The big picture.
I don’t think interest in what is called the paranormal has ever been so high as it is now, and that is part of the problem. And what is the problem with that, I hear you ask? The problem is that the idea of what it all means has become lost. The paranormal has become almost a cult, a religion, and now has little to do with what is genuinely paranormal. Not surprisingly, this deters people who are not caught up in all these beliefs from telling their own stories.
My interest is in genuine experiences from credible people, that seemed very real when they happened and that defy explanation. That is what I consider to be genuinely paranormal, and to define what that means, we need to consult the dictionary:
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Genuine – truly what is said to be authentic. Sincere, honest.
Paranormal – (of events or phenomena) supposedly beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding.
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Why am I doing this?
If you have read this far, I will take a guess that your own view of such things isn’t vastly different from my own. Like me, you have a nagging doubt that just won’t go away, that we still don’t have all the answers. Ghosts as we imagine them may not exist, but that does not mean there isn’t something of that nature that we still do not understand. There could be some reason why we say we don’t believe in such things, but…
It is that ‘but’ that I want to have a go at either laying to rest, or understanding why we think that way. That is all. I make no claims that I will be able to provide any answers, but I want to have a bloody good go at asking the right questions.
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Why am I being so choosy about the stories I want to hear?
I need to focus on a particular type of story, either experienced first-hand by credible witnesses, or heard first-hand from credible witnesses. So what makes a witness credible?
Basically, it is somebody who has not been preconditioned to interpret something in a particular way. I am looking for stories that have not been interpreted at all, just told as they happened, by people who were not expecting them to happen. People who go out actively looking for ghosts, spirits, hauntings, or whatever, may interpret even perfectly natural events as being in some way paranormal. They then attach all sorts of preconceived beliefs to whatever they think happens, which will colour their recollections. If you toddle off to a creepy graveyard expecting to find ghosts, and you find ghosts, then I hope you have a good time, but that isn’t what I am looking for.
We also have to be honest, and accept that for a long time, people have made up ghost stories for a variety of reasons. I have spoken to a number of people about possible ghost stories, who have admitted that they played a prank on somebody in some way to scare the crap out of them. I have read of one such prank from the 1930s that is still spoken of today as the true story of a ghost who haunts a village churchyard. These things become legends in their own right, so if you have been told of a convincing local story by somebody, there is a reasonable chance that it is just another of these. That is why I only want first-hand accounts, or experiences that you have been told by credible first-hand witnesses.
Lastly, I have to use a strict definition of what is genuinely paranormal. I am looking for events that people perceive as real, but common sense tells them cannot be. That sort of conviction only comes from lived experiences, not from the behaviour of gadgets, or interpretation of photographs. If you wish to believe that orbs are the spirits of the dear departed, then that is fine by me, but science has a perfectly good explanation for all such photographic effects, and I am only interested in the genuinely paranormal, in the sense that it is what science is not able to explain or dismiss.
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Confidentiality.
Everything I am told will remain confidential, for a couple of very good reasons. Firstly, a lot of people feel uncomfortable admitting such things. Anything that can be construed as being a ghost story can seem more than a little ridiculous, especially to the sort of witnesses that I am hoping to hear from. You can have confidence that I will not find it ridiculous, and I will not pass your information to anybody else. The usual ethical rules of confidentiality apply, as they should with anything personal. Secondly, anybody could make up a false email address and make up a story, hoping I will stick it in a book or whatever, as a prank on one of their mates. That isn’t going to happen. If you are hoping to see a story about your best mate being spooked in a toilet somewhere as a bit of a laugh, you will have to go elsewhere.
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What will I do with these stories?
I will be looking for common themes, both in the stories themselves, and the circumstances in which they are experienced. This is why I ask about your state of mind at that particular time, your general state of mind during that part of your life, as well as what you think happened. What I then do with this information depends on any patterns or themes that emerge. I am keeping a completely open mind, so I am not pre-judging how I will classify or departmentalise the stories, nor how I will interpret what I find, if indeed I find anything. Everything depends on your stories, what you have to say, not my own views about what you may say.
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Ready to tell your story?