The dead add their strength and counsel to the living. — Hopi proverb
The First Law of Thermodynamics states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only change form. Based on this law, many in the Paranormal community contend this makes the idea possible that energy can manifest as a ghost. Proceeding with this line of thought, how does one experience a ghost? One of those ways is as follows:
Sometimes referred to as the Singapore Theory, the act of using "trigger objects" is based on the belief that actions and objects familiar to ghosts are conducive to eliciting responses from them. Science, of course, does not deem this plausible due to the lack of controlled experiments and repeatability of results. This method includes wearing of clothing of another past time and doing a reenactment of a kind. Lets dwell on the methodology itself under the presumption it is possible to get results. In my opinion, the principles at the root of the process are inherently flawed.
At its base nature, ghost hunts are the search for an experience more than what is should be, the search for what may remain of a past presence alleged to now be haunting a location.
Residual hauntings are said to be a kind of replay of actions impressed upon the environment. Didn't that activity happen when the person was still living? If this is the supposition, why couldn't other events, either before or after, manifest as residual displays also? How does one know which time layer they are interacting with at a location? Your mere presence at the haunting site could also be creating a residual impression. Reenactments are popular and used as a hoped for trigger of paranormal activity. If you receive some sort of evidential activity, is it detailed enough to know that specific time era is what is activated? Reenactment dress codes are an attempt to mimic the original without actual original content. For the many reenactors that came before you and followed after, couldn't they also be creating a residual impression?
What about intelligent hauntings? Basically, a ghost is believed to be a "dead" human being. It is no longer a physical entity but rather what remained behind now manifests itself in some sort of sensory form. This manifestation is often considered separate from having a perceived "soul" isn't it? So, using Gettysburg as an example, where the hell are all the countless spirits of the estimated 3,000 dead horses and mules killed during the battle there. A declared intelligent presence should be able to be accountably linked to some culturally relevant and historically known behavior. If not, what value do you place on your data other than it being a "perceived" paranormal event. Reenactments imply a connectivity with the other side, but that same connectivity appears to be easily disrupted when our own interaction is unwelcomingly imposed on the event, in essence, collapsing whatever temporary link between ours and the spirit world may have existed. Examples of this might be a shadow person being glimpsed moving quickly by and then disappearing, or a full bodied apparition seen standing in a spot for only a second, etc.
Reenactments are but a shell of what previously happened and cannot accurately duplicate the conditions of what was left behind. The resonance of experiences and efforts of daily survival and cultural activities "impressed" on the targeted time period are missing from our "play-acting." It is far from being a mirror image of the past. If there were murders, reenactors can never "feel" the mental state of the perpetrator(s). They can never have the full measure of horror and helplessness of the victims, including the pain and fear of the moment. The imitated gun shots are not real, nor are the stabbings, beatings, cruel treatment, etc. In additions, these imitations may cause their own layer of residual impressions or some sort of negative modification to the existing impression. How many civil war soldiers that fell in battle arrived there in their car in their clean uniforms, full bellies with a comfortable, mosquitoe-free previous nights' sleep? Can battlefield reenactments sufficiently capture the horrors and fears of war, brothers in arms wounded and/or falling at your side, bodies being ripped apart, the screaming pain of battlefield amputations or looking into your friend's eyes as he takes his last breaths? Sometimes I think that as kids pretending to be fighting in a war, playing cops and robbers etc., we probably carried more emotions and intensity into our play than reenactors do at their events. As kids get down into the dirt, crawl around, jump over barriers and project themselves into the situation actively, leaving all thoughts of acting behind. As kids, we lived inside our fantasy games and the thought of "pretending" disappeared. This quality/condition is just one of many things missing from reenactments. Can you see ghosts having conversations among themselves saying something like, "look over there Harry, they're dressing like we used to. Let's go over there and communicate with them because of that!"
Intelligence and education do not protect people from believing all kinds of things when it comes to the heavily lored paranormal. We have allowed technology to create a faux paranormal existence where just about anything is possible, simply because someone in a reality TV show says so.
Do such anomalous events actually occur? I want to believe! So what seems to trigger an anomalous event? No one can say for sure but when allegedly experienced, they seem to happen not from reenactments or other trigger objects, but when we are most unready for them, at a time not of our choosing but rather that of the anomaly itself. Could it be that for things like ghosts, Sasquatch etc., something unexplained and more intelligent than we may possibly be out there laughing at our attempts to cajole them into revealing themselves. There is a lack of documentation and a detail-specific data base from experiencers (not ghost hunting technology aided), that could actually define conditional patterns and perhaps aid serious paranormal research and investigation, evolving the methods of something like the Singapore Theory. The alleged paranormal should be investigated, but not by any and all legitimate means. In searching for the ghost hunting "experience" we are forgetting to respect what may remain behind. Are we attempting a rescue of alleged trapped souls or instead going to a hoped for circus freak show of sorts for ours or others amusement? Should ghost hunting be done in places like battlefields, cemeteries, former hospitals, asylums and places of horrific personal tragedy to name a few? The dignity of a person's existence, which also has ramifications on their families and friends, should be respected and preserved lest we lose our own. In our arrogance we assume spirits require our initiation of contact with them rather than a time and place of their choosing.
In the end, the only truths about the paranormal to be discovered might be the same allowed by cosmic rules thus far... personal experiences, and nothing more!
- MoonJoey