There’s a mysterious laughing noise, a flicker of light, or a door that opens on its own. We find reasons everyday to question the world around us, but how do you explain the unexplainable to yourself? Do you think of ghosts? NBC says that one in three does.
“Usually people are very open to what we do,” co-founder of Paranormal Ozarks Investigations said Rick Marshall.
He believes that the exposure of paranormal investigations through the media helps people be more understanding of the subject and see what it’s really all about.
“You may be surprised at how many people have actually had at least one unexplained event happen to them over their lifetime,” said Marshall.
And even those who haven’t had things happen to them, can usually indicate someone they know that has.
Senior Jordan Obana says that his mom experiences seemingly paranormal things at work all the time.
“Every time someone goes into my mom’s work storage they hear obnoxious music, not like pop or anything, but symbols and trumpets, and no one can find the source.”
Obana says that he is not too sure of his beliefs in the paranormal.
“When he watched TV, sat back, and turned the lights out, he felt people touching his shoulder and his wife wasn’t home,” said sophomore Kayla Garibaldi about a friend who has had a paranormal experience.
For this reason she says that she does believe.
“There’s too much evidence for it, there’s even evidence in the bible,” says junior Harlee Marcum, and while she does admit that she has never had a paranormal experience, she does know people who have.
Not everyone is a believer though, and with good reason, like sophomore Chance Vancleave who says that “no,” he doesn’t believe, he’s “just seen the movies.”
“From a scientific standpoint, we have not been able to get rock-solid evidence. And by rock-solid, I mean scientifically repeatable. For example, you can demonstrate that objects fall due to gravity at 9.8 meters per second. You can demonstrate that over and over in the same place and every time it is the same,” said Marshall, who also has a degree in physics, “with ‘ghost-hunting’ we never get repeatable results.”
Marshall doesn’t fail to also add though that at one point in time someone in the past said that these simple things we overlook today were impossible.
“There is nothing wrong with skepticism, but skepticism without an open mind is tragic for today’s ‘magic’ or ‘impossible’ just may be the science of tomorrow,” said Marshall.