The Paranormal: What's Real?

The paranormal is not an easy subject to research by any means. I scoured news articles, the Internet, people's stories, documentaries, etc. for hours and have come up with nothing but conflicting research. If there is a science for the paranormal it is one that has not yet been perfected by any means. In the end it's what we believe. There are skeptics and true believers. I'm going to discuss a few areas of the paranormal; you decide what you feel is real.

Ghosts

I have my own personal doubts when it comes to ghosts.  I have to question why ghosts are allergic to crowds? Why there aren't many friendly ghosts? Why they like to visit only certain places? And why people don't question any of this? However, I said I have my doubts. I'm not 100% set on the fact that they don't exist even though I've never seen any scientific evidence. Can science really prove they exist? I'm not sure science can.  I think this goes beyond science to be honest.  The theory or relativity explains endless possibilities that Einstein laid out for the scientific community.  We recently discovered that Einstein may have not been right about what he said and disproving the fundamentals of physics.  We can't say that ghosts are not real, but we can't say they are.

Ghosts are defined as the souls or spirits of a deceased person that manifests itself in human form or some other manifestation.  Many believers have claimed to have seen ghosts and even some have snapped photographs that they believe are authentic ghosts captured on film.  Some have even claimed to capture photographs on video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvKZPA8wFPc ). Many photos/videos have been disproved and there are only a handful that cannot be explained.  The following photograph is called "Brown Lady of Raynham Hall" and it is one that has not been disproved or explained yet:

Brown Lady of Raynham Hall

My Family Ghost Story

When I was 8 years old I was living in a house in Rockleigh, NJ. The house was a rather old house and in a very, very safe area that had no crime rate whatsoever.  My father, mother, sister and I lived in the house for only a year.  However, there were some weird happenings in the house that we were never able to explain.  

One night while laying on the top bunk of my bunk bed, with my sister on the bottom bunk, my sister awoke me after having come back from the kitchen extremely frightened.  My sister shook me, screaming as she did.  My sister told me that there was a man with a green shirt, long black hair and an object in his hand standing in our living room.  Our living room was entered through a door-less opening from the kitchen.  It was rather dark at night in the living room but the moon shown through the sliding glass doors usually which helped to illuminate anything that might have been there.  My sister said the reason she went to the kitchen was because the water was running rather loudly.  She said the man stood there and moved his arm slightly but then she ran immediately to wake me.  I went out to my parents room with her, we awoke them and brought them to the kitchen/living room.  The water was on (very weird) but there was no one there and no one had unlocked the doors.  I passed off the story as my sister was dreaming or she saw something that wasn't there.  The next day I went to school.  I sat down in my seat for class next to my best friend at the time, Leah.  Leah looked upset and scared.  I asked Leah was was wrong to which she replied "I'm scared, I had something weird happen to me in my house last night." I was a bit startled and afraid to ask at this point.  I asked Leah what happened and Leah said "I heard someone downstairs from my room really late at night, I got up to go see what was going on downstairs because I thought my mom was asleep.  I started to walk down the stairs and the noise stopped. I peaked down and saw a someone with long black hair and a green shirt, they were holding something too, I didn't see their face though. I woke up my mom and we went downstairs together but the doors were locked and no one was there." My mouth literally dropped.  Leah had no contact with my sister (my sister was younger). Leah had no idea what had happened in our house last night as she had no way of knowing.  To this day no one can explain what happened that night and since then I've been a believer that the paranormal may exist.  

Are ghosts real? It's what we make of the situations we experience and hear.  There is NO scientific evidence of ghosts but as I've said I'm not sure there can be. Here's a site that explains some of the ghost photographs that we typically see online: http://www.ghostresearch.org/ghostpics

My own experience of Astral Projection

I, myself, have projected astrally before.  Whether it had been a dream or figment of my imagination it was extremely (and frightening) real.  I laid in my bed one night and went to sleep.  A few hours later I found myself awake.  I was outside my body and looking in my room. I could see myself asleep but I saw things in my room that didn't quite look the same as when I left.  I then saw a weird figure enter my room. It was at this point that I opened my eyes in my real body but laid paralyzed in bed.  I could not move but I still saw this creature coming toward me. At the top of my lungs (and I tried hard for a while) I was able to finally scream and my father entered the room.  Nothing was there obviously but it had been the most real experience of my life.  I have had 2-3 others since then, but nothing as frightening as that. 

