Rather than being believers in the paranormal, let's be skeptical, open-minded explorers
WHEN PEOPLE ASK ME, as a paranormal writer and researcher, if I believe in ghosts, my answer is, "No." They are often surprised by this answer, considering I've had this website for over 13 years. So I explain to them that I do not believe in such things. Rather, my reading and research have led me to the conclusion that there is something to the phenomena of ghosts and hauntings that warrants study and investigation.
I do not know what ghosts are (no one does, despite proclamations of certainty), but there is enough anecdotal evidence (experiences of people), recordings, pictures, and videos of interest to justify scrutiny of that evidence to try to find out what's going on.
But it does no good to believe in ghosts, psychic phenomena, or creatures like Bigfoot. To my mind, belief is the acceptance of an idea without evidence. And where's the sense in that? Why would anyone believe in something for which there is no evidence? That's called "self delusion". And when it comes to many areas of the paranormal, there's no need for this self delusion. There is enough evidence for ghost phenomena, psychic experiences, and Sasquatch (to take just three paranormal examples) for the open-minded person to say that those are worth looking into.
SHADOWY EVIDENCE
Yet, let's be totally honest about this: the tangible evidence for these things is not really strong. With few exceptions, we do not have the kind of solid evidence that we can bring into a science lab for dissection and repeat experimentation:
- With ghosts we mostly have the experiences and sightings by people. What's compelling is the sheer number of reports over thousands of years. Yes, ghosts have been reported and written about for almost 3,000 years! How can that be ignored?
- Poltergeist activity also has its witnesses, sometimes by groups of people, including such good first-hand witnesses as police officers and academics.
- Psychic phenomena is also mostly anecdotal, although there have been scientific experiments suggesting its reality by persons such as Rupert Sheldrake and even university labs such as the now-defunct Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) lab.
- With Bigfoot we have many compelling sightings by credible witnesses, as well as detailed footprints and peculiar hair samples that do not correlate with any known primate.
They are all very interesting accounts and bits of evidence, but there is not preponderance of evidence that convinces mainstream scientists, who by their nature are highly skeptical and even close-minded when it comes to these subjects.
To the curious, open-minded person, however, the evidence is enticing enough to explore. In fact, the implications that these phenomena hold if they can be proved or at least better understood are so potentially far-reaching and profound that it seems ridiculous - even insane - to dismiss them out of hand.
DON'T BELIEVE - EXPLORE
There is no need to be blind believers, but there are very good reasons to be explorers, investigators, and questioners.
Blind belief, when it comes to the paranormal, is practically useless. The paranormal should not be a belief system. Believing that orbs are spirits, that ghosts are dead people, that Sasquatch comes here from another dimension, that a person is possessed by a demon - to state these things as facts as part of a belief system is counter-productive to serious paranormal research. If you're a believer, you already have your mind made up, and if your mind is already made up about this stuff, you're probably wrong.
The truth is we do not know the absolute nature of these things. These are mysteries. Maybe ghosts are dead people; I don't know; maybe they are something else entirely. Maybe Sasquatch is an unknown animal, or maybe it does warp here from another dimension; I don't know. Maybe some UFOs are extraterrestrial craft; I don't know. No one knows the definitive truth about these things. Yet.
OPEN-MINDED SKEPTICISM
So we need to collect, examine, and follow the evidence wherever it takes us. We're interested in the truth, not what is fun or convenient to believe in. That's not to say you cannot have opinions about these subjects. I certainly have strong opinions, ideas, and suspicions about many facets of the paranormal, but we should not be inflexible about these opinions when we are confronted with conflicting evidence or alternate theories.
Yes, I'm going to use the "S" word - we must be skeptical. We must be open-minded skeptics, willing to consider and question every photo, video, EVP, story, and feeling. We need to be rigorous in our examination of these things. Otherwise we're just deluding ourselves.
Don't be a blind paranormal believer. Be a paranormal explorer. What has been labeled the "paranormal" is an amazing world of mystery and possibility. That's why I do this website and I'm sure that's why you come here.
Perhaps we'll never fully understand these mysteries, but delving into them is a really exciting, fun journey. Coming to terms with "the unexplained" will give us a fuller understanding of life, ourselves, our minds, our existence, and perhaps of reality itself. I'd say that's worthwhile.
