I love to read and write about the paranormal. The paranormal is simply the unexplained. In a world where everything seems to hold a scientific explanation, the paranormal is perhaps one of the only ways to keep the magic of the unknown spinning.
I particularly like to read and write about ghost stories. Spirits are fascinating. If you believe in them, they hold many mysteries science has yet to dissect.
I will admit to, on several occasions, seeing people at the foot of my bed or at least parts of them. For example, on one occasion, I saw a woman’s jacket moving but not a face. Other times I have seen entire bodies from head to toe. While I could easily call these apparitions, I also know they can be quickly explained away as hypnagogic hallucinations. These hallucinations are basically waking dreams. A person doesn’t recall dreaming about them, but before they drift off to sleep or just after they wake up, an image is imprinted on the mind and then projected in front of the eyes. Part of me still wonders though, if there is more to it, since this didn’t start happening until after my son was stillborn. Sometimes I wonder if tragedy opens up a door to the other side.
Even if apparitions are simply hypnagogic hallucinations, there are still many things that can’t be explained. After my grandfather died, my little sister, very young at the time, told my mother that she had been talking to him in her dreams. She gave my mother uncanny details and information she couldn’t possibly have known about my grandfather. How a child, or anyone for that matter, could give details they couldn’t possibly know about a person who has passed has no veritable explanation.
I personally believe loved ones who have passed send us messages if we are listening. I like to think my parents or son are watching over me somehow and visiting from heaven. Cultures from around the world, both past and present, have held tightly to that same belief, and so I know I am not alone in this.
Even beyond spirits there are feelings we don’t fully understand. How do you know someone is looking at you when you don’t see them? How can you sense when someone is thinking about you? How can you grasp a brain wave like it is floating from one person to another as clearly as if they articulated the words by mouth? Clearly our minds are more connected than we know.
What about dreams? There is no scientific explanation for why we dream. Science knows how but not why. Dreams are not useful to survival or instinct. So what are they and what is their purpose?
Science is amazing. I love science. We need to know how things around us work. It is wonderful to discover. We need perspective but maybe we aren’t supposed to know absolutely everything about the world around us. Maybe knowing everything takes the joy out of mystery, and human hearts long for mystery. At least mine does. I want explanation if it’s there, but in many ways I also want to chase clouds I will never catch. In those clouds there is fascination. That’s where mystery stirs. That’s where hope lives.