“Do ghosts really exist?” This question has always been unanswered. Usually the word paranormal conjures up the image of ghosts. TV shows like “Ghost Hunters” and “Paranormal Cops” investigate haunted houses and speak with ghosts. Although they take pictures and record voices of ghosts, doubt always occurs. Parapsychologist Brian Schill says, “Paranormal events/experiences happen to people more often than they would be comfortable knowing about it.”Researchers believe that a person’s mental health may possibly cause paranormal manifestations (Schill). Meaning that people can simply create a thing or an object that no one can see. Some religions believe that the souls of dead people stay here on Earth for some reasons (Mary). The ancient Egyptians stored food and materials in the pyramids of their kings because they believed in an afterlife. Legends exist, too, about paranormal activities that happened long ago. However skeptics argue that no evidence exists to show that a person’s soul can stay on Earth (Schill). Paranormal manifestations are just a product of our vivid imaginations created due to stress, misconception of our surrounding, and foreign sounds that we might hear. Therefore, research organizations like the International Parapsychology Foundation need to prove that ghosts exist only as products of vivid imaginations.
The unusual occurrences that people experience everyday remain puzzling. The scientific explanations do not support the events. However people all over the world have reported an apparition or manifestations. Parapsychologist Schill states that “Manifestation is much a matter of perception. It lies within the human ability, or more correctly, the limitation of human ability to perceive the environment a...
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Ritsher, Jennifer Boyd. "Hearing Voices: Explanations and Implications." Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal. Winter 2004: 219-227. SIRS Researcher. Web.
Schill, Brian. Email interview. Web.
Schill, Brian “What is Paranormal Activity?” International Parapsychology Research Foundation, Inc. Web, 13 Feb, 2011. http://www.iprfinc.com/index.html.
Schwartz, Stephan. Email interview. Web.
“Science Poll: Let’s get Metaphysical Belief in Paranormal rises in Decade.” Washington Times May 1 2002: A06. Gale Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web.
Susan, Blackmore, “Evidence for Paranormal Phenomena has not been found.” Paranormal Phenomena. Ed. Karen Miller. Detroit: Green Haven Press Opposing viewpoints. Gale Opposing viewpoints in Context. Web.
As I interviewed Annie Filban about her personal experience with spirits, I found to my judgment that it seemed she based a lot of her belief in her story upon faith. Even though she believed something was in fact out of the norm, and was making peculiar movements and noise in her home, she was still skeptical with some of her statements. Filban responded on different occasions to “I don’t know” and “I guess,” which lead me to believe her belief is not based upon evidence as much as it relies on her faith.
Hood, Bruce, PhD. "The Natural Origins of Voodoo." The Self Illusion. Sussex Directories Inc., 6 July 213. Web. 4 Sept. 2013.
Given the title of this work, you may mistakenly believe (as did at least one prior owner of the book copy I had read from, if their annotations are any indication) that this is a literal investigation into all things paranormal and society’s investment of that which goes bump in the night. In “Ghostly Matters: Hauntings and the Sociological Imagination”, Avery F. Gordon offers academics and ethnographers – those whose profession it is to unearth the secreted relationships between the signifier and the signified, the subject and object, the real and unreal - a disturbing ghost story that should leave those of us in the field who came claim these titles with both the deepest of darkest chills and, through a new method of revealing and acknowledging the ghosts we feel, the hope for something akin to redemption. (In this way, perhaps, Gordon accomplishes many of the same feats as Stephen King and Edgar Allen Poe).
Come with me as I take you inside one of the most haunted locations in the United States today. It is a journey down dark hallways and into rooms painted by both shadow and light where spirits talk and phantoms walk. St. Albans Sanatorium is a destination known by serious paranormal investigators as a place where they can seek answers to the mysteries of what lies beyond death. Some of these investigators were able to find resolutions for themselves to a number of these age old riddles through their experiences at the sanatorium. The frightening and true stories found within the pages of this book are about these inquisitive investigators’ encounters with The Ghosts of St. Albans Sanatorium.
