Paranormal? Really?
Not everything that is unexplained is a ghost!
Yes, there are unexplained phenomena, and some of them are extraordinarily spooky. Be aware that it is also perfectly normal for somebody who thinks they may be haunted, to have a strong tendency to think that everything that goes thump in the night is a ‘ghost’. Take a deep breath. The odds are very good that your home is not actually haunted.
A brief history
Mankind has always had to lean on religion to explain things like disease, storms, and death. For only the most recent past have we known about things like bacteria, static discharge, and death. We still do not know what causes paranormal activity with any scientific certainty.
From the 1840s to the 1930s, there was a Spiritualism movement (also called Spiritism) that centered around mediums giving seances in the dark. These people gathered together to contact the dead. During these seance sessions, the “spirits” would rap on tables, play instruments, levitate objects, and speak to the people gathered. The more theatrical the performance, the better the reviews. This lead to more widespread skepticism about the movement, lead in part by magician Harry Houdini. The frauds were exposed and the movement faded away.
Today, we gather around in the dark and watch TV shows where the “investigators” let the spirits rap on water pipes or make electronic devices blink at us. They show us cold spots and EMF readings. The more theatrical the performance, the better the reviews.
There is nothing truly new in the paranormal field. The theories have changed to reflect new devices, but there still is tragically little to offer in the way of scientifically valid proof once you set the pseudoscience aside.
Let’s put the shoe on a different foot for a minute.
Suppose I say that I have an invisible unicorn in my closet. I want you to find him and get rid of him for me, okay? He throws clothes off the hangars and into piles in the corner. He turns the lights on and off, and I hear his hooves on the floor sometimes.
How do you catch a unicorn? I’m glad you asked, because there are two basic schools of unicorn catching.
1) Believe there may be a unicorn. You give me the benefit of the doubt, and try to find the unicorn. Set up your cameras, thermal detectors, magic field finders, and hoof sensors. If you find any evidence that way, you’ll be inclined to believe you really did find a unicorn. That’s what you were looking for, isn’t it?
2) Believe there might not be any unicorn. Using this method you would investigate the hangars to make sure the clothes should have stayed on them. Is there anything in the closet that could have knocked the clothes off? Check the piles of clothes to see if it is just normally discarded laundry (ew!) or if it has anything else going on. Does the light switch have a second circuit, a faulty switch or a loose lightbulb? Check out the floor carefully for construction faults, noises caused by seasonal expansion and contraction from heating systems or air conditioning. Lastly, you’d think about getting an evaluation of me at the hospital, because most sane people don’t believe they have unicorns in their closet.
In this case, if you use the term ‘unicorn’ with me, it is an agreement that something odd is going on, even if there is no invisible beast in there with a horn growing out of its forehead.
With either method you may find a simply unexplainable phenomena. Or you may decide it was all just my cat.
What is a ghost? Many people would commonly answer that it is the remaining spiritual energy of a human who is no longer alive. What is a demon? Many people would commonly answer that it is an energy force or a spiritual entity of a being who is not human, probably with hostile (or at best not friendly) intentions.
Great! But what does that mean in measurable, scientific terms? How can anybody know for certain the difference between a ghost and a demon? What kind of spiritual energy is this, exactly? Does it have a voltage? How many milliwatts does it take to create an apparition or a moving shadow? Energy fields are measurable, so this should be a piece of cake, right?
Sadly, there is nothing much that science can say on the subject. The results of your investigation will depend in large part on the investigators and where they fall within the believer – to – skeptic range and the quality of the equipment they bring to the investigation.
Instead of ‘ghost’ or ‘demon’, try substituting any of the following terms: sprite, faerie, devil, imp, poltergeist, leprechaun, apparition, shadow, elemental, orb… (and the list goes on, including unicorns). Science has no descriptions to offer.
None of these creatures have been captured, taken to a laboratory, and subjected to scrutiny. You’ve never seen a leprechaun at the zoo, unless it was near St. Patrick’s Day. Therefore, there is no impartial standard or judgment that can be agreed to among investigators – nothing objective to measure your ‘haunting’ against except personal opinion.
