The Limits of Paranormal Belief

"Paranormal is a general term that designates experiences that lie outside the range of normal or scientific explanation or that indicates phenomena that are understood to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure."

I write about ghosts and hauntings and I obviously have a strong interests in ghosts and hauntings.  When I began writing true ghost stories in my blog a little over a year ago,  I was mostly interested in the folklore and the ghost stories themselves.  Oddly,  I had given little thought to the theory or reality behind the stories.  I just loved the stories.  I had a few paranormal experiences myself involving hauntings, but I had no opinion whatsoever on the world of the paranormal outside of the ghostly.  Over the last year,  I have met so many other people that are interested in the paranormal and otherworldly that I've had to question my belief in all paranormal things.  Of course, the world of the paranormal is incredibly broad and includes ghosts, UFOs, cryptology, esp, witchcraft, faith and spiritual healing and many other topics.

This brings me to my main question.   As people who are interested in the paranormal, where do we draw the line?  As paranormal enthusiasts do we believe in everything paranormal or just one or two things?  I think that line is different for all paranormal enthusiasts.  I also find the line is completely variable.   I've known people who believe in aliens but think ghosts are ridiculous or who believe in ghosts but think Bigfoot is nonsense.    I know people that love ghost stories but think magic and witchcraft is foolishness.    I found this chart on wikipedia.  This survey questioned people as to whether or not they believe in certain areas of the paranormal:
Farha-Steward  Poll  Results for Belief/ Disbelief in Paranormal Topics (Don't Believe is Not on  Chart)

                                                              Believe         Not Sure
astrology                                                  17%        26 %                
channeling                                                  10%           29%
clairvoyance and prophecy                         24 %          33%
communication with the dead                     16 %           29%
demonic possession                                  40%             28%
ESP                                                         28%             39%
extraterrestrials visited Earth in the past     17%             34%
ghosts/spirits of the dead                          39%             27%
haunted houses                                        40%             25%
psychic/spiritual healing                            56%             26%
reincarnation                                            15%             28%
telepathy                                                  24%             34%
witches                                                     26%             19%


Other surveys by different organizations at different times have found very similar results. A 2001 Gallup Poll found that the general public embraced the following: 54% of people believed in psychic/spiritual healing, 42% believed in haunted houses, 41% believed in satanic possession, 36% in telepathy, 25% in reincarnation, and 15% in channeling.   So, it seems that almost half of the population believes in ghosts, hauntings, and faith healings. Almost 65% of those surveyed, either believed in or were open to the possibility of hauntings being real.  However, very few people embrace the notion of aliens having visiting the earth and clairvoyance. 

Lately, I've been drawn to magic and witchcraft as a paranormal endeavor.  As a good Catholic girl,  I was brought up to believe this is evil, so I can't practice it.  But I've enjoyed reading about it and learning about its history.  This is something most people do not believe in within the paranormal realm.   This week I did an experiment, just to see what happens.  I cast a spell.  Of course,  I chose one that called to St. Rafael, St. Michael, and St Gabriel.  This seemed natural to me as Catholics pray to the saints and ask for their intervention often enough.  The spell called for me to light some candles and make three wishes.  One impossible wish, on wish for love, and one wish for business and ask the above angels to help obtain said wishes.  I did so.  Interestingly, the candle for the impossible wish (I wished that Japan would have a speedy and painless recovery) went out almost immediately.  The others burned through the night.  The other two wishes were for my husband (love) and for my next novel to be published by one of the two editors that are currently reviewing it (business).    If it works, I may put a check by believing in magic, if not,  I'll still stay in the not sure column. 

So I ask my readers, where do your paranormal leanings go?  Do you draw the line somewhere or does every aspect of the paranormal interest you?  Are there things you believe in and other things your find ridiculous?    I noticed the survey did not include Cryptids.  I would like to know where interest in cryptids would stand on this survey.  I've been reading  the blog Gummerfan's  Monster HQ lately
http://gummerfansmonsterhunterhq.blogspot.com/ and his articles on cryptids are interesting.  I wonder if that is a lesser believed in area of the paranormal?  So let me know where you stand and where your limits of the paranormal begin and end.

Looking for Homer's Ghost in an Abadoned Hospital

I went exploring today.   I travelled to Cullman, Alabama to find the ghost of Homer who lives at the          abadoned Woodland Hospital.  We found the hospital easily and spent an hour or so wandering the  grounds and photographing the hospital.   We saw no signs of Homer outside of the hospital, but  it would  have been hard to see anything malevolent on such a beautiful spring day.   After much exploring,  we found an open door and asked a construction worker if we could come in and look around.  The workers have been renovating some parts of the hospital in hopes that they can find new tenants for the building.  The worker let us in and we were able to wander the quiet, empy shell of a hospital for some time.  We saw no evidence of any other workers and the quiet was beyond unnerving.   Finally, the foreman came stomping down the hall and told us we had to leave immediately.  He seemed quiet angry and he escourted us out with a frown and a wag of  his finger.                                                                                                                                                     

                                                                                                                                                   

Although I saw no sign of Homer at the hospital,  as I reviewed the pictures I stopped when I saw a picture of myself taking the picture reflected in the glass.  What sent chills down my spine was that there was              someone standing behind me in the picture and I had been very alone when I took it.  The picture is at the bottom of the page.                                

Interviewing Leilani of APS and Paranormal State

Last night I was lucky enough to meet with Leilani from the Alabama Paranormal Society.  The Alabama Paranormal Society is one of many ghost hunting groups that works with the team from Paranormal State, the television series that airs on A & E.

Leilani is the founder of Alabama Paranormal Society and she is also a psychic.  She is also a very friendly woman and she did a wonderful interview with me in which she described her recend investigation of a house just East of Birmingham.  Her team's investigation of this house is part of season 4 of  Paranormal State. I was thrilled to get a chance to talk to her about her exciting investigation of this incredibly haunted house that she says is the most haunted house she has ever been in.   Another psychic that had visited the house was also present during the interview.  Her name was Judi Lynch.   Judi Lynch said that as she drove up to the house she heard screaming come from the house.  The negative energy coming from this house was so strong,  she had to sit in the car for a while before she could enter the house.

Leilani describes the house as literally throbbing when she walked towards it.  She had never seen anything like it.  The house belongs to the mining period in Alabama history in which powerful mines and mills created little communites of workers.   The owner of the beautiful mansion at the time of it's construction was one of the engineers working in the mill.   In fact, one of the first indications that the house was haunted was when the family that currently owns the home began renovations, they had the entire house rewired.   A few days later they returned to the house to find all the wiring redone to its original configuration.  Leilani says that she had a very strong feeling that the hostile spirit in this house was the engineer who used to live there.

Leilani described many of the terrifying things that happened at this house to me.  She described the spirit leaving scratch marks on one of her investigators.  At one point,  the spirit ripped a stained glass window from its metal hangings and sent it flying towards Leilani.  At another point, it knocked the tripod over.   During the investigation, they were able to catch footage of the black spirit moving slowly across the room and then darting into the next room.  When the spirit moved,  it set off the motion detector.

Leilani also said this is one of the rare houses that actually scared her.  The activity in this house was so violent and so malevolent that the family who owns it was forced to flee after only living there 18 months.  They currently live in a much smaller house and use the big house only for storage because they are too terrified of the house to go back there for more than a few minutes.

You can learn more about Leilani and the Paranormal States investigation of this Gardendale home on season 4 of Paranormal State.   You can also learn more about Leilani and her team at:
 http://alabama-paranormal-society.com/index.html