by Brandon Whitton

Created on: January 08, 2008

There is a widely held belief in the paranormal. Much of this belief is based on anecdotal evidence rather than empirical scientific research. The Journal of Parapsychology defines paranormal phenomena as:

".any phenomenon that in one or more respects exceeds the limits of what is deemed physically possible according to current scientific assumptions."

This is a very broad definition. It can cover anything from ghosts to cryptozoology. Among my family and friends I can count many stories of paranormal activity that have been recounted to me over the years. I intend to answer the question of whether I believe in the paranormal by critically examining a few of these accounts in the article below.

A close relative once recounted the following story that occurred over a decade ago when he was a teenager. Bob (not his real name) was putting his bike away in the back shed. This shed was a three room building that was similar in appearance to a small house. Bob wheeled his bike into the shed and noticed something strange out of the corner of his eye. He turned to face what appeared to be "lasers" that originated in mid air. These lasers were several feet long, about 1-2 centimeters in diameter and colored in a variety of colors (I have forgotten the exact colors that Bob described.). The lasers moved slowly through the air and began tracking over Bob's body. By this point Bob was terrified and ran out of the shed into his house. For the next couple of hours Bob could still feel these lasers tracking over his body. Some time after Bob recounted this event I spoke to Bob's mother. She told me that he was clearly upset by what had occurred and that she believed he had experienced something profoundly disturbing.

I know Bob well. He is truthful. He did not drink at the time of this event, nor did he take drugs. Bob has also never had a mental illness. How then do we explain what occurred? My first thought was that maybe the lasers were caused by the headlights of a passing car shining through holes in the tin walls of the shed. I was able to discount this upon visiting the shed at night. The lights from passing cars look nothing like lasers from within the shed. My next thought was that maybe there was some sort of alien component to this experience due to "lasers" being seen. There is no evidence to suggest that this is the case though. These lasers could just as easily be ascribed to ghosts as they could be to aliens. Contemporary accounts of ghosts suggest that they may

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