Reporting "paranormal" experiences (a proposal for a guideline)

PROPOSED GUIDELINE FOR RECORDING AND REPORTING THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF SO-CALLED »PARANORMAL« EVENTS

(Draft)


Here's an excerpt (actually, a sketch of an excerpt) from a proposal for a guideline for reporting/documenting phenomena popularly referred to as »paranormal« or any phenomena perceived as unusual. (And because it is an excerpt, it goes without saying that it is partial only.)

It is intellectual property, of course, and all the rest of the yada-yada, but... use it in good health.


As soon as you can (after having experienced the event) record the following data as accurately as you can:

1. Exact hour (if you suspect the time-piece used for the purpose isn't keeping accurate time, be sure to record it).

2. Detailed weather conditions (temperature, humidity, air pressure, direction and intensity of wind, if any).

3. If the event was experienced at a location other than your home, be sure to include a topographic description of the area (presence of any water, the orographic structure of the area: flatland, hills, mountains etc.) AND the presence of any power lines, towers etc. (this in addition to nro. 1. and 2), as well as possible airfields, power plants and other such installations in the surrounding area.

4. If the event was experienced indoors, be sure to record the presence of any chemical – natural as well as artificially produced or processed - substances (wall paint, solvents, gas, dyes, perfume, etc., but also flowers, nuts, essential oils etc.) as well as list the electrical appliances, sources of sound, heat, or radiation in the room or in the surrounding space.

5. Your own physical condition, with all the details that are available to you (pressure, any pain, allergies, if you have any, etc.), including a detailed description of the clothes you were wearing, if any, and any recent topical treatment of your skin and/or scalp with chemical substances (shampoo, soap, body oil etc.)

6. Your state of mind previous to the event (obviously, you should be as honest as possible – with yourself - about this), including specific thoughts, unusual or just intensive sensory perceptions (e.g. smells).

7. Any thoughts, feelings and other subjective impressions that you remember previous to the experience. (If you feel dreams are relevant to your experience, describe them, too.)

8. The food and drink that you ingested during the day (and also in the previous days IF you happened to ingest something that is not usually a part of your diet).

9. Any medications and/or other substances taken (or not taken, if you are following a prescribed regime).


Finally, there is also a step that is not at all indispensable, but could be hugely important for your own »peace of mind« and/or future observation of any such phenomena:

Ask yourself – and listen very attentively to what your »inner voice« says: do you WANT the event that you experienced or thought you experienced to be outside the realm of »normal«, everyday events, truly explicable by logic and/or natural phenomena? Or are you perhaps AVERSE to the idea that it may not be explicable by »logic«?

There's nothing wrong with wanting an event to be »paranormal« - or with NOT wanting it, for that matter. In either case, it would only be wrong to deny it – first and foremost, to yourself.

Also, the fact that you might (not) want something to be »paranormal« does not automatically mean that it IS or that it is NOT outside the scope of usually observable natural phenomena.

Anyway, ask yourself that question and answer it as honestly as you can.
And – this is important – if you feel that you honestly cannot bring yourself to accept or reject a specific outlook on the event and its proposed origins, admit that to yourself; you may even want to write it down, just »for the record«. Again, this has no direct bearing on the result of the investigation (if there is any) - unless it is YOU who is investigating it, of course – but it does help in eliminating as many subjective factors as possible that might be – or have been - affecting your observation.

Obviously, there can be circumstances, either subjective or objective, where you won't be able to record everything relevant to the last detail.
Don't worry about that: record what you CAN.
(And by doing so, you'll be doing more than most, anyway. )




[edit on 15-1-2008 by Vanitas]

These guidelines are way too many- no one will report anything and we wont have anything to talk about on the forum and all of our fun here will be over. How is anyone supposed to remember all of this stuff?

I get that you want to cut out some of the sillier stuff, but some of these posts are speculative so they are not going to offer the barometric pressure and thier past 24 hr diet along with the experience.

reply to post by raven bombshell



Not HERE, Raven Bombshell.
I am sorry if my "proposal" wasn't clear: I meant how to record (and possibly) report them for the benefit of anyone studying them.