrestrial beings have visited Earth at some time in

the past; and who believe in witches. (Gallup) These are all things the normal

traditional religious values will reject as unnatural. Many of the threads of the

Supernatural genre have been around, in the modern era, since the beginning.

Zombies, which seemed to take the place of Vampires in everyones hearts, in their

current form, have been around since 1968 with George Romeros Night of the Living

Dead. The reanimated, flesh-eating, corpses that are the norm today were created by

him and live on through Robert Kirkmans The Walking Dead in both a comic form and

the hit television show. Cynthia A. Freeland claims that what makes the Supernatural

Horror genre so enticing is that The allure of horror is that such monsters come out of

their box to entertain, perplex, disturb, and provoke us, as they confront us with a

multitude of visions of evil. (Radner) The degradation of our religious background, in

some cases, opens the door for more evil to enter the world and so the rise of the

supernatural genre only highlights the danger of that. As these forms of entertainment

have become more widespread it points out how people dont need to be afraid of the

dark and the things that haunt it by pointing out the enduring spirit of human nature.
 As the world, has progressed further and further into the modern era there has

been a decrease in the average population that believes in the supernatural. This

includes ghosts and the creatures of the night as well as deities and religious figures. As

time, has progressed and secularism became stronger and stronger, stretching back

from the Enlightenment era, people have begun to rely more on and more on the

scientific outlook on life. By putting faith in the scientific side of life people can explain

so much more natural occurring phenomena do not have to pray for good will from a

man on high. This change in outlook has been increased in recent years as people start

to actively push for atheism where previously there was a silent minority. Even among

the people who still identify as religious are far less devout compared to previous

generations. Between 2007 and 2014 the number of people who identified as religiously

affiliated dropped from 83 percent to 77 percent. Those who are not affiliated with any

particular religion was at 70 percent but has dropped to 61 percent. (Lipka) These show

that general belief has slightly dropped in all forms. The greatest change is that the

secular identifying people are becoming even more secular as time goes on. This allows

for more acceptance of the supernatural if the people are not constricted by one

restrictive set of beliefs. The overall importance of religion in ones life has also dropped

slightly from 56 percent to 53 percent. This change is enough to see trends of falling

importance no matter the religion. Among Hindu believers only about 26 percent of the

people surveyed said that their religion is very important to them. (Wormald) The

decrease among mainstream religion can be seen even if it is a slight one, and the

effects can be felt in relation to the acceptance for the secular entertainment can be

enjoyed without condemnation from the mainstream media.

 While general religiosity is down a measure a sense of spiritual wellbeing and

questioning of the universe is up. Every generation has seen an increase between 2007

and 2014. The Silent Generation is up from 60 percent to 66 percent in terms of feeling

a spiritual peace and increased from 41 percent to 45 percent with a question of the

universe context. The Older Millennials also saw similar growth growing from 41 percent

to 53 percent on spiritual peace and growing from 37 percent to 44 percent in terms of

questioning the universe. (Lipka) This growth in areas other than traditional religious

practices show to an extent that understanding the mind of God requires more than

simply knowing if God will punish; contents of beliefs, specifically what and whom God

cares about, also matter. (George) There is more to being spiritual and understanding

religion then being devout to traditional teaching. This belief in the Supernatural extends

past the realm of religion, encompassing the haunted. In a study from Gallup in 2005 it

was found that 37 percent of Americans believe that a house can be haunted while 40

percent of British people believe the same. Also in American almost as many people

believe that Astrology can affect someones life, 25 percent, as believe in withes, 21

percent. (Lyons) This amounts to almost a quarter of the population believing in the

supernatural making entertainment that focused on this all the more likely to be

successful if one in every four-people watching think that what they watching could

happen.

As people start to drift from religion the rise of supernatural media can be tracked

alongside with it, but the question become how long will this trend last. As it stands now

religiosity on the whole has been decreasing the past several years while people feel

more at peace with the world. These do not have to be conflicting conclusions and can
show how the modern world has grown past religion on the whole. The world no longer

need look for enlightenment within another instead making the journey within

themselves to reach a point of happiness. The world can support an entertainment

culture dominated by supernatural and evil creatures as the focus of the many outlets.

This trend cannot last forever as can be seen already. Many of the shows and movies

that had been discussed are either no longer on the air or are no longer fresh in the

people minds. The market has been saturated to a point and only the strongest have

been able to survive the culling. As the market processes and evolves it will track along

with the slow decrease of religion.

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