Some days I have hope for a higher being. Other days I’m an atheist screaming at the sheep.
Not to the extremes of men like Richard Dawkins, who loathes agnostics more than believers, but enough to really have a healthy disdain for organized religion.
Regardless of my spiritual inklings, or my aversion to organized religion, I’d like to think of myself as a man of science. I consider myself someone who is open to the unknown, if there is ample evidence to back up such controversial hypotheses.
My university undergrad was in archaeology, and after 10 years as a journalist, I’d like to think I have healthy doses of skepticism and critical thinking injected into me.
However, one of my greatest interests over the course of my 37 years has been that of the paranormal. That interest has ebbed and flowed over the years. Learning about how some people compose themselves in dealing with others, did turn me off of the paranormal.
Still, the mainstream scientific community tends to frown on investigating the unknown, which is puzzling. Aren’t hypotheses meant to be researched, studied and then a result is reached? But heck, there is a plethora of people who have either seen an out-of-place animal (cryptid), ghostly phenomenon or an unidentified flying object.
There is no evidence to the contrary, except for dismissive snorts from the scientific who don’t bother to dig deeper.
Why not dig deeper? Ghosts are a common theme across cultures. UFOs, cryptids and mind over matter are others.
It seems to me, much like Netflix controls what we stream film-wise, that the scientific community only wants us to believe in what they investigate.
So, for folks like me, who are fascinated by what cultures believe, we’re left out in the dark. My interest in the fringe beliefs of cultures is that social anthropology mindset at play. It also spurred me on to take archaeology as my undergrad.
Now, a healthy foundation in history, and encouragement from my paternal grandmother were other reason that led me choose it as my undergrad. That and a write-off freshman year.
As a journalist, I’d love to present paranormal beliefs from a Canadian point of view. Much respect to the old series, Creepy Canada, hosted by Terry Boyle in the beginning, but you can’t draw in a mass audience with just history an B-roll scenes.
I’d like to go into the investigating, the interviewing of those impact by the ghost sightings at Fort Erie? What’s really happening at Queen’s Park when the scary politicians go home? Is Bigfoot really calling the Rockies home?
The paranormal is something deeply rooted in the American psyche. But Canadians seem either apathetic to it, or ambivalent.
Let’s make it interesting for everyone who wants to find answers, whether they rewrite the scientific world we live in.