MY APPROACH TO THE PARANORMAL
Posted by anthonynorth on January 2, 2008
A FEW RAMBLINGS FROM PSI-WORLD
What’s on today: A look at my methodology in dealing with the paranormal … PLUS … A brief survey of Telepathy. Just what, exactly, is reality? And a little tale of ghosties.
TAKING A SMALL STEP INTO THE DARK
MY APPROACH TO THE PARANORMAL
As regular visitors will know, I write a lot about the paranormal. However, over the years I’ve been accused of being both a sceptic and a believer. How is such a thing possible? Surely I must be one or the other?
It is to my great delight that I’m not classed as one or the other. Rather, I take a middle ground on the subject, accepting that most phenomena happens, but not accepting classical interpretations such as spirits of the dead, etc.
I take a different approach.
Rather, I believe that if we are ever to understand what is going on, we must accept present knowledge, and move forward taking this knowledge with us, and taking just one small step at a time.
To not do so is to take huge leaps into the darkness of knowledge, and this is nothing more than perpetuating a belief system. Hence, I am labeled a believer for accepting phenomena happens, and a sceptic for trying to place known ‘mechanisms’ onto the subject.
The purpose of paranormal research is, to me, to look at what is said to happen, then look at what our knowledge says is capable of happening, and then extending that knowledge system just a little to see if what is thought to happen COULD happen.
It is, to me, the only stance that can lead to proper understanding.
© Anthony North, January 2007
FROM THE ARCHIVES
TELEPATHY
Explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins once went on an Arctic expedition in which he co-operated with researcher Harold Sherman. Over 68 nights he would spend a little time trying to communicate the events of the day by thought to Sherman in New York. Records of the test show that Sherman wrote some incredibly accurate notes …
… read more …
REALITY – OBJECTIVE OR SUBJECTIVE?
We have various labels for paranormal phenomena – ghosts, premonition, etc – but can we better understand the paranormal by using a new definition? To me the subject can best be seen as the interplay between mind and environment …
… read more …
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Fiction Xtra – IT’S LIKE A VIRUS - a little ghostie tale to scare you
They say that life is like a road you travel down. For a while it will go nice and straight, but occasionally you get surprising corners that nearly knock you off the road. Then there are the crossroads – you know, times when a choice decides your entire life’s journey. But really it is nothing like a road, because on the road you get warning signs of the crossroads. In life, you get no warning at all; and when you hit, boy it can be a matter of life and death …
… read more …
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karen said
You’ve articulated exactly my own feelings about the paranormal. There’s obviously something going on that most people cannot access, but current explanations are insufficient and incomplete. Edgar Cayce predicted that the 21st century will see an increase in our psychic abilities. Who knows?
poseidonsmuse said
I have experienced many such moments that others might deem telepathic. Would I spend a lifetime trying to explain this phenomenone (ie. like Cayce?). Probably not, but it is fascinating, as you say. Anyway, I tend to share more energetic forms of connection with people that I am very close to either psychologically, emotionally or mentally. I am also a bit of an empath (feel the pain of others…sense their anxieties etc.)…which makes life a little “interesting” at times to say the least! Lol!
poseidonsmuse said
Phenomenon (not phenomenone…or pheromone for that matter!)…Lol!
anthonynorth said
Hi Karen,
This is the problem with much psychical research – it is too entrenched on both sides. Whether my voice of reason will work, though, I’m not so sure. I’ll keep trying.
Although I must admit I don’t tend to take Cayce’s predictions too seriously – after all, Atlantis didn’t rise up out of the Atlantic in the 1970s did it?
Hi PM,
I think everyone has experienced incidents that could be telepathy – it’s just that many discount them as coincidence. Not that anyone can actually explain coincidence either.
Your typo is a coincidence in itself. For a time some researchers worked on the possibility that pheromones could be a conduit for telepathy.
Caused quite a stink, if I remember
lorigloyd said
I’m with you on this one. It may not be a ghost in your basement making those noises. It may be a natural phenomenon that we don’t know how to measure or identify yet.
Call me an open-minded skeptic.
anthonynorth said
Hi Lorigloyd,
I won’t use the word, sceptic, for myself, as that will have a lot of enthusiasts screaming ‘I told you so’. But we’re pretty close.
KKJ said
Your most recent post stated that something to be acknowledged and accepted must first prove “worth.” Exactly how is it that you would define the word “worth?”
Is this blog of any “worth?” I am sure it is to you. It gives you a fairly dedicated following that allows for you to attempt pushing your ideas onto, while at the same time, removing any other notions, the devout followers may have (or at one time held)
I do not doubt that you are a somewhat attractive being to some, simply because you write on topics that are very diverse.
But I do doubt just how much you really “know” on all of these topics. From what I have read, it seems you have skimmed over areas in a topic and then formed ideas and opinions, and then, quite obviously attempt to shoot everything but yourself down.
Are you in any way knowledgable on the study of Paranormal? I know that I am not. But I do know, from personal experience that the progressive study on this subject is in fact, constantly coming up with ideas on how to better identify whether or not something “paranormal” is really going on or not.
They go in depth, first, to remove all possibilities of any type of natural occurance being the source of whatever the “client” is claiming. Most of the time it is explainable and not, “Aunt Velma.”
I have not as of yet seen anything but negativity or such as in this article, “duel sided” views from you.
What exactly is your specialty anyway? Is it writing?
You either sit on the fence or you put it down. And in putting it down, you manage to do it in a very passive aggressive manner.
I cannot say that I have not found articles that have been at least entertaining, maybe interesting, but I maintain that you always tend to put into simplicity, for those who may be sheltered, what is very obvious to the people who do happen to step out of the box every now and then.
anthonynorth said
Hi KKJ,
I do not force anything on anyone – you choose to come here. The whole point of my writing is that I am not a specialist, and am not ‘educated’ in academic terms. I left school at 15 and am self-taught.
I purposely break things down into their absolute simplicity (it’s called reductionism, and happens all the time in science), but then compare it in a wider picture, or holism (see my About page).
Do I put things down aggressively? I suppose that depends on the particular reader’s mind-set. But central to my philosophy is that no one can speak an absolute truth, ‘cos such a thing most likely doesn’t exist.
As for the paranormal, I’ve researched in for a quarter century and have had a couple of books published on the subject. For a definition of how I see the subject, most of those ‘explanations’ you speak of are incorporated into my model, but then I don’t leave it there. I use emergence.
There are plenty of essays of mine linked thru THE UNEXPLAINED, top of site. When there, click Y FILES.