The Aristotle Debate
Over the past few weeks, we’ve been party to quite a bit of discussion on research into the paranormal as a whole. Most of these conversations centered around the scientific aspect of paranormal research. Questions that came up frequently involved both personal experiences and the requirements of ‘proof’ or ‘evidence’. As I pondered the topic, I was reminded of something I’d learned about a long, long time ago (I’m showing my age…lol) and decided to post my own belief here, for everyone to read and discuss. I should probably warn you, this post will be quite long; I’ve never suffered from a loss of words!
The Scientific Method
According to what I learned in school, the scientific method contains steps. It’s a process, one that begins with observation and research. Back in the day, we were taught that the method was as follows:
- Observation/Research
- Hypothesis
- Prediction
- Experimentation
- Conclusion
Now, I don’t know if they’ve updated this process since I left school, but I still stand by the steps included here. I should also probably point out that I understand that not all scientific research can adhere to these steps, but I’d like to think that cases such as that are the exception, not the rule. So how does this process apply to paranormal research? Well, from my own experience, we’ve never left the observation and research phase. Skeptics clamor for proof of the beyond, irrefutable evidence that ghosts exist; this isn’t possible to provide, because there are no conclusions here- only theory. As we collect our observations and conduct our research, the theory we work with might change, but it is impossible to design an experiment without knowing what you are trying to accomplish or prove with that experimentation. All of this leads to the existence of skeptics and believers, those who are adamant that the paranormal exists in the context of ghosts, hauntings and other spiritually-linked events and those who are just as adamant that there is no proof, therefore it can’t possibly be real. For the purpose of this blog post, we’re going to define these two terms as follows:
skeptic: n.
1. One who instinctively or habitually doubts, questions, or disagrees with assertions or generally accepted conclusions.
believer: n.
1. a supporter who accepts something as true
If you’re ready for more, this article continues after the jump. Continue reading
Battery Drain Research
After another investigation where we experienced the dreaded ‘battery drain’ phenomenon, we realized it was time to get a better understanding of what exactly was going on.
It was an especially troubling session- we went through 21 fresh batteries and had three separate cameras shut off, some of them doing so twice. When we left the investigation location, we used a volt meter on the ‘bad’ batteries and discovered that they all still carried a charge. Frustrated, we popped them into a camera and, after running a video camera for 30 minutes and taking an addition 50 still photographs, the batteries were still going strong.
Now, we’re not certain what might be causing this, but we were in a climate controlled location- which means that temperature fluctuations can be ruled out. So we decided to ask investigation teams from all over the world to share their battery drain experiences with us, to see if we can find a common thread to the events.
If you’d like to participate, you can do so by simply emailing us a record of your battery drain events as they happen.
We’ll be making the results public through a Google Docs spreadsheet once we have a sampling of events- we believe that the more people we have working on this, the better!
You can fill out the form online – all it takes is a bit of documentation at the time of the event.
Do you have a great ghost story?
The GRIM Society is putting together a collection of great stories of ghosts and other paranormal activity. If you have a ghost story that occured along the Treasure Coast, we’d love to hear it!
If you decided to send in a story, be sure to include as much information as possible- the location, date and number of people involved, etc.
You can email your story to thegrimsociety @ gmail.com (without spaces). We can’t wait to read them!
Remote Reading?
The GRIM Society is looking for a psychic or a medium who can do readings based on images and who would be willing to spend a few minutes looking at something for us. We have a couple photographs that we’d like to have read, as they seem to be generating an odd response.
If you’re interested in taking a look, email me at thegrimsociety at gmail.com and I’ll forward you the pictures.
GRIM Tshirts
You can now order your very own GRIM Society tshirts, hoodies or stickers! They’ll be available by clicking on the ‘GRIM Gear’ link in the upper menu (or by using the links below).