For instance, if a book falls from your shelf, it could be vibrations from the front door slamming, a poorly designed shelf, a cat rubbing the bookshelf, any of a number of other possibilities. Or it could be something completely unexplained, like Uncle Ted trying to let you know he is still around (or he didn’t like that book anyway). Doesn’t it make sense to rule out all of the normal, physical possibilities before we jump to the conclusion that the book falling is because of dear, departed Uncle Ted?
If an event is unexplained, does that mean it is therefore supernatural? Well, no. Maybe it truly is. But for the most part, it means just that – unexplained – and we don’t know what it is. To assign a category of “ghost”, “demon”, or “poltergeist” is a pretty extraordinary claim. Extraordinary claims require some sort of proof to back them up, shouldn’t they?
More examples….
Footsteps are commonly heard on stairs. This can almost always be traced to support structures, the house settling, temperature variations, or other construction issues.
One homeowner claimed that when she left her dishes in the sink, the ghost would rattle her dishes and pans in the night. The investigator determined that it was vibration in the flooring from the very old and noisy furnace downstairs. The dishes only rattled when the furnace was running.
That being said, the unexplained cases are the ones that keep serious investigators interested. It is the unexplained that keeps us asking questions!
- How do you define a new science around these events that defy explanation and attempts at proof?
- How can legitimate tools be developed to detect supernatural phenomena with reliable accuracy, predictability, and repeatability?
- Where do you draw the line and allow that something supernatural may be occurring?
- What kind of proof would be accepted by skeptics?
These are questions many people are working on, and legitimate investigators should at least be familiar with the questions.
It’s a WHAT?!
Traditional paranormal definitions and concepts, and the problems with them.
Residual Haunting
A residual haunting is a traditional description of a series of events where a spirit/ghost repeats the same behavior over and over, unaware of their surroundings. For instance, the spirit of a woman is seen entering the same room, time and time again, and sits in the same chair each time.
A Residual Haunt report the actions of the spirit continuing to follow the same routine even if the surroundings change. In the above example, this would mean that even if the chair was moved the spirit of the woman would still enter the room and sit where the chair used to be. It could also mean the spirit enters the room at the same point even if the doorway has been moved.
So can you prove there is a residual haunting? Um, no. However, you can prove that you believe that you saw something by taking a lie detector test.
Intelligent Haunting
A haunting where the spirits seem to interact and respond to people and things in their environment. For instance, someone says something offensive to the spirit, resulting in an increase in activity. Another example would be that activity picks up if things are moved in a room.
Unlike a residual haunting, an intelligent haunting will respond to changes in the environment, and perhaps to people. This type of haunting would typify spirit activity where it is reportedly communicating with an investigator (knocks, lights, noises).
So can you prove there is an intelligent haunting? Um, no. Please? Maybe, but not with the science we have available now. You might be able to document the belief that something odd is going on, but until you can determine what a ghost actually is, well… you get the point.
Poltergeist
An odd type of haunt is the poltergeist phenomena. The traditional stories about them describes the hallmark of a poltergeist as some entity with an ability to flip lights on or off, throw objects, make odd noises, and generally make mischief.
It has been observed many times that the poltergeist activity usually occurs when there is an adolescent in the home. One theory is that the raging hormones, emotional distress, and general teenage angst contribute toward the negative ‘vibe’ in the home. Solving a poltergeist riddle may be more effectively done through family counseling, or just wait until the teenager grows out of that phase.
You have a poltergeist? Really? Or is it a deceased unicorn? Can you prove that it is not a dead unicorn? If there is no way to prove what a thing is, you cannot prove what it is not.
Consider the time of day!
If your phenomena are occurring in the early morning (from 2am to 4am), it may not be a ghost. It may be YOU. This time of the morning is often called the ‘witching hour‘.
Some reasons for these phenomena are due to sleep disorders. In sleep labs anywhere on the planet, on any night they might choose, sleep clinics can have patients talking to beings who are notthere (with video surveillance and audio recording to confirm they were alone).
This is because of some physiological processes happening when you are supposed to be sleeping soundly. For one thing, your body is pumping glucose back into the blood stream so that you have energy to burn when you wake up. If you wake up from a deep REM sleep, with that much sugar in your blood stream, yes – you are going to talk to grandma, see an angel, or hear monsters in the closet. It’s nearly guaranteed.
