A Long in the Making Endeavor

For years now, the two of us have been talking about doing something like this.  And, finally, what motivated us to do so was an ad for local contributors to write for the examiner.com on a variety of subjects.  One of these subjects was, of course, paranormal topics.  So, we used this as the push we needed.  Regardless of whether we are accepted, we will use this blog to move forward with our new adventure.  Below, is a copy of the writing sample we sent to the examiner with the application.  It may look familiar as we also used parts of it for the introduction.

Typing Paranormal into Google will treat one to 64.8 million potential links to explore.  A more modest search of Ohio Paranormal will result in 4.25 million hits.  If the researcher of all things spooky and strange decides to dig into a good book on the subject, he or she can browse through one of Amazon.com’s 869 nonfiction or 517 history books on the Paranormal.  With all of the videos, personal testimonies and words written on the subjects of the supernatural, alien encounters, outer-body experiences and a whole host of other topics, there is still no definitive evidence that anything exists beyond the materialist, physical world presented to us every day.  Despite this, a 2005 Gallup Poll taken from a population of 3017 Americans, Canadians and Britons determined that 73% of those polled believe in at least one of 10 paranormal topics; including: extrasensory perception, haunted houses, ghosts, telepathy, clairvoyance, astrology, communication with the dead, witches, reincarnation, and, finally, channeling spiritual entities.   

So, when considering the disparity in what “facts” exist regarding the paranormal and what people actually believe, what, then, is the elusive truth?  Is the paranormal a relic of some primitive world that serves a person’s confirmation biases?  The product of unyielding dogmas used by authoritative powers to maintain their constituents’ loyalties while simultaneously stunting the progress of society?  Or, are these populist beliefs that those in power do not want to acknowledge?  Beliefs that fall outside the realm that human being’s five senses can document and record?  These are the questions the authors of this article, one a skeptic siding more with materialists and the other quite the opposite, seek to answer.       

Tally-ho and way we go!