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Xenonormal |
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Xenonormal - something that appears paranormal but which has natural causes Introduction Why do people report certain events as paranormal? Most such reports, when properly investigated, turn out to be normal phenomena. At this point in a case, many paranormal researchers tend to lose interest as they are, understandably, looking for the genuinely paranormal. The problem with this is that many of these, often rare, natural phenomena, that resemble the paranormal, are never properly researched. This means that when such events occur again, researchers may have to relearn everything that others have already found out. Xenonormal It would be helpful if there was a term for events that, in certain circumstances, resemble the paranormal, even though they are not. They can be called 'xenonormal'. This means 'foreign normal' ; in other words 'the unfamiliar but natural'. In many cases, witnesses to apparent paranormal events (and sometimes even the researchers!) are simply unfamiliar with a purely natural phenomenon. The xenonormal covers not only rare, exotic phenomena but also some common ones (that were simply unfamiliar to particular witnesses). If someone hears odd noises in their house that they cannot explain, they might report it as a ghost, even though a plumber would know what is was immediately. Similarly, a witness unfamiliar with the planet Venus, might report it as a UFO, whereas an astronomer would never do so. Why do people report events as paranormal? Not much research has been done into why people report things as paranormal. The picture that emerges, from past cases, revolves around people's perception and knowledge. The likely factors are:
Looking in detail at these factors: Encounters with the unfamiliar Most of us are surrounded by an increasingly complex environment. We only pay attention to things that are vital to our lives and often know little about how things work, including nature. How many people can actually explain how a DVD recorder works, for instance, or what the electronics in a car do precisely? At the same time, our increasingly office and home-bound lives take us further and further from experiencing natural phenomena. People living in cities can barely see the night sky and so can be forgiven for knowing little about it. As we become ever busier, we notice less and less of what is going on in our environment. For example, you may have a concealed fox sleeping through the day in your garden and never even be aware of it. If it starts making a blood-curdling noise at night or moving small portable items around in your garden, you might reasonably think there was something paranormal going on. Many of us tend to notice things only when the unexpected happens. Facing the unexpected, or unfamiliar, can make us anxious. In this situation most people will seek help. Some people, depending on how they perceive the event, may call in paranormal researchers. In addition, some people may be in an unusual mental state (such as anxiety) when faced with the unfamiliar. This may affect their perception, making them less reliable recorders than usual of what they experience. For instance, after moving into a new house, there are lots of unfamiliar things to get used to. This 'learning curve' can increase stress levels making people more likely to misinterpret things around them. Cultural background As explained elsewhere, we all 'know' (or think we do) what a ghost is and what it is supposed to do. For someone brought up with ghost stories (which is just about everybody), even if they take no interest in the paranormal, it is therefore not so surprising that they might call in a paranormal researcher when they hear odd noises in their house. Similarly, if they see something they don't recognise in the sky, they will often think first of alien spacecraft. The media is so full of images of flying saucers and aliens that it is easy to see why an unfamiliar object in the sky gets interpreted in that way. In the past, something unfamiliar in the sky might have been seen as a flying fairy or a dragon when these were prominent aspects of the culture. Over-concentration on detail Many paranormal reports are generated by people reading too much into the available data. For instance, people sometimes see 'faces' or 'figures' in photos when they are, in fact, just random background detail. Often, a picture of the same scene taken with a higher resolution, or from a different angle, will dispel the illusion (like the famous 'face' on Mars). Similarly, demonstration EVP clips containing apparent voices are often short, omitting any surrounding context that might throw light on their origin. In both cases, there is an over-concentration on small details at the expense of the total data available which may give a better picture of what was going on.
