I (don't) want to believe
I was watching a show released this year on Discovery: Alien Encounters: Fact or Fiction. "UFO experts Mitch Horowitz and Chrissy Newton use scientific data and research to dissect real-life encounters with extraterrestrial activity."
People present them with their experiences to basically have them verified or debunked so of course it was right up my alley. In the first episode, after the death of his father, a farmer believes he has witnessed a UFO, something he believes was connected to his father. His father passed away and he soon had a dream where his father visited him to tell him that death was not the end. He himself admitted he was deeply in grief. Not long after this experience he stood in the garden and filmed what he believed to be a UFO an experience he connected with his dream of his father. Being a video, it was geotagged and also had date and time information which would later turn out to work against him. Once he presented his video, the researchers were able to access data that indicated what he had filmed was actually the International Space Station that was in the vicinity of where the video was being taken. They also went further to compare the video to one of the ISS, showing its speed and how it suddenly appears when in range. The data was pretty hard to ignore as it matched up pretty perfectly. As this was presented to the farmer, he became more and more agitated claiming that the data was wrong and that what he filmed was not the ISS. As more data was presented, he doubled down and basically said it was all BS and he knew that he captured the real thing. He said it wouldn't stop him and that he knows what he experiences so he doesn't care what people think of his video (even though he submitted it to a television program hoping to have it verified).
I have seen many similar interactions on social media. Someone presents a photo in a group and asks if their photo has captured something paranormal such as a ghost or UFO. When disproven, they become upset, and defensive and double down that they know what they have experienced so the data or information is wrong because they just know. They (don't) want to believe what they are presented. Now I do need to point out that sometimes in these groups you have people who just want to prove something is wrong because they don't believe what they have been presented. They can be aggressive and just throw information out there saying it isn't real because they want to prove their point. This is also not helpful.
In the case of this farmer, it was a significant connection to him and his father who he was still grieving the loss of. Perhaps if accepting that he did capture the ISS and not a UFO, it takes away the feeling that his father is around him. While some people seek clarification as they are curious and therefore more receptive, others want validation for personal attachment and won't accept anything other than the answer they want to hear. Where does this leave us?
You sometimes have two groups of people who don't want to believe anything other than what they want to hear. Paranormal or not, you are never going to convince some people. Is it worth the battle?
In my eyes, I think the paranormal is extremely personal. What one person sees as evidence, another sees as something else. I don't think it is a topic that will ever be widely scientifically proven and accepted 'proof'. So what we really should be asking ourselves is why are we asking the opinion of others? Is it because we really want an answer, or is it that we want validation for something that was special to us? Recently I have been speaking to a lot of people I have investigated with over the years. So many of them have talked about an experience that was profound for them, and I was right there next to them. The thing is, in most of the cases, I don't remember it at all, yet for them in it was life-changing. They remember it in great detail down to how it made them feel. There will be experiences I have had that I will always remember and are close to me, yet the person next to me won't remember it. Why? Because it is personal.
Maybe it doesn't matter what we believe because ultimately it seems to really be about how it makes us feel. Whether it is scared, lonely, connected, happy, hopeful or something else, it gives us something individual and personal. We need to stop seeking validation from strangers and start looking within and asking ourselves, just what do we need this validation for?
I have experienced things I can't explain and I am also quite a skeptical person. Often I am asked to review evidence and the majority of the time I refuse to do it. Not because I can't explain, but because in most cases I can. Just because I can explain it, does it mean something paranormal didn't happen? Just because I can explain something, does it change how it made the person feel? What we know for sure did actually happen was that this person experienced something that had a deep effect on them. Whether it was something natural or something paranormal that caused it almost doesn't matter as much as the feeling itself. In our search for the unknown and ghosts and spirits, we must not lose our humanity.
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