Mainstream Science meets Paranormal Studies
The Temporal Nature of Hauntings
By Russell White

Quietly sitting in the lotus position, the woman smiled serenely. She had been meditating for quite some time now and was able to go “deep” into a trance. Behind her closed lids she was aware of just being. Suddenly she felt a tug as if she had been launched through the air on some type of carnival ride. She could actually feel the air hitting her face as she sped through the atmosphere, flying like a bird. Looking down at herself she was aware that she no longer had a body, but was instead a “ball of light”.



Suddenly she was aware that she could see greenery, flowers, trees and rolling hills. She seemed to slow over this area and lose altitude. She became aware of a mass of people standing around on the hill she was approaching. Looking around she couldn’t help but notice the vivid colors and beautiful scenery. As she neared this group of people, she felt as if she would crash into them. Suddenly however one of the people reached up and batted her back into the air, like one would bat a beach ball. Rising again gently over the mass of people she felt serene and at peace, she floated from place to place and each time she got within reach someone would bat her back into the air.

What I just described is what my ex-wife described to me after one of her meditation sessions. Now the question I pose is, was it real? To her there is no way anyone could tell her it wasn’t. When we experience something that we perceive as “real”, then it becomes a part of our individual reality, and from that point on changes our view of the universe. What is reality? What is perception? What place do these things have in paranormal research? Come with me as we travel down this winding, hilly road.

Now first we need to establish that reality is a product of perception. The way we perceive events and stimuli, and the subsequent effect on our psyche, is what makes an event real to us. My favorite saying is “Reality is relative”. I’m not 100% sure who to attribute this quote to, I’ve seen it credited to many different people. Regardless, I feel that it says it all.

Perception is defined as; becoming aware of something via the senses. The senses of course include, sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell. I think we can all agree that 100% of all alleged haunting type phenomena is detected by one of these senses. But here is where it gets difficult. We don’t all perceive the same stimuli in the same way!

Here is an example. Take two different people, one a race car driver and the other a soccer mom, and strap them securely into a car with no steering wheel, brake or gas pedals etc. Now send this car careening down a road for twenty miles at speeds of over two hundred m.p.h. If the occupants were to be interviewed after this little outing, chances are that even though they experienced the exact same stimuli, they both perceived it differently. The race car driver would probably report nothing out of the ordinary, or even a feeling of exhilaration and excitement. While the soccer mom, after cleaning herself up, would likely report fear and anxiety, and probably lots of both. This is a great example of different perception of a shared event.

Reality is defined as; all of your experiences that determine how things appear to you. Now by using our example it is easy to see how two different people experience the exact same thing yet come away with different views of reality.

How do we tell what is real? This question has been asked by many, many people since the beginning of time.

A person suffering from mental illness that causes hallucinations experiences many strange things that are absolutely real to them, so real that they react in accordance to these visions or sounds.

Where do these visions and sounds come from?

Most times they are caused by chemical or synaptic glitches within our brains. Are our brains powerful enough to cause us to see or hear things which aren’t there? Most definitely!


The human brain is considered by some to be a universe in itself. It is a magical, mystical piece of biological machinery that has still unknown powers. Even with all of today’s technology and knowledge, scientists and researchers still have only a rudimentary idea of exactly how and why the brain works as it does. They still have absolutely no idea if human consciousness is encapsulated within the brain or if it exists in tandem with but outside and separate from the brain.

What does all this have to do with the paranormal? I believe that the brain plays a large part in our perception of alleged paranormal activity. In addition I believe that a very large percentage of paranormal activity, if it occurs at all, occurs on a temporal level.

What is meant by temporal? Basically here is how I see it. For all the thousands upon thousands of people I see out there in field attempting to collect evidence of the paranormal I see very little legitimate data collected. I’m not saying this to knock anyone, but if you look around there is a pitifully small amount of evidence that holds up to even the most minute scrutiny. If this activity occurred within our atmosphere physically, then I feel that according to the laws of chance there would be a larger amount of evidence, especially given the amount of reports and eyewitness accounts. Now I have been a witness to things that others with me were impervious to, and vice-versa, so it seems to me that logically the only other alternative is that these actions and occurrences don’t take place physically in our dimension but are “implanted”, for want of a better word, within our brains by an outside force or energy.

