on ghosts and spirits. These techniquesrange from the usual electronic gadgetssuch as EMF meters, thermometers, andcameras, to the use of psychics, medi-ums, dowsing rods, séances, and thelike.In this regard, I have heard and readmany a paranormal group strongly dis-
courage the use of “non scientific”
tools, such as dowsing rods and séances.
I couldn‟t help but wonder why. Of
course, the explanations range from
“it‟s too subjective and you can‟t proveit” to “you could be dabbling in some-
thing that could ultimately hurt you,
perhaps even possess you.” Contrary to
what one might think, some investiga-tors seem to harbour a deep fear of spir-its.
Again I wondered, “Is it true that youcan‟t prove psychic evidence? And, is it
true that spirits or malevolent entities
can harm you?” If it is true, how can it
be proven? And if not true, where did
these notions come from?”
The result of my thinking and re-search on the matter was that it all de-
pended on a person‟s beliefs. Belief is
arguably the most powerful thing in theknown universe. Beliefs have startedevery war fought in the history of hu-manity, and they are responsible for
everyone‟s success or failure in life.
Beliefs at one time killed many allegedwitches, and, during the inquisition,many thousands of innocent people with
contrary “beliefs.” Beliefs once told us
we could not fly, and then Beliefs toldus we could, so we did.When it comes to investigating theparanormal, which belief is correct? Isthe scientific method the best? Or arenon-scientific methods better? Can Ibecome possessed? Can spirits hurt me?
Will a spirit follow me home if I don‟t
mentally surround myself with a bubble
of “white light” or say a prayer be-
fore investigating or burn sagesmudge sticks? Are all psychics frauds?The answers are: Absolutely yes,and absolutely no. It all depends onyour beliefs. If you believe it is so,then it is true for you.(1)Beliefs are also responsible for allof the good and all of the bad of bothreligion and science, and I will go sofar as to say that science and religionare principally the
same thing
. Howso? They both often approach life
—
and especially the paranormal
—
withpreconceived notions. Religion in gen-eral and mainstream science are bothessentially closed-minded.In order to arrive at a balanced andopen-minded conclusion about thebest approach to investigating theparanormal, consider the followingregarding fundamentalist religion andfundamentalist science.
RELIGION
I have had an extreme interest inall aspects of the paranormal since Iwas a small child, having devoureddozens of books and done much re-
search on the topic. To date, I can‟tsay with certainty that I‟ve ever had aparanormal experience, but I‟m hop-
ing that will change. When I wasabout nine years old, my friends and Iput together a makeshift Ouija boardusing a blank sheet of paper and somelong-forgotten trinket to serve as aplanchette. It seemed to work
—
atleast to the minds of creative nine-year olds
—
but we got so spooked that
we tore our “Ouija board” up and
never tried again. My great-grandfather died when I was just atoddler, and as I grew up, my
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wanted to approach paranormalinvestigations from a scientificstandpoint; I wanted to use thescientific method to gain evidenceof the paranormal, whichever sub-category it fell into, e.g., ghosts,
UFO‟s, mysterious creatures, etc.
That meant that I would first seek arational, natural explanation ofspecific events before I would con-clude that they were paranormal innature. My philosophy would be
“Open
-mindedness tempered byhealthy skepticism tempered byopen-
mindedness.” Many paranor-
mal groups also take a similar ap-proach.As I read about the investiga-tions of other groups as well as per-formed my own investigations, Ibegan to see a common theme:Many groups would have personalparanormal experiences during in-vestigations, sometimes even cap-turing apparitions on video, butthen what? How can you scientifi-cally prove that anything paranor-mal happened? These events areusually not reproducible in a lab.So, groups go and investigate, ex-perience many strange things, ac-quire some weird pictures, video,
or EVP‟s, and then go do it all over
again. I wondered, beyond person-ally experiencing these strangeevents, what do we really have thatcan be shown as concrete proof?Furthermore, are high EMF read-ings, cold spots, and dust orbsabout all we can expect to get fromour investigations? And even if wewere to see and video tape a full-body apparition, then what? Whatwould it really tell us about the
“other side?” I wanted more.
This is when I began to seriouslyand open-mindedly reassess all ofthe known paranormal investigativetechniques, with a particular focus
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