This is related to other issues with circadian rhythms. If you or your loved one reporting phenomena at this time of day are having sleep issues, see a doctor or a sleep specialist!
I had an event of my own along these lines. Early one morning, I heard voices in the house just outside my door, and I was convinced I had an intruder in the house. I grabbed my weapon of choice and tiptoed immediately to the top of the stairs and listened. I heard a voice again, and it sounded like he was laughing at me. I was getting pretty angry at about the time I became fully awake and realized it was my next door neighbor’s kid chatting up a girlfriend on a cell phone, and I had overheard the conversation from outside.
I had assumed an intruder. With different stimuli, you might decide it’s grandma, Elvis, or even an alien.
If weird things are happening while you are in bed, the cause may be a form of sleep paralysis. If you’ve been sleeping in a nice, deep, happy REM sleep – please know that your body does not wake up all at the same time. The brain can wake up from sleep before the rest of the body does. This leaves the door wide open for hallucinations, dream-like states with people in the room, and often an acute sense of danger. Some researchers believe that sleep paralysis explains many of the abduction stories we hear about in the UFO literature. It is just as easy to have ‘visits’ from Aunt Margaret, your guardian angel, or somebody far more sinister.
The flip side, obviously, is that if your guardian angel were to visit you, it might be most easily done when you are in a state of sleep paralysis. Whether it is a psychological cause or a psychological effect is open for discussion since science has no way to determine if there is anything truly paranormal going on around us anyway. Just realize that your own mind can play tricks on you!
Have you been touched?
Do you think that you have been touched by a ghost? Have you found scratches, rashes, or other signs on your body when you woke up one morning?The leading cause of such incidents is, surprisingly, not a ghost. Get a mold test kit at your local home improvement store, and start with any fabric that you have worn or that has touched you. Molds, spores and fungus are not only collected by Dr. Egon Spangler, they are a popular home addition for many people who do not realize that they have an infection instead of an infestation. Check sheets, towels, your Tshirt collection – all of it.
Seeing things?
Many people report seeing shadows or bits of movement in the corners of their vision. Is this you? Are these phantoms never there when you look directly at the thing that was moving? Doesn’t that drive you nuts? I hate when that happens!
The most likely cause of visual phenomena that happens around the edges of your vision is inside your eyeball. Many people have ‘floaters’. If you see things around the edges but never when you look directly at them, see an eye doctor! And hey – if you navigate to WebMD and search for “eye floaters” there is a lot of helpful information, and even some suggested remedies.
Another cause of some visual phenomena may be pareidolia. This is a psychological condition where vague visual impressions are perceived as significant. This is probably what’s really bothering people who think they see the face of Jesus in a tortilla, the Virgin Mary in wood panelling, or even animal shapes in clouds.
Pareidolia is also the reason why Rorschach inkblot tests work. In a Rorschach test the person projects whatever is going on in his head onto the cards, which have been designed to not represent anything at all.
Is it all in your head?
Many medications can create hallucinations, odd sensations of dread, and other negative emotional or psychological phenomena. Are you taking Vicodin? Well, that may be the ticket for the visual hallucinations. Clonazepam can, too, as well as a general feeling of uneasiness, seizures and severe psychological or emotional changes. Are you taking Neurontin? It may give you psychoactive effects as well as an increased risk for thinking about suicide.
Seriously, if you’re on medicine and you think you might have a ghost, find more information about everything in your medicine cabinet. Then take a deep breath and tell your doctor. If a different medicine chases the ghoulies away, that’s a good thing, right?
Do you suffer from Schizophrenia? I really don’t know what to say, other than I hope you find a way to beat the condition. Meanwhile, you’re having some sucky hallucinations, and that’s gotta be really rough at times.
You can see by now that there are many reasons for a “haunting” that have nothing to do with grandma or Uncle Herman. Some things are tough to explain. If I can’t explain something, I admit that I don’t know what it is. Does that mean it is paranormal? Um… maybe! Since I cannot really prove that a spirit visited me, and I cannot prove that it no longer is there, I don’t have a logical basis to rule anything either out or in as ‘paranormal’. I just call it ‘unexplained’.
