In a world that is becoming more and more based on science, data, and reason, there is still a place for the mysterious. This includes things that can’t be explained, things that can’t be seen, and stories that are passed down from one generation to the next. People are starting to talk about paranormal events more in books, podcasts, and social media, instead of just in whispers and late-night secrets. And within that is a fascinating phenomenon: the individual paranormal narrative. If we talk about the book, FOLLOWED is a good example of a book that shows us that stories about meeting ghosts aren’t just ghost stories. They are deeply human stories about fear, faith, memory, and awe. So why are these accounts so important? And what good does it do to share and re-share them? Let’s talk about why it’s not only interesting to share personal paranormal experiences, but also necessary.
1. They confirm what isn’t seen
One of the best things about individual paranormal stories is that they confirm what the person telling the story and the person listening to it both believe. When someone tells about a supernatural event, they are sharing something very private and possibly embarrassing. By doing this, they are asking people to believe not in the fact that it happened, but in how they saw it. Anne Reed tells a series of family stories that span several generations in FOLLOWED. From an inexplicable presence in a childhood home to recurring symbols passed down through the years, each story supports the idea that an unseen presence has shaped their lives. These stories back up what a lot of other people have said but were too scared to say. Storytelling gives you permission to feel, to ask questions, and to be open to things that science can’t yet explain.
2. They make connections
Paranormal experiences often lead to feelings of isolation. People who have them feel alone, like no one understands them, or even like they are being laughed at. But when they are shared, they make an instant connection. You’re not the only one who saw that shadowy figure, heard that whisper in the empty room, or felt that chill that didn’t make sense. This feeling of community is one of the things that makes paranormal memoirs like FOLLOWED so interesting. People who read the stories can relate to them in some way, whether they have had similar experiences or just have questions they’ve never asked out loud. The stories connect people who don’t know each other through shared feelings of awe, fear, and curiosity. It becomes a way to say, “You’re not crazy.” I’ve felt it too.
3. They give you insight into different cultures and generations.
Paranormal stories aren’t just about ghosts or otherworldly beings; they are also cultural artefacts. They usually show what people thought, worried about, and valued at a certain time and place. A Victorian would call it a haunting, but a person living in a modern city might call it a glitch in the matrix or a psychic impression. The words and how it looks change, but the thing itself stays the same. In books like FOLLOWED, we get more than just a bunch of scary stories. We see how a family’s experience with the unknown connects with their culture, traditions, and even their past traumas. These books show how the strange flows through time and how it changes in memory. These stories are important historical and emotional documents, whether or not you believe in spirits. They show how people explain things they can’t.
4. They encourage curiosity and openness.
Individual paranormal experiences achieve something significant: they extricate us from our cognitive confines. They make us think, “What if?” Not everyone who reads FOLLOWED or books like it is a true believer. Some are not sure. But even for the cynical, a well-told personal story can make them curious and want to know more. It makes us think about the limits of what is real. Could our perceptions be limited? Could the universe be stranger than we think? The skill of telling a story is getting people to want to know more about it without making them solve it. Paranormal stories are great at this. In a world that often values knowing, they want us to wonder again.
5. They help you deal with trauma and emotional truths.
When people are sad, scared, or angry, it’s not surprising that they tell supernatural stories. A dream after a loved one dies. A scary experience in a history of child abuse. A nightmare that keeps happening and is connected to family secrets. In this case, the supernatural stands for emotional reality, even though it can’t be measured. Telling stories becomes a way to deal with things. In FOLLOWED, the stories do more than just make you laugh; they also make you feel better. They help Anne Reed and her family deal with their past, find meaning in things that don’t make sense, and celebrate things that can’t be explained. By telling their stories, they learn more about themselves. And we often find it by reading them too.
6. They Help Everyone Understand More
Every time someone talks about a strange but important event, they add to a huge, unofficial collection of information—an international database of strange but important events. As time goes on, patterns start to show up, like the same types of ghostly activity, symbols that show up again and again, and events that happen at the same time in different cultures and continents. Novels like FOLLOWED aren’t just collections of stories; they’re more stories that add to an ever-growing collection of mysteries. When different people tell similar stories about their experiences without working together, it becomes hard to ignore the total number of personal stories. Collective storytelling can ultimately foster increased knowledge or, at the very least, a heightened acceptance of the complexity of the world beyond our imagination.
7. They Show Us How Strong Stories Are
At its heart, a paranormal story is just that: a story. And telling stories is the oldest way for people to learn about things they don’t know. We’ve told ghost stories around campfires, shared stories about gods and monsters, and passed down stories about spirits and signs. These stories have always helped us deal with fear, doubt, and what we don’t know. Personal paranormal experiences carry on this tradition. They say that telling stories isn’t just for fun. It’s about making sense of things. It’s about bringing together what we know and what we think is true.
Final Thoughts
It takes bravery to talk about a personal paranormal experience. It takes guts to let people criticize you. To say, “This happened to me,” when other people will laugh at or ignore it. But that courage is strong. It makes people want to connect with each other, makes them curious, and celebrates the mystery of being human. Sometimes, when the world is so quick to explain everything, the bravest thing we can do is not explain, but just share. Anne Reed’s FOLLOWED and other books like it remind us how beautiful it is to be open. They remind us that every creak in the dark and every voice that makes our spines tingle could be part of something much bigger than itself, and that bigger story needs to be told.
