by Karen Frazier
Paranormal Underground e-Magazine

Someone recently posted the question on the Sci Fi Ghost Hunters forum, if you are a skeptical believer, what keeps you from becoming a full blown skeptic (or a full blown believer)?

This got me thinking. Probably because I categorize myself as just that – a skeptical believer. Is that an oxymoron like jumbo shrimp? I don’t think so.

I spend a lot of time perched on the fence. Occasionally I waver to one side or the other, but usually I wind up back in the middle. Why is this? Am I merely a wishy-washy waffler (how’s THAT for alliteration?) who can’t pick a side? What is it that drives me to seek answers to the unexplained?

Do I believe in ghosts? I don’t know – I don’t disbelieve in them. Do I believe in past lives? Most likely. Near-death experiences (which I just wrote about for this month’s Paranormal Underground)? I’m not sure, but maybe.

Pretty definitive answers I have, huh? I decided that, for me, if I had to boil down the essence of my position as a skeptical believer, it would be two words: experience and proof. I’ve had experiences. I haven’t seen definitive proof. Poof – I’m in the middle.

The universe is full of infinite possibilities. In the quantum world, strange things are accepted as science that would appear positively paranormal (there’s that alliteration again) if I didn’t understand the quantum science behind them.

Here’s a for instance. In quantum physics, there is something known as “spooky action at a distance”. How’s that for a cool phrase? Actually, the other name for it is quantum entanglement, and it goes a little something like this: in the quantum world, two or more quantum particles can be linked together so that you can no longer have one without the other. The thing is, these parts can be separated by vast distances – light years even. They can even be separated by time. And yet, it doesn’t matter. In entangled pairs, if something happens to one, it happens to the other instantaneously. This has been noted experimentally with spin. If the spin is changed in one of the quantum particles in the entangled pair, then it instantaneously changes in the other – no matter where in time or space the other half of the entangled pair is. How cool is that?

Yes, the universe is filled with infinite possibilities. We think we know a lot about it. On some levels, we do; however, there is still much out there to be explored. Much new information to be gleaned. Too much that is unexplained to just stop asking questions.

Skeptics often cite Occam’s Razor as proof that only the observable and quantifiable exist in our universe. Occam’s Razor - if all things are equal, the simplest answer is the most likely answer. Which begs the question – couldn’t it be that sometimes the simplest answer is reincarnation? Or a ghost?

This is what drives my skeptical belief. There is more to the universe than we understand. There is more at play than can be observed. And so, we continue to seek answers. We can’t possibly know what those answers are until we find them. Frankly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.