Psychology and The Paranormal

In the following report I aim to cover some issues around the human psyche and the way it can impact on paranormal investigation. I will cover many of the issues however to study them all would be impossible. Within the parts I do cover I hope you will find something of interest to yourself or maybe even get some answers to questions you may have considered. I will attempt at the end to take events from our own investigations and personal reactions of the group, and discuss them in terms of psychology and the paranormal. You will note that during this report I often use the word “paranormal”. Unless otherwise stated, for the purpose of this report I am using it to refer to events of a “spirit” nature although its true meaning is “unexplainable” and not strictly to do with ghosts and haunting's. Why Do We Do It? This is a question I am sure many people have asked themselves while sat in a cold, dark location either bored and wishing something would happen, often scared witless when something does happens or terrified in anticipation of something happening. Also this is something we, as Paranormal Investigators often get asked. The first answer I guess is simple. As human beings we are born with the ability and need to learn about the world around us and for some people this extends to wanting to learn about what can’t be easily seen or understood. Most people who get involved in paranormal study seem to start out with a need to find proof for themselves that there is life beyond our time on earth, sometimes due to incidents that raise the question, or bereavement or something as simple as watching a program about paranormal activity. Of course there is the other side of the coin which is some people get involved in this type of work because they do not believe and hope to disprove theories and beliefs. The presence of either is equally justified within a group as long as those investigating are willing to be sceptical when necessary and check out all possibility of rational explanation, and those who are totally sceptical are willing to accept when something can not be explained even if it means using the term “paranormal” in its true sense “unexplainable”. There is also another reason why people enjoy what appears to be a very uncomfortable and almost macabre activity and this is the need for excitement. Most people will admit to the fact that they enjoy the adrenalin rush that comes when excitement and fear clash. In recent years this has been known as “getting a buzz” out of something. This search for excitement leads people to many activities from going on roller coaster rides, to taking up dangerous sports and for some people spending nights in supposedly haunted locations waiting for the unknown to happen. And finally I feel there is the motivation of wanting to be part of something that could some day change the opinion of many people about the presence of spirit life around us. Ask most investigators to honestly say what motivates them and along with personal knowledge and the excitement will be the hope that one day they will be the ones who get the picture of a full manifestation that shocks the world or that they get the one bit of evidence that throws all logical theories out of the window. How Can Our Minds Affect Paranormal Investigations? There are many ways in which our minds can influence and affect paranormal study. This is because the human psyche can influence the behaviours and perceptions of the people involved, and therefore on occasions, the findings of each investigation. In this section I will look at certain elements of the human mind and look at the impact these can have on us in this line of work, although obviously no-one could cover all areas in such a brief study. Section One - The Effects of Tiredness Nearly all investigations take part over long hours and at night time. It has been proven that however a person sleeps during the day our bodies and minds will still tell us we’re tired at certain times during the night. Tiredness affects our senses and our emotions and this is where it can impact on investigations. The Senses Eyesight As we get tired our senses become impaired. The muscles that control the eyes and make us able to focus become weaker when we are tired so we are more likely to see things that aren’t there or misconstrue what we do see. We have all at some time thought we have seen something “out of the corner” of our eye, when we are tired this is more probable and could account for many “sightings” of shadows, flashing lights and similar. Our eyes also take longer to adjust to changes of light when we are tired and this can lead to headaches. Therefore it is possible that the headaches people get that they put down to paranormal influences are in fact down to the eyes inability to adjust to the way we often go from being in torchlight to maybe full lighting to complete darkness etc. Hearing Our hearing can also be affected through tiredness. This can be down to it becoming more limited but also can be caused by the lessening ability of our eyesight. People who are blind often have a greater sense of hearing than those who are sighted. Even in the animal kingdom nocturnal animals have a much better sense of hearing because they need to rely on this more in the dark than eyesight. Because our eyes don’t work so well in the dark we tend to hear better as our other senses make up for our limited sight. Sounds that are totally natural but we don’t hear normally can suddenly be heard by us and therefore there is a possibility that we may consider them paranormal. Also there is the risk that sounds will seem much louder in these conditions and therefore a sound from some distance away can appear to be very close by. Smell Again our sense of smell can increase as our other senses decrease. Also while sitting quietly expecting something to happen we become more aware of the environment around us and pick up on things we may not have previously noticed. In our day to day life we are often too busy taking in all the information sent to our brains to notice the subtle sounds and scents, take away the eyesight and other influences and we are bound to pick up on those scents/sounds that previously would have gone unnoticed. When we are setting up for an investigation we are continually busy working out the layout of the building and discussing the positioning of cameras etc. There is much talking and many things to see and think about. It is very easy at this time to ignore or not even notice smells and sounds. Our ignorance to these can lead to misleading evidence when the investigation begins. Memory As we get tired our ability to concentrate decreases, many of us would have discovered that when trying to drive a car or operate machinery when we haven’t had proper rest. Along with a lack of concentration comes a decrease in our ability to remember things as precisely as we normally do. The problem this raises for investigations is as follows. Much of what we report on in investigations relies on the memory of the people involved. We rely on people remembering their experiences precisely in order to get a true record of events and in order to compare them with the experiences of others. Time can appear to go more quickly