Is Paranormal Research Legit?

Conducting paranormal research can be difficult because there are so few acceptable standards to define what paranormal spirits actually are. Since the paranormal does not necessarily operate under the same pretenses as the natural, physical world we know, researchers have a hard time calculating the existence of phantoms, demons, ghosts and spirits. Over the years, researchers have discovered several tools they believe to be helpful in detecting otherworldly presences. They've studied people's beliefs regarding the paranormal and they've used technology to try to capture evidence we can see or hear on tape.

Paranormal research had a lot of steam prior to the seventies, when societies began to emerge that questioned the authenticity of spiritualism studies. In 1976, Paul Kurtz founded the Committee for Scientific Inquiry, which publishes bi-monthly articles that "encourage the critical investigation of paranormal and fringe-science claims from a responsible, scientific point of view and disseminate factual information about the results of such inquiries to the scientific community and the public." Their team of experts includes scientists, Nobel laureates, philosophers, educators, authors and celebrities. Parapsychology and the paranormal may never have such a prominent place in our modern society as it did in centuries past, but the general public will always remain fascinated by paranormal unexplained mysteries.

For most people, hearing, seeing or encountering a ghost is enough to make believers out of them. However, paranormal research aims to take this very personal experience and present acceptable evidence to the masses. They seek out ways to quantify and calculate the presence of ghosts, to capture them on camera, or even to disprove commonly reported phenomena. Today, there are numerous approaches to researching the ghost paranormal phenomenon.

When many of us think of paranormal research, we imagine Bill Murray wearing a proton pack or Ivan Reitman with a ghost trap. We picture the paranormal group walking around with electro-magnetic field meters and collecting samples of ectoplasm. While it may have seemed high-tech and incredulous in the eighties, many paranormal society investigators use similar tools to track the presence of strange anomalies that may be contributed to otherworldly spirits.

Some researchers take an anecdotal approach to the research of the paranormal by collecting ghostly stories from around the world and comparing them. Charles Fort (1874-1932) is one of the most trusted collectors of anecdotal evidence, with over 40,000 accounts of unexplained paranormal happenings on record. Most of these notes came from magazines, newspapers and scientific journals, he says. The culmination of this evidence is contained in four noteworthy books: The Book of the Damned (1919), New Lands (1923), Lo! (1931), and Wild Talents (1932). His stories talk of poltergeist activity, teleportation, falling fish and frogs across a tremendous range, crop circles, bumps in the night, levitation, spontaneous fires, UFOs, mysterious disappearances and appearances, wheels of light over the ocean, phantom animals, out-of-place artifacts and alien abductions. Some consider Fort to be the "father of modern paranormalism." While there is no empirical evidence, per se, many people like reading these personal accounts of the paranormal and it's interesting to note the compiled similarities of certain events.

An experimental approach is another form of paranormal research performed today. For example, starting in the 1930s, the Ganzfeld Experiment was devised to test for telepathic paranormal powers. In a typical experiment, the participant is left in a room, relaxing in a comfortable chair, with ping-pong balls over the eyes, bathed in a red light, wearing headphones playing white static. During a thirty minute period of mild sensory deprivation, a sender in a different room tries to mentally communicate messages to the receiver, who can speak out loud and let the scientists know what is being visualized. The scientists can take notes and record the session for concrete proof. After the experiment, the receiver is shown a set of possible targets, including three decoys, and asked to select which image they saw. Generally, the results have been 25 - 35 % accurate.

Other researchers prefer the participant-observer approach to paranormal research. A parapsychologist will look for ways to prove the existence of a paranormal phenomenon in a laboratory setting, although most hunters of ghosts prefer to immerse themselves in the field, looking for clues in places that are allegedly haunted. This method has gained increased popularity through reality TV shows like Ghost Hunters, where researchers collect data and report their own personal experiences. While these sort of first person observations do not gain respect in the scientific community, many people can identify with these accounts as being something they've experienced at one time or another.

Paranormal research often centers on finding consistent patterns of anomalies in alleged "haunted" locations. For instance, paranormal groups often note that haunted grounds have stronger than normal or strangely fluctuating magnetic fields. The magnetism of a particular location can be measured using an electro-magnetic field (EMF) meter. Disturbances in magnetic readings could be caused by geological formations, electronic equipment or other unexplained phenomena. A more contemporary view of magnetism is that the presence of abnormal magnetic fields may actually be interacting with the angular gyrus of the brain, causing neural symptoms like hallucinations. Other types of paranormal activities include temperature and low-frequency sound waves, and cold spots are commonly described just before a haunting. Also, low-frequency sound waves of 20 Hz or less have been known to make people nervous or even cause them to hallucinate!

Scientific skeptics like James Randi are also known for conducting paranormal research to investigate the claims of paranormal phenomena. These researchers look for natural causes of the reported symptoms and look for evidence of a hoax. The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry is currently the largest group investigating the paranormal and parapsychology today. According to Rand, the most common explanation for "paranormal powers" is optical illusion and trickery of the mind. The James Randi Educational Foundation is so convinced that the paranormal is a sham that they're willing to pay $1 million to anyone who can demonstrate solid evidence of any supernatural or occult power under mutually agreed upon test conditions.

Many of the best people conducting paranormal research are impartial skeptics. While they would like to prove the existence of spirits, they are more likely to seek out rational explanations for bizarre occurrences. Opinion polls show that most people would like to believe in ghosts and surmise that there is life beyond death. The general public is exceedingly curious about the continuation of life beyond this world and some of the ghost stories may reveal people's fears about the unknown. Despite widespread beliefs in the paranormal, the National Science Board asserts that these beliefs can actually be dangerous. They say belief in the paranormal shows reduced critical thinking skills and a reduced ability to make day-to-day decisions.

Despite the lack of credible, widely accepted paranormal research, polls show about half of Americans believe in paranormal happenings. "For some reason, a lot of people want it to be so,'' University of Maryland professor Dr. Robert L. Park told the New York Times. People want to believe in the existence of life after death, in the power of the mind over matter, and in extrasensory perception. Park adds, ''If you can do things with your mind, then the universe is paying attention to you, and that's important to a lot of people.''