Personally, I don’t believe in ghosts. In my humble opinion, spirits and ghosts are manifestations of fear and unresolved issues of the human psyche. But whether ghosts exist or not is usually a contentious topic and largely depends on one’s personal beliefs. In fact, the COVID years have rather seen a spike in the ‘bhoot economy’, maybe because things like epidemics bring out the worst fears even in the best of us and we are mostly seeking answers during times as uncertain as these.
With people losing jobs, their loved ones, and any sort of known security, many in India started turning to alternatives like black magic and malpractices involving the supernatural. Seeing many fall into the trap of superstitions and blind faith, Delhi-based paranormal investigator Jay Alani started India’s only paranormal helpline. Founded in January 2020, the helpline had successfully completed 1,000 calls by the first week of August 2021. Through the helpline, their main aim has been to spread awareness against supernatural beliefs and the malpractices that take place in its name.
In an interview with The New Indian Express, Alani had said, “In these calls, we successfully saved people from falling into the traps on blind faith and superstitions.”
He also mentioned that while earlier, the callers could ring up the helpline, the advent of the rather baseless and prank-call nature of certain calls led them to change the system. “India has a lot of curious people and I would get calls at 2 am, asking me “Is the demon in The Conjuring real?” To avoid that, we stopped direct calling. Anyone with a genuine problem can send us audio messages on WhatsApp, and depending upon the gravity of their problem, we call them back accordingly,” said Alani.
Since its inception, the helpline has received the most number of calls from regions like MP, Maharashtra, Delhi, Rajasthan, and Jharkhand.
In the interview, he also mentioned the toll of the Coronavirus lockdown and its direct impact on the increased number of calls the helpline received.
“The inflow of calls and queries increased during the lockdowns. The callers are mostly people who are staying away from their homes for one reason or the other. The mindset of society at large needs to change. All I can do is offer a different perspective to a situation,” he reveals.
You can message the helpline at +91 9999518600.
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