by Karen Frazier, Managing Editor
Paranormal Underground Magazine

I get just a little bit tired of paranormal know-it-alls. You find them everywhere. On forums, in blog comments, just walking down the street. You know who they are – you’d recognize them if you saw them.

Typically they start whatever statement that they are about to make with, “I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings, BUT….”

And then they go on. And on, and on and on. They take any piece of anomalous evidence that others might have and they tell you exactly what it is. But all is not lost, because they then go on to tell you that if you are just like them and you work hard, however, you too can capture REAL HONEST TO GOODNESS PARANORMAL EVIDENCE!!!

“Oh that’s totally faked….not at all like the evidence that I have. Maybe if you work hard you can be just like me and get genuine evidence. Keep trying.”

~or~

“Come on – that big black shadow in the exact shape of a human isn’t anything paranormal. It is your uncle’s, best friend’s, third cousin who is all dressed in black. If you want to get a real ghost picture you have to work at it like I do. Here, take a look at this orb. Now that’s a real ghost picture.”

It varies – but it you get the idea. I’m talking about the person who looks at everyone else’s evidence and tells you exactly what it is (not what it could be – not what they believe it to be, but what it IS) and then go on to tell you that really the only way for you to ever get real evidence like they have is to be a real ghost hunter who works very hard like they do.

Whenever I hear someone say, “Oh that’s not paranormal it’s _____________.”

I always want to ask them, “And you know this because???”

Paranormal know-it-alls, listen up. I’m all for exploring alternative explanations for pieces of evidence. I’m all for sharing information and ideas. I’m all for trying to figure out what evidence could be and what it likely isn’t. But you don’t know any more than any other person what that strange anomaly really is. You may have ideas and you may have guesses, but if you weren’t there, then how can you know? Heck, even if you were there, how can you know? And why is it that you know that your orbs and rods and recorded garbled whispers are truly paranormal when every other piece of paranormal evidence you come across captured by another isn’t? After all, your evidence could be dust, bugs, light anomalies or some guy scraping his shoe along the floor in such a way that it sounds just like a whisper. Even if the hair stood up on your arm in the few hours before you captured said orb/rod/inaudible whisper.

Here’s the big secret to the paranormal. Nobody knows. We only guess. We guess at our methods. We guess at interpretations of evidence. We come up with potential explanations. We don’t know, and we can’t know, and to say that you do know – about how everyone else’s evidence doesn’t and can’t measure up in the face of yours – well that’s just plain silliness at best and delusional self-glorification at worst.

It makes us all look bad – like a bunch of bullying, back biting, infighting, self-glorifying nincompoops who can’t see the forest through the trees.

Nope – nobody dissed my evidence today. I’m not even talking to one person in particular. Most of the people I know and deal with on a regular basis are pretty darn objective and helpful. Heck – I’m the first to tell you that the anomalous things I capture may just have rational, logical explanations, and I’m happy to seek them out. Bring it on. Let’s discuss them. Let’s discuss methods, techniques, evidence and everything else. But let’s do it with an open minds and a spirit of cooperation. Let’s find a way that we can have discussions where we don’t have to be right or know it all. Because we don’t. As a matter of fact, we don’t really know much of anything. And if we continue having to be right at all costs and at the expense of everyone else in the community, then we never will.

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