Scientific Studies on the "paranormal?"

[Adam Magaña]

Hello, everyone! I'm new so bare with me if this is a repeated topic or in the wrong place

A coworker of mine swears he is experiencing "paranormal activity" in his new home. I'm skeptical to say the least. However, I don't want to bludgeon him with my skepticism every time he talks with me about it. I want to be reasonably skeptical but also maintain a good scientific mindset about it. So my question is this: are there any good, reliable scientific studies into the paranormal? And if so, what were their conclusions? I did some Googling and found mostly non-scientific results and mumbo-jumbo. I'd like to get a good scientific basis on the topic so I don't feel ignorant and overzealous in my initial skepticism. Thanks for the help!

[John Cuthber]

"So my question is this: are there any good, reliable scientific studies into the paranormal?"

Yes

"And if so, what were their conclusions? "

If the science found any truth in those stories the phenomena would be "normal" not "paranormal".

(also someone would have collected a million from the James Randi Foundation.

http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/1m-challenge.html

[Adam Magaña]

"So my question is this: are there any good, reliable scientific studies into the paranormal?"

Yes

"And if so, what were their conclusions? "

If the science found any truth in those stories the phenomena would be "normal" not "paranormal".

(also someone would have collected a million from the James Randi Foundation.

http://www.randi.org...-challenge.html

 

Interesting read. Not a single preliminary test has been passed even though applicants are encouraged to design their own test. Kind of a bummer actually, I was hoping at least one person would lead me down a paranormal rabbit hole. That would be way more exciting.

[Moontanman]

Hello, everyone! I'm new so bare with me if this is a repeated topic or in the wrong place

A coworker of mine swears he is experiencing "paranormal activity" in his new home. I'm skeptical to say the least. However, I don't want to bludgeon him with my skepticism every time he talks with me about it. I want to be reasonably skeptical but also maintain a good scientific mindset about it. So my question is this: are there any good, reliable scientific studies into the paranormal? And if so, what were their conclusions? I did some Googling and found mostly non-scientific results and mumbo-jumbo. I'd like to get a good scientific basis on the topic so I don't feel ignorant and overzealous in my initial skepticism. Thanks for the help!

 

 

What kind of paranormal activity is he experiencing exactly? That term does cover a lot of space...

[Adam Magaña]

What kind of paranormal activity is he experiencing exactly? That term does cover a lot of space...

 

In his words (not my own):

• His roommate was shaving in the bathroom and the towel supposedly came off the rack and "flew and hit him in the butt."
• He hears footsteps upstairs when he's downstairs.
• When he was leaving his house through the door by the kitchen the chandelier above the kitchen table began aggressively swinging. He tried recreating it by opening and closing the door (to simulate a kind of draft or wind) and the chandelier didn't flinch. I actually witnessed him trying to recreate this. The chandelier did indeed not move when he opened and closed the same door at varying speeds.
• He had his high-speed internet installed recently and without mentioning anything hes been experiencing the technician said the previous tenants told him they couldn't sleep upstairs because they heard footsteps up there and didn't feel comfortable in the house.

Again, I'm extremely skeptical of all of these items. My coworker is a dear friend I've known for a long time and for the most part I trust his judgement but I don't believe his accounts.

[iNow]

You want the most likely explanation? It's in his head. It's hard to admit, and he's almost certainly not crazy, but the explanation that works here is that it's essentially all in his head and in the way he's choosing to interpret those sounds.

 

The human mind is quite a wondrous place where we ascribe characteristics and attributes to otherwise meaningless and coincidental events.

 

It happens to all of us, and we must train ourselves to be more rational about what's really happening (changing temperatures cause the house to shift and creak, air conditioning vents cause towels to move, or static electricity pulled it toward us). These perceptions and false conclusions tend to be made worse when our perception gets altered by smoking cannabis or ingesting other psychotropic drugs.

 

Also, check for mice and rats upstairs.

[zapatos]

I don't think I would necessarily be skeptical about your friend experiencing things, but I would be skeptical about his assignment of the cause without evidence.

 

He hears something upstairs then claims it is footsteps, rather than saying it 'sounds' like footsteps. There are many things that can be heard in a house.

A towel hits him on the butt and he then claims the towel 'flew'. Did he see it fly?

A chandelier swings and since opening door is not the probable cause, it must be paranormal.

 

Just because he doesn't know what caused these events is no reason to assume they are paranormal activities.

[Adam Magaña]

It happens to all of us, and we must train ourselves to be more rational about what's really happening (changing temperatures cause the house to shift and creak, air conditioning vents cause towels to move, or static electricity pulled it toward us). These perceptions and false conclusions tend to be made worse when our perception gets altered by smoking cannabis or ingesting other psychotropic drugs.

