Paranormal Investigator Magazine Issue I | Page 16

Paranormal Investigator Magazine The Road to Paranormal Truth is Skepticism By Dave Mace Since the beginning of time, humans have had paranormal experiences. We know because of anthropological research and written historical accounts. Add to that modern day experiences shared by reliable people and the scientific research done by early scientist like J.B. Rhine and his wife Eloise, founders of the Rhine Research Center. Despite remarkable research and millions of personal experiences, scientists are still very reluctant to give any credence to paranormal phenomena. One of many challenges is the broad use of the term paranormal. It seems that we use the paranormal classification for everything from ghosts, cryptids, UFOs, and angels. In reality, there are explanations for everything whether it’s natural, psychological, or yet undiscovered. For the sake of continuity, we’ll limit this topic to ghosts. We still don’t know if all ghosts manifest the same way or are even the remnants of a human essence. There is scientific research that indicates it is not the case. For example, research of the poltergeist phenomena indicates that moving and flying objects are the result of a human agent, often a pre-adolescent female and not a human spirit or demon. Through telekinetic mechanisms still not understood, these human agents unknowingly cause havoc through an unseen force. Other studies show that people can intentionally create ghost like forms. This was illustrated and later reported in the 1976 book Conjuring Up Philip: An Adventure in Psychokinesis. Dr. A. R. G. Owens, a noted researcher was able to recreate earlier studies where a group experienced amazing paranormal activities upon creating a free acting human thought form. — 12 —