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I blogged about this today. What do you think? Is personal experience a valuable facet of paranormal investigation, or should it be dismissed out of hand?
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I blogged about this today. What do you think? Is personal experience a valuable facet of paranormal investigation, or should it be dismissed out of hand?
Great blog today. Karen! /smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />
I write books. I take pictures.
I sometimes try to tap into my Jedi powers.
~Michelle Pillow Author Website~
The Raven Books
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Without the personal experience there would be no event to investigate, and while it is not proof within itself of the existence of the paranormal, it is the initial impetus that leads to an investigation. In other words, the personal experience is important only in that it begins the process, starting with "Did you hear that?", and taking it to "What did you in fact hear?".
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Great blog today. Karen!
/smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />
Thanks, Michelle.
Without the personal experience there would be no event to investigate, and while it is not proof within itself of the existence of the paranormal, it is the initial impetus that leads to an investigation. In other words, the personal experience is important only in that it begins the process, starting with "Did you hear that?", and taking it to "What did you in fact hear?".
Well-said. And much more concise than mine! /laugh.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='
' />
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The personal experience is basically the testimony part of a court hearing. It's great, it tells a story and all but when you think about it, it's just words from one person's point of view. Now evidence is evidence and can be interpreted in many different ways.
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If not replicable, there is no value.
Surely there is value in attempts. Any number of attempts it takes to
prove the paranormal have the value of trial and error.
Eventually showing the correct way to scientifically prove the existence of this
phenomenon, condition or anomaly. /mellow.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':mellow:' />
Surely there is value in attempts. Any number of attempts it takes to
prove the paranormal have the value of trial and error.
Eventually showing the correct way to scientifically prove the existence of this
phenomenon, condition or anomaly.
/mellow.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':mellow:' />
Anecdotes aren't evidence as I'm sure you understand.
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If not replicable, there is no value.
Residual Haunting. /laugh.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':mellow:' />
Residual Haunting.
/laugh.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':mellow:' />
Quite.
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Anecdotes aren't evidence as I'm sure you understand.
Of course the anecdote has no value, but the trials and implementation of differing methods
as the result of the positive or negative results does! Without the failure of certain investigative
methods we would not know to move to a new approach and this is where the "VALUE" lies.
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If not replicable, there is no value.
Maybe not valuable to you, but to me it is the first step in the process. Not evidence as such, but a statement to the fact that something out of the ordinary has taken place. Something which needs to be looked at further in order to determine if the event was an actual paranormal event, or in fact something more mundane.
People still have personal experiences no matter how much we might say they don't validate their experience, but in the eyes of the one experiencing the phenomena it might.
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Well – here's what I know from my limited experiences with investigation and my long association with the paranormal.
I have an anecdote about the apartment that I lived in in my early 20s. The one with the "I love you" whisperer. The one where you would hear the faucet in the bathroom squeak and water start flowing into the basin. The one where latched cupboard doors would open and then relatch themselves. Oh – and the one where the ironing board cabinet in the wall would occasionally pop open and the ironing board would pop out.
That is an anecdote. I didn't know much then. Certainly not what I know now. So all I did was freaked out when those things happened and never attempted to quantify a thing. Certainly I have never said that the place was definitely haunted. I have, however, said many times that it was a strange and spooky place to live.
Now – here I have another anecdote that I put in the critical thinking blog. I won't repeat it here, but you can read it. This time there was personal experience AND some interesting findings. What is tangible? Drained fresh batteries (I bought them and charged them just prior to the investigation – my camera actually died – and then went on and off several times before going off completely). Voices on tape. Is it scientific evidence? Probably not because I don't know what makes an EVP. I don't know what drained my batteries. But certainly it is a finding, nonetheless. A finding like this – which started as personal experience – would certainly be the impetus for further investigation – and the personal experience correlates with the collected evidence. So if you correlate collected evidence with personal experience, does it give the personal experience more value? Or is it still just an interesting story?