 

I thought of a few of these possible explanations initially. Like I said, I've been very skeptical with him but I wanted to be reasonably skeptical. I needed some more background in the area. Which is why I felt compelled to do my research/homework and see if there have been any actual scientific accounts of paranormal activity. I didn't want to assume what I was talking about was just plainly correct. Just trying to be a scientist!

 

Please keep the comments coming! I'd still like to know if anyone has seen or heard of anything observing the paranormal that is at least moderately scientific.

[iNow]

There's a lot of science underlying this stuff. Unfortunately for the nature of your question, most of that material exists in the realm of psychology and perception.

[Adam Magaña]

There's a lot of science underlying this stuff. Unfortunately for the nature of your question, most of that material exists in the realm of psychology and perception.

 

Very true. I suggested he set up some mouse traps upstairs in his house as a start. I think I'm going by this evening to inspect it for myself.

 

 

 

[Phi for All]

As has already been mentioned, our minds look for patterns all the time, using virtually all the senses. Hearing and sight are probably the most easily fooled when it comes to pattern searches. We see hunched figures in the dark that turn out to be clothing tossed on a chair. We hear footsteps upstairs because that's what the weight of the roof settling on the individual rafters sounds like to people who don't know what a roof settling sounds like.

 

It's very difficult to override the mind when it thinks it has the correct pattern, and that's why many people jump to supernatural conclusions when an assumed pattern doesn't fit the circumstances. Towels don't normally fly, but a towel that's wet on one end (after being used for a shower) has some abnormal physical properties. I don't know if by "rack" you're talking about a shelf or a bar, but I've had a wet towel slide off my towel bar before. If I'd been closer, it might even have snapped me on the butt as the dry end sped up and flew off the top of the bar.

 

The chandelier swinging would only be strange if he actually watched it go from stationary to "aggressively swinging" without taking his eyes off it. Chances are he probably bumped it but didn't realize it, then saw it swinging for seemingly no reason. As for your actual eye-witness account of him failing to recreate the chandelier movement, well....

 

The cable guy story is just verification that something sounds like footsteps in the upstairs part of the house. When I was young, I was in bed and I heard footsteps on the walk below my window. When I got up and pulled the curtain aside to see who it was, not only was there no one there, but the footsteps stopped like they knew I was watching. Each time I went back to bed, a few moments later the footsteps started again, and the same thing happened when I went to check. It drove me crazy until I realized that the footsteps didn't fade or strengthen like they would if it was someone walking up my front steps. It was like someone in high heels was just marching slowly in place below my window. And that made no sense so I started thinking of other explanations. Eventually I found that the breeze from my open window was making the plastic drape pull click against the wall. When I pulled the curtain back to look out, it stopped the clicking.

[iNow]

The chandelier swinging would only be strange if he actually watched it go from stationary to "aggressively swinging" without taking his eyes off it. Chances are he probably bumped it but didn't realize it, then saw it swinging for seemingly no reason.

In fact, this could be additional evidence of rodents (as one may have been on the chandelier and jumped off).

[seaker]

On the t.v. shows about paranormal activity the researchers use machines that sense electromagnetic fields and voice recorders that pick up voices. Sometimes they even catch shadows and lights on their camcorders. Of course it is not conclusive evidence, the only thing conclusive would be to catch an alien, spirit, angel or demon. But that would be like asking an ant to catch a fish. They reside in different places on our planet. Inaccessible to eachother, but that does not mean in an ants world, fish don't exist. It just means his ant friends might not understand or believe the stories of interactions with fish.

[Phi for All]

On the t.v. shows about paranormal activity the researchers use machines that sense electromagnetic fields and voice recorders that pick up voices. Sometimes they even catch shadows and lights on their camcorders. Of course it is not conclusive evidence, the only thing conclusive would be to catch an alien, spirit, angel or demon. But that would be like asking an ant to catch a fish. They reside in different places on our planet. Inaccessible to eachother, but that does not mean in an ants world, fish don't exist. It just means his ant friends might not understand or believe the stories of interactions with fish.

Since there is no evidence at all for paranormal activity that stands up to minimum standards for rigorous scientific scrutiny, it's much more likely that the supernatural things many people wish to believe in reside only in their minds. Plenty of ants, plenty of fish, but most likely no demons, ghosts or angels.

 

Aliens are a different matter, but again the lack of evidence to support present and current involvement with them suggests we haven't actually encountered any. Yet.

