Paranormal Investigators
Opinions from Paranormal Investigators. These opinions were used with permission. Please visit their links!
I'm 90-95% convinced of ghosts and hauntings. This is purely subjective and comes from my own experiences and observations. Even though I'm nearly convinced, as an investigator, I force myself to keep the door slightly ajar to other possibilities. Maybe we've made a simple mistake and overlooked something in our research? Maybe its being caused by another natural phenomena (not ghosts) that science has not discovered yet? Until we know for certain, we must remain open to all possibilities and not be absolute believers, nor absolute disbelievers (cynics).
-- Patrick Burns, "Haunting Evidence"
Visit Patrick at Ghost Hounds, Paranormal Investigators Network: http://ghosthounds.com/
I am often asked by my non-believing friends why I believe in such things as ghosts, Bigfoot, UFO's, or some of the other unexplained mysteries of our world. The answer isn't as easy as one would think. There are people who simply want to believe, and so they do. There are others who believe because of some experience they have had that makes them believers. And then there are people who critically look over the evidence, and decide that that is enough to make them believe. I would tend to fall into the latter two categories.
The first category, wanting to believe, is not reason enough for me to actually believe. I would love to still believe in some of the things that I thought existed when I was a child, but I can't anymore. So I no longer believe. The second category, however, does pertain to me. I have had experiences that anyone would deem strange. I have heard strange sounds that could not be explained rationally. I have seen lights in the sky that didn't conform to any known aircraft I had ever seen before or since. I have had some other things happen to me that though totally unexplainable, do not fit easily into any specific category I know of. Would I be so bold as to claim that the lights I saw were extraterrestrial spaceships? Or that the sounds I heard were ghosts? In a word, no. I do not know what they were. I only know what they weren't. And, of course, I always have to be open to the possibility that I was mistaken.
The third category, believing based on evidence, is probably the strongest factor influencing my beliefs. I have never seen a Bigfoot. But, tens of thousands of sightings, stretching back hundreds of years, makes one wonder. Is it possible that all of these people, dating back to the Native Americans, were simply mistaken? I don't think so. I am even willing to concede that the vast majority sightings, whether ghost, lake monster, UFO, Bigfoot, etc., are based on misconceptions. But you don't need all UFO sightings to be of actual UFO's to warrant further investigation. All you need is one. I simply can't believe that trained, experienced woodsmen are looking into the forest and are mistaking bears or moose for a 7' tall bipedal ape-man. I can't believe that trained, experienced pilots are looking at clouds or Venus and mistaking them for large, metallic, disc shaped craft. It doesn't make sense. Again, I'm not saying people can't be mistaken, but for that many people to report a certain phenomenon at least warrants some further investigation.
And that is what I believe. I would never come right out and say ghosts are real, or Bigfoot exists, or UFO's are extraterrestrial spacecraft. But I believe in the possibility that these things exist. Remember, keep an open mind...both to the possibility of existence, and to the possibility of more rational explanations.
-- Jason Stroming, Co-founder “The Eastern Paranormal Investigations Center”
Visit Jason at: http://www.epicparanormal.com or http://www.theunexplained.net
In paraphrasing the fictionalized "Holmes" by "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle". "Whatever remains, however improbable, must be so". Perfectly depicts my attitude and approach of anything anomalous in nature. Be it proven real or someone's conspired phantasm.
Where through twenty seven plus years of investigation and research of such matters, had I found that only a small percentage of anomalous occurence were explainable. Which undoubtedly only served in creating an ever expanding void of questionable improbability due to unverifiable evidence.
And yet in almost taunting fashion do such improbabilities continue to emerge unabated while assuming a vast array of forms cloaked within a fabric of mystery and defiance of our present rational.
But unlike my fellow constitutes within the paranormal field. My chosen methodology was not proving the existence or occurence of such phenomena. But in profiling the behavior and characteristics of such phenomena.
-- Director J. Burkhart, "Supernatural NY Paranormal"
Visit Director J. Burkhart at: http://www.supernaturalparanormal.com
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