Paranormal Culture
Posted 09-15-2008 at 08:02 PM by riseup08
Here is a long one for you something i'm working on figured i would put it out there see what everyone thought. Hope you like and if you want to read more i'll be adding it to are web site Rhode Island Society for the Examination of Unusual Phenomena and adding to it as much as i can.
Preface
The idea of taking an anthropological approach to paranormal studies came to me while watching T.V. and seeing the emergence of such shows as Ghost Hunters and Most Haunted. As I watched season after season, I found myself questioning the commercialism of these shows. Networks have to draw in viewers and keep ratings high in order to tape new seasons. It was easy for me to see why these shows are successful, but I found it hard to trust a show on a T.V. channel, especially one with “Fiction” in its title. I felt that I needed to take a hand on approach and saturate myself in a culture I knew little of and was skeptical about.
The next step for me was joining a paranormal group. I was lucky enough to have friends that were creating a group in my home town of Tiverton, RI. After meeting with the group, I officially became part of R.I.S.E.U.P. (Rhode Island Society for the Examination of Unusual Phenomena). At this point my research started and I was off to try and find out if there was truth buried under the fallacies created by people striving to fit into this new culture.
I started my research by trying to figure out what I needed to focus on. After all, the word “paranormal” is an umbrella term. It is used to describe unusual phenomena or experiences that lack an obvious scientific definition. For my research I will mainly focus on ghosts and hauntings and touch upon other paranormal topics if necessary for examples. I will not go into paranormal theory, due to the fact that it cannot, in most cases, be proven or disproven. What you are about to read is a collection of my observations and thoughts.
The first investigation.
As I started to pack up for my first investigation, I felt like I was back in college studying Malinowski, a famous anthropologist who threw himself into, what some would say, primitive worlds without knowing the language, rituals, or their lifestyles. I knew I was not facing such an unknown as he was, but felt, as I picked up the KII meter, like I was entering a world just as unexplored. I couldn’t help feeling like I was trying out for a science-fiction movie filled with out-of-this world technology. It didn’t take long however for the reality to set in and my investigative side to hit me. After all, I wasn’t in this to make fun of anything about the paranormal; on the contrary, I was here to investigate and find truth in a sea of speculation.
By the time I was ready to dive into the dark (dark as in without light) world of paranormal research, the team had already gone through the baseline reading and had interviewed the home owners. For the sake of space I will not type out the whole case report as it can be read at: http://www.riseupparanormal.com/inve...sefilepr01.htm. What I want to share my thoughts throughout the investigations. It wasn’t long into the night before I started to think about my main cultural question: Why has the topic of Ghost become so common place and believed by so many? The first part of that question I don’t think I can answer quite yet. However, as the night went on and hours of darkness held nothing but faint lights from the outside road I started to think about how easy it is for some groups to have what I will call “Invalid Personal Experiences”. Personally, I believe these cannot be proved or disproved, but could be a result of misinterpreted visuals. Thinking about that, I started to worry about finding my own proof and the difficulties that will arise in the search for it. After all, everyone is looking for answers as to our purpose and our future when we leave this place we call home. Is that the reason we choose to believe, or do we choose to believe to fit in? At that moment in the investigation, I hit my first anthological question: culture or belief?
Culture or belief, it was there in my head floating around while I was asking questions to a wall in a dark space with another R.I.S.E.U.P. investigator, Jay. It wasn’t until I got home that I could really pick that question apart and elaborate on it. For me, the question of whether we believe to fit in or not was a very involved thought. I started to see how society was made up today. After all, to fit into the norm of any given society, I believe you have to fit into a number of socially accepted markers. For example you wear the right clothes, have a job, eat “normal culturally accepted” food, and so on to fit in to the majority, the norm. Today I can see that the belief in the paranormal has made its way into that list of markers, making it a valid choice for someone to pick in order to become part of the norm. So now I was faced with the struggle between whether to believe in a story, or believe in man’s need to fit in.
There was hope, however, for me to believe in the factual side of the paranormal. During my audio review, I did come across an anomaly. Though not a class A E.V.P. it was unexplainable. I found the evidence very exciting because it was something I caught on my recorder. Of course the evidence wasn’t groundbreaking or obvious but gave me hope for finding truth which is weaved with thousands and thousands of invalid personal experiences. The anomaly can be heard here http://www.riseupparanormal.com/inve.../PR01_full.wav.