[seaker]

Yes, yet. Lack of evidence does not mean something does not exist, and many things in the past that were thought to be unlikely have turned out to be true. And even if you believe it is most likely in the mind, according to quantum physics, anything is possible, and perception is reality. And according to M theory there are higher dimensions, where possibly beings might exist that we cannot simply access from our dimension. So, without full access, evidence is extremely elusive.

[Phi for All]

Lack of evidence does not mean something does not exist, and many things in the past that were thought to be unlikely have turned out to be true.

But there are far more things in the past that were thought to be true that have turned out to be false.

 

And even if you believe it is most likely in the mind, according to quantum physics, anything is possible, and perception is reality. And according to M theory there are higher dimensions, where possibly beings might exist that we cannot simply access from our dimension. So, without full access, evidence is extremely elusive.

There is no evidence to support a gap in our spatial comprehension where activity takes place that create meaningful phenomena. Everything some people attribute to the supernatural can be explained in real world, natural terms. Possibility doesn't trump probability, and most probably there are no ghosts, spirits, demons, angels or gods hiding from our observation in a similarly hidden and conveniently inaccessible space.

[seaker]

When the universe was created, matter and anti matter collided and destroyed one another until just enough matter was left to form everything in our universe. If you ask me this was a possibility, not a probability. Life forming and DNA reproducing, a perfect combination of elements joining together in just the right way, to produce living, breathing, thinking, creatures that can change, evolve, seems to me more like a possibility than a probability. The fact that all of us are alive, supposedly evolved from a monkey, and now have consciouss, aware, intelligent minds also to me seems like a possibility. Not a probability. Probabilities are probably, but possibilities are possible and things once thought impossible have happened. I do understand your argument phi, but I also believe that some things people might call supernatural, well, they might not be gods, demons, or angels, but maybe they are things we cannot understand at our current intelligence level. Things or beings that exist beyond our point of view here. And if you want to think about probabilities, it would be silly for us to believe we are not neighbors to many different types of beings, in this vast universe, where a million questions remain to be answered and even more possibilities exist.

[Phi for All]

When the universe was created, matter and anti matter collided and destroyed one another until just enough matter was left to form everything in our universe. If you ask me this was a possibility, not a probability.

Nope. Probability of 1.

 

Life forming and DNA reproducing, a perfect combination of elements joining together in just the right way, to produce living, breathing, thinking, creatures that can change, evolve, seems to me more like a possibility than a probability.

Probability of 1.

 

The fact that all of us are alive, supposedly evolved from a monkey, and now have consciouss, aware, intelligent minds also to me seems like a possibility. Not a probability.

Monkeys and humans evolved from an earlier common ancestor. Humans did NOT evolve from monkeys. And since it happened that way, probability of 1.

 

I do understand your argument phi, but I also believe that some things people might call supernatural, well, they might not be gods, demons, or angels, but maybe they are things we cannot understand at our current intelligence level. Things or beings that exist beyond our point of view here.

At what point do you decide that a total lack of evidence to support the existence of these creatures might lead you to believe they don't exist at all?

 

And if you want to think about probabilities, it would be silly for us to believe we are not neighbors to many different types of beings, in this vast universe, where a million questions remain to be answered and even more possibilities exist.

Again, alien life is much more highly probable than supernatural life.

[chris logan]

 

In his words (not my own):

• His roommate was shaving in the bathroom and the towel supposedly came off the rack and "flew and hit him in the butt."
• He hears footsteps upstairs when he's downstairs.
• When he was leaving his house through the door by the kitchen the chandelier above the kitchen table began aggressively swinging. He tried recreating it by opening and closing the door (to simulate a kind of draft or wind) and the chandelier didn't flinch. I actually witnessed him trying to recreate this. The chandelier did indeed not move when he opened and closed the same door at varying speeds.
• He had his high-speed internet installed recently and without mentioning anything hes been experiencing the technician said the previous tenants told him they couldn't sleep upstairs because they heard footsteps up there and didn't feel comfortable in the house.

Again, I'm extremely skeptical of all of these items. My coworker is a dear friend I've known for a long time and for the most part I trust his judgement but I don't believe his accounts.

I see no reason for you not to believe if you truely trust his judgement. i believe these things are 'mind over matter'. if you're someone believes in the paranormal, every time something 'strange' happens, every time a heavy book falls off a shelf there would always be a 'what if...' There are logical explalanations for all of the so called strange occurences, but i think your friend has made up his mind. I think it's ok to be a skeptic but right now maybe your friends comfort should come first...

[Bulle]

Only thing thats interesting is your coworker. There are only some possible explanations behind what he tells you, like drugs or mental problems. Maybe he lies to you just to get you uncertein or even frightened.