or slowly in a location and yet it is important that people remember the time and order of events so we may again compare them with the experiences of others at that time, or be able to check where other group members were at that point to rule out any of them as possible causes for sounds/sightings etc. Emotions Most of us know that as we get more tired our emotions can sometimes take over making us react to things in a totally different way to how we normally would. This can lead us to become more frightened at small incidents, become downhearted or even slightly hysterical producing laughter or tears. The difficulty this causes is that it becomes difficult to determine whether person’s reactions in a particular place are down to paranormal influences or our own emotional state. Our emotions before an investigation are often a little heightened anyway, whether through nervousness, excitement or fear the added impact of tiredness can often lead people to behave in a way that could be described as “out of character” taking these other logical factors into consideration is essential before putting these behaviours down to paranormal causes. Section Two – The Influence of Others The best known example of this is the phenomenon we know as “mass hysteria”. This phenomenon is well evidenced in the confusion and hysteria that resulted from the release of the radio broadcast of Orson Wells’ “War of the Worlds”. Although very improbable the belief of a few that we were indeed being attacked by aliens spread to a vast number of American citizens and confusion and chaos ensued. The fear of a minority began to influence a much larger number of people. In this way we have to be careful in investigations that fear does not become contagious and make some members of the group feel emotions they would not usually feel. However, there is another side to this theory. Sometimes our natural instinct to protect those around us who we are close to as family, friend or colleague can lead us to overcome our own fears. Parents have been known to put themselves in danger to protect their children and people have forgotten fear as they fight off intruders or possible attackers. In a much less serious example people with a fear of spiders will remove them from their home if their children are afraid and only afterwards realise what they have done. So sometimes the fears of others will infact make us braver. Laughter of course is also contagious and can also lead people to feel that something paranormal is happening. Again it is important to consider this when members of the group start to have fits of laughter at the same time, especially taking into consideration the effects of tiredness. Section Three – The Environment The environment (location we are investigating) also has a huge part in the way our mind works before and during an investigation. There are a few ways in which this can impact on us. Preconceived Ideas The more we know about the location we are due to investigate the more chance there is that our expectations will be altered. For example, if we go into a building where we know people have been murdered, hung etc we are more likely to expect to feel an oppressive atmosphere or let our imaginations convince us that we feel this. If a group has been told a woman in Victorian clothing has been seen this could lead us to imagine we have seen the same or at least lead us to look out for this maybe missing other things around us. This can also influence the way we feel physically and emotionally. If a group is told that in a particular room of a building people feel sick or dizzy, there is 400isk that the expectation of this will actually lead people to take on these symptoms, the same applies to emotional states. The Type of Building As mentioned before the events that have occurred in a building can influence how we feel. If a group goes into a building that used to be a prison for example, they will to some degree expect to feel certain types of emotion, if they visit an old hospital there is the possibility that some members of the group may expect to feel physical symptoms and this could lead to them truly feeling these. Where murderers have been known to have stayed people expect negative energies or even to see or feel the evil person. This can make fear worse or again make people believe they are seeing or feeling things that in truth they are not. This is not to say of course that at the time any of these feelings, physical or emotional, are not very real to the person involved. It is not an effort to mislead or be untruthful. The question is about the possible causes of these feelings not about the honesty of the person reporting them. The Weather The weather on the night of an investigation can impact on how we feel and therefore on what we report and the way we perceive things. If we are very cold, for example, we tend to feel more tired and sometimes more uncomfortable therefore affecting our emotions which can then affect the way we see and feel things. One thing people often look out for when investigating is a drop in temperature, this is very difficult to prove as paranormal when the temperature itself is very cold or the building has draughts. Thunderstorms are often used in horror films and the like as a way of adding to the atmosphere. This link between thunderstorms and the paranormal can make us more likely to expect things to happen if we are investigating during a storm; the same can also be said of the influence of moon phases, with many people believing that the best time to investigate is during a full moon. This increase in expectation can make people imagine more or make them less willing to look for logical explanation in the events that do happen. Returning to the subject of the Thunderstorm, there are natural changes that occur during a storm that can affect the environment around us and the way we ourselves feel. Many people get headaches or get very tired during a storm and the humidity and EMFs’ in the area can on occasions be affected. It is very important that this be considered when carrying out an investigation under these conditions. Where Does This Leave Us? So far then it’s looking pretty good for the total sceptics. From the above it appears that pretty much of what we may see, hear or feel can be explained logically so investigators may feel there is no point in even trying to prove the existence of spirit life because the evidence is far to easily disregarded. This of course is not the case, we just have to take steps to ensure that we do all we can to eliminate or disprove that the psychological factors have influenced our findings. Obviously total elimination is not always practical. In these cases reducing the chances of these factors influencing our results is at least a step in the right direction. Also, the theories about group dynamics, mass hysteria etc are just that..theories, every person in every group is individual so no strict rules apply. In the next section I will explain how we as a group work to eliminate the risk of psychological factors influencing our findings or how we at least reduce this risk, and also give examples of how our group (and I’m sure many others), reacts differently to situations than would be expected. The Effects