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A few years ago, I would say throw personal experience out.
First, I think personal experience is what gets investigators to the investigation.
What if the investigator only had a similar personal experience that the client had?
Or, a similar experience by others who reported an experience?
Maybe several investigators experienced the same thing.
Granted, an experience is not evidence. But, is evidence, evidence of the paranormal, if debunked and other things are ruled out?
The equipment used has not been proven to work, yet.
I start to think the value of personal experience in an investigation, may really be of some value to the investigator.
Is this not the reason why (personal experience) the investiagation is done in the first place?
Maybe not valuable to you, but to me it is the first step in the process. Not evidence as such, but a statement to the fact that something out of the ordinary has taken place. Something which needs to be looked at further in order to determine if the event was an actual paranormal event, or in fact something more mundane.
People still have personal experiences no matter how much we might say they don't validate their experience, but in the eyes of the one experiencing the phenomena it might.
Almost everyone has experiences they can't explain, but that doesn't mean they are unexplainable. When one advances an argument that an experience had no "normal" explanation, one reveals a closed mind. Closed to an explanation that does not validate their belief system. Happens all the time.
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I will preface this with the statement that I believe that personal experience is in fact the reason that people investigate "haunted houses".
Growing up, there were many experiences in my mother's house. In later years there we started experiencing full bodied apparitions. One evening my husband and I were watching tv in our bedroom and talking about our future, finances, etc. I was facing him on the bed and looked over my shoulder. There was a woman sitting on a footstool in front of the window looking at us as if she was interested in our conversation. So I said to him "There is a woman looking over my shoulder listening to what we are saying!" At that time he did not see her. (It was still daylight at this time.)
Several weeks later: I was asleep and he was watching tv. (this time nighttime) He looked to his right towards the window and the woman was standing looking out the window. Full bodied, he noticed as I had that she was dressed in high collar, full length dress and was wearing a bonnet over her hair. He said he looked at her, looked at me asleep and said "Its for you." When he looked back, she was gone.
Now, to the point. Those were personal experiences. However, had we not had those experiences, I would never have contemplated calling for an investigation. (considered ETPRS while sithy was still in TN, but way too complicated with my mom's current state) Without those I wouldn't just call up and say "Please come see if there is anything interesting going on in my house."
I think the personal side has to be allowed into the investigation. No science involved in it, but it is the impetus for the investigation in the first place.
Maybe not valuable to you, but to me it is the first step in the process. Not evidence as such, but a statement to the fact that something out of the ordinary has taken place. Something which needs to be looked at further in order to determine if the event was an actual paranormal event, or in fact something more mundane.
People still have personal experiences no matter how much we might say they don't validate their experience, but in the eyes of the one experiencing the phenomena it might.
The problem here is where one refuses to admit a natural explanation for a phenomena in preference for a predetermined bias. Commonplace among "ghosthunting" hobbyists.
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The problem here is where one refuses to admit a natural explanation for a phenomena in preference for a predetermined bias. Commonplace among "ghosthunting" hobbyists.
Agreed. There is a lot of predetermined bias. I would submit that there is as much predetermined bias with "debunkers" and hard-nosed skeptics. Debunking assumes fraud. Going in saying "this is all crap" from the get-go sounds like that person is looking for a predetermined outcome as well. It goes both ways.
Agreed. There is a lot of predetermined bias. I would submit that there is as much predetermined bias with "debunkers" and hard-nosed skeptics. Debunking assumes fraud. Going in saying "this is all crap" from the get-go sounds like that person is looking for a predetermined outcome as well. It goes both ways.
Which is why replication of a given phenomena is needed to test a hypothesis.
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Which is why replication of a given phenomena is needed to test a hypothesis.
I can barely replicate anything I do on a day-to-day basis…..which makes exact replication of a phenomenon seemingly unlikely if (and this is a big IF) we are dealing with a conscious being. Do you suppose memory loss continues on in the afterlife?
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