Paranormal activity is manifestation that lies outside of the normal experience which can’t be proven to be real. Most people have become interested in the haunted houses and stones due to the lack of support that they are getting from the community of science. The lack of support from the community will be hard to get because most people do not believe in this. According to the unknown, “paranormal activities and sightings usually fall into categories: spirituals entities, crytids, which are organisms whose existence is told by legends and myths.” Most people think that paranormal deal with just ghost and their hauntings but it is much more than that. Paranormal phenomena are not accepted by the scientists because they feel the evidence should be required. According to Psychic Readings, "ESP stands for extra sensory perception. While clairvoyance, or seeing clearly is primarily an optional phenomenon." A clairvoyant psychic is someone who shares a vision of unseen in telling about their health or future. "Clairvoyants are people who specialize in supernatural skills," states Psychics Reading. People like this have a magical ability to see into the past, present, and future. ESP is normally addresses as the sixth sense. "The term 'ESP' was used often in 1870 by Sir Richard Burton." Psychical research does not support that everyone is born with this capability. It is said there are people who have experienced at least one ESP in their lifetime. However to Schmeidler, another theory claims that ESP is a super sense which evolves in the nervous system. From David’s perspective, “hundreds of years ago to possess the gift of clairvoyance, one was considered a witch - as unknown knowledge was 'feared' (the emotion which keeps us trappe...
Cohen, Daniel. The Encyclopedia of the Strange. New York: Dodd, Meod & Company, Inc., 1985.
aranormal activity has been a cause of fear and excitement throughout history. The unknown attracts the curiosity from those who wonder whether the supernatural is real or a figment of the imagination. Ghosts are one of the supernatural beings whose existence is questioned every day. Many want to deny the existence of ghosts because they are terrified of other phantoms who may exist and ignore the evidence that has been brought forth throughout the years. However, ghosts are supernatural pheromones whose existence still impacts today’s society.
Trimble, Russell, "Alchemy," in The Encyclopedia of the Paranormal edited by Gordon Stein (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1996), pp. 1-8.
Paranormal sightings should be taken into consideration because there could be other things among us, besides humans in this world. I believe there are ghosts because some ghosts get stuck in the middle of heaven and hell. So they don't know where to go, so they just stay here on earth. People have seen ghosts before, but others won't believe until they see it for themselves. Now people have seen sightings of ghosts all over the world.
“Mankind’s imagination has always been excited by the possibilities of unknown regions” (Nickell, 109). In the article “Mysterious Entities of the Pacific Northwest Part 1”, Joe Nickell explains the possibilities of pseudoscience, a presented scientific belief that is not yet scientifically valid, as well as the possibility of hoaxes. While there have been many claimed sightings of paranormal activity such as Bigfoot, Ghosts and the Loch Ness Monster, there has not been evidence to prove these claims as real. Almost everybody has heard their share of ghosts stories and the myths behind Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster. These stories are universally shared, and recently, people have provided evidence claiming to have seen such mysterious phenomena. Humans are enthralled by certain claimed sightings because the unknown is interesting. Since the claims of pseudoscience, there have been many people creating videos, claiming to have seen Bigfoot, dressing up in costumes and coming up with ways for the public to believe that their footage is real. Such footage brings forth many opportunities, such as large amounts of money or publicity from those who believe the footage is valid. The time and thought put in by those who create hoax videos shows their urge to believe what has not been proven yet. There have been many claims that have been proven false and others remain mysteries, but humans continue to believe that there is paranormal activity that exists in our world. Some people believe in phenomena such as ghosts and UFO’s because such mysteries are interesting and provide information about our world that could be very important in the future. Mysterious phenomena inspire harmless fascination and could provide important information t...
In today’s rational and scientifically explainable world, it would be hard for us to believe in supernatural intervention in our every day lives unlike during the times of the Shakespearean plays. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, there are three examples of this kind of thing: one with the witches, one with a ghost of a best friend, and one with the a few apparitions.
Miller, Brian. "The Use of Geiger Counters in Paranormal Investigations." Pacific Paranormal. Pacific Paranormal Investigations, 5 June 2009. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.
Wedding, D., & Corsini, R. J. (Eds.). (2014). Current psychotherapies (10th ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole, Cengage