Cap’n Casper Cap’n Casper, founder of KCPR

I decided to open this new site with what some might call an editorial article, but I believe it is important to give my new readers an initial insight to my perspective regarding ˜paranormal phenomena”.

With the advent of many new ˜ghost hunting” and ˜haunting” programs on television in the past few years, the field of the paranormal has achieved a renewed ˜fad” status. Not unlike the spiritual movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, this surge in ˜ghost hunting” activity has enjoyed new technological advances not available to early investigators. As our scientific knowledge has evolved, so has our perspective of the paranormal realm. Many occurrences are now attributable to earthly phenomena not understood a century ago.

Even though most investigators tend to use widely accepted equipment and methodologies, there is still a stark separation between ˜ghost hunters” and the scientific community. While paranormal phenomena are acknowledged by a vast number of people across the globe, most viewpoints tend to remain tempered by emotion. The concept of an ˜afterlife” or something else beyond our physical world is indeed, an emotional subject. Religion, philosophy, and science have been trying to answer the ultimate questions of the universe for millennia and for many people, a concept of the hereafter is quintessential to existence on earth. Thus, the appeal of paranormal studies becomes apparent.

Enter the investigator:

By whatever name they are called, ˜paranormal investigators” or ˜ghost hunters” can generally be divided into two major categories. While most involved are actually a hybrid of the two, many are biased towards one of the two groups. The first group is comprised of what I call the ˜documentarians”. These investigators focus their efforts on the telling of a story. They typically start with the history behind a place or person, determine how current events are related to historical record, and tie everything together to create a more coherent image of a place or situation. Whether to comfort a grieving family or simply to make sense of strange events, the results of the documentarian approach are definitely great stories! They serve to give hope that there is more to life than the physical world and sometimes scare the pants off us. Usually, this approach involves a modicum of scientific involvement in the form of relatively standardized equipment, with the emphasis being on the spiritualist aspects of an ˜investigation”.

The second group is rather more scientific, with focus being given to data. The scientific investigator relies heavily on technology and the information provided by it. Sensors, cameras, thermometers, microphones, and other gadgets are placed throughout a location and the influx of data begins. While much information is collected via this approach, it does not typically generate a significantly greater understanding than does the documentarian approach. While technology has been a great boon to the field, the equipment predominately being used by investigators has become relatively standardized and has yet to tap into the sweeping spectrum outside the limits of human perception. The link between quantum mechanics and the paranormal has been seriously under-utilized (more on this later) and many researchers get stuck using the same equipment and obtaining the same results.

While both approaches are equally laudable, it is important for a ˜paranormal investigator” to decide which path he/she will take and be true to that decision. So many times ˜investigators” claim to be scientific, yet the analysis of their ˜data” yields little more than an interesting story. I believe this situation helps to maintain the rift between the paranormal community and mainstream science. Whilst the documentarians take care of the stories, the scientific investigator should not only focus on what is happening, but how it is happening. By striving to understand the ethereal mechanics behind paranormal phenomena, we can be led to a vastly more comprehensive understanding of our human experience.

–Cap’n Casper

Thanks for taking the time to stop by!