A discussion of different theories regarding the paranormal and how it affects the world around us
Ever since I saw pictures of Boris Karloff as Frankenstein’s monster at the Rolling Meadows Public Library when I was six years old, the idea of paranormal or supernatural occurrences has always been a fascination of mine. Right then and there I became a devout horror fan. Spooky season hasn’t ended for me in almost thirty-two years! That being said, I used to treat the paranormal with whimsy skepticism, and it wasn’t until experiencing a possible skinwalker encounter (the Native Americans stress not to mention them at all for fear that they can hear you talking about them) at a casino on an Indian reservation in Wyoming that my thoughts surrounding the supernatural truly changed. Since then, I’ve become way more open to the idea that there is so much more going on beyond what we can actually perceive on this physical plane. Couple this newfound acceptance of the metaphysical world at the time with both a.) a renewed interest in the science behind paranormal events, and b.) a budding interest in quantum physics and mechanics, and it was almost like a perfect storm. My level of understanding the quantums is still iffy at best, but upon further studying, I did reach one conclusion: there are far too many “coincidences” and unexplainable phenomena/events that occur in the world, which makes me feel confident enough to admit that I truly believe in things such as string theory, alternate timelines, additional dimensions, etc.
As part of my annual Halloween film watch (I try to watch a handful of horror movies/documentaries that I haven’t seen, along with a few classics throughout the month) this year, I watched the documentary The House In Between. This documentary examines a haunted house, but focuses more on trying to investigate and explain the haunting using science. There is, at one point in the film, a surface level discussion which hypothesizes that the house itself could somehow be an interdimensional “way station”–a sort of hub that exists between multiple dimensions. This would explain how the doors to the house seemingly open and close on their own, etc. It’s a fascinating documentary, well worth a spooky season viewing (it’s streaming on Amazon Prime), and it really got me thinking about the different beliefs I have concerning the paranormal.
Humor me if you will by partaking in the following experiment: sit back and do a rough outline (either in your head or on a piece of paper) of your life, focusing on what you feel were the events/decisions that changed your life. These can be things like deciding to quit a job, moving, meeting someone, investments you made or didn’t make, etc–anything that you feel ushered in major changes. I look at these as sorts of “node” events–points in time where it was possible that decisions made or interactions had truly changed my life’s trajectory. I don’t like to dwell too much on the past, but I do feel like it is a profoundly emotional experiment to sit back and contemplate where you are now while thinking about how you got there. I find it hard to believe that, upon choosing path A or path B, the path not taken simply disappears. I truly believe that there is a version of us that chose to go in the other direction, thus creating a separate, branching timeline, and another versions of us.This would lend credence to, as well as possibly explain phenomena such as deja vu, Jamais vu, doppelgangers, the Mandela effect, the Butterfly Effect, etc etc.
As far as ghosts and spirits go, I believe that there could possibly be scientific explanations for them as well. Not long ago, I was having a conversation with a friend of mine who flat out said that he doesn’t believe in ghosts. “The science isn’t there,” he said. While I feel like that statement is blatantly false, I did give my friend the benefit of the doubt and entertain the argument. By the end though, I felt that the only counter I needed was to say that there have been a lot of instances where “the science wasn’t there… yet.” Take for example the discovery of the Heliocentric model, or the discovery of the electromagnetic spectrum. In both of the aforementioned instances, the “science wasn’t there” initially, however, technological advancements brought about new possibilities, which in turn led to changes in how scientists thought about the world around us. I feel like we could possibly be on the cusp of this happening again in terms of how the scientific community views hauntings and ghost sightings.
While we might still not be able to fully explain the distinct parameters which must be fulfilled to trigger a haunting, having been to certain supposedly haunted places, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that our bodies definitely react to the environments surrounding said locations. While on vacation in Orlando, FL a few years ago, I visited the scene of the Pulse Nightclub massacre. There is an entirely different vibe/aura to places like this–places where tragedies or mass casualty events occur, and it is palpable all around them. I will never forget just how stagnant the air felt standing there that night, or how eerily quiet it was. I suppose the case could be made that I knew what had happened there, and that knowledge leant to the vibe, but I’m not so sure that is the case. I’m more inclined to subscribe to the “stone tape theory”, which postulates that emotional or traumatic events are actually imprinted upon their physical environments, and can lead to “residual hauntings”. This would explain why places where extreme physical and emotional trauma such as hospitals or battlefields always seem to be incredibly active in terms of paranormal events.
You couple something like “stone tape theory”–a theory that science more-or-less disavows, negating it to being considered a “pseudoscience”, with a theory that the scientific community fully embraces–the law of the conservation of energy, and we might begin to better understand the “how” of hauntings. If “everything is energy”, as Einstein said, and we believe that “energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another”, then doesn’t it make sense that, since human beings are energy, upon our deaths, our energy simply changes shape? I’m not out here saying that that is all that happens once we pass away (we will get into that in a subsequent article concerning religion), but I am saying that it is worth considering.
These were just a few of the ideas surrounding science and the paranormal that I feel to be true. Hopefully, sooner rather than later, science changes the way it looks at the paranormal, and fully embraces and studies paranormal happenings. Until then though, all we can do is draw our own conclusions! Thanks for reading!