Paranormal activities - Essay Example

Sightings of ghosts at the palace have long been reported, but this was the first time a surveillance system recorded an apparition in motion. Interestingly, in March 2001, a professional psychologist/paranormal investigator declared the many reports of ghosts at the palace nothing more than imagination and draughts of air giving visitors and staff the feeling of being in the presence of a ghost (BBC News, 29 March 2001). sances and mediumship rose to popularity, fueling the belief in the paranormal.

Many of these early methods of 'communicating with the dead' have now been debunked as mere slight of hand and excellent persuasion on the part of the medium, coupled with the desperation of family members eager to reach their departed loved ones. 'Spiritualism,' as it is called, is said to have been invented in the 19th century by two sisters, Catharine and Margaret Fox, who used the table-tapping method of divination in the United States (Irene Stuber, 2000). So convincing were the sisters' talents that the New York Tribune's owner Horace Greeley gave them his endorsement.

Unspecified tradition claims that one of the sisters was able to snap her big toe in order to produce the tapping sounds, yet this does not explain how the sounds could come from the walls or the table. This method of paranormal activity is used to this day and is under much scrutiny as to its authenticity. The goal of paranormal researchers is to capture images or sounds in locations of paranormal activity. A plethora of photographs, video and audio recordings can be found on the Internet, and researchers label such images as 'orbs,' 'mist,' and 'ekto' (Institute Of Paranormal Research, Photo Archives, 2002 - 2005).

Whilst paranormal activities have been reported and documented for over three hundred years, the one phenomenon of ghosts seems to be the most pervasive. The common tell-tale signs of the presence of a ghost is the sensation of cold, the palpable feeling of being touched, direct visual observation, sounds, foul odours and objects moving on their own. The word 'poltergeist' originates from the German poltern (to knock) and geist (spirit). Much research into the paranormal phenomenon of poltergeists has been conducted.

Prior to the 19th Century, poltergeist activity was largely blamed on the Devil or demons, witches or ghosts of the dead (Alan G. Hefner, 1997 - 2005). Two very famous investigations into poltergeist activity took place in the 1930's by the noted Dr. Nandor Fodor, a Hungarian born academic who became a journalist after receiving his doctorate and working as a law assistant