Yes, just as a believer can be so deeply rooted in their faith that they become oblivious to alternative perspectives or evidence,a sceptic can also be so entrenched in their skepticism that they fail to consider the possibility of valid arguments or the limits of their own skepticism.
Both extremes can lead to a distorted view of reality and hinder genuine understanding.
Over the years I’ve met many believers who claim they have a logical approach in their beliefs and investigating and when you talk to these kind of people it’s clear that they will grip onto anything to believe that what they have captured and experience is indeed truly paranormal.
Even when given a reasonable logical explanation, a defence barrier comes up and no matter what anyone says, including a sceptic, they will be defensive of their beliefs to the point they may fall out with people and cut them off simply for having a differing opinion.
I understand why this frustrates sceptics… how can paranormal research progress If people are so willing to see something paranormal when clearly it’s not.
However, sceptics, in my opinion, can he just as stubborn with their beliefs…
A sceptic may be so fixated on questioning everything that they fail to recognise the merit of well-supported claims, dismissing them without proper consideration.
Everyone always claims to be ‘open minded’ and this is a phrase I hear amongst those who are sceptic- that they are ‘a open-minded sceptic’, these sceptics claim that they don’t believe but they are willing to consider evidence that something could possibly be paranormal because they are interested in the phenomena. However, in reality, they don’t! And I find sceptics are quick on the mark to dismiss evidence, and when they can’t explain something, they will call it fake with little or 0 proof.
I’ve experienced this, I would say I’ve probably met 3 sceptics whilst I’ve been exploring the paranormal who I would actually class as an open-minded sceptic.
Steve Higgins, owner of Higgypop, is one sceptic I’d personally consider as an open-minded sceptic. Over the years, Steve has experienced or captured things, which has made him question his scepticism. At times, he has drawn up a logical explanation of something that it ‘COULD’ be, but has stepped back, and thought what if it was something more…
Steve as often come to me as a believer to ask my thoughts, and that is what I’d consider as a ‘Open minded sceptic’ because he’s willing to consider the ‘What ifs’ from a believers side.
There was a recent incident of sceptics claiming a team – The Oujia brothers, had faked evidence. Steve and Griff had caught a pram falling down 30 East Drives stairs.
If you haven’t heard of this place, 30 East Drive is believed to be one of the most haunted houses in Europe and is surrounded by stories of poltergeist activity.
Steve and Griff investigated 30 east drive, which they have several times, and at one point during this investigation, they asked their audience where they wanted to observe the cameras from within the house whilst they went out. Their audience requested the stairs, and whilst Ste and Griff were out, the trigger pram they had placed at the top of the stairs fell down the stairs…
It would seem that YouTube as commulated what is being referred to as a ‘debunking community’. This community does seem good im not debating this, it would seem people are absolutely sick of people claiming to be catching paranormal activity, conning their audiences and somehow acculmating a huge following from doing so leaving the genuine amongst us feeling like we can never reach that standard because it goes against our morals. It’s nice to see followers of certain teams finally being awakened by their fakery.
However, this live was shared amongst this community, and from what I saw, some debunkers were quick on the mark to say they had faked and rigged this.
From what I seen, they had placed a pram at the top of the stairs because a pram as been known to fall from this part of the stairs on a few occasions whilst other teams have been investigating, so of course Ste and Griff would do this to see if this occurs.
Some sceptics within this community did lengthy videos to how they thought Ste and Griff had faked it, and I say ‘thought’ because that is all it was. I don’t think many of the sceptics discussing it had even stepped foot in east drive themselves or had even realised that the pram falling from the top of the stairs was not an isolated incident, but they was quick to do a video and ‘Debunk it’ and label them fake. The evidence of fakery did not, in my opinion, prove that indeed they faked it. If anything, it proved that some of the debunking community is after nothing more than views and followers.
If you are that passionate about being a sceptic in the debunking community then before labelling people, you would make sure you are 100% right before publishing a video and if your not 100% would at least admit this and say that your not 100% but this is what you think.
The pram falling from the top of the stairs may have and I say ‘MAY’ have a logical explanation to why it falls down the stairs, such as over time, the passing of vehicles passing the property may cause vibration which over time causes the pram to come move forward and eventually fall from the top of the stairs. But IF a ghost does haunt 30 EAST DRIVE, like the living, it may decide it likes or dislikes certain investigators and decides ‘I’m going to give these guys a show’… and actually projects its energy into actually pushing the pram down the stairs…
Remember, ghosts were once human, and they are not performing monkeys, and just as we do, they may like or dislike certain people and will do as they please whilst they are there. Steve and Griff have been to 30 East Drive many times and is one of the main reasons they even have their channel today, because before all the fans and followers and video views they experience something there that peaked their interest. If a ghost is there at 30 east drive, it knows them… and just may feel comfortable acting up for them.
In my opinion, as I’ve stated before, I believe ghosts exist. However, I feel they are limited to how much they can provide us with evidence. If the afterlife was proven to exist 100%, just think how many suicides there would be…
I also think the paranormal community has extreme sceptics. So scepetics, who will offer an extreme explanation of an occurrence. For example, if you see a friend walking down the street and later find out they have died the week before, then a explanation ive heard given is that this is your mind replaying a memory of them. If that’s the case, that makes me question our whole reality, how do we know every single person we see on the street is infact there and not us replaying a memory of them? Especially if at the time of seeing them, you had no knowledge of them actually being dead. Logically, from a believers perspective, its more likely you have seen the ghost of them! It seems too extreme to me to think that we have projected a memory into our reality.
I have nothing against sceptics. In fact, if I have caught something, I can’t explain. I will often go to a sceptic to see if an alternative explanation can be given. But I would only approach one I would consider as being ‘Open minded’.
An example of me doing this is when we visited Robins Hood grave in Leeds, somehow the sound of the rem meter came through the spirit box device we had on.
Im still none the wiser of a logical explanation, and we have never had it happen since, if anyone is reading this as one, please let me know.
So, if you are a sceptic in the paranormal and are reading this… please question your own logical explanations on things. As believers, we should always try and consider logical explanations, and before classing anything as paranormal, we also always try to recreate and explore the ‘What ifs’ to debunk. But the same applies to the sceptic, if a floorboard keeps creaking which sounds like foot steps and your logical thinking makes you think it’s just the building settling. My advice is, call out still, be open-minded on the possibility that it may be a ghost walking past you because you never know what may happen next if you do… explore the possibilities that it could be… explore the ‘What ifs’.
While scepticism is valuable, it’s important to differentiate between healthy questioning and unreasonable doubt. A reasonable sceptic weighs evidence and considers different perspectives before forming an opinion, whereas someone overly sceptical might simply reject any claim without sufficient justification.