U.F.O.'s  & Aliens

UFO's are REAL. Why? Because there are certain objects that we have seen in the sky that we cannot explain. No, they are not all flying saucers!! There are objects that have been tested by the government and objects that we can't explain fly overhead.  Let's take this footage that is claimed to be authentic (but unexplained, of course): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiEzWHVZskk

There are all those claims that UFO's were discovered around AREA 51. Well guess what? That's true because the military was testing new aircraft's for their own use.  People that saw these couldn't explain what they were.  However, no one at Area 51 has yet either. 

The strangest evidence (and most credible) comes from that of professional Astronauts. During Apollo 11 astronauts saw a UFO flying close to their rocket in an intelligent flight pattern.  They reported this back to NASA.  No one could explain what the astronauts saw, but said that one should take it very seriously considering these are trained professionals who actually saw a UFO in space!

This site lists the 5 pieces of evidence that suggest extraterrestrial life is real: http://www.paranormalhaze.com/5-pieces-of-evidence-that-suggests-intelligent-alien-life-exists

The thought that we are the only ones in this astronomically large universe is pretty ridiculous if you ask me.  I'm not suggesting there is factual evidence of intelligent life beyond us but maybe the life out there is in another galaxy and they are incapable of reaching us yet like we are of reaching other galaxies.  If they are able to reach us, maybe they are scared to identify themselves.  Let's turn the tables. If we went to another planet and knew there was life on it, I think we would be scared to approach it in fear of how that life might respond to us.  Most likely if we saw an alien walking toward us we would react very adversely.  

Bigfoot, Lochness & the Yeti

Unfortunately there are so many spoof videos and photographs on these "monsters" that we really have no way of knowing if they are real or fake.  There have been very few images and/or evidence that can't be explained somehow.  However, the Yeti holds most credible of the three monsters.  Wildlife expert, Sir David Attenbourough, to this day believes the Yeti exists.  A photographed footprint taken in 1951 shows this:

This is an authentic footprint found at 19,000 ft. 

Sketch of a Yeti seen recently roaming the Himalayas

The hair specimen found from the footprint proved that it was not that of a bear but of an ape like animal.  That evidence is pretty conclusive and holds merit.  

Bigfoot has been taken in several photographs which usually end up being a man/woman in an ape costume.  One dressed up as Bigfoot was even shot and killed! The only film that has been widely contested is this one of Roger Patterson's taken in 1967: http://paranormal.about.com/od/bigfootsasquatch/youtube/yt_patterson_bf.htm

Here's the photograph to accompany that: 

Photograph of a Bigfoot in 1967 (real or fake?)

To date there has been no DNA evidence to prove than any of the footprint samples or hair samples are that of a an ape-like creature. 

The Lochness monster is claimed to be real in this video: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x89u9k_paranormal-tv-best-photo-evidence-o_shortfilms

However, many scientists are very skeptical of this evidence.  Many claim the photographs could be doctored. There are many photos including this one that have proven real:

Photo of The Champ Monster (Lake Champlain)

ESP

The most conclusive test done on ESP was that of psychologist Daryl Bern, a professor at Cornell and very respected psychologist.  He ran an experiment that tested people's abilities to see in the future by showing people digital images (mainly non-erotic) and then popping some erotic pictures in the mix.  Students were able to guess when the erotic pictures would show up 53.1% of the time. There are many reasons why this experiment may not have worked though.  And there is no conclusive evidence that ESP is real or not real.  More information from that study here: http://healthland.time.com/2011/01/12/wait-esp-is-real/

Many believe that there are talented psychics that can see into the future and hold what we call "precognition." While there are many skeptics who believe it's all just a lucky guess. My question is: if there are real psychics why are they not working for the government? Military? Or WEATHER CHANNEL? I mean seriously. 

And Harvard scientists have claimed to rule out that ESP does NOT exist with this study here: http://www.science20.com/news_releases/is_esp_real_harvard_scientists_say_they_have_settled_the_debate

Well I've written enough here.  It's time for YOU TO WRITE YOUR STORIES! Please, I'd love to hear if you have any evidence or even just your stories!

-Chris Ryan