by Penny S. Vincent

Created on: September 30, 2009   Last Updated: October 02, 2009

Inquiring minds want to know: do you believe in the paranormal?

Several factors seem to influence a person's belief in paranormal phenomena. Ethnicity, residency, religious upbringing, and level of education are the major influences in forming the individual's belief system. In cultures where such occurrences are considered a natural part of life, the majority of the population will admit to having personal experience in this area. In other cultures, many people will not acknowledge the paranormal events. They are afraid no one else will believe them, or will think they are insane.

Humans have been debating the existence of entities such as guardian angels, spirits, ghosts, and aliens for centuries. Scientists have conducted experiments, to both prove and disprove the possibility of life after death, re-incarnation, telepathy, mind reading, Extra Sensory Perception, and other paranormal occurrences. As with everything else in life, there is no absolute proof one way or the other. Even if there were absolute proof, almost everyone would still insist on believing the way he or she started out believing, despite any evidence to the contrary.

Thus, it is up to each person to decide what is real and which is faked. Many people fake abilities in order to take advantage of others. On the other hand, many people have real paranormal abilities that they hide or disavow. Many psychic abilities go unrecognized. In most cases, humans desire, yet fear, to have these special abilities. Very few people with real skills actively utilize these skills in public in the United States, although they privately use them for the benefit of others.

Various members of my family fall into the latter categories of people. I will relate to you some of my family's experiences, and let you decide whether paranormal phenomena exist or not. Having experienced it on somewhat of a daily basis, I tend to believe it does exist. However, I do try to keep an open mind, and will accept logical explanations whenever they are offered. Of course, I will change the names of the people involved in order to protect their privacy.

To keep this short (I have been told I should write a book), I will only relate a few of the countless incidents that have occurred. The problem is trying to determine which would be of the most interest to the audience. One of the events that stays in my own memory the most involves my sister and me.

For privacy purposes, I will call my sister Ms. D. The event took place when

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