of Tiredness Obviously as a group we are but human. We cannot do anything to prevent ourselves getting tired apart from rest up well the night before, and day of, the investigation. What we can do however is reduce the risk of our tiredness and its consequent effects impacting on our findings. Eyesight/Hearing/Smell In order to reduce as much as possible the risk that anything we see, hear or smell is down to tiredness we follow a few simple rules. Although we would never suggest that any group member who sees, hears or smells something is “making it up” and we do mention such experiences in our report, we only class them as strong evidence if the experience is shared by few group members (if this is reported independently then it is even better), or if other evidence is acquired at the same time e.g. changes in temperature, EMF fluctuations, or visual/audio evidence gathered at the same time. Obviously the more evidence gathered at one time the better. Good baseline testing is also essential because of these issues. Baseline testing involves the obvious EMF and temperature readings etc but also involves much more. As a group we check for draughts, loose floor boards etc, and look at lighting and the surrounding area to establish whether there is anything of note that may cause us to see or hear something unexpected when we are investigating. At this point we are also careful to make notes of any odours that are noticeable in the building, this is something that is often forgotten but is important if we are to prove that something we notice later on is not in fact a normal environmental occurrence. Memory The way we cope with the memory issue is simple, we make detailed notes of all occurrences as they happen. This involves noting who was present, the time, the place and the events. This is vital if a detailed report is going to be written and also helps us to tie events in with visual or audio footage. Emotions When it comes to the emotion it is a little bit more difficult, there can be no hard or fast rule as we all react differently anyway as individuals and there are many outside factors that could impact on the way we feel during an investigation. It is easy sometimes to convince yourself that an emotion you are feeling at any one time is due to paranormal influences when in fact it is not. Again though it is important that anyone feeling any emotional changes reports this in order that other evidence can be sought at that time (as with the senses). In the first investigation we noticed that three of the group members started uncontrollable giggling at the same time and wondered if this was due to paranormal influences. There was other evidence recorded at the same time so it would seem plausible to some that there was something paranormal going on and this is a possibility. Rather than take for granted that this was the case we have monitored the situation since and it does appear that one person in particular does tend to get a small dose of hysteria at a certain time on most investigations, this sometimes starts the other two members off but not every time. This suggests that the first occasion was different in that all three started at the same time whereas in subsequent investigations it appears that only one person is affected meaning that it most likely that this is one of the effects tiredness has on her. The Influence Of Others There is little I can say about this really in relation to our group as the “mass hysteria” theory does not seem to apply. Obviously there are times when a reaction from one group member can make the other members slightly unnerved for a while but the extent to which this happens is negligible. Much of this is due to the fact that we do not jump to a paranormal conclusion when things happen so for any one time when there is a strong reaction to an event from one or two group members there are always the other members who will calm it down and act rationally. What does seem to apply to us however is the example of some people getting braver as others get more nervous. On a recent investigation for example the member who is possibly the most easily frightened accompanied another member to a graveyard, (previously her biggest fear). As the member she was accompanying got more nervous she found herself getting braver until she felt no fear herself. And, once more it is important that if something happens that makes a few group members react we do not automatically assume it is paranormal but look for other evidence at that time. The Environment Many groups do research on a location before they investigate it. We do carry out some research into the building for safety reasons and to assess what equipment will be suitable but we try, as much as possible, not to read or listen to too much information about previous experiences at that locations. We obviously know a little about the building we visit, for example what it was used for, but try not to get too detailed a history in order that are expectations are not too affected by the knowledge we have. We would far prefer to report incidents and events after the investigation and then if they do fit in with what others have reported it is stronger evidence. As I have said for the most part we cannot help but know the type of building we are visiting but if we have feelings that could be related to that we do not immediately put it down to any sort of residual energy, but neither do we reject the fact it could be, again we simply look for other evidence at that time and try to eliminate any logical explanation. The Weather Obviously there is nothing we can do about the weather or the moon phase at the time of an investigation. What we can do is consider these factors when reporting and collecting evidence. If there is a slight fluctuation in temperature we accept that this is in all probability due to environmental conditions, however extreme fluctuations are studied more closely and logical explanations tested. Sometimes group members start to feel a rise in temperature and again environmental causes are taken into consideration and also other evidence is again sought. We try not to let the hammer house of horror type weather impact on us although it is beyond all doubt that the atmosphere within the group changes if there is a thunderstorm or a full moon. What we do however is realise this is the case and stay focused on collecting audio and visual evidence to back up experiences. It does appear that in some cases more activity has occurred during these conditions and rather than immediately jump to the conclusion that this is strictly down to the conditions or rule out the fact that it can have an impact we keep an open mind about this. Of course, if it is the case that more activity is occurring there is another possible explanation. It is suggested by those who believe in the paranormal, that in order to make themselves known spirits need to draw on our energies. When we are more emotionally charged, maybe more excited due to conditions, we are thought to emit more energy therefore feeding the spirits and making it easier for them to show themselves or such. We stay open minded on this and all other phenomenon while we endeavor to find more evidence through future investigations and experimentation