Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Ever see something out of the corner of your eye, just for it to disappear?

So...I learned something interesting today.

Did you know that the corners of your eyes have more rods than the middle of your eyes?

Let me back up and explain. Our eyes have cells in them called Rods and Cones, named after their shape. Cones are better for color and day vision. Rods are better for night vision because they pick up light better than cones do. One rod can actually detect a single photon, though that never makes it to our conscious mind because the brain considers a single photon to be unimportant unless it is pitch black.

The interesting thing is that EVERYTHING we see is a reflection of light...so the rods being more sensitive to light actually makes them see better than the cones. And the majority of them are in the corners of our eyes.

What does that mean? Well, apparently our vision is actually better out of the corner of our eye than it is looking at something straight on. I first heard this on the Science channel today, and then did some follow up research to confirm it (because we all know how reliable tv is...). Back in the days of Madam Curie when scientists were discovering x-rays, gamma rays, and all the different forms of radiation, a French scientist was convinced he had found a type of radiation called an N-ray. He had these little metal rods that made a spark of energy between them, like a tiny bolt of lightning, to detect the radiation. When x-rays hit the spark, they cause it to brighten considerably. But after the experiment was over and he turned off the flow of x-rays, the scientist (Blondlot I think was his name) saw out of the corner of his eye that the spark was still brightening, but it couldn't be seen straight on...only out of the corner of the eye.

Now this was later found to not be true, his experiments were faulty. BUT, in the course of the show, they said that the corner of the eye actually does have better vision. To see something as clearly as possible, you should use your peripheral vision, because it is sharper than your regular vision.

So what's my point? Well...if the corner of our eye actually has BETTER vision, then why is it when someone sees something out of the corner of their eye, they usually just assume they imagined it? It is actually a fact that our vision is better out of the corner of our eye, so it makes sense that anything that just barely doesn't give off enough light to be seen looking straight on, CAN be seen by looking at it with your peripheral vision. Could this be an explanation as to why so many people who claim to see a "ghost" see it out of the corner of their eye?  If there is something giving off a little bit of light, but not enough to be picked up by the cones that make up our normal day vision, could it be that the corners of our eyes pick it up because they are all rods, not cones?

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Why Can't Spirits Just Be Straight Forward?

Lisa here. I was talking about our relatively new ghost-hunting venture today with some skeptical friends, and one of them asked a question that I think bothers most people who consider the paranormal...I know it bothers me! If a spirit is capable of communicating, why can't they just say straight up full sentences and communicate normally!? Why is it when you ask for a name, you might get a grainy noise on a recorder that sounds like it could be a first name...why can't they just say "My name is Peter Parker and I'm the ghost of Spiderman"?

Well, ever since he asked, I've been thinking about it. Of course, no one can really know. This isn't a subject you can separate into control groups and test groups and run experiments. But here is the thought process that went through my mind:

All matter is energy...proven fact, originally by Einstein. All matter acts as both waves and particles, and not just light...even the atoms that make up your body. The double-slit experiment, which most effectively shows how observation by itself can change particles from a wave state to a particle state, has been done with all types of materials, atoms and molecules...it is the same across the board.

So your body is one giant mass of energy. The more energy something has, the more tangible it becomes, so everything that is physical has a high amount of energy (kinetic and potential) compared to things that are not physical. We've got muscles constantly moving, organs that work off electricity...we're just a giant mass of energy. And to us, something like speaking audibly takes so little energy compared to what we have that it is almost negligible (though I bet if you had to talk for 24 hours straight, you'd agree that it DOES take up energy! Just not much at a time.)

But, assuming a spirit did exist, what would that spirit be made of? Well, of course, it would also be energy. Everything in existence is energy. But it has no physical manifestation. Your spirit must be just a tiny, intangible wisp of your current energy level, containing your most basic personality, maybe you're memories. So small as to not be detectable.

