It is said that a smart person can entertain an idea without accepting it. Academics and scientists are supposed to be smart....right? Point being that a great deal of these people are hardened debunkers of paranormal phenomenon yet have never even seriously entertained the idea of it being possible. One huge factor for this is that many are atheists. Their atheist views of the world, which they claim are purely scientific, are just as dogmatic as the views of the most devout religious person. They walk around with blinders on their eyes, refusing to do the research. This leaves people like us having to do what they should be doing. Which is fine by us in one respect, but also leaves us standing with our equipment in hand, jaws dropped, and bewildered in another. Most have never been to any purportedly haunted locations, but are the first to denounce claims of strange happenings, and insist no such places exist. They use statistics to back up their own hypotheses and theories. Yet when confronted with the conservative estimates of hundreds of thousands of EVP recordings, millions of eyewitness accounts, and countless video and photography anomalies they turn their pompous noses up. I mean after all, those laymen in the paranormal community are just ignorant fools with a strong emotional need to believe. Not unlike a narcissistic need to debunk that which you know little or nothing about to gain the admiration of your colleagues. I wasn't aware that I lacked the capability of critical thinking, having healthy skepticism, and the competence to carry out experiments in a controlled fashion. That is until the professional debunkers let me know! They claim outright fraud, active imaginations, and incompetence at every turn. Yet I suspect they would be more than welcome by most investigative groups to tag along and critique, witness, and verify results. At least then we would be on an even playing field. They could witness for themselves, the way we conduct ourselves. The problem lies in the paradigm. We in the paranormal community have to keep breaking down walls and fighting the good fight. We have to try and do all we can to reshape things through our efforts. We must continue on in the hopes that one day it won't be a risky career move for an academic or professional scientist to study this subject that deserves respect. If you read this and took offense, I am sorry my frustration had to be released. I speak in generalities and only wish to encourage intelligent discourse. There are far too many armchair debunkers and far too little real skeptics. If you would like to respond to this article please feel free to in our skeptics corner section of the PROOF forum. John-Michael, PROOF PROOF Articles