Another aspect of concentrating too much on detail is the over-processing of data. Software designed to enhance images or sounds actually alters it. Sometimes data is 'enhanced' so much that is completely distorted. The result is no longer an accurate record of an event but artificial patterns invented by software. Seeing too much significance in coincidence is also over-concentration on detail. Some people will see it as significant that an orb appears over a particular grave stone in a photo, for instance. However, the orb is still caused by dust or insects. The fact that the orb appears over a grave stone is just coincidence. It is common for non-statisticians to overestimate the odds against such a coincidence. In all cases, the data are insufficient (or too altered) to support any conclusion about whether the paranormal was involved. Lack of background information No event happens in isolation - there is always a background to it, though sometimes we don't notice it. This background includes such basic things as the time, place, weather, people present, whether a door was locked or a window open, etc. It also includes what other things that were happening at the time. When witnesses report paranormal phenomena, they often don't notice these background details because they are nowhere near as interesting. Such details could, however, be vital to understanding the apparently paranormal event. For instance, someone may report hearing a strange ghostly noise while failing to notice that it only happens when the wind blows in a particular direction. Or maybe they fail to notice that 'ghostly whispering' is only ever heard when a particular water tap is turned on. Such clues could easily provide natural explanations for apparently mysterious phenomena. In this case, relevant data are there but they are being ignored, perhaps because they are not seen as relevant to a paranormal explanation. Witnesses may sometime assume that something is paranormal (because of cultural priming) and then only notice details that appear to support that view. Recordings, photos and instrumental data are often minutely dissected for possible paranormal content. However, if the circumstances of such recordings are not logged in sufficient detail then possible natural explanations cannot be eliminated. For instance, if someone produces an apparent EVP on a recording on a vigil, but it is not possible to demonstrate that no one present was talking at the time, then as evidence for the paranormal it is useless. It does not matter what sophisticated software analysis might be performed later on the data. Using software to show that the voice was 'not natural', for instance, might simply mean that it was a normal voice altered by the acoustics of the room or other noises (more background information). Misperception Many reports of the paranormal are put down to misperception. This is, however, probably not as common as many people think. Misperception is when the human brain is fooled by an optical, auditory or some other illusion. People literally 'see' or 'hear' something, quite plainly, when it is, in fact, something else. They have a real experience, just not the one they think they're having! It is involuntary and uncontrollable, unlike an encounter with the unfamiliar. Misperception includes hallucinations, however caused, as they too are completely real to the percipient. Misperceptions, however, always involve a sensory stimulus while 'ordinary' hallucinations require none. Certainly, where misperception is present it can be very powerful because it is a real experience, to the witness, and will be remembered as such. It is likely, however, that encounters with the unfamiliar are a more common cause of paranormal reports. It is difficult to see how misperception would explain why people report Venus as a UFO, plumbing noises as a 'spirit' or a wisp of fog on a road as a ghost. These stimuli only vaguely resemble their paranormal interpretations. They are ambiguous visual stimuli. There is a much fuller account of misperceptions here. Why does the xenonormal exist? Paranormal researchers come across vastly more xenonormal phenomena than paranormal ones. This raises the question - why should there just happen to be so many phenomena around that resemble the paranormal? The answer is, of course, obvious. People have misinterpreted unfamiliar phenomena since pre-history. When our ancestors had, say, a sleep paralysis experience and saw a figure disappear before their eyes, they would naturally have thought they had seen a 'spirit'. They would have known nothing about modern science and interpreted their vision literally, using their contemporary world view. The worldwide tradition of ghosts would naturally have arisen from such early experiences and then been perpetuated through ghost stories. This tradition has now turned full circle. Though we now have the science to understand unusual experiences, the ghostly tradition now affects the way modern people interpret encounters with the unfamiliar. When witnesses see things unfamiliar to them they are primed to interpret them in paranormal ways. This argument does not rule out the existence of real ghosts, of course. It does, however, explain why we have to eliminate so many imitators! Why is the Xenonormal important? It is clear that any paranormal researcher must have a good knowledge of the xenonormal, otherwise they will waste a lot of time chasing the normal. It is, therefore, important that we study the xenonormal as a separate subject within paranormal research. We need to know how orbs are produced, for instance, so that we can explain them in every possible situation when they are found. We need to understand how apparent voices can appear on sound recordings from natural causes to eliminate them from EVP studies. Although the xenonormal may not seem as exciting as the paranormal, it is vital that it is studied and understood by researchers. Otherwise paranormal research will spend another century getting not very far. Postscript: How might the xenonormal work? Why should people see something they've never experienced before as paranormal? Why don't we just see always things the way they are? Of course, for most people, on most occasions, that is exactly what happens. The xenonormal is a rare experience. The most obvious cause of most xenonormal experiences is misperception. Misperception is where you mistake a sensory stimulus for something else. It happens when your brain experiences a conflict between sensory inputs. To resolve the conflict your brain looks into its long term memory to try to recognise the object causing the conflict. If it can't find a memory from a real experience, it might sometimes use something from a cultural memory (such as a ghost or alien spacecraft). With something unfamiliar, the chances of this process happening are far higher because there is no real experience to draw on. For a full account see misperceptions. Interestingly, when people experience uncertainty or the unfamiliar, they often secrete a stress hormone called cortisol. This hormone affects their memory of the event, sometimes making it vivid ('flash-bulb memory'), though not necessarily accurate, and biasing it towards negative feelings. Certainly, many people find encounters with the xenonormal disturbing and do not want to repeat the experience. This is typical of the effect of cortisol. © Maurice Townsend 2008 |
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By looking too closely at data, people may reach, or go beyond, the limit of the resolution of the data. At the limit of resolution, data becomes uncertain. For instance, take the two photos here. The one on the left shows the edge of a stone plinth with grass behind. The edge of the stone is reasonably clear and obvious, as you would expect. The picture on the right is a magnified version of a portion of the same photo. You can see the the individual pixels in the digital photo. Note how the boundary between the stone and the grass is much less certain at this resolution. The details are no longer reliable at this scale, which is beyond the resolution of the photo. Any unusual 'shapes' at this resolution are entirely spurious. For a better example, see