Preface
The idea of taking an anthropological approach to paranormal studies came to me while watching T.V. and seeing the emergence of such shows as Ghost Hunters and Most Haunted. As I watched season after season, I found myself questioning the commercialism of these shows. Networks have to draw in viewers and keep ratings high in order to tape new seasons. It was easy for me to see why these shows are successful, but I found it hard to trust a show on a T.V. channel, especially one with “Fiction” in its title. I felt that I needed to take a hand on approach and saturate myself in a culture I knew little of and was skeptical about.
The next step for me was joining a paranormal group. I was lucky enough to have friends that were creating a group in my home town of Tiverton, RI. After meeting with the group, I officially became part of R.I.S.E.U.P. (Rhode Island Society for the Examination of Unusual Phenomena). At this point my research started and I was off to try and find out if there was truth buried under the fallacies created by people striving to fit into this new culture.
I started my research by trying to figure out what I needed to focus on. After all, the word “paranormal” is an umbrella term. It is used to describe unusual phenomena or experiences that lack an obvious scientific definition. For my research I will mainly focus on ghosts and hauntings and touch upon other paranormal topics if necessary for examples. I will not go into paranormal theory, due to the fact that it cannot, in most cases, be proven or disproven. What you are about to read is a collection of my observations and thoughts.
The first investigation.
As I started to pack up for my first investigation, I felt like I was back in college studying Malinowski, a famous anthropologist who threw himself into, what some would say, primitive worlds without knowing the language, rituals, or their lifestyles. I knew I was not facing such an unknown as he was, but felt, as I picked up the KII meter, like I was entering a world just as unexplored. I couldn’t help feeling like I was trying out for a science-fiction movie filled with out-of-this world technology. It didn’t take long however for the reality to set in and my investigative side to hit me. After all, I wasn’t in this to make fun of anything about the paranormal; on the contrary, I was here to investigate and find truth in a sea of speculation.
By the time I was ready to dive into the dark (dark as in without light) world of paranormal research, the team had already gone through the baseline reading and had interviewed the home owners. For the sake of space I will not type out the whole case report as it can be read at: http://www.riseupparanormal.com/inve...sefilepr01.htm. What I want to share my thoughts throughout the investigations. It wasn’t long into the night before I started to think about my main cultural question: Why has the topic of Ghost become so common place and believed by so many? The first part of that question I don’t think I can answer quite yet. However, as the night went on and hours of darkness held nothing but faint lights from the outside road I started to think about how easy it is for some groups to have what I will call “Invalid Personal Experiences”. Personally, I believe these cannot be proved or disproved, but could be a result of misinterpreted visuals. Thinking about that, I started to worry about finding my own proof and the difficulties that will arise in the search for it. After all, everyone is looking for answers as to our purpose and our future when we leave this place we call home. Is that the reason we choose to believe, or do we choose to believe to fit in? At that moment in the investigation, I hit my first anthological question: culture or belief?
Culture or belief, it was there in my head floating around while I was asking questions to a wall in a dark space with another R.I.S.E.U.P. investigator, Jay. It wasn’t until I got home that I could really pick that question apart and elaborate on it. For me, the question of whether we believe to fit in or not was a very involved thought. I started to see how society was made up today. After all, to fit into the norm of any given society, I believe you have to fit into a number of socially accepted markers. For example you wear the right clothes, have a job, eat “normal culturally accepted” food, and so on to fit in to the majority, the norm. Today I can see that the belief in the paranormal has made its way into that list of markers, making it a valid choice for someone to pick in order to become part of the norm. So now I was faced with the struggle between whether to believe in a story, or believe in man’s need to fit in.
There was hope, however, for me to believe in the factual side of the paranormal. During my audio review, I did come across an anomaly. Though not a class A E.V.P. it was unexplainable. I found the evidence very exciting because it was something I caught on my recorder. Of course the evidence wasn’t groundbreaking or obvious but gave me hope for finding truth which is weaved with thousands and thousands of invalid personal experiences. The anomaly can be heard here http://www.riseupparanormal.com/inve.../PR01_full.wav.
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