(In 1901, Duncan MacDougall claimed to have succeeded in measuring the weight of a soul--21 grams--but his methods were deemed not scientific and further research on the matter has been unable to replicate his results, so until further notice, the soul, assuming it exists, must be so low-energy that it isn't measurable in a lab).

So for something that contains less energy than even the smallest physical thing, creating a physical manifestation, like a sound wave or photons to create an image, would be a herculean task. They would actually have to put ALL of their energy PLUS energy from around them into the manifestation, because all of their energy is clearly not enough to generate a physical existence. If it were, we could see them and interact with them physically.

(Quantum physics does indicate that, given an infinite amount of time, physical objects will spawn out of nowhere because the energy constantly fluctuating throughout the universe statistically CAN pile up in one spot enough to become physical...the chances are just SO extremely low that it is as impossible as any impossible thing can be).

Think about when you have had to do something that drained every ounce of energy you had. A tremendous physical exertion perhaps, or extreme pressure. It was exhausting, was it not? If someone were trying to communicate with you, and you had to go through that EVERY time you communicated back, wouldn't you try to minimize your interaction to only what is necessary, if you were even willing to interact at all?

Now, I can't say that this is TRUE, that spirits exist as this tiny amount of energy. In the end, all of experience is being translated by a brain we don't full understand, so no one can know for sure what is true. What I can say is that I see nothing inherently illogical about this explanation. That still doesn't mean it must be right...many things that are inherently logical don't occur just because the circumstances aren't correct. But, if it is inherently logical, then it is a POSSIBLE explanation, and the data that I have collected so far (far too small an amount to make a judgment, I know, but I'm revising my ideas as I collect more) seems to correlate with what I would predict assuming the above explanation is true. Manifestations are limited, short, and sometimes low-quality. In science, finding results that match predicted results of a hypothesis turns your hypothesis into a theory. So that's my theory.

I can't imagine why, if they were able, at least some spirits (assuming they retain their personality from their previous lifetime) would not be willing to communicate fully and normally. So that leaves two options: either there are no spirits, or they are unable. Since I have had experiences which make me think spirits (or intelligent energy of some sort) are likely, I am pursuing the second option, though no one can really assert either option is true or not true, and now I have my theory as to why the second option could be the case.

What do you think? Do you see any flaws in my theory? Anything to add to it? Let's start a discussion on this!

Monday, August 20, 2012

New EVP Evidence!

Hi all!

Lori recently had another experience seeing an apparition in her room, so we decided to break her rule about not investigating her home this once, to try to find out who she had seen.

We recorded the entire session. Toward the beginning, we asked a spirit if they could speak their name into the recorder. Through a pendulum, we received the answer "No," but we did catch two separate voices on the recorder. They seem to be talking to each other, not to us.

Here are the EVP files, first the totally unedited version, then a version that has been amplified and had the noise removed. Last is a video I made with the file showing captions that coincide with the voices.

Let us know what you think!

Unedited Version:



Edited Version:



Video:



Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Evidence from The Ghost Hunter Shop, Lexington, KY

Lori and I completed the ghost-hunter certification course, taught by Patti Starr at her Ghost Hunter Shop in Lexington, KY this past weekend. It was fantastic, and we had a lot of fun. Definitely recommended.

After the second class, we did a short investigation of the ghost hunter shop itself with Patti Starr and the other students. At the very beginning of the investigation we got a great piece of footage, filmed by Patti with her iPhone.

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT THE FOOTAGE AND STILLS TAKEN FROM IT

To see it, click the above link or check out our Investigations tab and follow the links there. It shows two very bright orbs fly through the screen.  One is very quick and with no defining features, but the second one that comes down between our heads and across the screen leaves a contrail and has a clear face the last second or two it's in the screen.

They appear right after Patti asks the spirits to appear for us. There were no lights on in the room and no light on the camera, so they can't be reflections off dust or bugs.

Since there were no lights, obviously, the video was extremely dark, so I lightened it with MAGIX Movie Edit Pro MX. I also cut the first 20 seconds off because nothing happened in them.

Check it out and tell us what you think!