I bet about now you are saying “OK, time to call the men in white to come get old Russ, he’s lost his mind!”

It sounds like it, or better yet it sounds like the epitome of the worst of science fiction, but in reality it’s not that implausible.

Housed within our brains are millions of nerves, and billions of processes are operating at any given moment. Now these processes are conducted by electrical impulses, a fact that many people aren’t aware of. Now if we can entertain the idea that these “spirit energies” can manipulate other power sources, i.e. drain batteries, cause lights to flicker, emit EM fields strong enough to be picked up by meters, etc. Then why couldn’t these “energies” manipulate the small electrical impulses in our brains causing us to see, or hear or feel something without actually doing so physically.


It is a scientific fact that areas of our brains can be stimulated with electrical probes and cause a variety sensory/perceptive phenomenon. Certain areas when stimulated can cause emotive responses, other areas cause us to smell things, yet other areas cause us to hear or see or taste things. This is accomplished without actually physically doing these things. It occurs wholly within our minds or temporally.

I have spoken to people whom lay claim to psychic abilities and asked them to describe how they receive the information that they relay to others. Probably the best description I heard is that they “read energy”. Now obviously if I am standing beside someone receiving a psychic impression I am not going to share this impression as this will take place temporally rather than physically. If it were a physical occurrence then myself or anyone else standing in close proximity would experience the same sensory input. To me this is similar to what happens when someone will report seeing, hearing or feeling something while standing in the midst of a group of other people who report nothing out of the ordinary.

Now by no means am I suggesting that everyone is psychic, rather that we all have the same biological mechanisms, maybe people that have PSI abilities, for whatever reason, are more capable in using these mechanisms. For all of these reasons I feel that this phenomenon occurs within our brains as opposed to occurring on a physical, tangible level.

Something for you to think about…..Until next time…….

Russell White is a junior level Psychology student. He has a minor in Criminal Justice, and has studied extensively Sociology, Mythology, Logic and Critical Thinking and the Earth Sciences.

He has been actively researching and studying the paranormal for two years and is an active member of Ghost Haunts of Oklahoma and Urban Legend Investigation (GHOULI) in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

White is also currently the program facilitator for a year long research experiment involving a few teams across the nation.

GHOULI website:
http://www.ghouli.com






http://www.ghostmag.com/issues/2004-09/200...Paranormal.html

http://www.ghostmag.com

Yes, psychic phenomena are indeed brain phenomena. No objective physics involved whatever.

I think it is all objective physics and this neophyte has not studied.

That's the monist's view: consciousness is a physical phenomenon. I tend to agree.

Physical phenomena and outside the mere ego of personas and all the other stuff associated with short term energy or limbo states where mind has some impacts.

The problem with most people who (like this person who is a mere initiate to study through a psuychology program with no real research) look at paranormal things is they attribute spiritistic fakir type crap to the whole field. In fact the serious research has to uphold a higher standard of scrutiny due to the lack of physically visible (sometimes) effects. (U Va., Duke and others that I have provided links to are most informative.)

The trouble with the scientific study of conscious events is that there is no way to observe them from outside.

There are ways to track the firing mechanisms and see what occurs physiologically which mirror the explanations of the mystics which we have definite proof of.

There are ways to witness the impact of healing and the research on brainwavelength state - U of Illinois.

There are ways to gather data and compare accounts of observers even though those observations are not limited to mere eyesight.

There are hard sciences in every field and researchers in Physics who have had to conclude what was called paranormal is real - see various things of mine here - inlcuding Morowitz quoting all manner of Nobel Laureates as well as the Thalami research.

But you are right science has no definite explanation for consciousness or many other things. In fact the explanations of Yoga surpass science and have for a very lonmg time - though this is changing.

In the final analysis (briefly) I see more proof for what is called paranormal than what I see for those who say the world is all reducable (reductivist or nichts als - per James and Jung) to what is unfortunately still taught as black and white reality with no credit given to the likes of Tesla and Faraday (Numerous others) for what they said about these things.