A couple of months later, I head over to Webb's apartment. He wants to show me the video of our encounter on the Common, which has become the pilot episode of ParanormalHood. He's in talks with a couple of major networks, he says, but doesn't want to disclose which ones.
>> WATCH Paranormal Hood: Episode 1 <<
Before we watch, he flips on the Ghost Meter Pro and passes me a blunt. I already feel strange smoking in the presence of spiritual altars; a photograph of his grandmother rests peacefully underneath a bouquet of rainbow-colored carnations, and the brightest light source in the dark kitchen comes from a purple light bulb mounted to a wall sconce in the shape of a spider. But having the meter on is just a little too much. I make him turn it off.
Webb isn't easy to keep up with. Six roaches sit in a porcelain ashtray painted with images from Barcelona. I notice Webb's "JiGGY" name tag, from the night we met, stuck to the speakers set up on his kitchen table. He turns on the first episode of ParanormalHood, and I start reliving my experience while watching the footage. My stomach knots up and I get the chills — the same unease I felt that night.
But to Webb, the supernatural is no longer frightening. He's not trying to capitalize on fear. And as I ask him about his plans for turning the makeshift documentary into an actual television series, I start to realize his aspirations really aren't for fame, either.
"I'm not trying to have some great, great impact on everybody in the world," he tells me later. "But if I can reach some people who normally don't wanna talk about something or open up their minds to other possibilities . . . I've accomplished something. I wanna leave this world a little better than I found it. Will I find that through the paranormal? Yes. I've already been there.
"I'm not talking about radical things . . . what I'm saying is it's a consciousness. People don't understand, your brain is such a big, beautiful thing . . .
"The new incarnation of my brain allows me to just feel good, and think, and not be afraid to think outside the box, not be afraid to learn more, to try to talk to other people, get their stories, and it's a community — a community that I'm in touch with: people who want more than just to live and die."
