The Paranormal Cottage

What is my relationship with the paranormal and the supernatural? Like most relationships, it’s… complicated. We go back a long time, and don’t always see eye to eye.

First of all, let me say that I have no problem at all with the supernatural in fiction. On the contrary, as I explained elsewhere, I can’t get enough. Ghosts, séances, curses, hauntings, the more the spookier. As long as the internal consistency of the story world is respected, I don’t mind if the laws of physics get bent and twisted out of all recognition.

What about the real world though? Do I believe in the paranormal/supernatural?

Para-what?

To begin with, I have a problem with the words themselves. If something happens, no matter how rare or extraordinary, then it is natural, even normal, if by “norm” we mean what is allowed by the laws governing our Universe. Therefore, by definition there can’t be anything para-normal or super-natural.

But that sidesteps the question. For the sake of argument, let’s continue to use the word paranormal in its usual meaning. So, do I believe in those phenomena traditionally referred to as paranormal? Psychokinesis, remote viewing, poltergeists, telepathy and so on?

It’s such a broad range of phenomena that it makes little sense to believe in all of them in bulk. So, do I believe any of it?

Let me be blunt: I do not believe that people can move objects with their minds, or transmit their thoughts to other people, or see faraway locations and drawings in sealed envelopes. I do not believe that the souls of the dead, or other incorporeal beings, can communicate with the living via mediums, apparitions or electronic voice phenomena.

But what about all those people who swear to have experienced inexplicable things? Do I believe they are all frauds, then?

No, of course not. Fraud is a big problem when dealing with the paranormal, but I believe that many, if not most, accounts of inexplicable phenomena are made in good faith.

Do I believe that these people are stupid or mentally unstable then? No, far from it. In a sense, I believe that what they recount really happened. In fact, I’ve had a couple of paranormal experiences myself, as a child.

My paranormal experiences

The disembodied voice

I don’t remember how old I was at the time. Perhaps six? It was evening, after dinner, and I was lying on the sofa in the living room, together with my parents, watching TV. There was no one else in our flat.

I heard a voice clearly calling my name. It definitely was not the TV, and the voice was not in my head. I heard it with my ears, and I could tell where it came from: the dark corridor that led to the bedrooms, behind me and to my right. The voice was like that of a child. It was hard to tell whether male or female. It did not convey any particular emotion: it just called my name.

Startled, I looked at my parents. They did not react in any way. Obviously they hadn’t heard the voice. My own reaction must have been subdued, since they didn’t notice anything was wrong. Perhaps they were so absorbed by the TV programme that they didn’t even realise their only child was being lured by otherwordly beings.

I didn’t tell them anything, for fear of not being believed. I never heard that voice again, and did not have any more weird experiences in that flat.

There’s something I’ve asked myself from time to time in the years that followed. What if I had answered?

Daddy’s ghost

My father is alive and well as I write this. Yet I have seen his ghost, many years ago.

I was perhaps ten years old. We were holidaying at my paternal grandparents’ place. I was sitting on the sofa (couch potato from an early age, you’ll have noticed) when I saw my father walk in front of me and enter his bedroom. I got up and entered the room to tell him something.

The room was empty. There is no way he could have left without me noticing. Nor was he hiding in the wardrobe for the lulz. I later found out he was somewhere else in the house.

So, what did I see then? Did something take the appearance of my father? Was he astrally projecting for the lulz? Or did I see a brief scene from the past or the future?

Again, nothing like that ever happened to me again.

It’s all in your head

What do I think happened in those two occasions?

Simple: I was hallucinating. Think of what Morpheus says in The Matrix:

If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then ‘real’ is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.

When dealing with supposedly paranormal phenomena, we often treat our senses as infallible recorders. If we see or hear something, then it must have been because of an objective external stimulus. We make the same mistake with recording devices such as cameras, forgetting that lenses have aberrations, photographic films and digital sensors have noise and other limitations.

When we see, feel, hear something, as Morpheus says, it’s all down to electrical signals in our brains. And what if our brains occasionally misfired?

Think of a developing child’s brain. Think of the fiendishly complex wiring of neurons and synapses, constantly changing and growing. I wouldn’t be surprised if signals occasionally went astray in that tangle of cables, resulting in hallucinations. If anything, I’m surprised it doesn’t happen more often. It’s interesting that children are said to have paranormal experiences more often than adults: coincidence?

It’s not all in your head

Even when a sensory experience is truly caused by an external stimulus, the way we interpret it can make all the difference. A twinkling light on a night camera video feed can be a speck of dust or the manifestation of a ghost. A voice on a tape can be a dead person trying to communicate or a radio interference.

This is especially true when using technology. If we use a device without being intimately familiar with how it works, we are more likely to misinterpret its readings. Think of self-appointed paranormal investigators running around with EMF detectors and spotting ghosts by the dozen.

Even when we are just using our senses without any technology, if we are not familiar with the physical cause of a stimulus, we may interpret it as paranormal when it is not.

Normal, not boring

In all the cases described above, I find the “conventional” explanations infinitely more interesting than the paranormal ones. Rational explanations for quirky phenomena often tell us more about how our brains and senses work, how technology works, or how unusual and little-known physical phenomena occur. Especially the work on perception is fascinating. How do we make sense of the world around us? How does our brain create a model of reality, and to what extent can it be trusted?

On the contrary, I tend to find the purely paranormal explanations, involving spirits and psychic powers, a bit boring and intellectually lazy. To quote the late James Randi:

There is a distinct difference between having an open mind and having a hole in your head from which your brain leaks out.

All normal, no para?

Do I believe that all allegedly paranormal phenomena have a rational explanation then? No, of course I cannot make such a claim. I try to keep and open mind, without my brain leaking out: I would require rigorous, verifiable and repeatable proof to back up any claims.

Unfortunately, paranormal phenomena tend to happen rarely and at irregular intervals. Sitting at night in a derelict house, waiting for a ghost that may never show up, must be one of the most boring experiences known to humankind. The fact that we are still arguing about believing or not, after more than a century of parapsychology experiments, tells you that there has not been decisive progress.

I’m afraid we’ll keep arguing for a long time to come. By the way, I know that this subject elicits strong emotions. I had people react with outrage when I dared express my scepticism, as if I’d been really rude to their mothers. If you feel the same, let’s just agree to disagree and leave it at that. Send me an indignant message if you want, but I won’t reply. These debates are incredibly tedious and rarely change anyone’s mind.

I could write much more on the paranormal, but I’ll leave that for another day. If you’ll excuse me, I can’t wait to get lost in a nice, spooky ghost story…

Image credits: All images by the Merry Hermit, distributed under the same terms as the text.