The problem with the paranormal is that finding decent evidence is difficult. Ghost don’t seem to come when called, and poltergeist certainly don’t seem to want to do their stuff before the camera. We can’t seem to remote view with accuracy and no one seems to be able to prove that out of body experiences are genuine.
Personally, I think that unless you’re in the right place at the right time, it would be very difficult to get something that would be irrefutable proof.
I’ve spent a lot of time looking at YouTube for any video that looks genuine. Most are, unfortunately, fake. Some are nice and spooky, but nonetheless, fake.
It seems to be extraordinarily hard to get photographic or video evidence of something that is paranormal.
The evidence tends to be vague or apocryphal. There are way too many ghost videos or stories that can easily be fabricated or have factors that just don’t add up. (I would like to look at some of these in future blogs and critically evaluate them.)
It seems that nearly every ‘legitimate’ video is either extremely grainy, jerky, or could be falsified.
When you think about it, each year, millions of hours of video are taken by people nowadays in all walks of life, including movie studios, and from all that footage, the best we can come up with is grainy or vague videos where the action always seems to occur just out of shot.
Now, personally, I do believe there are spirits, and I do believe people see them. I just don’t believe most of the footage I’ve seen of them.
Of course, ghost aren’t the only phenomenon about, there are also UFO’s creature sightings, poltergeist, conspiracies and a dozen other things that simply seem to evade any real proof.
Most evidence is faked on built on a house of cards and it hurts the credibility of things that are real, but are hard to prove.
I have seen one photo back in the mid-80s (before digital cameras and Photoshop) that had a picture of a baby and on its side was an extremely old lady’s head. It looked genuine, and I’ve no reason to suspect otherwise. What’s more, it was incredibly clear. Sadly, the technology didn’t exist to get a copy back then. I would have love to have an analysis done on it.
But such photos seem to be rare and many are clearly faked.
I suppose what bothers me is that people accept what they see without questioning it. I believe that we should question everything because things are rarely what they seem to be, and even if you think you know the answers, there is often another level to uncover.
As most would know, I’ve had plenty of weird experiences and personally, as I’ve said before, it’s a temptation to try and not look at them critically.
I feel it’s important to be critical about them, though not cynical, as that implies that you already know the answers.
For my own experiences, I look to see if there are other explanations.
When two or more people share the same memories of something, did they arrive at the same conclusions independently?
Unfortunately, it is way too easy to influence someone’s answer or memory and a lot of my own shared experiences can be called into question because I might have influenced others on some level.
Fortunately, not all, though.
Finding decent evidence is the bane of us who believe in the paranormal, and really, if I was a skeptic, I would be having a wonderful time poking holes in everything I said I experienced. (Which is fine, because I love laughing at myself!)
If anyone has come across something they consider to be proof, please let me know. I would love to see it and give my thoughts about it.
A genuine video or photo that can clearly show that it’s real would be the holy grail of paranormal evidence.
I agree. I always prefer evps over video or photos, although I do have a few photos that were sent to me by people wondering what was going on. They are pretty awesome photos also 🙂
Those are the kind of photos that would be worth seeing, in my opinion.
It has always been my belief that ghosts are residual energy, a memory imprinted into/onto a place, so maybe to take a photo of one would require a specialist camera? I don’t know if such technology exists!
That’s the interesting thing. There are people who claim to have taken them with normal cameras and some go back as earlier as the turn of the 20th century.
Maybe it’s down to the design of the camera, if people were able to take pictures of ghosts, UFO’s or other phenomena to prove they existed, how would the authorities react? They’re having enough trouble keeping everyone in line as it is, they would not want people to start seeing through the illusion of reality! The Cottingley Fairies come to mind, that had a lot of people fooled at the time.
If someone took something definitive, I doubt such a thing would be contained for long.
I don’t believe there is a conspiracy, though. Everything always tends to come out in the end because there is always someone who will let the cat out of the bag as they have their own agendas.
Totally concur. I tend to focus on audio and EVP. I think that’s where most of the communication happens. I think many people spend much or all of their energy on the video and photo parts of investigations. That makes a cool documentary video for the group, but since video or photos is the last likely place to find it, they’d be better served by adding extra audio in every possible location… syncing them… comparing them. Audio recording everything, not just a special ten minute “EVP session” modeled after TV shows.
The problem with most EVP’s I’ve heard is that they are very hard to make out and the way they are designed is that they are scanning AM or FM or other frequencies? (At least it sounds that way.) so you get snatches of voices that could be anything that’s being transmitted at the time.
Correct me if I’m wrong, though.
Well that’s radio sweep. I’m talking plain old EVP. I have my own skeptic issues with radio sweep, but I still experiment with it from time to time.
So, just recording with something like your iphone or a tape recorder?
Yes. EVP encompasses any spirit responses captured through a recording device (could even be video). Standard EVP (I believe an old term that used to be used a lot is “transform EVP”) is just recording with a recorder, sometimes with background noise or white noise, sometimes not, and then listening back for responses. Most of my work and research with EVP is of this variety. Just a recorder and either recording silence or asking questions and hoping to get answers on playback.
I’ve heard some of your EVP’s Certainly fascinating but also somewhat difficult to discern.
I really appreciate and respect the fact you treat them with caution and look at them carefully without trying to fill in gaps that are not there.
Thank you. I try. I’m also not afraid to admit that I don’t have a wealth of incredibly impressive EVP. Most of mine are questionable and I don’t even label them “EVP”.
I know a lot of people have over-hyped orbs in their photos and a lot of what I see people claim to be them are not impressive by any means. I get a lot of orbs, impressive orbs and I get feelings of company along with them. I have been through 4 cameras and before I realized what they were I was highly irritated that my photos were being ruined. My best orbs are an experience I had with my Great Grandfather this past February. Twice he presented an orb on his photograph at two totally different times of day. He was trying to get my attention and there was other things happening when I got these photos. I will send you them and you can try to de-bunk 😉
Thanks, I’d appreciate it.
Orbs are controversial as they are said to be flecks of dust and don’t seem to be captured if there isn’t a flash involved.
I’ve had orbs in my photos, but it was right after a massive cleaning of the house, which suggests that dust was disturbed.
I know, most look like specks of dust and I would have to agree most out there are just that. I got to the point however that I couldn’t ignore the feelings I was getting along with them. My Great Grandfather was making himself known in other ways as well so I felt pretty convinced these were no flecks of dust! I will send them to you.
Fair enough. I’m not dismissing it. I will certainly enjoy seeing them.
Interesting read 🙂 I really get into what you said about “right place, right time” although I am not into the paranormal…but your views and take on things are refreshing.